Smart Cleaning School: Recent Episodes

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I started this podcast on October 10th, 2019. I never imagined that cleaners would listen to me talk. Listen to these stats for the Smart Cleaning School Podcast:

• 20 years of cleaning experience and 8 years of coaching accessed
• Downloaded in all 50 states and 150 countries.
• 500 total episodes
• 3 individual episodes with over 1,000 downloads
• 175,000 total downloads
• 1,000 hours of my life invested into training solo cleaners

I am so proud of this work. It has been meaningful and transformational for thousands of listeners. Many have told me that this podcast has literally helped them start and grow a successful cleaning business. That thrills me.
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As great as these last 6 years have been, I realized that it was time to make a major shift. I encourage you to listen to the last two episodes entitled, “Patience Vs. Prudence” and “Celebrating 20 Years in the C3 Experience”. I need to take my own advice and exercise prudence. This podcast and my 1,000 hours needs to end, so that I can re-invest that vital time into the C3 Experience.

I also started a podcast in 2024 for my local chamber to interview top business leaders. It’s called the “Leadership Lens” and allows me to utilize my podcasting skills to enhance the local community. That excites me!

This was a difficult decision to reach, but I know it’s the right one. Who knows, I am purposely leaving a door open by only closing down Season 1 of the podcast. I will likely release stand alone episodes and interviews when I’m so moved to do so.

Now to the most important person in the Smart Cleaning School Podcast… YOU! What happens to you and your training? Let me be very direct. I have given you 500 episodes of the best business owner mindset you can get to grow your cleaning company. How much did it cost you? Nothing!

Here’s what you do next.

1. Listen to as many of these free episodes as you want.
2. Apply what you learn! Nothing happens until you take ACTION!
3. Schedule a free Strategy Session with me to discuss immediate issues in your business.
4. Subscribe to Private Coaching with me to take your solo cleaning business to the next level!

It’s that simple. I am not going anywhere. I am still coaching solo cleaners to optimize, so they can decide to STAY, SCALE, OR SELL. I hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you all so much for being a part of Season 1 of the Smart Cleaning School Podcast.

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“Introducing the C3 Experience” released on October 14th, 2021. I had just given our family cleaning company a major brand change from the solo residential business to a commercial cleaning company with a team. Our family had “A New Freedom Vision” to live in Florida for the full month of February 2022. The company model would have to change. Over the next 8 months, we poured ourselves into this company to create the C3 Experience.

• We wanted to attract new customers and employees to our company core values of Excellence, Ownership, and Safety.
• We wanted to grow through these core values to accomplish our mission statement to our community. “1,000 smiling faces every Monday morning in the professional, financial, and medical office spaces we clean in the Indian Valley.”
• We wanted to serve our Lord Jesus through the company vision he gave us. “C3 is a Ten-Talent Company (Matthew 25:14-30).”
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The company had to completely transform. Those 8 months were so difficult, but we achieved our goal and enjoyed a full month on the Gulf Coast of Florida in February 2022. It was a trip of lifetime for our family of 7. They will never forget, nor will Teresa and I. We were so grateful.

For the next 12 months, I poured myself into the community and serving my local chamber however I could. I joined the Membership Committee and called on other members to survey them. I participated in the chamber’s 5 year strategy meetings. I attended multiple networking events and even spoke at a few. We were rewarded with new customers. Our reputation grew and high-caliber employees were finding us.

2023 was a breakthrough year! We loved Florida so much in February 2022 that we hit the goal to do it again in February 2023. C3 was selected for the Cornerstone Award for Small Business of the Year in our chamber in March 2023. Our reputation grew more. More importantly, we really felt like we were making an impact in our community and living out our mission, vision, and values.

I joined a coaching group with other growing commercial cleaners in April 2024 and started implementing better systems in 2024. This allowed C3 to take on our first two 5-night per week clients. This was a huge step. C3 was now serving every night of the week. We updated our mission statement in early 2025. “5,000 smiling faces every morning in the professional, financial, and medical office spaces we clean in the Indian Valley.”

A few weeks ago, C3 reached a significant milestone. On July 25th, 2025, C3 celebrated 20 years in business. It’s hard to believe that 20 years ago, Teresa went to our county clerk to open Carfagno Cleaning so she could clean apartments part-time. It’s been an incredible journey. We’ve poured ourselves out in this company through sacrifice, commitment, and excellence. It has not been easy. Most days didn’t go as we had hoped. Nevertheless, we kept our faith in what God was doing through us. We remained patient when other well-wishers around us told us to quit. We invested time and money into a business that looked like a loser.

Yet, here we are. I am thrilled to announce that our family has decided to celebrate this 20-year anniversary in a big way. We are knocking one more bucket list trip off the list. The Carfagnos are traveling through 11 states in a month from the Dakotas westward with a focus on Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. This is the trip of a lifetime. The kids are so excited. Our team is excited for us. Friends in my chamber are cheering us on.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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I purposely re-released “Excellence Vs. Perfection” last week. Many solo cleaners struggle with perfectionism. They are under a belief that ‘good enough’ is when the perfectionist is finally happy… and they are never happy. Over-cleaning is problematic for multiple reasons. It costs the solo cleaner time and money because they are at each house or office a lot longer. It also dissolves trust with the customer because they don’t want you in their house for 6 hours!

Do you know what customers want? It’s pretty simple. They want their house or office cleaned well. They want to be happy when they come home or enter their office. They want to get the cleaning at a great value. This is where excellence comes in. The solo cleaner needs to shift their mindset to ‘good enough’ is when the customer is happy. Trust me. It takes a lot less to make the customer happy than a perfectionist solo cleaner.
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There is a balance. The solo cleaner does need to have a way to measure their quality and relate that measurement to customer happiness. In C3, that measurement is a quality score of 8.0 out of 10.0. Excellence is anything over an 8.0. Perfection is 10.0. If the cleaner doesn’t have this measurement system, they may not clean well enough and the customer is not happy. That is also problematic. There is a balance between Excellence and Perfection.

I’m not a solo cleaner anymore. We have a team of 10 solo cleaners at C3. I am having a blast finding and training great people to clean at the company. I have a problem though. I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to following the rules. It’s in my personality type. Therefore, I struggle with employees failing a quality inspection or not following company protocols or not being responsive or a customer late on payment. It strikes my ‘that’s not fair’ gene. My gut in each of these cases is to act and penalize the employee, acting swiftly to follow the protocol.

That approach does not work! My coach, Josh Melton, has taught me that we need to be relationship-first with team members and customers. He doesn’t jump to conclusions. Maybe the customer is having issues with the parent company or the computer system crashed and they can’t make payment yet. Maybe the team member is dealing with something in their health or family and they didn’t have the time to follow the protocol. Maybe they couldn’t concentrate on hitting the required quality level. There are all kinds of maybe’s. Josh taught me to be patient with people. Assume the best and give them a chance to explain themself before you execute a verdict!

Recently, I had an interesting scenario play out. I found a high-quality prospect in my hiring pipeline and offered her a job. Then I waited. She seemed to have a lot going on in her life and I wasn’t impressed with her responsiveness. I was patient like Josh taught me, prodding her along from step to step of the onboarding process. Here was the problem though. I needed to fill that position for the benefit of the company by a certain date. I also need to know that every C3 hire is responsive. This candidate was not checking the boxes.

Ultimately, I decided to be bold and direct. I was kind. “Responsiveness is vital to your success and our success at C3. You are not as responsive as other new team members we’ve had success with in the past. It doesn’t seem to us that you truly want this job.” She replied and confirmed my suspicion. Her life was too busy and this second job was a bit too ambitious. She thanked me for being honest and turned down the job. I was able to move on to the next candidate and fill the position in a more prudent manner.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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Perfectionism is a big problem in the cleaning industry. It took me over 15 minutes to say it in the podcast. It's really not that complex. Perfection is working hard to make YOU as happy as possible and you may never get there. Excellence is working hard to make THE CUSTOMER as happy as possible and you absolutely can get there.

How do you know if you've made them as happy as possible? You ask them how you've done. I consult with cleaning company owners all over the country and so many struggle with perfectionism. It cost them time, which equals money and profit. I believe that Perfectionism and Excellence are on opposite sides of the same spectrum. You've got to work to the best that you can. but doing it with excellence is different than doing it with perfection. Your customer will feel the difference and so will your bank account!

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There are too many overwhelmed, overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated solo cleaners. They want more than showing up to clean every day. They want to get traction with their businesses. Optimizing accomplishes this.

You want more margin, more choices, more balance, and more freedom in your life. Why else would you be running your own business in the first place? Optimizing accomplishes this.

I share a third straight Solo Elite clip in this episode. The first two addressed these two points I just made. This one is meant to build the dream and show you that freedom has many levels. You can and will get to each level if you set goals, stay in accountability, follow the ISO Model System, and persevere to completion.

We’ve personally done this. That’s why I can teach it. It’s also why we are taking our next freedom family trip in a few weeks. I’ll tell you all about that in the next episode.
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Are you interested in private coaching with me? Check out www.smartcleaningschool.com and book a free strategy call.

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We are getting closer to the end of season 1 of the Smart Cleaning School Podcast. We are in the middle of a series on the 3 S’s, which stands for Stay, Scale, or Sell and represent FREEDOM for the solo cleaner. In the last episode, I shared a clip from a Solo Elite Membership Call from late 2024 focusing on creating margin.

Margin is vital. We need margin to make more choices. We need more choices to have more balance and freedom. This episode shares another clip from Solo Elite. This one shows you what to do once you’ve created margin. You optimize!
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Optimizing gives you the balance you want. There are 3 steps to optimizing.

1. Get Faster at Cleaning - As you implement the Optimizer Tools of the ISO Model, you get faster at each house or office. This allows you clean more in less time.
2. Charge More Over Time - As you clean longer and develop your systems, trust, and expertise, you will increase the perceived value of your “product”. Charge more over time.
3. Increase Profitability of the Business - You especially need to know your numbers for this one. Print out your Profit & Loss (P&L) and study it. Solo cleaners range in profitability from 60-95%. Optimizers are over 85%.

In the next episode, I’ll pull it all together with the big picture roadmap from an overwhelmed solo to an optimized one.

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In this episode, I share a short clip of a Public Service Announcement I made last November in the Solo Elite Membership. It’s a PSA for all struggling, overwhelmed solo cleaners. First, let me say a few things.

You are the one that overscheduled yourself by never saying ‘No’. Take ownership of that.
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You are the one that priced as little as you did. Take ownership of that.

You are the one that didn’t know your numbers and acted without any strategy. Take ownership of that.

Great, you took ownership. It’s time to give you hope and show you how to optimize your solo company and earn freedom. This first message is about creating time margin first. That is vital.

No margin equals no choice. Margin means choices.

In the next episode, I’ll share another clip of the 3 steps to optimizing. Enjoy.

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I have an announcement to make. This is episode 493 of the Smart Cleaning School Podcast. I will be ending season 1 at episode 500. Why? What does that mean? All these questions will be answered in these final 8 episodes, where I’m focusing you on the end of the solo optimization rainbow. It’s called the 3 S’s.

That’s the series that season 1 will end with. What do you do when you get to the top as a solo cleaner? In the past 2 episodes, I’ve discussed the 3 S’s or Stay, Scale, or Sell and when a solo should scale. I’ve talked about this a lot throughout this podcast.

This episode is different. I want you to trust who you’ve been listening to. You should only follow coaches who have DONE what they TEACH. I have. You should only listen to those that have the fruit on the tree that you want. I do. I’m qualified to teach you because I’ve done what I teach.
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In this episode, I share a short clip of a monologue I had on a late 2024 Solo Elite Membership Call where I share my successes as we approach 20 years in business. I hope you enjoy it.

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I am excited to share this clip from the Solo Elite Membership! A few weeks ago, I ran my first Zoom call for the members to meet each other, dive into a topic, and ask questions. It was a great call. Afterwards, I pondered the idea of sharing a portion of the call with my podcast audience.

It's a 16 minute clip from a 90 minute call, where I shared my journey openly on scaling with employees. Many ask me when can I hire and scale. I firmly believe that you need time and money margin to properly scale a cleaning company. You can do this right away if you have time and money. Or you can do it the way I teach. Here you go! Enjoy!
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You can optimize your solo cleaning business to earn full time income through part time cleaning without the drama of employees! When the time is right, you can scale with employees like me and they won't be as much drama! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership atsmartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

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The summer is finally here! This is both literal and figurative. We just celebrated Memorial Day as the weather is heating up. Just like the 4 seasons of nature, my business is entering a new season. After selling my 1st solo business in 2018, we moved to our hometown and stayed indoors. I tried everything in my power to build my coaching and consulting business in 2018 and early 2019. I stayed indoors as much as possible as I didn't want to clean. This was winter. Ultimately, I needed to get outside again and start planting seeds. I started this podcast and my aggressive networking plan in late 2019. This was the start of Spring. By the beginning of 2021, our new business was cranking and I was able to work on my consulting business again. My cleaning business was optimized and it was comfortable outside. Spring was coming to an end. But with anything, being comfortable is not a good place to be. I needed to get my hunger back and stretch myself. I need to put on my shorts, get outside and enjoy the weather. A New Freedom Vision was placed in my heart and we needed to enjoy this summer in the winter by spending a month in Florida in February. This would require me to scale my business beyond the comfort of Spring into the dog days of Summer. This will pay off because Fall represents the harvest of all seeds sown in the Spring. I am so excited to reach that season and earn my family's financial freedom!

Now that you've got the seasonal perspective of my new Philly cleaning business, I'd like to announce a segment change to the podcast. I've been sharing weekly updates on my Carfagno Cleaning business since inception in October 2019. However, I've been adding more and more value-packed influencer interviews and snippets from expert calls within my paid groups, that I don't have the space to continue them. For this Summer season of Carfagno Cleaning, I will shift from weekly to monthly updates on my cleaning business. I will not share every detail as I have been. I will share relevant wins, struggles, and lessons that I feel will best support your own business growth. Most importantly, I will keep you updated on the progress of my efforts to scale my business so this long-time solo cleaner can get out of the field and live a life of time, money, and location freedom.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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Let's continue the Control Series! My first episode was "You Must Let Go of Your Control", where I shared a few major breakthroughs in my recent ability to let go and trust others. It was an important therapy session. I continued this recently with another breakthrough about your business is not you and viewing trust and control like a rope. Check out part 2 of the series called "The Trust Rope". This is the 3rd part that goes the complete opposite direction! Are you ready?

I shared a Facebook post in early January that got a lot of comments and it wasn't because I did a good job. It was because I did a bad job and owned it. One of our largest customers dropped us. They accounted for 10% of our monthly revenue. It was painful. Their reason for dropping us was quality. Apparently, one of their bathrooms developed an orange film on the sink and our company left it there for weeks. There are so many angles I could take this. I could tell you about the onion principle, but I'll save that for another time. Instead, I want to take their reason at face value. They cancelled service because we didn't meet the quality specifications they required.

In the first 2 episodes of this series, I honed in on breaking the control and perfectionism I had over me for years. It didn't bother me when I was a solo cleaner, but it reared its ugly head when we tried to grow a team. I had to change and I did! I gave some rope and then some more and then some more. I was checking the quality of each of our locations each month to maintain quality and keep our customers happy. But something happened that is scary. I got careless and allowed some buildings to go unchecked for more than a month because I had other things I had to do. Somehow, I pulled a total one-eighty going from an obsessive need to check every building every time to not checking at all. This wasn't true for all of our buildings, but it was for this one. After getting fired, I realized that it had been 3 months since I inspected the quality. 3 months! I could have seen the orange film if I simply would have done 1 measly inspection. 45 minutes of my time could have prevented the loss of 10% of our income. This was a tough pill to swallow. I gave away all of the rope and it cost me.

Let's talk about two words. Quality and control. Quality is simply the level of performance or service that meets spec. It's not perfect, but it does meet expectations. That's quality. Control is the process or system of maintaining something. Put these two words together and you get a vital component of running a successful cleaning company. Quality control is the active feedback loop that maintains the expectations of the customer and keeps them happy. I used to be obsessive on QC, ensuring 100% compliance to every detail, every time. This was unscalable. In late 2022, I went to the other side where I nearly stopped all forms of QC, which is a slow death to any company. Here's the simple lesson. Don't operate on the extremes. Define quality in your organization. Train it. Inspect it. Maintain and work to exceed it. This will give you the balance to keep your rope light, burden-free, so your cleaning business can grow.

I offer free coaching calls to listeners of this podcast. Do you struggle with quality control or perfectionism? Book a free coaching call on the Smart Cleaning School website at www.smartcleaningschool.com to talk about it! You can also check out the many free & paid resources available on the website as well. I look forward to helping you!

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This week started with content batching. Batching is an optimizer's tool for ultra productivity. Every month, I create blogs, podcasts, and videos for Carfagno Cleaning and Solo Cleaning School. It takes a ton of time to do each week. I used batching in my cleaning business and in other areas of business over the years. When Teresa's mom was available to watch the kids overnight, we jumped on the opportunity and grabbed a hotel for the night. I got so much done as I batched blog after blog after blog. We also enjoyed time together, so it was a win-win. The following day, I rented an office from my MCBA friend Vernessa Hopkins. Vernessa owns H3 Business Services in Harleysville, PA. The office was perfect and I was able to record all of my podcasts for the upcoming month. My batching goal was to invest a few days and dollars to complete all of my content for a month. I accomplished that! Please keep this in mind. The portion of my batching that related to my solo cleaning business was a small part, so it may not be necessary for you to batch your content. However, you may start sending out newsletters a few times per month, maintain your website, and repurpose content to Facebook and Google My Business. Batching would be a great idea for you at that point.

I've been tracking each of my offices from Saturday to Saturday, so I know how long they are taking. Plus, I've made changes to get faster. Over the weekend, I had a difficult email to send. One of these office cleaning clients took me longer because of paint speckles and glitter on the floor as well as increased kitchen areas. I knew I'd have to say something or scope creep would get me!

[Before continuing, check out the bonus video, "How do I Deal with Scope Creep" on the Solo Cleaning School YouTube Channel. You'll learn how easy it is for your clients to unintentionally take advantage of you.]

When the scope of work increases over time, it causes our cleaning times to increase. The great majority of cleaning companies will NOT raise the price as the scope changes so slowly they don't notice it. Not me! I recognized the potential Scope Creep setting in and knew I would have to send a difficult email. I used the sandwich technique with praise and gratitude in the open and close of the email. In the center, I laid out the areas where the scope has increased. Then I shared how this affects my company. "I clean five offices every Saturday right now. I'm in the process of adding more as well. So when one office starts taking me longer, it ends up costing me money. I'm sure you understand!" Then, I offered possible solutions which either forced them to take ownership and have the staff do more end-of-day cleaning or I would submit a new proposal with higher prices for the increased scope. I was nervous about the outcome as it was surely possible to lose the client, but I had to do this. It's my business and I must run it like one! Fortunately, they responded with consideration and we worked through the solutions together. Ultimately, they decided to take ownership for one portion. The other part, where they've added more kitchen appliances, we decided to alternate half-and-half each week. They gave a little and I didn't raise my prices. It also raised my image of trust and professionalism.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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I've broken a lot over 15 years, but it's all relative. I have two mindsets to discuss before I share my cleaning misdeeds.

1. Your auto insurance company keeps actuarial tables and knows exactly how much an accident costs on average. These numbers are taken into account when you get and pay your annual insurance premium. In fact, it is designed to be a win-win. If you get into an accident or not, the insurance company still makes money. They win. Plus, your accident or claim is covered so you don't have to pay out of pocket. If you cost the insurance company too much money, they will raise your premium to ensure they make a profit and you can still be covered. Insurance is a product. We insure many things. One of those things is our business against general liability and bodily harm. Your business insurance company has the same actuarial tables and business model. I personally pay $550 per year in general liability and yes, I've had to use it once. The first mindset to take is this. You need insurance because things WILL break or get damaged!
2. I'm a former General Electric mechanical engineer and Six Sigma Green Belt. Six Sigma is a design system to minimize defects to 6 per million opportunities. It's an extremely difficult high bar in engineering design to achieve, that's why companies like GE and Motorola in the 90's and 2000's thrived. As a cleaner, I touch 500 things in each house or office. Over my 15 years, I've cleaned an average of 250 houses and 250 offices or 500 cleans per year. If you multiply the this out, I've created 3,750,000 opportunities to break or damage something. I call this a defect. Over this same 15 year mark, I have 75 defects. Continue the math and you'll conclude that my defect rate is 20 per million opportunities. 5 sigma is 233 defects per million opportunities. I've been cleaning for 15 years right on the cusp of 6 Sigma. In fact, I am literally a 6 Sigma Green Belt in my defect rate over the past 5 years as most of my 75 defects happened in the first 10 years. Therefore, my rate of damage or defect is as good as GE designs the airplane engines you fly with!

Side note: If you're struggling with breaking or damaging things, first evaluate your defect rate. Feel free to assume 500 opportunities per house or office. Secondly, if your defect rate is over 50 per year, you need to make changes in how you clean. A few simple system changes and routine can fix it.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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I've been cleaning homes since 2006 and have noticed a dramatic increase in home security as technology improves. Alarms have gone from wired to wireless. Cameras surveil various angles and locations of the home. Garages have keypads. Families are more secure than ever and they can do so at an expense less than it used to cost. This happens so predictively that economists give it a name.

The early adopters pay the most like cell phones in the '90s or tvs in the '50s. Once the technology reaches critical mass (around 10% market penetration), the technology floods the market until it cheapens with market saturation around 90%. This is called 'S-Curve' economics. As a side note, this is a fascinating phenomenon to study. Home security has undergone the same S-curve. Check out this statement from a recent article on the state of home security.

"Around 20% of homes in America have security systems, but this percentage is expected to increase over the next five years. In fact, experts predict that the number of homes with security systems will increase by 64% in that time period."

The early adopters of home security were in the '70's, '80's, and '90's. It took 40 years for home security systems to reach 10% market penetration or critical mass. It has taken roughly 10 more years to go from 10% to 20% of all homes secure in the US. This article predicts a jump to over 80% in the next 5 years! That's an 'S-curve' for sure! But I ask you. Is this normalizing effect causing homeowners to feel over-confident?

Unfortunately, I've noticed another trend. Homeowners are forgetting to lock their windows at an increasing rate. I'm a detailed house cleaner and clean complete kitchens and bathrooms, baseboards, wood trim, light switches, window ledges & sills over the course of time. I treat every client as if I was cleaning for my own family. Therefore, I'm a noticer! One of my clients was away for 5 days vacation and scheduled cleaning on the day of their arrival home. While I was there, I noticed that all 4 windows on the first floor were unlocked! These 4 windows happened to be the ones to the left and right of the front door on the porch. This discovery made me uneasy, so I locked them and notified the family. They were so thankful.

I notice unlocked windows more often in upstairs bedrooms. However, you'd be surprised how many windows I've locked in my 15 years cleaning houses on the first floor! I'm not a psychologist, but I will hypothesize. We are placing too much trust in our technology. Many homeowners in suburbia believe that their neighborhoods are safe. Therefore, they can leave their car doors, front doors, and windows open. If there was an intruder, the alarm system would pick it up. I learned recently from a bank professional that criminals are getting smarter too. They are not the Water Bandits from "Home Alone" that can be thwarted by a 7-year-old boy with lots of toys, tacks, and tar. These criminals are timing their crimes to steal from moms while they drop off kids at daycare. They target shopping parking lots. And they target the most "trusting" homeowners. I'm sure this is not new to anyone reading this.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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I host an accountability & mastermind call every Monday for the SMART Cleaning Tribe. We are a family of cleaning service owners with teams (that used to be solo). I'm the architect of this group of amazing people, always looking for the 1% that desires to set monthly SMART goals and be held accountable to their achievement. Check out the episode "The Accountability Roadmap" to learn more about the 1% club

We had an interesting discussion this past week on the topic of client scope creep. This is when your original housecleaning scope of work increases with the changing dynamics of the family or home. We went around the group sharing how we each deal with this. Toward the end of this discussion, one of our members hit a home run. Kate Sloan is the owner of Chicka Chicka Broom, which services Montgtomery, MN. She said. "I train my clients." Obviously, I could not let that slip through the cracks and asked her to explain. Kate contrasted the typical house cleaner to the perceived in-home experts such as electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and HVAC technicians. "Why are they viewed as experts and get expert-level prices and many devalue cleaners wanting to pay the minimum?"

The answer is simple. Most clients are moms with cleaning experience. They can clean, therefore they don't see our craft as a specialty. Plumbers and electricians do work that the mom cannot do, therefore they are experts and can charge expert prices. One of the best ways to level-up as a cleaner to an expert or specialist is to acquire specialized knowledge. One example is taught in my "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". If 90% of our clients are disinfecting incorrectly and we know how to do it right to protect their families, our value increases. This is the process to becoming the expert and separating from the typical cleaner.

One further point on mastery comes from Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" book. He claims that it takes 10,000 hours to acquire expert status at any task. If you clean 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year, you can achieve mastery in 5 years! Many of us have achieved this. Not many moms have, no matter how long they've been cleaning. What if they clean 2 hours per day and 6 days per week? It would take over 16 years to reach mastery. Some moms have achieved this and most have not.

Make sure to study this episode as it holds a vital key in pricing to start earning you top income as a solo cleaner.

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In 15 years of solo cleaning, over 75 families have hired me to clean for them. However, I sold my business with 17. What happened to the others? It's simple. This is a seasonal service for some and a lifetime for others. I never tried to figure that out. I just served. I have lots of experience getting "let go", "moved on", "fired", etc. Some let me know face-to-face with a month's notice. Some stopped immediately through email, phone, or text. Others just disappeared (literally a UFO got 'em)! There was only one time that I fired myself. For the sake of privacy, we'll call this customer "Bob".

Bob worked from home as a consultant and his family lived in a beautiful 4,000+ square foot home in a new development. They had a son 1-year older than my son, Kenny. Bob and I had awesome conversations and many were from opposing viewpoints. Some were political and some were religious. We had a mutual respect for each other and our beliefs. The cleaning itself was tough. The master shower had two glass doors, the kitchen island was 15 feet long, and the oven was HUGE! The knobs on the range top would turn to the 'On' position on a hairpin trigger, so I always had to check to the level of OCD to make sure the gas was off. On November 2, 2016, I cleaned and didn't do a good job inspecting!

When I got home, there was a text from Bob's wife. She is stressed out as the gas was left on for at least 6 hours after I left and she had to call to get help to make sure it was safe. Thankfully, everything was okay. But the family was in shock and I was feeling a level of guilt I've never felt in all my years in this business. Cleaners I urge you to check the oven knobs every time you leave!

You'll have to listen to the episode, but here's what happened. I fired myself. When Bob and his wife talked over what they should do, he came to me and just wanted to have another civil conversation. I had prayed and thought about it for a whole day and literally told Bob. "I am SO sorry. This is literally a irreconcilable offense. I put myself in your place with your wife and son as my own. If a cleaner had done that in my home, I would lose all trust and fire them immediately. I think you should do the same. I don't want to lose your business, but I want to do the right thing." Bob was amazed. "Ken, I respect you for your response and care of my family." Ultimately, they did let me go and they should have. I talk about building trust. In this case, I lost all of my trust in the turning of one oven gas knob. I knew it would be harder to go from a 1 Trust Factor to the 10 I had before THAN getting a new client at 6 and getting to 10.

After the smoke cleared, I remained friends with Bob. We still connect to this day and he left a glowing review of my cleaning service on Google.

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This is a story that will cost a cleaning supplier a lot of money. First of all, I hope you all know me by now. I am not vindictive. I did not have a bad experience with the company I'm going to mention. However, I chose to do my 3-stars out of 5 review to the world because it will illustrate a vital lesson on the lifetime value of a client. I purchased my Mosquito Carbon Lite vacuum cleaner from my friend Joshua Burnstein, owner of Sawgrass Cleaning Solutions, Boynton Beach, FL. Joshua is a authorized distributor for Mosquito, which he does as a side hustle. I now use him exclusively to take care of my vacuum needs. But I almost didn't and here's what happened.

My Mosquito has a uniquely designed tapered hose to maximize power and flow for my 160 cfm motor! That's nerd talk, but it means my vacuum really sucks! All of my hoses start to wear down after 2 years. They tear between the ribs and I have to cut a piece off to keep it working. This particular hose has been cut a dozen times to the point where it's barely long enough to vacuum with. I put off ordering a new part from Josh as he told me the replacement part is $100 with shipping! When I could wait no longer, I did a Google search to see if I could get the part cheaper anywhere else. There were a few at $100 and one at $45, which ranked high on Google SEO. It seemed like a reputable supplier, Salamone Supplies out of Menomonee Falls, WI. I researched the company and found the part I needed on the website for a great price. I told Josh and he was highly suspicious as he knew the part wholesaled for $80 on the low side. He wished me good luck. I apologized for jumping ship as I had to try. I ordered the part. To the credit of the company, they contacted me via email and was kind and cordial in their replies. They received the order, but soon realized that they had the two parts mixed up on their website. The part I ordered for $45 had the part number and picture correct for the part I needed, but they had the wrong price listed. They emailed me to let me know of the mistake and asked if I'd like to receive the $45 incorrect part or the part I needed for their price of $90 + shipping.

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In "Keys to Solo Longevity I", I established a few foundational principles. First of all, there is a clear difference in a Ford and a Honda. I prefer my cleaning machine to operate more like a Honda. They last longer and require less maintenance... and I shared this from my experience having owned 4 Fords and 8 Hondas in 30 years. Secondly, we deconstructed the domination and longevity of all-time sports greats Tom Brady, Cal Ripken, Jr., Serena Williams, and Roger Federer. Each of these greats believed very deeply that we will get out of our machines what we put into them. I shared the sleeping, dietary, and exercise training routines of each. Serena valued strength training through HIIT, while her male counterpart in tennis Roger Federer valued 12 hours of sleep per day. Cal valued exercise and strength training more after each birthday, which helped him to become MLB's Iron Man. Tom does everything. He's a cyborg. Can we emulate what these peak performers have done? We can try! In this episode, I will share my own health journey and winning routines. It's my hope that you can make a small change and stay consistent over time so you can reap the rewards of a long solo cleaning career.

Step aside Tom Brady and Serena Williams. Here comes Ken Carfagno. My professional solo cleaning career started at 28. At this point, my solo cleaning stats are ranked #1 in the industry. I guess that makes me the G.O.A.T., which means I'll be inducted into the Solo Cleaning Hall of Fame. Oh, you didn't know about that... did you?! Maybe I'll start it. Anyway, I'm still in the field cleaning every week, but no where near what I used to do solo. I'm 45-years-old and have dealt with my share of ups and downs. I've torn both meniscus in my knees, a tendon in my right elbow, and sprained my left wrist. Injury has been difficult. I've dealt with major fatigue, nausea, vertigo, and brain fog in my 8 year battle against Chronic Lyme Disease. I know what chronic symptoms are like and have fought through them. I have woken up at 6am to clean all day after no sleep as we raised 5 babies over the years. They tend to keep you from sleep. I share this to relate to you. I have been there, yet I have been consistent for 17 years. What has set me apart? I believe it's several daily habits.

1. Sleep - I agree with Roger Federer that sleep is vital. Outside of my late cleaning nights or sleepless baby nights, I have disciplined myself to follow the advice in Shawn Stevenson's book "Sleep Smarter". I firmly believe that sleep is the foundation of a great day. I believe it is a keystone or cornerstone habit. It's the one ring that controls the others. I don't always hit this goal. I aim to wind down from the day, cut the screens off, take my nighttime vitamins, and get to sleep by 10:30pm and wake up by 6:30am. That's 8 hours on an ideal night.
2. Water & Vitamins - I drink 2 pints of purified water or around 30 ounces first-thing! This gives my internals a morning bath and gets things moving (if you know what I mean). I also take my morning vitamins including a multivitamin, Omega 3, Vitamin D, NAC, and possibly other supplements that were part of a healing protocol of the time.
3. Bible - I love starting my day with my Creator by listening to the bible while I exercise, get ready, shower. I also enjoy reading the bible or a devotional and praying. This sets my day toward others with gratitude.

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This 2-part podcast was inspired by a Solo Cleaning School Elite member, Dave Reeks. Dave started implementing the ISO Model in early 2022, operating The Finest Clean in South Wales, Australia. I am so proud of his diligence and commitment. Dave has grown from an Initializer to the Stabilizer phase of the ISO Model in 6 months. I recently did an Optimizer's Workshop with him to help him hit his next goal. He is a male solo cleaner like I was and growing quickly with almost 20 house cleaning customers in a short time. Dave recognized the need to keep his body operating at peak performance and wondered if I had any tips for other solo cleaners. Thank you Dave for this question! Yes! I do. I was a solo cleaner from age 28 to 44. There have been seasons of physical domination when I could stay up all night and clean and clean and clean. I have also struggled with fatigue, injury, and chronic disease. Regardless of the season, I had no choice but to keep going... and I did. In this initial episode, we will deconstruct the habits of multiple peak performers from professional sports to learn from them. Then in the second episode, I also will share several keys to solo longevity that I have learned along the way from my triumphs and struggles. I believe this will help all cleaning companies as we all have people cleaning, whether it is us or a team we've hired.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor. I am sharing what I've personally done for cleaning longevity. See your doctor before making any major changes to your routine. Baseline your level of health now and set goals on where you'd like to go. Use this podcast as a guide.

Let's start with an analogy that takes me down vehicle memory lane. The joke in high school was that Ford stood for "fix or repair daily" and "fails on race day". My friends with Hondas boasted on their longevity and reliability. Hondas were the gold standard. My cars from age 16 to now have been in this order: Honda, Ford, Ford, Mitsubishi, Honda, Honda, Honda, Honda, Ford, Honda, Ford. Isn't that funny. I've owned 6 Hondas and 4 Fords. I won't go over every detail on our cars as that is probably boring. I will just say this. All of my cars have been great. I have so many memories from each. But I do generally agree after owning 4 Fords and 8 Hondas (my wife owned 2 Honda Odysseys) that the Hondas are way more reliable and spend less time in the shop. Sure there were some duds. We had an Odyssey that lasted 2 years and needed a new engine at 150,000 miles. We own a Ford Fiesta with 100,000 miles and a Honda Pilot with 140,000 miles and both are running great. But there is not doubt that our Hondas have been cheaper to operate and lasted a lot longer as 5 of the 8 were over 200,000 miles when we got rid of them.

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Last week I kicked off a 11-part Retention Series for the Smart Cleaning School Here’s the basic question. What good is it to only teach you GET great customers if you can’t KEEP them?!

It makes no sense at all. You’re right! That’s why I’m compiling these episodes for you over the next few months. I highly encourage you to study these and implement them.
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Do you know that retention is one of the major factors that investors look at when evaluating your business for sale? This is one of the reasons I sold my first solo business for so much money. Here’s the point. This is important!

Do you enjoy this teaching? Would you like to join the Solo Elite Membership to get access to the full lessons every week plus have access to our community of like-minded optimizing solo cleaners? I hope to see you inside the membership.

Are you more interested in coaching, taking action, and personal accountability? Check out our coaching options as well.

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I have discovered through losing dozens of clients over the years that they cancel service for 3 reasons. Would you like to know what they are? Here’s the summary.

1. Quality - Whether you fail to meet your expectations or theirs, they will perceive you are not a good cleaner and fire you.
2. Character - This prevents the customer from building trust with you, the solo cleaner, and the brand of your company. If they lose trust, they lose you.
3. Circumstances - People move. They start families. They lose jobs and have babies. Things change. The cleaner is downstream from all of these life changes and you will get the axe.

Do you enjoy this teaching? Would you like to join the Solo Elite Membership to get access to the full lessons every week plus have access to our community of like-minded optimizing solo cleaners? I hope to see you inside the membership.

Are you more interested in coaching, taking action, and personal accountability? Check out our coaching options as well.

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Do you want prospects to find you and ask you for help or would you rather hunt for them and try to sell them? The first option is called a relational approach and the second is a transactional one. I created the original ISO Model Course in 2017 when I was in the hunt of optimizing my first solo cleaning company in Upstate New York.

At this time, I was wrapping up a strategic process of earning more and working less so I could be with my family more. I never realized it would become a course for other solo cleaners out there. Some of my foundational lessons revolved around this concept of relational marketing with course modules such as “Real Marketing”, “Profile to Win”, “Price to Win”, and so on.

Last month, I decided it was a good time to revamp the course to make it more relevant to 2025 by teaching weekly lessons in the Solo Elite Membership. In this episode, I am giving you a glimpse of my most recent lesson called “Profile to Win II”.

The mindset in this clip is very important. Listen and then explore my business profiles and others in the industry. Study. Implement. Improve.

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This month's Freedom Report starts with a clip from a call with Coach Josh. I had accomplished a lot in December as you heard in the last report, adding 5 new buildings and 1 new team member. The 5 buildings added $3,800 per month of new revenue and brought us to 13 buildings and 5 houses to delegate. The new team member would take 3 of the buildings, leaving a lot more still to delegate. I felt confident at the end of December that I could shift focus from marketing & sales to hiring. The #1 priority had to be working my way out of a job!

In this clip, there are a few great quotes from Josh.

"We'll always be leaving money on the table. If we're so focused on getting all the money on the table, we'll never be the greatest at any one thing."

"I have to choose the sanity of my team over the expansion of my business."

"Just because you could pick up these clients doesn't mean you should."

"You're eliminating margin when I don't think you have to."

This conversation has been the hardest one for me in coaching. I'm amazed. The calls where we needed revenue and team members challenged me, but they were all answers that ended in 'yes'. This answer has to end in 'no'. I did focus on the team-building, training, and systems in January. That was how we'd get to Florida. Before I go there, let me share more about margin as that was such a vital lesson from this coaching call. I have made promises to my current 5 houses, 13 buildings, and 5 team members. My number one priority is to honor all those promises. I could do this with the time window, but we'd have little margin. Therefore, I made some key decisions in January.

1. Decision 1 - I don't know what I'm going to do with house cleaning, but I decided to create some margin as I'm away in Florida by canceling my house cleaning while I'm gone. I will lose $800 in profit. I talked to each of my customers and 4 of the 5 are okay with it. The 5th house wanted a referral to another company that could fill in while I'm gone. I fully accept that I may lose this customer as a result. I am okay with it as I am going away from house cleaning and it's my least profitable house of 5. Removing 5 houses from my calendar for a month adds a lot of margin. In other words, it's less for me to think about while I'm gone.
2. Decision 2 - I have three buildings that are monthly. I will not delegate those yet. I completed them at month-end and will clean them again with my kids after I get back. I just had to shift them back one week. This adds more margin as my 13 buildings and 5 houses is down to just 10 buildings. I actually gain about $300 profit as I don't have to delegate this work.

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I ended the November Freedom Report with peace. We had brought our plan to go to Florida to God and asked Him to show us the way. We had over 20 job applications come in with no new hires. I personally connected and made initial connection to 240 local office cleaning prospects and followed up with close to 100 phone calls to find out if they had a cleaner in house or outsourced and if they were happy. This lead to 7 interested prospects and 4 proposals sent. But the net result of all of this effort was 0 new team members and $0 in new revenue with 65 days left before Florida. Josh gave me a challenge. "1 & 1 and we're having fun." Can I add 1 new office and 1 new team member by the end of November. I recorded the November Freedom Report just prior to month end. Let me just say this. God answered our prayers and broke the dam loose! A lot has changed in 30 days!

2 exciting things happened on November 30th. Around lunchtime, I got a call from the HR manager from one of the 4 proposals I sent to an insurance agency. They accepted my proposal, signed the contract, and wanted to start service on January 1st! And get this! It was one customer and two buildings for a total of $950 per month. I interviewed a promising candidate named Joanne the day before. I talked it over with my wife and Coach Josh. We decided to send Joanne a job offer on Tuesday afternoon. She accepted. For the first time in months, things were looking up. That's 1 new customer and 1 new employee. We met Josh's challenge of "1 & 1 and we're having fun" with hours to go in the month.

We were ready for December... we thought. Let's do the bad first. I did a poor job with selecting Joanne. She worked with us one weekend. Her work was good, but something about the job wasn't a culture fit with Joanne. I can only speculate that she wanted complete autonomy sooner and that she didn't like the family business aspect. I had two of my kids working and helping me teach Joanne our cleaning system. Ultimately, I made a bad hire and this will happen a lot. I just need to keep working my hiring process to attract and repel for culture. Josh helped me work through so much of my hiring system in December. He helped me turn a bad into a good! The clip for this month's Freedom Report is an epic step-by-step on what Josh is looking for and how he attracts them. Here's a recap of the elements of my hiring system we added in December. Josh also issued a new challenge. "2 & 2... it's only a few."
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1. We added a 2nd job on Facebook and Indeed. The first was for "Weekend Side-Gig Office Cleaning". The second one we added was "Weeknight Side-Gig Office Cleaning". Josh predicted I'd get more applicants looking to do side work after their full-time job during the week. He was right. Our Indeed ads alone captured over 30 leads in December.
2. I set up multi-step process to get to an interview. I had 5 no-shows in a row in November, then 1 that showed up after setting up a few hoops. I offered her a job in late November but she ghosted me. I had 7 more interviews in December with only 1 no-show or 8 total booked. Each of these candidates completed a 15 minute questionnaire, 15 minute DISC assessment, and 30 minute podcast sharing my company's culture (mission, vision, and values). I wanted to hire each one of them.

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I recorded "A New Freedom Vision" in May, just 6 months ago. It was a bold proclamation. I could not go to Florida for a month, while scheduled to clean 2 days per week. I had to grow a team. I interviewed Josh Melton for my podcast in June ("The Cleaning Road to Nineveh with Josh Melton") and immediately asked him to coach me. I was ready for the challenge and I was ready to show you all that I could do it. Let me cut right to it. It's 6 months later and we have 0 new clients and 0 new employees. In fact, we have at least $1,000 per month less in cash flow because our expenses went up as we've been building to scale. There are 3 topics to discuss on this episode and unfortunately, I don't have a clip from Coach Josh. His best stuff was on the final coaching call before Thanksgiving and it wasn't recorded. His call-out was tough and I'll share that first.

Josh's Call Out!
I have set out from the beginning of this journey in 2021 to grow my commercial cleaning company in the niche and model I choose. I want weekly, small office clients that I can stack up and complete on weekends. I don't want office cleaning to think about during the week. This preference has held me back from going after bigger revenue accounts or recommending to offices a multi-day pricing option of two. This fully surfaced when Josh was helping me with a quote for a 10,000 square foot showroom with offices. They have a cleaner twice per week that they want to replace. It has 6 restrooms and I'm positioning the price options to sell the weekly option to fit into the perfect schedule I want. Josh hit me hard with this. "Ken, what do you want? Your dream of Florida or your preferred business model? Make it work. Get the revenue. Clean however it comes. Weekly, twice weekly, 5x per week. More people want to work weeknights over weekends. Get up the job ads. Get to work and be scrappy. Make it happen. Just because you choose this now, it doesn’t mean you need to keep it this way. Don’t choose your preferred business model over your dream. You need revenue. Your preferred business model is weekly offices on weekends. You don’t want to work or operate your business on weeknights. I get that. I was like that too. I realized that more nights per week equals more revenue. I'd rather have less clients and more revenue. You're playing too small all in the name of keeping your preferred business model." This is so true that it stung big time. It's me trying to optimize my business when I'm still an initializer. Why do I keep doing this. I just need to get revenue and team members in the door. This conversation convinced me to offer one of my recent proposals 2 out of 3 options as twice weekly. By the way, I never answered the question. I choose my dream! I told my wife and she agreed.

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In my last Freedom Report, I humbled myself with the reality of my situation. I'm striving for this New Freedom Vision, but two glaring blind spots were holding me back. Another month has gone by. How is it going? Short answer. Not good! I am going to share my update exactly as it happened and end with a clip from Coach Josh at the end of October with an encouraging word that helps me and will hopefully encourage you. We all need encouragement. I'm not above that because I happen to have a podcast and talk about cleaning. This scaling and building a team thing is new for me. I am bringing you my monthly results exactly as they've occurred to build you up and hopefully teach you something. Here's an outline of my month.

• I finally completed my Project 100 by my October 11th coaching call. The final tally looked like this. 239 total offices on my prospect list. 49 dental (21%), 69 medical (29%), 111 professional (46%), 10 industrial (4%). 99 are members of the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce where I'm the only cleaner. Josh wanted me to commit to a deadline for introducing myself and my business to every one of these businesses. I chose November 15th, 2021. The strategy was simple from Josh. "Ken, I'm going to guess that 4% of the businesses on this list and any list is currently not happy with their cleaner or actively looking for a new one. These are low-hanging fruit. If you'll just reach out and introduce yourself with a heart of generosity while at the same time promoting your cleaning company, those 4% will request quotes. That's 9 - 10 quotes. You can close 5 and hit your goal for Florida." I have seen this first-hand over the years. I have acquired a few offices because I was at the right place at the right time. I need to strategically put myself there again. This fired me up!
• I honestly assessed my goals with my coaches and my wife. I need 5 new offices and 5 more part-time team members to delegate my full cleaning business and equal the cash flow we currently earn. This is the minimum we need for a month in Florida. I'm simplifying this goal as the 5/5 plan. The 10/10 plan is double and makes Florida a lot more comfortable with about $2,000 in monthly cash flow over and above all of our bills. This makes Josh's challenge to contact all 239 to find the low-hanging fruit vital and a top priority for November 15th.
• As of my last coaching call with Josh in October, I had 100 initial introductions made to my chamber list. 2 requested quotes now. 2 requested quotes in January. 15 are satisfied with their cleaners and will keep me in mind. This is a great start. Josh challenged me to close the month of October, which only had a few days left to send out another 100 and add more to my list. The strategy would include a mixture of emails, direct phone calls, and personal visits to introduce myself in areas where I already have clients. I also collected 2 more customer testimonials to assist in this local marketing approach. The goal is simple. Keep introducing myself. Keep adding new offices as there are at least 50 offices that were missed through my Google and chamber search methods. I fully expect to do initial introductions to 300 businesses by November 15th. This should lead to 12 quote requests and 5-6 new clients in November and December. But there are no guarantees and I have Coach Josh to direct me through each step without me overthinking everything. I need one thing working and that's ACTION!

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September is in the books. It's time for another business update. Afterward, I'll share a clip from our final coaching call from September to close out the summer. Now that October is here, it's time to crank it down! I have 4 months left to build and delegate my cleaning company before my self-imposed deadline of February 1, 2022.

I'm going to come right out and admit. I did NOT hit my goal for September and I know why. I got lazy. If you've followed this podcast since the beginning, I've been building my marketing machine using Google My Business, Facebook, and local networking. It's worked very well to the tune of $60,000 in increased revenues solo in 2020. I was working my marketing hard. My pipeline grew and I reaped the benefit in 2021. I hit my optimizer goal as a solo cleaner by January 2021 earning $70,000 profit on 2 days cleaning per week. I stopped marketing and simply helped anyone that found me through my marketing machine. This generated more house and office leads that I really didn't care if I got or not. Then June happened and I got A New Freedom Vision. I hired Coach Josh and it was time to scale my business with a team. I have shared with you that I built out a few systems over the summer including a hiring and payroll system, a financial system using Quickbooks Online, and a simple office cleaning training system. I also built my foundation with mission, vision, and values (see "Introducing the C3 Experience"). My cleaning business was now ready to grow with a solid foundation and the beginning of the systems that I'll need to support a $300,000 revenue business.

I had offices and house inquiries coming in, so I'd answer them and select which I wanted to bid on. I mentioned to friends personally and in network meetings that I was hiring and was referred a few people. I hired one of them. I was growing today off of yesterday's work. But I wasn't doing today's work by building my pipeline for tomorrow. We as entrepreneurs allow this to happen and don't realize it until your leads dry up. This happened to me in September. I realized it on my own and shared it with Coach Josh. By the way, I was supposed to complete his coaching homework to create a Project 100 in a week back in July. It took me 6 weeks to make this list of 100 offices I'd like to clean. Why did it take so long? I was arrogant thinking that I had a pipeline that I didn't see was drying up. This was my first major blind spot in September.

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There is so much to dig into for this month's update of my personal cleaning company. If you're new to this show, here's the quick version. I've been a solo house and office cleaner for most of my 16 years in business. I have a system that initializes, stabilizes, and optimizes solo cleaning companies to create over $50k profit per year on a few days per week. In fact, I've done it twice. My first solo cleaning business was in Upstate New York from 2005 - 2018. I optimized this company to create $55k profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week without employees. The company was 90% residential and 10% commercial. I sold this company in 2018 for $80k and moved back home to Montgomery County, PA. We have since built a second solo cleaning business to $70k profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week. This new company is 75% commercial and 25% residential. As amazing as this sounds and it has been, our family wanted more. Our coaches and mentors challenged us to follow our dream as a homeschooling family. We had a New Freedom Vision and booked a house on the Gulf Coast of Florida for a month next winter! We wanted to go from $70k profit on 2 days per week to 0 days! This requires a team and systems. As an engineer, I love systems. But I've resisted them as a solo as I viewed them as tedious. Thankfully, I've hired Coach Josh to walk me into our dream. Josh is a co-owner at Athens Cleaning in Athens, GA. He is a fast-growing commercial cleaning company serving small, professional offices with professional workers. This podcast feature is a monthly peak into my own company, Carfagno Commercial Cleaning, as we build our business with systems and team members in order to start living our dream.

August Update:

• The first week of August was my trip to Nashville for Podcast Movement 2021. This was a great trip for me personally and professionally. I had lots of down time to think, plus numerous opportunities to meet new people and build better relationships with podcasters I already knew. The biggest takeaway had nothing to do with my podcast. On Thursday night, my buddy Vincent and I figured out a way to map out our businesses on a simple 3 x 3 grid. We started with the basic 2 x 2 grid of drama vs profit from Why I Fired My First Client. All we did was add a middle scaling option. The analysis revealed so much to me as it confirmed what I was already feeling. My goal is to simplify every area of my life, so that I can create more memories with my family and art for my community and disciple my family. I needed simple. Of the various income-producing efforts I am involved in, a few emerged as most profitable with least time and drama. All house cleaning is OUT and all small, professional office cleaning is IN! This was a vitally reflective process that will allow me to hyper niche with my coach and go crush it in small, professional, essential offices in my area. If you'd like to learn how to do this with your business, reach out to me on my website and request a free call.
• Now that I had my niche, I could go to work on completing my Project 100. This is a specific list of companies that I'd like to clean for. Coach Josh has already taught me that I can earn my freedom with only 20% of this list! Think about it. 20 new offices averaging $800/month equals $192,000 in additional revenue. This would increase my total revenue in office cleaning to $280,000. At 35-40% profitability, my family would earn between $100k - $115k per year and I wouldn't have to clean anymore! I had a lot going on in our family in August with summer kids activities and trai

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​July was a crazy month. As a family, we had a ton going on. We had Kid's Camp and Youth Camp at retreat camp centers for 4 of our 5 kids for 5 days each. During one of those camps, Teresa and I slipped away for 4 days to the beach. I had a 5-day father / son camping trip with my son to the Adirondacks that I do with each son. This was with my 8-year-old Kye. It was glorious being off the grid for 5 days with no phone or social media! We just connected, camped, swam, boated, ate, heard campfire stories, songs, and devotions, and did shooting sports and hiking! Awesomeness! Coach Josh was also away in Florida for 2 weeks, so we had to move our coaching to Marco Polo and email. Even with all of this going on, I had BIG goals!

The first step in this process was putting our money where our mouth was. On July 7th, we booked it! Booked what? We booked a rental house on the Gulf Coast for a whole month next winter! The house is awesome with 7 beds, a porch, and a short 8 minute ride to the beach. There's a pool table too. Our kids are so excited and so are we! We've never done anything like this before. July had to be a big month to get this "Freedom Vision "cranking.

Before I go into the details of our month and share tidbits from coaching, let me give you the end results. We started the month with no employees, no payroll, no systems, a new accounting firm client for $3,000 per month that we had to staff, and no clue! The month ended with no new clients, which is the sad news. But we fully outsourced and completed our Quickbooks migration from desktop to online and have an accountant walking us through whatever we need for a year. Our financial system is now automated! I can't believe it! We hired a payroll service and a background check company. I built out a basic onboarding system, job description, and training system. Teresa and I were trained how to use the online payroll dashboard to submit employee hours. I found out that I wasn't submitting payroll correctly for the state and local taxes. Thankfully, my new payroll company fixed it for me and I'm paying a penalty for the remainder of the year. That's a relief. I hired my first employee. Leah works full time at a daycare and is a college grad. She wanted a part-time job to make $500 per month and found me through a referral. It works out perfectly. She started training on July 29th! It's crazy! I also was privy to systems used by my coach. I am so grateful for this. At the end of the month, Josh introduced me to his HR & Finance Manager. We talked for over an hour. I helped him by teaching him the ISO Model to increase revenues in their company. He taught me their onboarding process and is sending the documents, videos, and other forms & ads I need to start a strategic hiring process. I also completed a branding change from Carfagno Cleaning to Carfagno Commercial Cleaning and my C3 Experience. My friend Billy designed a new logo and I upgraded my proposal to new offices prospects with my new branding. As I even share this, I'm dumbfounded at how much I got done this month when at times it felt like nothing was happening! Last but not least, I added a key member to my team. For the first time in 16 years, my wife Teresa is stepping up to help the family company. She is a busy homeschooling mom of 5, so I NEVER asked her involvement. I am grateful that she is helping with admin and is taking over the QBO and payroll components from me! I am working hard to delegate as much as possible to focus on growth of new clients and new team members!

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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I shared in my last Carfagno Cleaning update, "Stay, Scale or Sell " that the seasons are shifting from Spring to Summer. As promised, I'm departing from my weekly business updates to allow space for other impactful episodes like my interview, "The Cleaning Journey to Nineveh with Josh Melton". I will continue bringing you updates, but during this Summer season of me earning my freedom, I'll be starting this new monthly podcast segment.

Purposely, I mentioned the prior podcasts. In "Stay, Scale or Sell", I laid out my case for Why I need to scale my cleaning company. In the interview with Josh Melton, I saw a man with the same story as me and the same business if I were to scale. After the interview, I reached out to Josh and asked him if I could hire him to coach me to his level. Thankfully, Josh accepted. For the remainder of 2021, I am launching this new segment, which will be a monthly freedom report with my friend and coach Josh Melton. The format may change from month-to-month, but the objective is the same. How is Ken doing toward his goal to enjoy freedom in Florida with his family for a month in the winter? This segment will keep you updated. Plus, I will add actual clips of our coaching calls between Josh and myself. I'm so thankful to Josh. He has built a professional commercial cleaning company with over 60 employees, mostly part-time professionals needing extra money. He calls it his "Chick-Fil-A Model", but more importantly, Josh has an ongoing 6-figure income in the same types of offices I clean and he doesn't have to clean or manage. I wanted this and Josh was willing to help me! Here's the coolest part for Josh. He has wanted to help others do what he has done in a coaching program down the road called the "6-Figure Commercial Cleaner". Josh is also the co-host with his business partner Chad Brown that you should definitely check out! It's called the Entrepreneur Adventure Podcast. In the clip of my first coaching call with Josh, I share some recent wins and my need to start hiring. I also share his take on the pros and cons of the business model I'd like to scale.

There are some updates from June that I would like to share. I will do so in bullet form to make it easier to follow!

• My marketing machine is still working well. I still have house cleaning referrals coming in and unfortunately, I need to reply to all of them with this. "I am taking a waiting list on all new houses. Would you like to be on the waiting list or would you like me to refer you to a cleaning friend as I cannot take any more houses?" I have done this at least 5 times in June. Honestly, it's inconceivable to think I would turn down work. But I need to because my goal is financial and time freedom through my commercial cleaning business. Where does that leave me with houses? I don't know. I will likely hire someone or train a solo cleaner to take them over.
• I did take one house though. One of the doctors at a vet that I clean wanted her house on a bi-weekly schedule. She trusted me because of my 3-year performance and trust from cleaning her hospital. I put her on my waiting list and at the same time one of my regular clients needed to stop service due to declining health of a family member. I totally understood and wished the family well. This was a good reminder to me how important the waiting list is. I just slid the new client in the place of the one that canceled. Here's the cool part. The new client is $20 more per visit.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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I am excited to introduce my friend and YouTube superstar, Cassandra Aarssen to Solo Cleaning School. I invited her to be an expert guest in the SMART Cleaning Tribe that I lead for team cleaning companies needing accountability around goals. Cassandra was a busy mom of two small kids when she started her home organizing business. At the time, she was also running a daycare with 9 children for extra money. She saw home organizing as a way to make extra money and possibly get out of the daycare business. It did WAY more than that! Her husband recommended that she record a video with her phone and upload to YouTube. Cassandra has continued this discipline for over 7 years and 750 videos! In this interview, she shares the Clutterbug story. You may be thinking... 'Ken, she isn't a solo cleaner. Why should I care?' For one, she was a solo operator of her home service business like you and I. Secondly, she turned her local brand into a global one that now earns her hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Cassandra had some real power quotes in the interview that I wanted to make sure I took note of!

"I realized you can make something one time and sell it over and over and over again with a book or a concept or a video or a cleaning checklist or an e-book. That's when my eyes really opened up to the magic of the internet and the magic of working smarter, not harder!"

"My advice is to start with one platform and when you can master it, when it seems easy, then add another one."

"It's not about having something perfect. It's about just being consistent."

"You're not going to learn from reading and researching and planning. You're going to learn from doing."

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In this episode, I spotlight my first solo cleaner. Andrea McCoy runs Peachy Clean in St. George, UT. She is a mom of 6! She explains why she started her solo cleaning business and the various mind shifts she has made over her 3 years in business with my help to increase her hourly rate from $25 to $65! We also talk about the power of keeping your hand on the marketing water pump and setting a goal for peace.

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This episode is a clip from an Expert Call I facilitated in the Smart Cleaning Tribe last December with my friend Alonzo Adams of Busy Bee Cleaning Company in West Chester, PA. Alonzo is a serial entrepreneur with one of the best business & financial mindsets I've ever had the opportunity to learn from. His cleaning company is top rated in Southeastern PA. Alonzo has also grown multiple revenue streams outside of his cleaning company, which is creating generational wealth for his family. He also just completed his term as the chairman for the Association of Residential Cleaning Services (ARCSI). I invited Alonzo onto a Tribe call to share about ARCSI and it's many benefits. But my true intention was to give Tribe members a dose of millionaire mindset around business, finance, and networking. Alonzo is a master networker. In this clip, I extract the networking portion so you can get a flavor of how the rich become rich.

Here are my notes from the call with Alonzo.

• "Your Network is your Net Worth”
• “It’s not about the How. It’s about the Who”- Dan Sullivan. The Who changed my whole life. I had to change my entire WHO in my life to take me the places that I needed to go. How do I get around the A players in my industry? Alonzo had to invest in his future by buying plane tickets, conference tickets, and connect with people in person. This builds trust.
• In Vegas, Alonzo has connected with a guy in 5 minutes in the hallway that created a 6-figure cleaning contract with Will Smith’s people.
• In Vegas, he asked Derrick Christian, “Who is this room that I don’t know that I should know?” Alonzo met the two people and they are doing financial business together now. Networking is purposeful.
• People miss on networking - It’s not about you. Look to be a resource to others. Show the value of others knowing YOU. Ask this. "Why is it important to know me?" What is you sales pitch that makes you valuable to others. Networking has become more selfish in this decade. Networking takes time and you need to practice. Don’t go to people with agendas. Be interested and be interesting.
• It takes time to craft your elevator pitch. What do you have that’s unique that can help others that makes you stand out. Are you referable?
• You can’t touch and go in networking. You have to water the relationship to grow it. Alonzo told the story of the $100k per 1-hour keynote. Always plant seeds.
• At conferences, the power is in the hallways and dinners verses the chairs. Masterminds and businesses have been created from the hallways.
• We need to look at opportunities for networking events when things open up.
• Two groups in 2020. One tried to maintain and others did more than they ever did. Alonzo got around the ones that were doubling and got around them. Put together a plan and don’t deviate! If you’re not planning to succeed in 2021, you’re planning to stay the same. Control your own narrative and your own destiny! The Wannapreneurs were the ones speaking loudly and didn’t make it. They were shallow.
• “Tough times make tough people!” - Alonzo Adams
• Find 3 people that you want to meet that you’ve never met before. Make a commitment to link up with these people. Connect with these people. Who are they and make a commitment to do it. Alonzo does this every year! Look for people who are Approachable, are Purpose Driven, and have a good Mindset. Habits exposes people. Someone who is financially savvy.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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This conversation with Crystal Hamm was wide-ranging in topics, but mainly focused on her past. In the present, Crystal runs a $3 million dollar residential cleaning company. Her team loves her and she loves them. She has build a company in the Raleigh Area that serves people greatly called the Go 2 Girls. I can't endorse this company enough if you live in Wake County, North Carolina.

Check out this interview with Crystal and listen to her story. She comes from rural America, climbing trees, and sliding into 3rd base for softball. She has come so far from her beginnings as the daughter of a coal miner to an employer of over 60 team members. She has a truly remarkable story. Here are a few quotes that I especially loved...

"That's my mentality. We never stop learning."
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"My self worth was tied to that growth. So I felt that once I hit a million dollars then this small town girl was going to be good enough."

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Vincent is first and foremost, a husband, father, and homeschooler. Vincent and Elizabeth live in Bradenton, Florida with their 3 sons Andrew, Nolan, and Dylan. They are active in their community and church. Vincent is a friend to many and certainly to me! We go way back. You'll hear that story in this interview. Professionally, Vincent spent 22 years as a nationally-acclaimed & recognized photojournalist and sports photographer. But this career started to bore Vincent. Today, you'll see Vincent speaking on stages, leading masterminds & retreats, and hear him on hundreds of podcasts. He is the founder of Total Life Freedom and author of "Freelance to Freedom" and "The Wealth of Connection". Vincent and I have been close friends for nearly 8 years. I have personally watched him apply EVERY one of the 5 C's from the book he released today. This book is the life that Vincent has lived for decades. This process is different from the churn and burn funnels out there for creating business. Vincent has created a human approach to making business personal. It's called The Wealth of Connection.

There are so many wide-ranging topics that Vincent covered in this interview. Clearly, we talked about our friendship and the influence we've had on each other. We discuss his career arc and how he made the leap into the online business world. The majority of the interview discusses topics from his new book and we end with a bold proclamation of what he wants this book to do for the world. I had a blast doing this interview and I highly encourage you to get this book!

Here's some of my notes from the interview.

• Selfish versus generous goals - driven selfish goal-oriented people will absolutely hit their selfish goals. But, they will be empty.
• Frank Sinatra and audience of one - one person with one generous act can make all the difference.
• Charisma versus character - They both attract people, but only character lasts for a lifetime. Charisma with no character is like a pig with lipstick.
• Purpose to ask a question and sit in the front row of every event. This is an act of generosity as it validates the speakers platform and fuels the rooms energy. They will be appreciative and it's good for you.
• Curiosity - Tom Brady asking for the phone numbers of the entire team in Tampa and calling each one to connect and learn about them. Freddie Mercury learning about the culture of each concert area that he was performing at to connect with the audiences. Being curious is generous.
• Hour of giving - Develop the habit of generosity.
• Read the Room - This was a huge blind spot for me personally
• My Takeaway - "I finally understood that I needed to change my character from one focused on selfish goals to one focused on generous goals. Now, I would have said that I was generous then, but looking back, I wasn't. I simply paid lip service to it. I did what I needed to do to get what I needed to get. Going from selfish goals to generous goals was the cornerstone to turning everything around." - Vincent Pugliese

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Liz Trotter has been a leader in the cleaning industry for decades. She is the owner of American Maid in Olympia, WA, a business coach with Mastermind Accountability, where she helps every level of cleaning service grow to reach their dreams! This interview is full of so many nuggets and you will gain so much insight into the power of self-development. Liz is the poster child of the leadership quote by Harry Truman, "Readers are Leaders". This interview was so enjoyable because Liz shares her Why all throughout and you can see how her life & career experiences have shaped her into the person and business leader she is today.

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I have been an avid reader for over 20 years. That was not always the case. I used to hate reading. What changed? Did the books change? No. I changed. Every book that I read moved the needle a little bit closer to a winner’s mindset, a success mindset. I used to mock things like that until I understood.

In this episode, I speak from the heart about books and what they’ve done for me and what they can do for you. I share some of my favorite books and even promote the Recommended Book List that I’m releasing any day for my customers in the Solo Elite Membership.

If you’d like to connect with me or get access to my book list, simply go to my website and connect. I have options to email me or schedule a free coaching session.

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Coach Josh and I use Marco Polo to communicate during the week. He allows me to send questions as I have them. He listens and responds when he gets the chance. I'm very grateful to have Josh Melton in my corner as we grow C3 to the next level in 2023, which is to add the second building block and earn over $100,000 income from the cleaning business. Josh and I had an exchange on November 8th and 9th of 2022 that was so interesting to me. I've never heard it talked about before in the cleaning groups or other podcasts. I had to cover it here.

Cleaning is a business, but a business is not merely a ledger with a list of transactions. It's easy to pull up a profit and loss report and see all of the income and expense transactions. It's easy to see the text and numbers printed on the screen or page and assume you're looking at the cleaning business. I don't believe a business merely consists of transactions. A business is relationships. A cleaning business is a group of humans cleaning for other humans, all of which have personalities, beliefs, families, interests. It's easy to measure a business in transactions. That's what our accountants do. It's not easy to measure the relational strength of our business.

Josh poses an interesting point in his Marco Polo to me. "I believe that you can trust someone that you don't respect. But I don't believe you can respect someone you don't trust." I agree with him. I can think of people right now that I could allow into my house around my family, but I don't respect them. Therefore, respect is greater than trust. How do you earn trust? I've talked about this a ton. On the "Optimizer's Workshop with Dave Reeks", I defined the 3 C's to build trust as a cleaner. You've got to have excellent character and be the type of person that others can trust. You've got to provide an amazing cleaning service. In other words, you've got to handle the transactions of cleaning with excellence. This includes the cleaning itself and surely the transaction of invoices and payments. You've got to be consistent in your cleaning service and everything you do in dealing with your customers. If you show up with great cleaning and character over a long time, you will develop trust. Another way to build trust is to give it. Others won't trust you if you don't trust them. Trust is mutual. I'm going to add a fourth C. You've got to have compassion for other people and not be selfish. This is so foundational. Show love for your fellow human.

When you put this all together. Start with compassion and character. Become a great cleaner and cleaning service. Handle your transactions with excellence and trust. Give trust. Do this over time. This will earn your trust from your customers. Keep doing it consistently over time and that trust will turn into something greater. It's respect. When your customers respect you, they will want to do business with you for a long time. Most clients will grow with you as you grow mutual respect. However, some clients will only ever think of you as "just the cleaner". Become a person of trust and respect and you'll attract the right ones

I absolutely love this mindset and it thrills me to build this type of cleaning business in my community. Everything hinges on relationships, not transactions. I hope you enjoy this interaction between Josh an I on Marco Polo.

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I was in a 4-person mastermind breakout group that I mentioned in "Confidence Creates Success", where we each helped the others grow the next level. One of the members was Matt Peet. Matt has become a good friend and is a conference videographer extraordinaire! He does all the video work for one of my favorite conferences, Podcast Movement. You've got to check out his website, Re-Peet Productions, to get a flavor or how talented he really is. I'd even recommend you check out his portfolio section and scroll down. The actual wrap-up video from our Total Life Freedom Retreat is on there. It's so good! As we were unpacking his goals to attract other conference venues as clients, I sensed a little apprehension. We challenge each other in these Freedom Zones! I could tell that Matt wanted to grow and gain more clients. I could tell Matt wanted to hit some personal goals. But that's what I heard. He WANTED them. I said this. "Matt, I sense that you really want your goals to happen. That's awesome. Over my lifetime, I've only ever accomplished the goals that I needed to happen. Do you need these yet?" It was a question that got each of us to reflect, including me. Let me share what I mean.

I spent years wanting to succeed in my own business on the side and never accomplished it. I spent years wanting to earn freedom and to travel around the country and never accomplished it. I spent years wanting to get out of debt and never accomplished it. I have wanted a lot of things. That is the problem. I have WANTED to accomplish these things. I didn't succeed in my own business until I NEEDED that business to succeed. That was the cleaning business after I got fired from GE in 2005. I had no choice. I needed cleaning to work otherwise my family was homeless. Air is a need. I need air or I'll die. I need water and food. I need to grow my relationships with my wife and kids. There was a point where I NEEDED to be out of debt so that we could have more money for things we wanted to do. That's when we turned up the heat on this need and accomplished it in July 2020. In 2021, I turned my want to take a month in Florida to a need to take my family for a life-changing month in Florida. We took immediate action on this NEED by renting the house and putting out $6,000 when our business was no where near ready for the trip. We got into alignment with the Lord and the work required to make this NEED happen. We did not rest until the goal was met. Need will always trumps want. How are you looking at your business whether it's a side hustle or full-time gig? Is it a want to succeed or a need to succeed?

Matt Peet is doing great work and has the potential to be the videographer for dozens of conferences across the country. I believe that he'll get there. I really do! But this isn't about Matt or Ken. This podcast is for you. What do you NEED to happen this year? If you'd like to talk this through with me, I'd be glad to help you find your why and needs. Just go to my website and book a free call.

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Let's start this Carfagno Cleaning solo business with a WIN! Last week, I got 5 referrals through my local network (listen to Play Powerball with your Business). The lead from my friend and carpet cleaner, James Hardy, converted to a new office cleaning client! Since this new client is a school, I had to jump through a few more hoops. First of all, I needed to go beyond adding them as a 'Certificate Holder' on my general liability policy. I needed to increase my insurance for this additional customer. This is called 'Additionally Insured'. My current policy provides $2 million of coverage per year at $500 in annual premium. This new client cost me an additional $50, which I count as an expense. I also had to coordinate a cleaning time with the school and their weekend janitor to let me into the building. The school is not in the habit of handing out keys to outside contractors. Spoiler alert: I prayed over this situation as I desire to have offices with the flexibility to clean anytime over the weekend. A few days later, the school made an exception for me and gave me a set of keys! Lastly, this new client is a school for autistic children. I know autism and realize that these students will be on the floor a lot, touching things, and likely touching their faces. Thus, disinfecting of the classrooms and floors was vital. They already had a food & skin safe disinfectant and asked me my opinion for the floors. I researched it and immediately determined it was a bad choice. Why? The title of this episode is "Art Trumps Science". Let's talk science first. The pH was slightly alkaline at 9. The floors are VCT (vinyl composition tile). VCT is commonly used in schools and supermarkets. They are also waxed & buffed on a regular basis to keep a beautiful finish and to protect the tile. My friend James Hardy did the job, so we conferred with him and he agreed. This ph 9 disinfectant had just enough alkalinity to eat away at the wax finish, which would dull it and cause James to come back sooner. Therefore, their disinfectant was a wonderful choice for the refrigerators, microwaves, table tops, door knobs, and light switches, but NOT the floors. I connected with my good friend Mark Lineberry at Universal Janitorial and he recommended the perfect solution. It's called MatPro. The school purchased it and now uses my recommendations for disinfecting and protecting their students and staff. This raised my expertise and trust with the school big time. See! Understanding science is vital. It sets you apart from the basic cleaning service!

Another lead from last week was Mike Thompson of Envoy Mortgage from my MCBA group. Mike is a mortgage advisor. What is that? It means he focuses on what's best for his clients. He coaches and consults them, looking at their lending scenario from a holistic approach. Of course he sells mortgage products too. He's a Go-Giver and his clients ask him to sell to them as a result of his giving approach. Anyway, Mike got back to my estimate and accepted a biweekly option. There's new client #2 for the week!

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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In part 1 of this 2-hour interview, "Conspiracies in the Cleaning Industry with Ed Selkow", Ed shared an incredible 50-year career in our industry. He shares so many great stories and lessons that will help you in your business. Ed also shared some incredible criminal stories that I called "conspiracies" that are a must listen! In this episode, we dive into the second half our interview.

Ed shares the past, present, and future of the cleaning industry. Do you want to grow with the industry? There are predictions and recommendations that Ed suggests. Here's a few notes from the interview.

• "You've got to be honing your skills, expanding on what you know how to do."
• "Where there are a whole bunch of companies that are missing, that's an opportunity for me."
• Why are so many new cleaning companies starting out post pandemic. "Desperation drives a lot of people to start cleaning businesses because it costs so little to start. It's possible to grow a cleaning company with no money, but it's also possible to walk from NYC to LA!"
• "Commercial real estate is the mother's milk of the industry." Ed explains that if no developmental growth is happening, cleaners are just trading accounts around as there is a finite amount of buildings to clean.
• Find the country economic people for networking to learn when and where new buildings are coming. Ed believes this is a huge opportunity and better than the Chamber of Commerce.
• The disinfection revenue explosion will normalize like previous fads.
• Ed gets into the intersection of "Big Data" and "The Internet of Things" (sensors), for computer models of building traffic to determine how much cleaning has to happen. This could become cleaning-on-demand.
• The increase in technology will drive cleaning prices down over time. This is what happens with every industry that technology improves. Robotics are one of these advances. For example, there are robots that can empty deskside trash cans. Couple this with cleaning-on-demand technology, and cleaning revenues will likely go down. Ed is predicting this so we can get ahead of it.
• Winning cleaning companies will be the ones that combine of technology and open systems for cleaning.
• Ed highly recommends that we all understand Seth Godin's book, "Tribes". Those that understand this mindset will survive the future.
• Ed highly recommends that we, as building contractors, link up with the BSCAI (Building Services Contractors Association International) as our professional trade association. They are dedicated to the services versus the manufacturers (ISSA). They were also influential to getting the cleaning industry labeled as "essential" to get us back to work during the pandemic.

You can find Ed Selkow at Janitorial Growth Solutions and on multiple social media outlets.
Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

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I sat down with cleaning industry legend Ed Selkow for a 2-hour interview. We covered so much ground that I had to break it into 2 parts. In this first part, you'll learn about Ed's 50 years in the cleaning industry which includes owning 4 janitorial companies and working as an employee for a few of the largest janitorial firms in the country. He weaves in great stories and lessons that make this episode well worth the listen.

Oh, and then you have the other stories... Ed also shares what I called "Conspiracies in the Cleaning Industry" ranging from subcontracting for NY street guy "Joey Floors" to stolen equipment and being on the payroll of a Russian dog in Chicago to how cleaners were partially responsible for Watergate and causing a U.S. President to resign! Do not miss these stories as we build up for part 2 of this interview on the cleaning industry, past, present, and future.

Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page.

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Before you listen to this article, please check out my Carfagno Cleaning article, "Home Trends that Intersect with Cleaning". I credit my friend Mary Ann Alig of Fox & Roach Berkshire Hathaway Realtors for the content that drove this article and this podcast episode. Mary Ann shared 8 home trends that realtors are seeing for this new decade. Trends like these tend to change every decade and currently include barn vs pocket doors, white interiors, shiplap, matching furniture, accent walls, rose gold, open concept, and multigenerational homes. In my article, I showed how these trends affect cleaning professionals. I also hint to all business owners how important it is to know your industry trends so you can stay ahead of them.

There is one trend that I'd like to dig into on this podcast. It's the rise of the multigenerational home. Fast Company in a 2019 article states, But for complex reasons that still puzzle researchers, multigenerational households are now on the rise once more. As many as 41% of Americans buying a home are considering accommodating an elderly parent or an adult child, according to a survey conducted by John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Living with your parents (or your adult children) has plenty of potential benefits–everyone tends to save money, it can potentially benefit health outcomes, and you get to spend more time together." Did you hear me? 41% of Americans are considering this in the 2020's. That's more than a trend. It's a paradigm shift. I want all cleaners out there, regardless of your business model to hear me. If you don't get in front of this shift and ensure your company is a leader in multigenerational house cleaning, you could be out of business in 10 years! It's crazy! Now, I'd like to talk to the solo cleaners that are actually doing the sales and cleaning.

How do you position yourself to acquire clients like this? It's simple really. When you clean for one generation like a millennial couple or retirees, you must earn their trust to stay there long term. When you clean for two generations like a family with kids, you need an even greater trust factor. And if you follow where I'm going here, you need even more trust to clean for 3 generations under the same roof. The answer is trust building. The better you are at trust building, the more completely you can serve 3 generations under the same roof. This leads to more money per client and referrals to others just like them. Imagine this. You have a client like I do. Andy is the dad. His adult children live with him and his father Don lives with him. I have invested time during cleaning visits to get to know all 3 generations. Don has even become a friend and mentor to me locally. I do a great job at their home and have earned a lot of trust. Do you think Andy will refer me? And by the way, he owns a local restaurant and knows a lot of people. Yes, he will. I am positioned nicely to reap a harvest with multigenerational homes because I clean them now with good reputation. I can share that on my website and with new prospective clients. I urge you to do the same.

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I was in Dallas with my son for a podcasting conference in August. It was a blast, especially hanging out with my son. We stayed at the downtown Sheraton, which afforded us the ability to walk the city a bit. I also had the opportunity to connect in person with two former guests of the Smart Cleaning School. I went to lunch with Greg Shepard from "Sail Around the World". We had a blast walking around the city and enjoying a quality Mexican meal. Greg is a friend and definitely a mentor. He stretches me big time. The day after lunch with Greg, I had a personal tour and breakfast with Debbie Sardone from "A Buffalo Charges the Storm". Debbie is highly regarded coach in the residential cleaning industry as well as a friend and mentor. Back to my son and walking Dallas. I really, really wanted to visit Dealey Plaza. As a kid, I was enamored with the movie "JFK" starring Kevin Costner. The movie makes a compelling case for a second gunman on the grassy knoll. I have seen the Zapruder film so many times, that I already felt like I've been there. I was wrong. Being there was different. Kenny and I walked into Dealey Plaza. I was in awe. He knew more about the Lincoln assassination than Kennedy, so I described it as best I could. That's when I noticed a guy with a bike helmet and bike showing the Zapruder film and explaining the details of the assassination. Kenny and I walked over to listen. We stood on Elm Street in front of the old Texas State Book Depository as he pointed to the 6th floor corner window. The window is half open with boxes arranged exactly as they were in crime scene photographs. He paused the video on his phone and pointed to the first large "X" on Elm Street. This is where JFK was struck the first time in the neck. He played the Zapruder film. We could see Kennedy grab his neck. It was too surreal. He kept the film running as JFK was struck with the kill shot. He pointed to the second "X" on Elm Street. "On November 22nd, 1963, that's where an American President was assassinated." Chilling. We thanked him for his history lesson and walked the plaza. We stood on the "X" and took a picture. We stood on the grassy knoll and took a picture. We stood where Abraham Zapruder took the movie and yep, we took a picture. It was much, much different in real life. Dealey Plaza is virtually unchanged in 59 years. History is powerful, especially when we can be there in person.

There's a reason I shared this story. In the early 1960's, John F. Kennedy was beloved and respected. He was a member of the Democrat Party and generally regarded to have political views left of center. He considered himself a Liberal, yet he opposed Communism, supported the 2nd Amendment, and voted for tax cuts. Those were positions held by the Democrat Party then. Today, these same policy beliefs would be called Republican. Here's what I find interesting. If JFK were running for office right now, he would likely be a moderate Republican. This is not my opinion. You can search it online and read for yourself. That's not the point of this podcast. Here's the point. JFK didn't change. How could he. He's been dead for 59 years. What did change? Now we're asking the right question. It's called the Overton Window and I find it fascinating.

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I discussed the Presidential Election in the last episode and how important it is for us as cleaning service providers to focus on building trust with our clients right now. There is turmoil. There is fear. There is change happening. Let’s not add to it by changing our service, our schedule, or our prices.

This podcast just celebrated its 5th anniversary! It’s hard to believe that I’ve been a podcaster for that long. I hope this weekly information bite has been nourishing for you to grow your mind and business. As the 4th quarter begins and you are all evaluating end-of-year goals and 2025 plans, I felt this was a great time to introduce a 7-part series on the Cleaning Industry. This series has one goal; to get you thinking about the future.

Last week’s episode was the first of the series. This one focuses on the opportunity we all have in this industry. Then I’ll explain the Overton Window, the importance of keeping up with trends, and a lesson on supply and demand for solo cleaners. Plus, I’ll re-release a double podcast interview with industry legend Ed Selkow with his stories from the past, present, and outlook for the future. This will be a fun ride!
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Here’s part two, “The Cleaning Industry is Exploding”.

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This podcast episode was released just 4 weeks prior to the 2024 Presidential Election. You might be asking. “Why does that matter Ken?” I hope you do. I have been around this industry for nearly 20 years and have talked to many industry leaders. We need to be wise and discerning of the mindsets and emotional meters of our clientele. We need to recognize trends and historical data. Here is a simple truth. Each election cycle is getting more and more volatile. Each election cycle is more divisive, more fear-based, with more unknowns. This causes Americans to hold on to what they’ve got. This causes home owners and businesses to postpone making the that cleaning service hire. People are scared. People are less trusting.

This is not isolated to cleaning. I have a friend in construction equipment rentals and sales. He told me the same thing. “I’ve been doing this for over 2 decades and we always see a slow down right before a major election.” I find this fascinating and I shared it on a recent Solo Elite Membership Call. This short clip is my advice during election season. It is short and sweet.

Did this sway your strategy a little as we wrap up 2024? Are you going to invest into your customer base by building trust or will you make moves and changes anyway? I can’t urge you enough to choose the prior.

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I had an opportunity to coach a young man last week. He is operating as a solo commercial cleaner and doing quite well. He's got a great attitude. He's growing. However, he is getting close to a full schedule. That is scary for most solo cleaners. Do you know why?

Once their schedule is full, they can't clean anymore. This is the point of panic for most. They think that they have to scale with a team to make any more income past a full schedule. The first thing I did was to ask him why he was growing his business and what his picture was. This is a reference to a metaphor I used in “What Hole Do You Need”. I use this to coach people toward a successful strategy.
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Here's the metaphor. You have a goal to hang a picture on your wall. You go to Lowe's to ask one of their experts how to hang it. They ask you several questions including the type of wall, the weight and dimensions of the picture frame, etc. Based on your answers, they will give you the correct hardware and strategy to hang the picture. I then ask this young man this question. What is your big picture? What do you want to hang? What is your big goal? I am the guy at Lowe's.

After he told me what his picture was, I shared various strategies that could get him there. I know the different cleaning business models and what they look like and how much you can make. He was most intrigued with the personal model that I teach called the Optimized Solo Cleaner. This is where he could remain solo without employees, increase his income, decrease his schedule, and have a ton more freedom in his life.

This is what I said to him next. "Here's what I need you to do. You need to decide and then stop undeciding." That really hit the mark. He's like, "Man, I've done that too many times." I said. "Who hasn't? Once you decide, set your face like a flint and go after it. Go hang that picture! Then re-evaluate and see if you want to change the picture from there."

The message here is simple, but unfortunately, many will miss it. I’ll say it again in 3 steps.

1. Make a Decision – Many are trapped in indecision. This is one of the major failure diseases. It’s called Procrastination. I can speak to this one as I joined this Club too early and stayed for too long.
2. Stop Undeciding – You made the decision. Now make the decision work. In other words, stop doubting yourself. You made a decision. Great job! Decide to stop undeciding.
3. Do the Work – FOCUS… Follow One Path Until Success. Take action and get it done.

Will you do these 3 steps?

Are you struggling with earning enough as a solo cleaner and you don’t want to hire any time soon? There is a solution. You can become an Optimized Solo Cleaner?! This is a business owner that knows their numbers, runs their business ultra efficiently, and is constantly earning more while working less as a solo. They have peace and freedom in their life. I have achieved this in 2 solo cleaning companies in 2 different states. It’s how I help our industry. The Solo Elite Membership is the only system for you to become the Optimized Solo Cleaning Specialist and not deal with the drama of employees! Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

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It’s imperative to know your numbers and coordinates, so you always know where your business is on the map of your dreams. In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, I explained a few vital signs that solo business owners need to track to ensure their business remains healthy and vibrant. Afterward, I dive into a topic which is infrequently discussed in our industry. What is your cancellation rate? How do you limit damage and lost income throughout your clientele?

Are you struggling with earning enough as a solo cleaner and you don’t want to hire any time soon? There is a solution. You can become an Optimized Solo Cleaner?! This is a business owner that knows their numbers, runs their business ultra efficiently, and is constantly earning more while working less as a solo. They have peace and freedom in their life. I have achieved this in 2 solo cleaning companies in 2 different states. It’s how I help our industry. The Solo Elite Membership is the only system for you to become the Optimized Solo Cleaning Specialist and not deal with the drama of employees! Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

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There is a prevailing mindset in the cleaning industry that the only way to be successful is to scale with a team. This is simply not true. Have you ever heard of the Optimized Solo Cleaner? I am the voice in the industry shouting out that scaling is amazing, but there is another way.

In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, I encouraged the members that they are on the right path. They don’t have to listen to those other voices. They can set a goal to earn a solid full-time income while working part-time as a solo. Others can work all the time and earn well over six-figures.

​Are you struggling with earning enough as a solo cleaner and you don’t want to hire any time soon? There is a solution. You can become an Optimized Solo Cleaner?! This is a business owner that knows their numbers, runs their business ultra efficiently, and is constantly earning more while working less as a solo. They have peace and freedom in their life. I have achieved this in 2 solo cleaning companies in 2 different states. It’s how I help our industry. The Solo Elite Membership is the only system for you to become the Optimized Solo Cleaning Specialist and not deal with the drama of employees! Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

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I have noticed a lot of interest recently by residential cleaning companies to seek more commercial opportunities. I have been in the industry for nearly 2 decades and have cleaned both the entire time. I know residential and I know commercial. I also stay connected with the top influencers in both residential and commercial cleaning. This gives me a unique voice to speak about what I see as the best opportunity that house cleaners have in commercial cleaning.

In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, I dove into this topic in a way that is easy for the residential cleaner to receive. Plus, I believe that every house cleaner will get excited when they hear that there is a small niche in commercial cleaning that they can uniquely dominate!
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Are you struggling with earning enough as a solo cleaner and you don’t want to hire any time soon? There is a solution. You can become an Optimized Solo Cleaner?! This is a business owner that knows their numbers, runs their business ultra efficiently, and is constantly earning more while working less as a solo. They have peace and freedom in their life. I have achieved this in 2 solo cleaning companies in 2 different states. It’s how I help our industry. The Solo Elite Membership is the only system for you to become the Optimized Solo Cleaning Specialist and not deal with the drama of employees! Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

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Colette is my personal accountant and she closes out a 3-part interview series we did on the Smart Cleaning Tribe. Colette gets into the nitty gritty of what a valuable accountant can do for you. First of all, she dives into business budgeting and how the business owner and accountant partner to help the business grow and plan for the unexpected. I took Colette's advice from the last episode "Hire Professionals on Day One" I hired an accountant in my second year when we had no money. I purchased insurance on day one. I found an attorney to work with in year two. However, I never had an accountant that does as much as Colette does for us. Beyond business budgeting, Colette explained what tax planning looks like. This is a huge value add your accountant can add for you. She shared some 2022 tax updates and how they may impact each of us at a high level to demonstrate how vital it is for us to have the right tax professional. Make sure to listen to Colette's checklist of what questions we should be asking our accountant when tax planning. Lastly, Colette gives us a checklist to us, the cleaners, on what we need to do on our end to help our accountant help us.

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In part two of this 3-part interview with my accountant Colette on the Smart Cleaning Tribe, she dives deeper into the role of the accountant. In one question, she explains the benefits of hiring an all-in-one bookkeeper and accountant to help the business with tax planning and prep way before tax day. In another question, Colette surprised us all. "When should we hire an accountant?" Colette said that she is a big believer in hiring insurance, tax, and legal professionals in your business on Day One. Yes, it will cost you in the beginning. But the cost of fixing bad books or hiring a legal team after the fact or not having insurance coverage and an event happens is WAY more expensive. She is an advocate therefore of hiring these 3 professionals on Day One. Colette answers an interesting question about state versus federal tax laws. Plus, I share how Colette personally bills me for services. I think it's brilliant as I can budget accounting all year at the same price. It's a win for the cleaning business owner. From her side, she has reliable recurring income. That's a big win for her. I highly recommend an accountant that bills on a monthly retainer.

As mentioned in episode 1, feel free to reach out to Colette with questions or to hire her for accounting services. You can find her at CMBA Solutions.

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I asked my personal accountant Colette Melott (CMA, EA) to join the Smart Cleaning Tribe for an Expert Call to help cleaning company owners understand their numbers and who to hire in their specific case. Colette starts this interview with the accounting basics.

Bookkeepers helps you track transactions with your money coming in and your money coming out. In most cases, a bookkeeper does not help you apply what those numbers mean to anything. They are putting your puzzle together, but they're not telling you what the picture on the puzzle is. There are not too many certifications for bookkeepers. However a Quickbooks Pro Advisor is a great designation to find especially if your business utilizes Quickbooks. These certified bookkeepers are proficient enough to adapt your business numbers appropriately and legally to Quickbooks.

Accountants puts it all together for you. Bookkeeping is a task of accounting, but they don't stop there. They take those numbers and apply meaning to them to help you make business and tax decisions. There are several designations of accounting professionals.

• General Accounting - This is an accountant with a Bachelor's Degree in accounting that operates UNDER a CPA or CMA licence. For example, Colette used to work in two corporate positions where the company held the certified accounting license and Colette worked under it. This is exactly how I operated as an engineer. GE held the Professional Engineer's license and I was a general engineer under this certification.
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA) - This designation is granted at the state level. The accountant must pass a high-level exam to obtain their CPA license. Plus, they must maintain this high-level each year. There is a high standard. At the corporate level, they are qualified to take the numbers a publicly traded company provides and certify them to the public. They are on the company's external team. However, most CPAs operate out of smaller offices and work with small private companies.
• Certified Management Accountant (CMA) - This is an international accounting designation. Therefore, their training must keep them familiar with domestic and international accounting standards. At the corporate level, they are qualified to be the comptroller or CFO to help the company compile the numbers to present to the public. They are on the company's internal team. The CMA must also pass a high-level initial and annual exam process to obtain and keep their license. There is a high standard.
• Enrolled Agent (EA) - The IRS has 3-part tax proficiency exam and certification process to enroll accountants in the IRS code. This allows them to prepare tax returns The Enrolled Agent is one of 3 designations that can legally represent you on an IRS audit. The other two designations that can do this for you are the CPA and the tax attorney.

Tax Attorneys are the only ones who can practice law. They help if you need representation in tax court. This is a high level professional that you need when you're in trouble! Therefore, study this episode and hire the right professional so you never NEED this pro!

That's part one of my interview with my accountant Colette. These are accounting designations I wised I knew 20 years ago. I hope that Colette helped you understand the landscape of accounting professionals.

Would you like to connect with my accountant? You can find her at CMBA Solutions.

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I thought the previous episode “Audit to Optimize” was the final installment in the Numbers Matter Series until I wrapped up a Solo Elite Membership Call on July 2nd, 2024. On this call, I had the opportunity to teach Sunny how to apply everything in the Numbers Matter Series to complete her ISO Model Scorecard.

I took a clip from this call and decided to share it with you, so I hope you enjoy it. Keep this in mind. I was sharing my screen, so Sunny and the other Solo Elite members were watching me in real time change Sunny’s business on paper to the business that Sunny defined as freedom for her family. It was so much fun. There may be points on this audio where you get confused. Hang in there and listen for the takeaways and signs of peace from Sunny as we optimize.

This is the end of the Numbers Matter Series. My hope is that you reach this point and are excited about the possibilities for you and your future. I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

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I hope you’ve been paying attention and taking lots of notes during this series on “Why Numbers Matter”. In my experience, I have observed that most people do not know their numbers. These same people spend too much money to run their business. This means they are not profitable.

In this episode, I walk you through doing an audit of your profit & loss statement so you understand how important this accounting form is to your business. Then I explain the 3 areas of Optimizing and how to AUDIT your solo business in each area. Here’s the 3 areas.

1. Lower your Expenses: We use the Profit & Loss to audit this area of optimizing.
2. Increase your Prices: We use marketing and sales tracking and metrics to audit this area of optimizing.
3. Decrease your Cleaning Time: We use time tracking to audit this area of your optimizing.

The solo cleaner effective in zero of these areas is a frustrated solo that wants to quit. The solo effective in 1 area is frustrated and wants to quit. The solo effective in 2 areas is a happy solo. The solo effective in all 3 is the Optimized Solo that loves their business!

I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

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I have a few stories to tell you and I won't take much of your time because your time is worth a lot! The first one is about a little boy who desperately wanted time with his Daddy. The second is about a Daddy who desperately wanted time with his little boy. This second story lead to the creation of a metric I've used in my business for a decade. It's called the Work Day Value (WDV). What are you earning for a day away from your family? Or what are you earning per hour working away from your family nights and weekends as a side hustle. It's okay to make $25 - $30 per hour as a beginner with a plan to grow. But if your still there after a year, you're losing time that you'll never get back. What is your work day value? What is your time worth because you are trading it for time with your little boy. Some of you will feel that question more than others.

The third story happened when I was pumping gas at Wawa. There was a problem at the pump and one of the workers came out to help a customer. At the end of the exchange, the employee said to the customer. "Sorry it took too long to get to you. The customer. It's okay. Hey I'm getting paid." The customer was on company time and had an hourly mindset. It doesn't matter how long it takes to wait at the gas station because he's getting paid by the hour. This man was in his sixties and had a lifetime of job mentality. There's nothing wrong with this at all. But it's limiting and scarce. Here's what I mean. As he stands around doing nothing at the pump for his $30, $40, or $100 per hour, he's fully satisfied. What if he thought differently? What if he valued his hour at $500 or $5,000? There are plenty of people that make that kind of money. He would no longer be satisfied at the level of income he's earning in one hour now. If he was getting paid by the job he'd be very unsettled because he realized he be wasting time. He'd want the Wawa employee to get him filled up and out of there faster. If he was getting $250 to get a job done, he'd rather have it done in 1 hour versus 10. Standing at that gas pump would drive him crazy. The mindset is totally different.

How much do you value your time? How much is your day worth? I don't want to ever leave my family and exchange it for something that is not satisfactory for me. Some food for thought. This works for your compensation for your team and how you charge your customers. It applies to what you might do outside of cleaning. There's so many things you can offer others for other income. Don't ever settle and say you're getting paid as you're standing around doing nothing! Go make a difference and go add value to others and you'll get paid in direct proportion of the value that you serve other people. This was always the hardest part for me. I asked myself this question. How much is my family worth today? I didn't want to bring home peanuts when they were worth gold bars!

Would you like more information on CBF and the potential of growing your residential cleaning business beyond 7 figures? Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

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J. Paul Getty was the wealthiest person in the world for 3 decades from the 1950's to the 1970's! His list of accomplishments are mind-blowing. At the end of his life, it's estimated that his net worth would be worth $27 billion is today's dollars. He was very wealthy. I heard this quote when I was a new business owner in the Amway business in 2002 and it has stuck with me for 20 years.

“I'd rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of my own effort.” - J. Paul Getty

At the time I heard this, I was an engineer working full time and earning $50,000 per year off 100% of my own effort. I saw Amway business owners with teams of 100+ people earned 1-4% off the production of each team member and earning $500,000 per year. This quote hit me right between the eyes. However, I went another route as a solo cleaning specialist after my days as an engineer and multi-level marketer. I decided it was best for me to optimize what I could produce. In other words, how much could I make in how little time could I produce off 100% of my own effort? In my first solo cleaning business, the results were strong. I earned $55,000 and $70,000 per year profit off 2 days cleaning per week in each business respectively. Both provided a decent engineer level lifestyle so I could enjoy time with my family. However, it would never create freedom and lifestyle money. It would never create time, money, and location freedom. This is what I desired.

I'm in a different position now where I am growing a cleaning business and I'm learning a lot about myself. This is an episode for the solo cleaner who is thinking about scaling and has fear or would never scale and has arrogance about it like I used to. Let's break down some numbers. The average cleaning technician can create $50,000 of annual revenue for a cleaning company. If you're a solo, that's $50,000 for you. Applying J. Paul Getty's advice, the numbers are totally different. A cleaning team of 100 people would produce $5M in revenue. If you only earned the 1% that Getty quoted, you'd earn $50,000 per year without having to clean. But the reality is much better. A $5M company ought to pay out 15% to the owner. This is $750,000 per year income for the owner and they don't have to clean. Let's play a game of Would You Rather.

Would you rather work solo and optimize your business on 100% of your effort working 2-3 days per week for $75,000 per year income? Or would you rather build a company and team to $5 million revenue, lead, and earn $750,000 per year income working on your business to lead your team? In the first example, you have no pressure of employees. You do all the work and have a simple life. You just better make sure to stay healthy, travel for short stints of a few days at a time, and budget really, really good. In the second example, you build a massive company, earn more than you can imagine, and live a life of total freedom. They each have their pros and cons. This episode isn't looking to persuade you, rather get you thinking.

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I recently revealed the "The 4 ISO Model Fundamentals " as Financial, Strategic, Mindset, and People. It doesn't matter whether you own a solo cleaning business or a catering company. If you want to grow your company to create the life you've dreamed of, you'll need to master these fundamentals. I am not a caterer... obviously. I can't coach caterers. I can't coach photographers or digital agencies or doctors. I'm a 16-year solo cleaner that has optimized 2 solo cleaning companies to over $50,000 profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week without employees, subs, or drama. I've successfully sold one solo cleaning business for $80,000 and I've successfully scaled another solo cleaning business to allow my family to go to Florida for the month of February the past two years. I have mastered these 4 fundamentals for winning with a solo cleaning business and therefore, I am highly qualified to be your coach if you're looking to master your solo cleaning company.

In that podcast episode, I stated that I wanted to lay out the 4 fundamentals in simple terms first. Then, I promised to follow-up with episodes adding more depth to each. Today, we start with the first one called FINANCIAL. There are thousands of cleaning business owners in Facebook cleaning groups. I have interacted with hundreds and personally coached dozens over the years. The ones I've coached have been side-hustlers, startups, solos, and striving to 7-figures. I have enough data to make this bold statement.

Of the 4 fundamentals of a successful solo cleaning company or any cleaning company, the most lacking skill is Financial Fluency. In my experience (and the combined experience of other reputable coaches in the industry), over 95% of cleaning business owners do NOT know their numbers. They are Financially Illiterate.

This is scary as these cleaning business owners go year-to-year making jokes about "sucking at math" or "not knowing where they are". It's not funny. It's sad. 95% of you RIGHT NOW are literally treading water and about to drown. You are one bad wave or rip current from financial bankruptcy and you don't even know it. 90% of you are anxious, stressed, and overwhelmed because you don't know where you stand. When you are Financially Illiterate, you are standing on sinking and shifting sand. You have literally nothing firm to build on. So what do you do? You continue to work harder and harder and hope that the money works out. Enter geniuses like Mike Michaelowicz and his book "Profit First". Mike was Financially Illiterate until he took the first step. He went from not-knowing his numbers to knowing his numbers. This didn't make the business any better. But it did allow Mike to place his feet on something firm and something he could build from. His stated mission is to help the millions of us in the same place and to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty.

My friend Ellen was once in this position. She ran a successful cleaning company with 20 team members and close to a half-million in revenue. She did not know her numbers at all and she was the first to admit it. I helped her set goals to over a 3-month period to learn her business through a Profit and Loss Statement or a P&L. Once she understood her P&L, she was able to set financial goals and track her business through a financial dashboard. Ellen has grown quite a bit since this major change. There are thousands of Ellens' out there, so don't feel bad if that's you. We will address all 4 fundamentals over time.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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I was having a pre-driving talk with my 15-year-old son and shared my example when I was 16. I wanted to drive a car, but my mom couldn't put me on her policy. I bought my car for $1,300. Then my monthly expenses of car insurance, maintenance, and gas cost a ton. I needed this car to get to my job at the mall, but really I wanted the car to look cool driving to high school. I felt like I was treading water and not going anywhere. Why? I was going to school all day and then working at night. My weekly paycheck after taxes was just enough to pay my car expenses. I was in an ironic situation where I was working just to drive and driving just to go to work. I could have quit the job and hitched a ride to school from my neighbor and spent my time doing something I wanted to do. It took me a few years until I learned how to earn more income with the jobs I took. I was no longer working to drive as I had extra. Thank goodness or I would not have been able to afford taking my girlfriend Teresa anywhere. I could and won her over. I told Kenny. "And now she's your mom."

I then told Kenny another example of this irony, relating to moms. The stay-at-home mom wants to earn more income for the family. She goes out and finds a job. Let's say the job pays her $3,000 per month after tax. That sounds great, except one thing. She needs to hire a daycare service to watch her kids. She needs more maintenance and gas for her car. She needs more money for lunches and coffees and clothes for work. There are so many moms that accept the job before calculating the cost to have the job. Many times they are in the same place as the 16-year-old driver. They are literally working for daycare and putting the kids in daycare so she can work. It's ironic and very sad. Moms have so much on their plates and this puts them into a downward spiral and hurts many families. Aside from the zero profit, the mom is also taking her kids out of the home and getting them around other kids in daycare. Kids in daycare are always sick, so now this mom's kids are sick and it affects the whole family. Maybe the dad gets sick and has to call out of his work or business. This is detrimental.

The lesson here is simple and Jesus says it best. "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it — lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?" That's from the Book of Luke, chapter 14 and verses 28-30. The 16-year-old driver and the stay-at-home mom MUST count the cost of the undertaking before embarking on the plan. In my son's case, he is already making money by cleaning and he get's paid way better than I did at his age. He was afford a car, but he is evaluating the best way to do it. What about the stay-at-home mom? Okay, there are tons of ways to achieve the goal. If she would adopt the "How Can I" mindset, she might decide to look for other options. One such option could be a solo cleaning business. Maybe that's why you're listening to this podcast right now? You may be a mom wanting to make more money and don't want to enter the full-time workforce. Cleaning houses and offices is an excellent opportunity. In fact, I've already spoken to this in the podcast, "How to Start a Solo Cleaning Business" and "The Pros of Solo Cleaning". You can design a flexible schedule, earn excellent income, and help others with a skill you already possess.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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You MUST know your numbers to survive and thrive in your solo cleaning company. Numbers Matter. I was asked WHY in a recent Solo Elite Membership Call. After answering the question, I realized that I needed to start a new MEGA-series on all-things-numbers.

In this episode, I answer the basic question of why. It’s humorous as I poke and prod at the majority of solo cleaners that I get on phone calls with. They don’t know their numbers… like NONE of them. This is so foundational that it’s one of the 4 Fundamentals of the ISO Model. By the end of this episode, you will be ready for me to pile on the rest of the MEGA-series. Here is what you can expect.
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1. Numbers Matter II: Count the Cost – You need to know your numbers in order to complete the project. It’s biblical!
2. Numbers Matter III: Are You Financially Fluent – This one will hurt if you don’t know the language of numbers. But it will help!
3. Numbers Matter IV: Would you Rather have 100% or 1%? – Now that you are gaining a foundation of understanding WHY numbers are important, this episode will allow you to see the benefits of strategic planning with your numbers.
4. Numbers Matter V: What is Your Hour Worth – Have you ever stopped to consider if the work that you’re doing is worth it? This episode will force you to measure your productivity and assess.
5. Numbers Matter VI: Audit to Optimize – In this final episode of the series, I am putting it all together. I break down the 3 areas a solo cleaner needs to master in order to optimize. They will need to understand their numbers to conduct a proper audit of each area. The solo that is efficient in ALL 3 is the Optimized Solo that loves their business!
6. Accounting Basics I: Accounting Basics – Where the heck do we start with accounting and bookkeeping? What’s the difference? Colette Mellott is my accountant. She breaks it all down so it is easy to understand.
7. Accounting Basics II: Hire Professionals on Day One – Stop trying to DIY your bookkeeping and accounting. Colette teaches us a valuable insight into how hiring a professional saves us money and time.
8. Accounting Basics III: Keep Clean Records – How do you prepare your numbers to effectively work with an accounting professional? Colette explains the basics.

Once I have proven numbers are important and shown you how to track them, I’ll start the third numbers series on Investing in Your Business. I’m so excited to walk you through all-things-numbers this summer. I hope you stay tuned.

I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

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In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, the conversation focused on commercial cleaning. I made one statement about the price per hour decreasing with increasing building size. This does not compute to the Solo Optimizer’s mindset. Why would you charge less as it gets bigger? You would lose a lot of profit.

This is absolutely true through the lens of the Solo Optimizer’s Mindset where success is measured by the best trade of profit you can make for the time you decide to leave your family each day. In the ISO Model Course, this metric is called the Workday Value (WDV). With the Solo Optimizer’s Mindset of trading, there is no way a solo could charge less per hour for a larger building. Larger janitorial companies will come in at half the price and win every time. Solos cannot compete. This is why I heavily endorse a solo’s commercial niche to be under 10,000 square foot buildings.

The Scaling or Entrepreneur’s Mindset is totally different. They are not trading their personal time. They have built reproducible systems through a team of employees. Therefore, they are selling manhours like the electric company sells kilowatt hours. In the scaling mindset, they are willing to drop the hourly cost of manhours to get larger buildings. This earns them a lot more volume and ultimately, a lot more profit.

I shared in this clip that the Solo Optimizer can max out at $100- $150 per hour cleaning by themselves. This is amazing. It’s what I did and it’s what I teach in the ISO Model and the Solo Elite Membership. There is tremendous freedom possible in this career path with the Solo Optimizer’s Mindset. Just realize that there is another level beyond this that you can only accomplish through duplication. J. Paul Getty is famous for this quote.

“Would you rather have 100% of the effort off of you or 1% of the effort off of 100 people?” This is the central question between these two mindsets. The Solo Optimizer will maximize the 100% off the 1, while the Scaling Mindset seeks to maximize the number of 1% checks. You can earn a level of freedom as an Entrepreneur far beyond the freedom of the Solo Optimizer. It’s a matter of choice.

The end of this mindset and the question of which final career path to choose lies at the end of the Solo Elite Roadmap. Optimize first to freedom. Then you can either STAY, SELL, or SCALE to obtain further freedom. That’s why we do this membership.

I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees.Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

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This episode is a follow up to "The Messy Middle" There was a place in between your initial goal to start your cleaning business and the place that you defined as success where things got messy. It got really hard to stay motivated. You weren't sure if you made the right decision. Your doubts and fears and condemnation crept in to try to steal your dream. This is the messy middle. I shared this truth about setting big goals and starting something new. "It always gets messier after you start!" I want to turn your attention to another destructive habit that can steal your dream. It's called anger. This will not apply to many of you, but for the ones that it does, please listen. I have personally listened to a lot of podcasts and many on cleaning and entrepreneurship. I have never heard one on anger.

I was in the Messy Middle in our first New York solo cleaning business from 2007 - 2015 and from 2019 - 2020 in our second Pennsylvania solo business. I know what that feels like. If you've never heard me speak or share my story before, here's the nutshell. It took me a long time to develop my ISO Model for solo cleaners. In fact, it was the 8 years in the Messy New York Middle that I figured most of it out. This ISO Model allowed me to duplicate our first solo business in a fraction of the time. I want to dive into my 8 years in the valley, the mess, the pit. I was working so hard, going where ever I had to go to clean and make money. I was cleaning around the clock on many days. I injured myself by tearing tendons, meniscus, and even contracted Lyme Disease. I was often tired. I was often filled with doubt. I was often sad. And I was often very angry. Thankfully, I was walking with Jesus through this time to help me keep my peace. But even I'm no where close to perfect. I would lose my cool and freak out. I'd be late leaving the house and miss my shower. I'd have a foot of snow and ice on my car at 7am and 5 below. I'd get stuck in morning rush hour traffic and be even later to my first house. I'd trudge through the snow into the house. I'd bump into a piece of furniture with my cleaning gear or smack my knee or hip against a sharp wooden door or railing. I'd set down my gear and spill it all over the customer's floor because the duffle bad was torn from use in 3 places. I'd be vacuuming and suck up a carpet fiber that wrapped around the beater bar until the vacuum seized. I'd suck up a penny and seize it too. I'd crack my head on the shower metal or on a low doorway. I'd turn on the shower while cleaning and get soaked in the middle of winter. I'd break something in a house by accident. I'd be cleaning with spray bottles in each pant pocket when one would unscrew and dump a whole 32-oz bottle of cleaner on the customer's floor. All of these things seemed to happen to me when I was already struggling and mad. They would take me from mad to angry and many time angry to wrathful. I would literally leave the house and start screaming outside. I may even take my seized vacuum piece and either smash it on the ground or toss it in the bushes. Yes, it's dumb, but haven't you ever been angry?! It's irrational. I'm irrational when it happens. I would waste time, lose money, and lose belief that I was doing the right thing. Meanwhile, my friends from high school and college were all growing in their jobs, buying nice cars, having kids, buying them nice things, and living in nice houses. And we were driving old beaters and living in rented houses. I'd question myself all the time. I was angry again and again and again. Over the years, I learned my triggers and managed my emotions better. It wasn't easy, but I did it.

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In my "January 2022 Freedom Update with Coach Josh", I inferred that we qualified for the trip to Florida that we booked after "A New Freedom Vision". I had just onboarded my fifth and final cleaner to cover our tenth and final building. The other 4 C3 Team Members were all doing well and Florida was inevitable. We had fought hard for several months and especially over the past 60 days to make this dream a reality. However, there was still 10 days to go...

We were due to leave for Florida on Sunday, February 6th at 4am. Let's go back to Sunday, January 23rd. I met the newest C3 Team Member at our biggest client to start training. Our van wasn't acting right either, so I knew it would need a drop at the shop to make sure it was okay for our big trip. The day of training went outstanding. I'm keeping the team member's name anonymous, but they were performing extremely well. I felt confident that I could train this Sunday and the next to get the excellence score over 8 so we could leave for Florida. After 7 hours and no lunch break, I asked if they were hungry. I had asked before and felt bad. I offered to go get food. They decided to take a 30 minute break to grab food, return, and finish the training job. "I'll be back. I promise." That was a weird thing to say. I was sitting in the waiting room of this vet hospital doing some work on my laptop. 15 minutes. 30 minutes. 35 minutes. Nothing. I started to wonder. A text came in at 40 minutes. "I had to take care of an emergency. Thank you for training me, but this job isn't going to work for me." My heart sank. I just sat there. I had been working around the clock since Christmas onboarding 5 new customers, ordering supplies, stocking offices, building out my systems in Swept, hiring & training 5 C3 Team Members. I was managing multiple cleaners at multiple sites at the same time all month. I cleaned houses during the week and offices nights and weekends. Just 45 minutes prior I was so thankful to reach the end of our massive goal to delegate our 10 buildings through 5 trained team members. I was ready to finish this vet, go home, and tell the family we were definitely going to Florida. But now my heart sank into the couch I was sitting. I literally didn't know what to do, but I had a choice in that moment. I could be positive and solution-oriented or I could be negative and accept defeat. I called my wife and shared exactly what happened. We prayed together. She said the obvious. "Well, you better get cleaning so you can come home." I then proceeded to clean the remaining parts of the hospital with my wife on the phone. We talked through everything and made a proclamation. We would not rest until this goal was achieved. We were not going to be denied. We would evaluate our calendar and literally clear everything that wasn't an absolute priority for our family at that time. I got home and told the kids. They got behind mom and dad as well. We prayed as a family.

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I was listening to the Tim Ferriss Podcast recently as he interviewed the one and only Seth Godin. Between comments, Tim uttered the metaphor of the duck does all of its work under the surface. I literally had to pause the episode and write out this one! In my last episode, Mission 20/20 Accomplished, I painted a picture of team cleaning companies growing through insurmountable odds and I shared my success in 2020. I don't want anyone to think that we had it easy or growing our cleaning businesses come easy to us. Let's learn from the duck and then come back with the goal of encouraging you and giving you truth!

The duck appears to always be in control as it glides across the water. It is cool, calm, and collect without a care in the world. Yet, it gets to where it's trying to go. It does change direction and sometimes glides in circles, but it always gets to where it's trying to go. It's easy to see the duck from the side of the lake and say. "Why can't my life be as easy as the duck? They just find the pond or lake that suits them and simply glide across the surface, stick their head under water for a bite to eat, and chill!" Or what if you're thinking this. "I'm watching and listening to Ken build his second solo cleaning business and it seems like he's a duck. He just magically with total calm gets to his destination. He tripled his profits in 2020 during a pandemic. I guess Ken is just a duck!"

You were sitting on the side of the pond looking across the water at the duck. It does look easy from that perspective. My son recently bought the GoPro camera and he can stick it under water and capture incredible video. If your lens is looking at the duck, you see what you see. But if you take a GoPro and point it under the water at the same duck, you will see a different image. You won't recognize the duck. It is far from cool, calm, and collect. You see a duck's bottom and a flurry of webbed feet. That creature looks like he is fighting for his life. His legs are kicking and paddling like crazy. Sometimes the leg paddles forward, sometimes backward, and sometimes stops. But most the time it's swirling and kicking and paddling like crazy. If your perspective of the duck was from the GoPro lens, you would think that life is so hard for the duck. How can ducks even survive at all!? How will he ever get to where he's going?

The lens from the side of the pond is the lens that others see you from, while the lens underwater is the one that you see you through. It goes back to the episode I did on "The Four Windows". The lens from the side of the pond is the first window and the underwater lens is the second window. Let's bring this back to my business growth success in 2020. You've been listening to my podcast and watching me from the side of the pond. I've tried to be vulnerable and transparent so you could get a look from underwater, but it's hard. I am living it and I know just how hard I've been kicking this year. Nothing has come easy. My little webbed feet have been fluttering away for 10 months, many times having no idea which way my legs were taking me. I relied on my faith and worked like it was up to me and prayed like it was up to God. I've been in mastermind and coaching environments where I've been beaten and bruised. My webbed feet have hurt all along the way, yet you've seen me glide from $30,000 to $80,000 in revenue in 10 months of a pandemic, riots, wild fires, political unrest, family issues, illness, and deaths in the family. Are you starting to see yet?

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When I was 13, I got a job with the Movie Exchange. It was the company owned bye buy step-grandparents Monty and Shelly Tibbitts, whom I've talked about in prior episodes. They were the only entrepreneurs in my teen years, but I never had the courage to ask them real questions on business mindset. I wish that I had! However, I did learn a ton from them by watching the way the they lived and the way others treated them. First of all, they had money! There were always two Jags in the driveway. They owned a private plane, a boat, a beach house, wave runners. Secondly, they had beautiful decor and they entertained first rate. Check out "Eat with your Eyes First". The Tibbitts' were all about serving and mingling family with business. They made their business deals and built relationships with employees and their families at the dinner table in their home. Their imprint is definitely on me as an adult entrepreneur. I just didn't recognize it until Pop-Pop Monty passed away a few years ago.

I worked for the Movie Exchange for 2 summers. In this podcast, I'd like to share a fun story about swatting flies that connects deeply to how solo cleaners speed up their cleaning. This episode will be a great companion to "Optimizing is More Mental than Physical". During one of these summers, Grandma Shelly sent me into an unused, overflow office area. During the 90's, the Movie Exchange was rapidly growing a pre-viewed VHS division. They would sell acquire grocery store real estate sell these movies for under $10 and they sold very well. The movies had to be inspected, shrink-wrapped, price labeled, and distributed to their display cases in various outlets. In fact, my step-dad Paul was a lead salesman for this division of his parent's business. As a side note, I got to work in the shrink-wrap & labeling side the summer after this story takes place. Now that you understand the business model a little more, Grandma Shelly took me out to the empty office areas and showed me a full room of movie jackets (covers). She wanted me to organize these movie jackets alphabetically, so that they could easily match the VHS movies from the warehouse to the correct jacket faster. This work felt like busy work; a way to teach a teenager humility and work ethic. But no... I confirmed with Grandma Shellie recently and she assured me this was an important step in the process in 1990. She showed me where the box cutters, tape, and empty boxes were located and told me to stop by her office with any questions. That's all of the direction she gave me!

I remember this job distinctly 30 years later. There was a large central room approximately 40 feet by 30 feet and few side rooms. One of those side rooms was empty and the other was stocked floor to ceiling with movie jacket boxes. In 1990, I was a HUGE Beatles fan and was already wearing out the cassette tape of the Beatles Greatest Hits 1962-1966 on my Sony Walkman. I was ready to play this over-and-over while sorting through boxes all day... and I did! The Movie Exchange was paying me minimum wage of $3.85 per hour. I worked through July and August for 5 hours per day. It was awesome earning that biweekly paycheck as a teenager.

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I used to get nasty poison ivy as a kid. It would bubble up and itch like crazy. The worst case I ever got was on my face. My eyes were puffed nearly shut in the heat and humidity of July. It was torture. Thankfully, the doctor gave me a steroid to help heal it. You get the point. Now my son gets it bad. Last summer, he attended a survival action camp for Royal Rangers and in that camp learned something amazing. Jewelweed is a natural remedy for the poison ivy infection. The best part is that God placed the Jewelweed next to the Poison Ivy! The cure was with the poison. This is amazing and frustrating at the same time, as I never knew this and had to endure harsh Poison Ivy every summer.

Napoleon Hill says this in "Think and Grow Rich". "Every adversity has with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." The Poison Ivy is the adversity and the Jewelweed is the seed of an equal of greater benefit. COVID-19 has been the most recent and impactful adversity. What seeds have you discovered of equal of greater benefit? I've shared mine several times. I dug into the science on how to kill Coronavirus and in that research, I built my "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting" presentation to serve my community. This has already lead to cleaning business growth and actual dollars, many of which are recurring profits!

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I've been in the cleaning business for 17 years. I was a solo cleaner for 15 of those 17 years. As I was first exploring the cleaning groups in 2016, I got the impression that solo was viewed as "so low". We are just trunk slammers that buy our cleaning supplies at Walmart and advertise our services on the laundry mat tack board. We are amateurs without any real knowledge of how to run a business. In fact, we aren't real businesses at all. We have cleaning jobs and yet we say that we own a company. A solo cleaner is thus a lowly title to many. If this is you, you're not alone. There are over 50,000 new cleaning companies entering the industry each year right now. In all likelihood, probably 40,000 or 80% are new solos. There are definitely companies that start with the intention to build teams from the onset as well. My point is that we are an army and for the most part feel like we're alone and the minority. We really feel like we're below the other companies. We are SO LOW cleaners. Do you relate? I know you do because I surveyed over 100 solo cleaners in 2019. I found the top struggles then to be #1 lack of money & time, #2 loneliness, and #3 feeling so low.

This was tough for me too. I was a highly educated mechanical engineer and part of the corporate leadership team at one of the biggest companies in the world from 2000-2005. I seemed to have it all from the outside. But I wasn't happy. I felt so low there. This caused mild depression and ultimately lead us to start our first side-gig businesses. A few years later, I was fired from my engineering job and fought each day to put scraps on the table and drops in the gas tank to survive through a new job of cleaning houses for a profession. I was embarrassed. I felt so low and I was. My friends from high school and college were buying houses and I was barely able to afford rent. My friends were becoming managers in their companies and I was cleaning toilets. I even ran into old work colleagues looking for house cleaners. I felt so low. Why would I go through this? Why would I sacrifice the prestige of the corporate life for the so low life?

The answer is simple. I wanted freedom. If you're listening to this podcast and you feel like I did. You have a really good job by the world standards. Your family is proud of you, just like my grandparents and parents would brag about their son and grandson working for GE in his big time job. But if you're also like me with all of that status and accomplishment you feel trapped. You don't know what you want to do, but it's not what you're doing now. That was me. I never knew I would ever in a million years end up in the cleaning industry. But I did. I went from an engineer to a solo cleaner. There wasn't a lot of money in the solo cleaning business in the beginning. I tried to go back to my engineering degree a couple times with no success. Even though my income was about half as much as my corporate job, I had something I didn't have before. Choices. My children were young and I didn't have to go to work at 8:00, 5 days a week, bring my laptop home and do more at home. I didn't have to think about the job on nights and weekends. I didn't have to ask for time off. I called the shots. I made my own choices as to when I wanted to work and which jobs I wanted to take. I traded income and status for a small dose of freedom. Was it really so low? Not at all. As I started gaining more choices and freedom and income, I started feeling more hope and excitement on the potential of this solo business that wasn't so low anymore. I stopped caring what others in my family thought of what I was doing for income after nearly completing a masters degree in mechanical engineering.

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Throughout my life and career, I have often wondered what causes some to emerge victorious no matter the scenario. It's easy to win when the conditions for winning are easy. In contrast, it's easy to quit when the conditions to quit are easy. What is the ingredient in the human character that causes someone to win when the conditions to quit are easy? What causes someone to persevere when it makes no sense? What causes a man or woman to strive a little longer when every adversity is against them? The answer is a key to success that few possess. It's called grit.

Webster defines grit as follows: "firmness of mind or spirit : unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger "
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Growing a cleaning company to any level of success is hard. You will face obstacles, hardship, and who knows... danger. Will you develop the grit you will need to survive and thrive? That's up to you. You may ask....what could come against me growing a cleaning company? The answers are endless. The biggest obstacle is other people. People will try to steal your dream. They will tell you that it won't work. Why would you waste your college education? They will criticize you. The hardest part is that they will likely be the people closest to you. Will you survive this onslaught? You will get rejected by potential customers... a lot. Can you handle that? You will work so hard to serve clients for months and even years and they will cancel service with no warning. How will you handle that? What if you lose your biggest client as we just did this week? Will you fold it up and quit? If you ever hire employees, oh my! There are so many obstacles there.

My Pop-Pop used to say when I was a kid. "Kenny, are you a winner?" I'd respond. "Yes, Pop-Pop." He'd simple say. "Good. Winners never quit and quitters never win." I heard this enough and actually believed him. I was programmed with grit as boy. Others were programmed the opposite way. "You'll never win. You can't do it, why even try. No one in our family ever makes it." My Pop-Pop helped me develop a winner's mindset early on.

There is a profound difference in a winner's mindset and a loser's mindset. Before I explain the difference, let me ask you a question. Where does failure belong? Is it part of winning or losing? This is definitely a trick question. It's both. Failure is neutral. You will fail at many things you try. The best hitters in baseball fail 70% of the time. You will encounter failure. The person with a winner's mindset will embrace the failure, learn from it, grow forward, and keep going until they reach success. The person with a loser's mindset will quit when failure strikes... and it will. What is the opposite of winning? It's not failing or losing. It's quitting. Once you quit, you lose the opportunity to win. Someone losing and not quitting has the potential to turn it around to win. Failure is not fatal unless it's final. That's the impact of quitting. It's what my Pop-Pop taught me years ago and I'm so grateful.

I make it sound easy. It's not easy to be losing and failing again and again. It's not easy to lose loved ones, lose property, overcome addiction or abuse. I firmly believe that anyone can overcome anything if they had enough grit. Think of something gritty like sandpaper. What does it do? It smoothes the object rubbed against it. When we become gritty, we too can smooth circumstances around us.

How do you develop grit? Can you read about it and just do it? To be honest, I don't know for sure. But I do know this. You have to start somewhere. Overcome a hardship once and you will add grit to your character. Each hardship you embrace and overcome will add another layer.

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There are thousands of solo cleaners in the free cleaning groups. They all want to grow. Yet, many are not succeeding. Why is that? I believe it comes down to one word: Mindset. Too many are looking for the easy way or the short-term fix. But that's not how the successful, succeed. What does it take? I'm glad I asked!

Last month, I taught a short lesson to the Solo Elite Membership to highlight these success principles. I called the lesson, "Membership Mindset". Regardless of where you are in your business, I want to encourage you to listen to this with an open mind.

Listen to the "4 Characteristics of Coachability", which are humility, curiosity, proper growth mindset, and taking action. How do you stack up? Then, listen to the "4 Fundamentals of the ISO Model" which are knowing your numbers, mindset, strategy, and people skills. Again, how do you stack up? Enjoy this lesson!

I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Get access to this game-changing training for only $97 per month or $997 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, live Q&A community calls, access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and more!

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In this part 5 episode, I sum up the cost and value concepts with an excerpt from the Solo Elite Membership. It's a clip from a membership call that allows you understand the mindset needed to price effectively.

I want to invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Get access to this game-changing training for only $97 per month or $997 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, live Q&A community calls, access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and more!

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The first lesson of Blueberry Pie covers the 3 types of Buyers:

1. Those that want your product or service and value it enough to pay what it's worth.
2. Those that want your product or service and do not value it enough to pay what it's worth.
3. Those that don't want nor value your product or service.

The sooner you can learn to accept this and focus on finding Buyer #1's, the sooner you will hit your goals. Do you remember how my interview with Marcia Davidson went? I didn't answer her question about the ones that wouldn't pay her prices. They were Buyer #2's.

​The second lesson of Blueberry Pie is the ability to separate the emotional from the logical.

Buyer #1 and #2 will NEVER buy your pie. When they say no, they are not saying no to YOU. They are saying no to your product or service. They are not offending you, judging you, or belittling you. They just don't want what you are offering. Once you accept that, you can gain the confidence to start saying "next". Beth Lane referenced that most solo cleaners (from her point of view) are introverts and empaths. This makes it extra hard for them to accept this second lesson.

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I was talking with Robert Pierce from my Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership. He's doing amazing. Robert works as a manager at Target and it's been in retail for 25 years. He found me on the Side Hustle Nation Podcast and decided to start a solo cleaning business. Robert understood the value of investing into his new business as he wanted to shortcut years of trying to figure it out himself. He joined the Elite Membership and has subsequently built his solo cleaning business in 6 months to a lean, professional, and profitable company. I was so impressed talking to him as he shared how close he is to achieving his goal and dream of getting out of retail! I was so excited to hear this. We talked about his plan and how many clients and profit he needs to hit this goal.

​The main reason for the call was for strategic coaching. He was taking on 1-time and recurring house cleaning clients, but like me, he wanted to get into commercial more. He had a recent opportunity with a tool & die shop. It was set up like any industrial building. Picture a large steel box with offices in the front and huge warehouse and/or manufacturing space in the back. There's a filthy bathroom in the warehouse area and the office space isn't the most pristine either. These are blue-collar workers, running a useful service to the community. Robert did an estimate for cleaning the offices and warehouse restroom 3 weeks ago with no feedback. He wondered if his prices were too high. Our conversation was excellent and I knew it would help others as well.

Robert gave a very realistic price of $200 per visit. He estimated the job would take 4 hours per visit and he wanted to charge an hourly rate of $50. Thus, he gave a flat rate price of $200 per visit. I agreed with Robert on his method and the price was reasonable for the work he was proposing to do. However, I knew it was overpriced! Listen to what Robert shared next. "Ken, I found out that this facility had a janitor that cleaned prior. I figure he was there for 8 hours to clean the place and made $12 per hour. I'm guessing the tool & die shop paid $100 per day to have their facility cleaned. I'm asking $200. I figured it would be fine since I'm an outside contractor and would be fully insured." Robert already knew why they weren't calling him back. This was all the opening I needed. He is absolutely right at his $200 price is completely reasonable. I taught him that in the Elite Membership. But... there are two angles to come in on a price. One is COST PRICING and the other is VALUE PRICING.

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There are thousands of questions asked every day across the cleaning communities worldwide. I can say experientially that the two most frequently asked questions deal with how to clean and pricing. This is no surprise as both of these questions are asked by newer people and the answers come with actual experience in cleaning and making pricing mistakes over time. I didn't have social media communities to ask. I had to learn the hard way through trial and error. It's my firm belief that social media handicaps newer cleaning owners into relying on other people too much. I would prefer if the groups functioned this way.

A new cleaning owner asks a question. They receive an answer that makes sense. They ask a second question. "How did you get that answer?" Now they learn the mindset behind the question and this new person can actually grow to the next level. This new cleaning owner now understands the what, the how, and the why behind their initial question. That is my precise goal with this pricing series. I have learned so many lessons over my two decades as a business owner. I have shared these lessons in over 400 episodes of this podcast for free. In fact, I have found over 10 episodes with messages themed completely around pricing mindset.
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In this first 5-part Pricing Mindset Series, I am helping you build a foundational mindset on price and value. This is essential.

1. Pricing Series I – It's Not Your Prices It's Your Process: In last week's episode, I taught the VERY first mindset about price. Price and value are not the same. People pay a price based on that price being less than the value they perceive the item or service is worth. People perceive a value based on the trust they have in the provider of that item or service. Every time someone tells you your prices are too high. They are really saying that I don't value your service and I don't trust you. You must understand this in order to move forward.

2. Pricing Series II – Do You Charge by the Hour: In this episode, I take you back to an article that I wrote for our local cleaning company. It was written FOR our prospective customers in their language so they understood the win-win in accepting a quote by the job instead of an hourly quote. It's vital for YOU to understand WHY to charge by the job and just as vital for your customers. I didn't unpack the YOU part as much in this repeat episode from 2021. So here is a short addition. Charging by the job is the only way to optimize your solo cleaning business. The entire ISO Model hinges upon charging more per client over time, getting faster at every cleaning, and knowing your numbers so you can constantly increase your take-home profits. Charging by the hour removes your ability to do 2 of those 3 aspects to optimizing. You may ask. "What is optimizing? Why do I need that?" Optimizing is the only way to earn a full time income of $60,000+ per year profit without killing your body, having no time to yourself, and having to deal with the drama of employees. If you don't optimize, you BETTER hire and scale. Otherwise, you will be crushed by the weight of your solo cleaning nightmare. Optimizing is the art of becoming more productive, efficient, and profitable. I learned this an engineer and applied it to my cleaning business. Now it's the ISO Model and the foundation for the Solo Elite Membership.

3. Pricing Series III – Blueberry Pie: This episode is one of the most popular I've made. It's a simple story of a blueberry pie door-to-door salesman. I teach what the word value means compared to price. I also show you that a no isn't a rejection of YOU. They simply don't want your pie or your cleaning service. Develop a Go For No Mindset to win.

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​I shared this exact post in a free Facebook cleaning group and thought it valuable enough to include on the podcast. Here's the post.

I'm new to this group but not to cleaning. I love this industry and helping newbies. I see pricing posts all the time and wanted to share some insights that I just shared with another member on her private question. The question goes something like this... "Is this price too high, too low? "People are so cheap. How do I get them to value what I do as a professional cleaner?" Here's my response that will help you overcome these pricing objections. It's not your price. It's your process. When people ask for price first and quibble over price first, one of two things is happening psychologically.

1. They don't trust you yet. SOLUTION - Remove your price list first. Don't lead with that. Lead with YOU. Lead with your unique solution to the community. Lead with your personality. Lead with how your service will make their lives better. This builds trust. The price question will come up, but not right away. In my experience, my best and highest-paying clients didn't even ask about price until the end of a phone call or in-person meeting. They were so excited to get their problem solved through my service.
2. They don't respect cleaning as a craft or field of expertise and are treating it like shopping around for the cheapest widget. SOLUTION - Either EDUCATE these people through your content (Google, FB, website, blog, in-person presentations) or AVOID them to find better clients. They are easy to identify! There is an abundance of potential clients that want a professional cleaning service that solves their problems.

It's nice to be here. I pray that speaks to you. This is good for solos to hear as they consider scaling or those already doing it.

This post was well received with many exclamation points in agreement. I want you to study the 2 reasons you are struggling with cheap prospects. Have you dealt with each scenario? How did you deal with them? Did you try to appease or lower your prices? Did you get mad and complain to someone on Facebook? Did you learn what you could from the scenarios and become a stronger business owner? Do you realize that knowing who you don't want is many times more valuable than knowing who you do want?

Are you struggling with pricing and cheap clients? Would you like to find the best ones that appreciate you and pay your prices? You need the ISO Model and the Solo Elite Membership! You can optimize your solo cleaning business to earn over $50,000 profit cleaning less than 20 hours per week without employees or subs or drama! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

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In early 2020, I was a brand new podcaster and member of my local chamber of commerce. My solo cleaning business was not making us much money and the pandemic was mere weeks away. That all changed with one breakfast with Ken Byler when he taught me the mindset to "Get a Name for Doing". I highly recommend listening to this original 2020 podcast to get a sense of where I was mentally at this point.

I didn't just sit on that advice. I took action right away. Fast forward to 2024. Last week, I was asked to speak at a chamber event for new member orientation. My topic was to share this advice I got from Ken Byler and how it helped me. I stood in front of the room as the 2023 Small Business of the Year award winner. Our local company, C3, has tripled in the last 2 ½ years. Our family was able to go to Florida the past two Februarys. I can attribute so much of this success to Ken's advice and my action.

This podcast is the recording of my chamber talk and serves as a follow-up to my 2020 episode. You'll notice the slight title change from "get" to "got". I now have a name for doing in my community. I also want to stress the value of you joining your local chamber and following this advice especially if you plan to serve commercial.

Would you like to get a name for doing? If you answered yes and you want to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Get access to this game-changing training for only $97 per month or $997 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, live Q&A community calls, access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and more!

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I have been a huge fan of the Tim Ferriss Show lately because I love the long-from interviews with world-class performers as Tim dissects how they accomplished what they've accomplished. I LOVED a recent interview with Kelly Slater. If you've never heard of Kelly Slater, he's an 11-time world surfing champion and highly regarded as the GOAT in the sport. I listened to Kelly's interview and was mesmerized by his mindset, attention to detail in his craft and his health, and most importantly, the simplicity of life he lives. I have two life lessons to share from Kelly that really impacted mine.

Tim was asking about Kelly's goals. Kelly response was awesome. He shared how nice it is to be in a position where he can mentor the young guys in the sport as he loves the sport and wants to be an ambassador. He stressed how vital it is for him to "always stay humble because when you're humble, you're teachable. When you're teachable, you can continue growing." He said the best way to learn is by teaching. Kelly went on to say. "If you think you know something, go teach it. That's when you will really know it." There is SO much wisdom in Kelly's words that I want to repeat it. Are you humble? Are you teachable? Are you learning and growing? Are you taking what you know and teaching it to others? This is the process of becoming the best in the world. I am not the best at this, but I am doing my best to teach you all what I know through this learning vehicle called a podcast. I find it amazing that I am constantly learning more by teaching it to you!

In a latter question, Tim Ferriss asked Kelly about money and houses. Kelly stated that he is the middle child, but was forced to become the family leader because other members of his family had emotional and other issues. Kelly has made gobs of money over the years. Wikipedia reports his career surfing earnings over $4M! He shared his love for traveling and the many homes he's purchased in multiple countries over the years. Tim asked Kelly what his happy ending looks like. I love Kelly's answer as it reminds me of the "Mexican Fisherman". I'll paraphrase. The happy ending comes when all the lessons are learned. Kelly has done it all, spent a lot of money, but it never lead to happiness. He joked that what he'd love to do is simply buy a simple van and travel around to his surfing events in it, keeping a simple life of competitive surfing and helping others in his sport. He has learned so much in his 49 years and wants to stay humble, stay teachable, stay learning, and stay teaching. Over a lifetime, he'll collect a book of lessons and that's how he defined a "happy ending". This is beautiful.

This episode is a self-check. Are you humble, teachable, learning, and teaching others? If you are not, these podcasts are a waste of your time. If you are not, you'll never grow your cleaning business beyond where it is now. Sure, it may grow short-term, but it will crumble in the long-term. I urge you to ask those that know you best if they think you're humble and teachable. This is the 2nd window from "The Four Windows". Once you know and get honest with yourself, make the decision to get better. Go and learn the lessons you need to learn to lead toward your happy ending. Then teach it to others and be a difference maker.

Would you like to figure out what makes you tick and how to create an action plan for 2021 that will enable you to WIN?! Check out the "2021 Smart Goals Workshop" and access your free goals worksheet.

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This episode wraps up our 4-part coaching series to teach you what it means to be truly coachable. This episode is a clip from a recent Solo Elite Membership Call addressing the 4 characteristics that determine how coachable YOU are. I hope you listen and learn. Then I hope you evaluate your own level of coachability.

What was the result? Are you truly coachable or not? If you answered yes and you want to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Get access to this game-changing training for only $97 per month or $997 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, live Q&A community calls, access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and more! You can also sample the membership with the "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

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This is a great follow up to "The Value of Coaching with Josh Melton". Josh has been coaching me through Marco Polo in 2023. I ask him questions and he responds. I am very coachable, so the content of my questions evolves over time from basic how-to questions to leadership and how my coach thinks questions. My goal is understand the Mind of Josh. How would Josh handle this situation? I have learned and grown as a student because I apply and take action on what Josh teaches me. I take notes on how the situation went and what I could have done better. The business improves. Do you see what I've done. I never have to ask Josh the same question twice.

Here is the value of the coaching. Josh has the experience that I don't. He has the revenue and the team that I don't. He has the leadership that I don't. What do I have? I have the humility to submit, to be teachable and coachable, to take action on the advice from my coach. I learn from the coaching and action that I take. I take ownership and therefore grow to the next level of leadership, coachability, teachability, accountability. I grow and get closer to winning. My mindset takes a step closer to my coach's. Meanwhile, my coach continues to grow so he always has plenty to teach.

This is music to any coach's ears. We all want our students and mentees to succeed. Here's the problem. Many of you are UN-teachable. You are UN-coachable. You won't take action or you won't take right action with the right resistance as Josh would say. You make the same mistakes over and over again. We try harder to help you get it and in the process, we get frustrated and give up. Do you know why? We want success for you more than you want it for yourself. "That's not true, Ken!" I do want to succeed. Answer me this. How many books have you read on leadership, business development, or people skills? How active and involved are you in your community through business networking, chamber events, and community service? How helpful are you and how good is your name in your community? How many social media posts, phone calls, and emails have you made to attract your ideal customer? How well do you know your numbers? How many times have you asked the same question on how to clean this or how to price that in a Facebook group? How much time do you spend growing and learning from a coach or mentor? How much action do you take and how fast do you take it? How eager are you to Go for No to get to Yes's faster?

Do you see the level of ownership it takes to truly be coachable and teachable? How would you grade yourself? I will be transparent. I would grade myself at a 7 for the majority of my entrepreneurial journey. There is one reason it was this low. I was too slow to take action. I spent too much time overthinking. I thought that I was learning how my coach thought, but how could I? I wasn't taking much action and action is the only way to acquire the knowledge. Napoleon Hill calls it Applied Knowledge. This allows you to get feedback from what you applied, which yields new questions. I grade myself much higher now. I 'm a 9. That's why we've grown so fast and I never ask Josh the same questions twice. That's why my questions have moved from HOWs to leadership questions. This is what it takes to truly be coachable.

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My wife and I were enjoying breakfast at Postively 4th Street Cafe in Ocean City, NJ. We love this place and especially the lattes. Oh my, they are good! During our connecting time, we were searching for ways to improve our business and effectiveness as parents. I asked the question. "How can we become 10 Talent People in each area of our life?" This is a reference to a story that Jesus teaches in the Book of Matthew. I'll read it.

Matthew 25:14-30 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

We are Christians, so this has significant meaning to us. When I asked the question to my wife, "How do we become 10 Talent People", it was our desire to be the 5 talent servant who invests his five to make 10. We want to make 10 talents in every area of our life. From this question, multiple breakthroughs occurred. I'd like to share one of them with you as I believe it will help you a ton. In the Four Windows episode, I painted the image of a window with cross lattices that makes 4 individual panes of glass in each window. Each of the 4 panes represents something in our life.

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This original interview was released in April 2022 right after our family got home from our first month-long trip to the Gulf Coast of Florida. I hired Josh to be my coach to take me from a solo optimizer to a commercial cleaner with a team that would allow me to go to Florida for a month. He did and we went! The reason we succeeded is my coachability. In fact, the reason anyone succeeds to higher levels is determined by the value they place on coaching and how coachable they are.

This episode kicks off a 4-part series to help you transform into a truly coachable person. This will elevate your business to the levels that create the freedom that you want.
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1. Coaching Series I The Value of Coaching – Josh and Ken dig into Ken's business transformation from a solo optimizer to a delegated team that enabled Ken's family to go to Florida for a month. We talk about coaches and advice and how we value them. This is a great kick off to this series.

1. Coaching Series II We All Need a Coach – Ken covers the 4 windows of knowledge and proves that everyone NEEDS a coach. The question is this. Will you be coachable and acquire one?

2. Coaching Series III Are You Truly Coachable – So you want to be coached to the next level, do ya? You believe in the value of coaching and you want it. Ken has one question for you...

3. Coaching Series IV 4 Characteristics of Coachability – This final part is a clip from a Solo Elite Membership Call where Ken and Whitney dive into the 4 main ingredients needed to be successful.

Once you complete this series, there will be no doubt that you face a choice. Are you going to hire a coach and do what they teach or not? If you choose to be coachable, check this out! You can optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! You can also earn full time income part time without employees. Get access to this game-changing training for only $97 per month or $997 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, live Q&A community calls, access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and more! You can also sample the membership with the "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

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In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, we talked about one of the biggest struggles in the cleaning industry. This struggle is especially challenging for newbies. And it's not just pricing and how to price. This clip from the Solo Elite walks you through how to remove the emotion around the pricing you give. Wouldn't that be an awesome skill to learn? It will take a few vital other skills.

1. You MUST be willing to track your cleaning times and analyze them. This allows you to properly estimate ALL future jobs accurately. You can develop a quoting algorithm that allows proper pricing to be predictable. Say that 5 times fast!

2. You MUST know your numbers from your business profit and loss. This allows you to evaluate how much you should be charging per hour or how much profit margin you need to create in your pricing. In other words, you need to know what it costs you to clean 1 hour. Once you know this, you can add profit and charge what you need to.

3. Simply OFFER your prices. Offer this and other price options to cover the various possibilities for the customer to hire you. Hit send.

This process gives you an actual pricing process that you know is fair and reasonable. You don't have to wonder if you've priced too high or low. You will know that it is just right and in their hands to say yes or no. Either way, there is no emotion. You offer your "Blueberry Pie" and "Go for No". Make sure to check out those classic Smart Cleaning School episodes.

Once you learn how to track, price, and offer, you too will take the emotion out of pricing. Would you like to access membership calls and content like this one? You can optimize your solo cleaning business to make six figures without the drama of employees You can also earn full time income through part time cleaning! Get access to this game-changing training for only $97 per month or $997 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

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In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, we talked about finding your ideal customer and niching. Unfortunately, most new cleaners will take anyone and anywhere. This is not ideal because you allow others to dictate the terms of your business. You need to set your own terms to be a real business. One of those terms is WHO will you serve and WHY?

I use the analogy of fishing to parallel how to find our ideal customers.
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1. What type of fish do you want? This comes with experience as you learn the types of customers you prefer to serve. It could be determined by their demographics like their income level, their location or neighborhood, or their age. It could also be determined by their psychographics, like their attitude on money with spending verses investing. You can identify to types of customers that are the least amount of drama as well. Over time, you will identify your ideal client.

1. Where does this fish swim? You need to do the research and find out where your ideal customers hang out, whether that's in person at meet-ups or online on social media groups or even in local organizations and clubs. This will tell you a lot about your fish.

2. How do you lure your fish? Be a giver and give what helps your fish. Consistently show up in this pond and be known as a generous person. Attract your ideal customer with the types of lure (information) that will speak to them.

Once you find your ideal customer and create the demand that they MUST have you as their cleaner, they will pay your prices. This is a huge secret of the ISO Model and the coaching you receive in the Solo Elite Membership. Would you like to access membership calls and content like this one? You can optimize your solo cleaning business to earn full time income through part time cleaning without the drama of employees! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

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Much time is needed in this podcast episode to clear the names of several members of Total Life Freedom Philly. Before I share the final installment of 'Who Paid for Lunch Clue', I must share a few things that happened in my cleaning business since my last update. It will be short. Trust me! First of all, I was asked to lead an education piece for my local MCBA networking group. I taught on the "They Ask You Answer" process. I have LOVED this book and implemented it into both of my websites for Carfagno Cleaning and Smart Cleaning School. The group enjoyed the discussion as it gave them much to think about. I had a one-time cleaning job booked at a historic barn & wedding venue. When we got there, the plumber was replacing some parts and had the water turned off to the entire barn. The plumber was willing to give us an hour to "do our thing" with water, but I had to decline as we needed at least 5 hours of water. Ultimately, I rescheduled the job and wasted 2+ hours of my day and potentially $750 of other work I could have scheduled. Here's what I found out. The plumber was due to work on Monday at the barn, but got held up at had to postpone to Tuesday. I was scheduled for all day Tuesday. The plumber lets the barn know late on Monday that he can't make it and he'll come over in the morning. This is find in his isolated world, but in the greater picture, Tuesday was already booked. This plumber should have called the barn and worked out a suitable reschedule date like I did. He didn't and unfortunately, it only cost me not him. If this makes you angry, don't let it. It's my fault. I should have called to confirm the barn Monday night or Tuesday morning to make sure I'd have water. Things happen. I just wish that this plumber was more professional. ​

Okay, the time is here. I love my mastermind community, Total Life Freedom. There are 100 members all over the US and some out of country. Last fall as the restaurants were beginning to open, TLF Philly decided to get together for the first lunch. At the end of lunch, our beloved pastor paid for the table. It was an act of generosity that I so appreciated. I have struggled with accepting gifts, so I declared that I'd pay for the next TLF Philly lunch and made a podcast episode about it called,"Allow a Giver to Give." I had no intention of this free lunch to turn into anything. But that all changed when we met for the second lunch (Don't Fight Google or Facebook, Fight for Lunch). A few of us had the idea to try to pay, but a "Benevolent Benefactor" beat us to it. In my haste, I filed the case with Carfagno & Carfagno, a private investigatory firm in the Philly Area, one of the nation's finest. Our goal at Carfagno & Carfagno was to crack the case of 'Who Paid for Lunch Clue' on January 13th, 2021.

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My Total Life Freedom local friends and local networking friend Eric Laylon intersect for a second episode. In "Don't Fight Google or Facebook, Fight for Lunch", my friend Eric Laylon from ReachLocal shared great marketing tips and stats on the digital giants. I followed this with a story of who paid for lunch. In this episode, I am copying the format!

Last week in my local MCBA meeting, Eric ran the business education segment and taught on the benefits of using Alignable for marketing. I've personally avoided it, but Eric gives some great points and tips that may have persuaded me to look into it more. Thus, I wanted to share it with you. LinkedIn is a business platform for business owners and professionals (employees). Alignable is for small business owners locally (not nationally like LinkedIn). The platform is already niched to local and small business owners, which makes it a natural marketing companion to in-person local networking. Alignable has niche groups that you can join of "like interest". Eric says he has gotten so much more business through Alignable vs LinkedIn because of the platform's ability to hyper-niche. Eric explained that you can set up your profile with "who you'd like to connect with". Then, Alignable takes your preferences and puts you in front of those people. Eric uses the premium $30/mo version because the free version limits you to the # of people you can connect with. I thought Eric did a great job presenting Alignable and it really intrigued me. What do you think? Do you use this platform? I'd love to hear about it if you do.

​A few leads came in this week. The first one was military-like. My friend James Hardy of the Carpet Guys was in an online group and saw a request for a house cleaner. He was in the process of typing in my name and website when something else caught his attention. The owner of a local cafe gave my name first. He recommended me and then texted me. "Ken, do you clean for the cafe?" I said no, but I do clean the owner's home. Then he told me about the recommendation to Steven Hunsberger. I thanked him and shared that Steven is the president of my chamber and we're friends. Then I contacted Steven and he felt so embarrassed that his friend Ken and the only cleaner of 400 members in his chamber didn't come to mind when he was looking for a house cleaner. There are multiple takeaways here. First, I am so thankful that I was triangulated by multiple friends to recommend me and they all knew each other! Another is that I have done a poor job in communicating that I clean houses to Steven in all of our interactions including our recent breakfast! Steven knew that I cleaned offices, but had no idea that I did houses too. We talked on the phone and I answered all of his questions in hopes of educating him on the various options he had for hiring a house cleaning service.

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In this episode, I have an important lesson to share from a new friend of mine in the digital marketing space on the power of Facebook and Google. Eric Laylon is a consultant with ReachLocal. He understands the online landscape more than almost anyone that I know. He's a new member of the MCBA networking group and had a chance to share a presentation on his work. I asked many questions as I wanted to understand a little more of the trends he's seeing in 2021.

• Google drives 85% of all online traffic and still dominates the online search landscape. Bing is #2 because Comcast uses them as a default, but they use Google ad platforms. Google will continue to dominate. If you're not visible on Google, you're not visible.
• Google My Business is a free way to create SEO for your business through images, reviews, articles, and deals. Ads are an excellent paid option to generate leads.
• Eric says you should be investing 3-5% of revenue into marketing for average returns. 8% is aggressive and 3% is slow growth. Invest 60-70% of this marketing budget on digital. This is what the large companies are doing in 2021!
• Facebook is similar to google. They have 223 million users in the United States alone out of 331 million people. That's 67% of the US is on Facebook. A business page is free and allows you to create interest for your product or service for free. Ads (like Google) are an excellent paid option as well.

Thank you Eric for teaching and sharing the trends and stats for 2021! My takeaway is simple. If you ever want to be found in your cleaning business, you have to be on Facebook and Google as they represent 67% of the country and 85% of all online searches. And you can access both for free through a Facebook business page, personal page, Google my business profile.

That was quick and to the point! Let's dive more into my own solo cleaning business. I have used digital marketing to grow my solo cleaning company in 2020. I tried everything, but focused on Facebook and Google My Business digitally while attending local networking to round out my marketing strategy. I didn't use any paid advertising and grew my company by $60,000 in revenue in 2020. Going forward, I plan to continue. I did get an idea this past week that I had originally planned in 2019 and never did it. I am the only cleaner in a 300 - 400 member chamber of commerce. Many members know who I am now since I've been helpful in leading webinars for the chamber, but I figured that the majority do not know me. I could cold call them and try to fleece them for business. I don't operate like that. Here's what I'm going to do. I'll make a list of the members that have an office that is a good fit for my office cleaning company. These are buildings under 5,000 - 6,000 square feet that need cleaning weekly or less. Once I have the list completed, I'll send emails with personal videos to the owners or contacts through the chamber to say hi and introduce myself. From there, I'll see who has any interest in connecting more with me. I'll schedule Zoom calls or breakfast meetings with the ones who want to know me. Then I'll add these new friends to my twice-monthly newsletter. I am guessing that 150 of the members fit into my demographic out of 400. Out of the 150, I wouldn't be surprised if I can connect and add 30 to my newsletter. Who knows from there. Those 30 could be 10 clients at $500 - $800/month in the future, which is over $60,000 of annual revenue! Either way, I make new friends. Win-win.

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At the end of 2020, I attended my first lunch with local Philly-based members of the mastermind I am a member.When this meal was paid for by another member, we were all grateful and a few of us learned a lesson to allow others to give. But what none of us expected was that this would be the first of multiple lunches where the lunch itself became secondary with who would get the privilege to pay for it! The next 4 episodes are a fun replay from this Smart Cleaning School humor. Enjoy!

Before we end, I would like to thank our podcast sponsor. Are you a residential company with a team wanting to scale your house cleaning company on your own to 7-figures and beyond? You can do this, but why would you try. Debbie Sardone shared her proven system to getting residential cleaning owners to 7-figures faster, with more profit, and better, career cleaners in "CBF Success Stories with Debbie Sardone and Friends". I highly recommend CBF to any residential cleaning company looking to scale to 7 figures. Check out the Smart Cleaning School's CBF Exclusive Deal. Get Debbie's impactful "Succeeding on First Time Cleans" for 50% OFF and a free CBF discovery call with Debbie or one of her certified CBF Coaches! Just go to smartcleaningschool.com/resources and you'll find "Featured Sponsor" at the top of the page. If you want to scale your residential cleaning business to a million dollars, get CBF now!
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As we begin 2023, I want you all to know where I am putting my energy. #1. I am growing our local cleaning company, C3 in the Philly Area. #2. I am helping solo cleaners optimize their solo business to earn full time income through part time cleaning without the drama of employees! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

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John Maxwell is internationally acclaimed and sought after for his gifting in the instruction of leadership development. He has spawned thousands of leaders through his system. I may never physically meet him in person, but his books and talks have mentored me for over a decade. There is one specific annual exercise that I would like to wrap up 2019 and I hope you'll join me. Check out John's blog article first

Here's what John is doing right now and I'll quote him directly from the blog.

"I steal off to my study while everyone else is watching television or napping. There on my desk waiting for me is my appointment calendar from the preceding year and a yellow legal pad. Starting that afternoon and continuing that week up until New Year’s Eve, I spend time reviewing my calendar. I review every appointment, meeting, commitment, and activity—hour by hour—from the previous 359 days. And I evaluate each of them.
Right now, I’m in the midst of this process.

1. I’m looking carefully at my speaking engagements and considering what I should do more of, what I should do less of, and what I should eliminate altogether.
2. I’m looking at the growth opportunities I pursued and judging which gave a high return and which didn’t.
3. I’m looking at all the meetings and appointments I had, to determine which ones I should do more of and which I should eliminate.
4. This week, I’ll also consider how much time I spent doing things that I should have delegated to someone else. (I’ll also look at what I delegated and reconsider whether I should pick anything back up or delegate it to someone different.).
5. I’ll evaluate whether I spent enough time with my family.
6. I’ll also make a list of all the things Margaret and I did together this year, and take her out to dinner one night so we can reminisce and enjoy them once again.

With this annual process, I try to account for every waking hour I had the previous year. What’s the value of that? It helps me to develop strategies for the coming year. Because I do this every year (and have for decades), I’m continually becoming more focused, strategic, and effective. Even if I have a difficult time or relatively unproductive year compared to what I desired, it’s never a loss, because I learn from it and improve upon it in the coming year."

Most people allow their lives to simply happen to them. They float along. They wait. They react. And by the time a large portion of their life is behind them, they realize they should have been more proactive and strategic. My yearly process is just one method that I use to be strategic and intentional.
I’ve found that this is a perfect time of year for reflecting and setting goals."

Here's John's advice for us for 2020 -

"Start by sitting down with your calendar for 2019, along with any to-do lists or journals from the past 12 months. Make note of each event, appointment, and activity. Then evaluate every item on your list.

1. What did you enjoy?
2. What were some of your proudest moments?
3. What did you spend too much time on?
4. What didn’t get enough of your time?
5. In what areas were you especially effective?
6. Where did you fail?
7. What can you learn from your mistakes?

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This goes back to my introduction episode and going into more mindset on honoring what you currently do and have. Every seed sown comes up. The message here is simple for you to ponder during Christmastime... what are you sowing into the ground with your current job or business? What about your relationships? Every action you take will leave a ripple in the pond of your community. Which ripple are you making... one toward good will or bad? Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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This is the last business update on my new solo cleaning business for 2019. What a way to go out! Andrea Szlavik of A2Z Realtor Pa assures Ken that he is not a cleaner who happens to do business. He is a business person that happens to clean. This is a big difference. Let's dive into this week in my business!

We had a business showcase presentation from Laney Landis this week at MCBA. She is the 5th generation owner (over 200 years in the family) of Old Village Paint. I was mesmerized at the history of this American Pre-Civil War paint company. I happened to record this meeting as I wanted to learn each member's business better. This was very fortuitous as Laney was sad she didn't have a recording of her showcase on her family company. Afterward, I told her of my bootleg recording and sold it on the black market for a can of paint. Just kidding. I sent it to her after the meeting and she was so pleased and thankful. As I've shared many times, always look to sow good seeds.

I also connected with a few other members after this meeting. James wanted to set up a 1-to-1 breakfast meeting to get to know each other's stories better. Charley wanted me to start sending me cleaning referrals. Paul wanted to connect. I am becoming a trusted face & member and others recognize that and want to get to know me better to refer me.

I met Andrea Szlavic on NextDoor last week and she added me to her realtor preferred vendor list. I was very thankful and asked if she would like to grab a coffee and connect. She opted for breakfast at a brand new local spot called Sammy's Bullfrog Cafe in Harleysville, It was a productive meeting where we shared our business stories with each other while enjoying the new flavor in town. We discovered a common connection as well. I had attended the Growth Now Movement LIVE! Conference in Reading, PA with Justin Schenck. While at this conference, I met another Keller Williams realtor at the same office as Andrea. It's a small world, after all. At the end of the meeting, I asked her this question. "Why did you add me to your preferred vendor list without meeting me or seeing my work quality first?" Her answer floored me and became the title to this episode.

"Because you set yourself apart by reaching out to me first on NextDoor. That told me that you were a business person that did cleaning verses a cleaning person that tried to do business. Most cleaners don't take that initiative."

As we parted, she assured me that she would get me out to her team's office in the spring for a real estate cleaning presentation. Then instead of getting in my car, I went back into the cafe and asked to speak to the owner. They were hesitant as they assumed I wanted to complain. Then I told them that I enjoyed the experience and would like to leave the cafe a 5-star review on Google. The hostess introduced me to my breakfast waitress, who was also part owner in the brand new cafe! She was very grateful and told me where to leave these reviews and asked for my cleaning business card. I left one on the cafe's bulletin board and went home.

Once I got home, I followed up by giving 5-star reviews on Google, NextDoor, and Facebook for Andrea and the Bullfrog Cafe. Andrea and Kayla (my breakfast waitress) were so thankful. Again, these are good seeds!

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This is Smart Cleaning School episode 4-1-1. Do you know what that means? It means "Directory Assistance" and derives from the old days of telephone operators in the United States and Canada. 4-1-1 has been used since 1930 if you can believe that! The number has taken on a whole new identity in pop culture since the 1980's where 4-1-1 is slang for "Information" or "What's the deal?" or "What's up with that?" What's the 4-1-1 with the Smart Cleaning School Podcast? Are you enjoying it? Are there episodes you'd like me to do that I haven't. Email me at ken@smartcleaningschool.com to request topics. The 4-1-1 was a fun side path for this episode. Let's get to it!

A member of the Solo Elite asked a really good question in our community. Ian asked. "How do I deal with rejection of a prospective client and still be able to build a relationship with them?" A question often times reveals ones internal mindset. In this case, I can recognize the mindset. I'm now going to help all the Ian's out there. You believe that a client saying no is a personal rejection and a failure. You have incorrectly associated a No with failure. This incorrect association causes you to feel rejected and therefore less willing to take more positive action. I mean... why would I? They don't like me. They don't like my cleaning service. I'm not good enough. This is a slippery slope and many struggle with rejection. It's natural. We want to protect ourselves from that pain. This is where Ian's question stems. He cannot see a reason for building a relationship with someone who rejected him. Rejection is bad. How do you handle that?

Do you see why people ask this question? They want to win, but they are stuck. They believe that they have to figure out how to manage this pain in order to win. In this line of thinking, it makes total sense. But this mindset and association is incorrect. There is a great book out there called "Go for No", where the authors rewire your thinking. Yes and No are not opposite directions. In other words, a No doesn't take you farther from Yes. It brings you closer. Change the image and definition in your brain. Currently, you stand in the middle of Yes and No. Yes is to the left and is on the way to Success. No is to the right and is on the way to Failure. Move No to the left side before Yes. Put another term to the right. Quit is on the way to Failure. No is on the way to Yes. You need to get many No's before you get a Yes. Many Yes's lead to Success. Therefore, you can't succeed unless you get No's. You can't succeed unless you get rejection. Rejection is now a positive. It's not a negative. If rejection is a positive, you don't have to manage the pain of it. You measure the gain of being rejected. And if rejection is a gain, you get excited to achieve the next gain.

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A cleaner posted this response in a the Solo Cleaners Club free Facebook group that I manage after I asked why they were struggling to find clients as a new solo. "That’s the thing. I just started this year and have none. I used to clean for a company. They trained me and that’s when I fell in love with cleaning. I have nothing to help me gain anything, except for word of mouth, but no one is willing to give me a chance. I have a beautiful page full of everything I have to offer, before & afters, cleaning checklists, what to expect when you book with me. I have a new client welcome packet also informing of everything I offer. I include that I will occasionally gift holiday goodie bags, candles, and gift cards. I like treating people with hospitality and respect, I just can’t get in the door to show someone my quality. I feel like I’ve made the mistake of pricing myself too high." Here's my response publicly. "When your community feels your passion for cleaning half as much as you do...watch out!" Then I PM'd the company with this. "I wanted to personally reach out. It took a lot of carrots to share what you shared on the Facebook group. Would you like some help figuring this out (getting prospects to say yes to you)?"

Are wondering what that means? It took a lot of carrots? When I looked at what the voice-to-text transcribed from "It took a lot of courage", I edited it and laughed at myself. Then I said out loud in my office. "That's the podcast title. It took a lot of carrots!" Let's talk about carrots as you will be amazed how it relates to this woman wanting her business to grow.
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1. Carrots endure – Most produce must be harvested before the winter so they remain edible. Did you know that the carrot has the power to freeze itself in the dirt? The dirt acts as an insulator. Simply cover them up with mulch for the winter. You can harvest them in the winter or in the spring and they will actually be sweeter! Carrots endure long, cold, dry seasons. Have you been through long, cold, dry seasons in your business where nothing seems to be happening? You will need the endurance character of the carrot.

1. Carrots are better cooked – Did you know that most vegetables are healthier raw? Not carrots. They actually release more beta-carotene when cooked. Beta-carotene enhances your sight, skin, and immune system. Carrots are better for you when they heated through cooking. Have you ever faced the heat and pressure of making your business work? You will need the heat-enhancing properties of the carrot.

2. Carrots enhance vision – As mentioned in the last one, cooking releases more Beta-Carotene. This enhances your vision. Have you ever gotten stuck in your business where you can't see the future? You need the enhanced vision that the carrot provides.

Reference: Simon Baynes Article
I didn't realize it at the time, but the AI of Facebook interpreted courage for carrots correctly. It does take a lot of carrots to win. You need to endure like the carrot to get through the winter. You need to release your best nutrition and results when under the hottest and hardest testing or when you're being cooked! You need to have better vision to see past this current setback to get to the ultimate goal. You need a lot of carrots. You also need a lot of courage to succeed too. No one ever said it was going to be easy. You will face challenges. You will face adversity. You will face your fears every single day.

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I am excited to share this clip from the Solo Elite Membership! A few weeks ago, I ran my first Zoom call for the members to meet each other, dive into a topic, and ask questions. It was a great call. Afterwards, I pondered the idea of sharing a portion of the call with my podcast audience.

It's a 16 minute clip from a 90 minute call, where I shared my journey openly on scaling with employees. Many ask me when can I hire and scale. I firmly believe that you need time and money margin to properly scale a cleaning company. You can do this right away if you have time and money. Or you can do it the way I teach. Here you go! Enjoy!
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You can optimize your solo cleaning business to earn full time income through part time cleaning without the drama of employees! When the time is right, you can scale with employees like me and they won't be as much drama! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

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This one is short and sweet. Would you like to see the ISO Model play out in a common question I am asked? This question comes from my brother, who is starting his own solo cleaning company. He asked me this. "Ken, what would you do if a customer is only willing to hire you if you will clean for them on Fridays?" I answered him and then said. "Thanks for the podcast episode!"

I believe there is a sliding scale or spectrum with 2 extremes depicting the Supply-Demand Principle of Ecomonics well. On one side is a business owner who has no boundaries. They will work for whoever, whenever, doing whatever is needed to seal the deal on the sale. They want the money and they don't care what they have to do (as long as it's ethical and legal). Side note, there are others that don't even care about that. This represents absolutely unlimited supply. They can definitely clean for you regardless of the question. When supply is at a max, demand is at a minimum. This also yields a minimum price. That's economics. Let's go to the other side. There is the business owner who has so many boundaries that it's nearly impossible to get on their calendar. Customers may have to wait a month or longer. Is this possible? Yup, it was me in my first optimized solo cleaning business. In this extreme, demand is at a max and supply is minimized. The corresponding price is very high. There was a reason I walked you through that first. Let's add in the ISO Model.
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The high-supply owner is the new guy with nothing but time and availability. Price isn't as important. Customers won't pay much as they don't perceive they are in much demand elsewhere. They just want to learn, improve, and build a reputation for quality. With this mindset, they won't be high-supply long. They will get referred and be in greater demand. I have another term for this solo cleaner. I call them an Initializer!

With this increased demand, they intentionally reduce the supply. How? They go from zero boundaries to a window that they conduct business through. Maybe they create business hours or niche down in what they clean. Maybe they select a specific zip code or geographic area. Maybe they decide to eliminate vacation rentals and post-construction. Maybe they have boundaries on the drama they will accept from clients around scheduling, payment, and terms. There are many maybes or boundaries. This cleaner is getting better and accumulating more specialized knowledge. As their demand increases, so do their prices. In supply/demand economics, they've reached the crossing point of the curve. It's called the Equilibrium Point or Market-Clearing Price where supply and demand are equal. At this point, you have a cleaning service and price that has just enough supply to match the demand in the market. You will be able to grow fast at this level! I have another term for this solo cleaner. I call them a Stabilizer!

The solo cleaner is building a great reputation through referral, cleaning excellence, and community engagement. They are being perceived with more and more value. They are being viewed more as a Specialist and Expert. Their demand is increasing. They can now tighten their boundaries and window to the other extreme. They can pinch their supply so low that the demand hits the ceiling and so does price. Customers will fight to get you. They will wait months on your waiting list. They will pay whatever you charge. They will adhere to all of your boundaries. Why? You are the best and those that want the best will go for it. This creates optimal value and optimized price. I have another term for this solo cleaner. I call them an Optimizer!

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There is an emerging Mindset Series that started with my interview with Coach Josh called "The Value of Coaching" and followed up recently with "Are You Truly Coachable". I spoke from the position of being coached for over 20 years and being a coach myself for the past 7 years. The topic today is a major pet peeve and a classic tell-tale of someone UNcoachable and UNteachable. It's when I hear the words "Yeah, BUT..."

I know I've been guilty of it in the past but when I recognize it today it just irritates me. This is a major fundamental to overcome. It falls under our mindset. Are you coachable? Many say they are. But few really are. I did a coaching call recently. This cleaning company owner was operating solo to do houses during the week and was growing a team to do commercial cleaning nights and weekends. I dug and dug until I understood the why behind the goal of wanting to grow commercial with a team. The goals and the why were awesome. The strategy was not and during the call I realized that the mindset was not either. Here's what I discovered. This solo cleaning mom with a full-time job dad had to pay a certain amount of money for daycare. Many listening to this podcast can relate to that right now. She did not know her numbers, so there's the next fundamental flaw. I helped her figure out her numbers because I'm really good at this. Her solo house cleaning profit was basically covering the cost of daycare give or take. The commercial was not bringing in much because the revenue was just big enough to pay for the cost of a team. The hope was to grow commercial but maintain the residential to pay for daycare. This made absolutely no sense to me. Her goal was to earn $40,000 as a second income in the family. That's an awesome goal! I showed her how she could do that as a residential solo cleaner. Then I heard it. "Yeah, BUT..." Then she had a reason why she can't do that. I told her how she could hit her goal as a commercial solo cleaner and I got another "Yeah, BUT..." and another reason why.

There's always a reason why you can't. There's also always a reason why you can. If you look for an excuse, you will find it. And if you look for a solution, you will find one. In "The Magic of Thinking Big", Excusitis is listed as one of the failure diseases. In this case it was very clear to me. She could easily increase her solo house cleaning to $3,000 per month profit. This would net $1,000 after daycare and might be worth it. $2,000 or $3,000 net after daycare would be better! By the way, if she was earning $1,500 and daycare costs $2,000 no one would take that deal. I don't think daycare is worth it for a mom unless the thing she does to create income creates at least $500 per month over and above the TOTAL cost of daycare. This is daycare expenses, plus gas, food prep, lost time, etc. That was the direction I was taking her. She could build up the solo house cleaning profit herself, hit the $40,000 income goal and forget about commercial cleaning. When I sensed the desire to grow commercial with a team, I switched to different coaching to help her achieve the $40,000 goal. Her strategy was to continue farming out her kids to daycare for another 1-2 years. My coaching and experience would have her stay home with her kids and hit the goal in 6 months! Her answer each time was "Yeah, BUT..."

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This may be one of the most significant episodes of the Smart Cleaning School Podcast. Let's recap for the newer listeners. I have run cleaning companies for the last 18 years in both Upstate New York and the Indian Valley of Pennsylvania. I struggled like you in my first solo cleaning business from 2005 to 2008 as an Initializer. I worked like a madman like you as a Stabilizer from 2009 to 2014. Then I OPTIMIZED my solo cleaning company into a business that provided my family full-time income through part-time cleaning without the drama of employees. I was cleaning 2 days per week and keeping $60,000 profit per year. 90% of our clients were residential. This 13-year period created the ISO Model, which stands for Initialize, Stabilize, and Optimize. I was the boss and could control my schedule. I had freedom and it was awesome! But I had no roadmap for others to also follow!

Our family wanted to go back home to the Philly Area. We sold that optimized solo cleaning company in 2018 for $80,000 with a 2-year owner-finance payback contract. This provided around $2,000 per month income from a business we sold to get us up and running in the Philly Area. I had freedom and it was awesome! But I had no roadmap for others to also follow!

I started the second solo cleaning company before the pandemic in 2019. I got involved in local networking and joined the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce. I also launched this podcast in October of 2019. We grew through the pandemic as my business model moved from 90% residential in NY to a 50/50 split in PA with commercial. I cruised through the ISO Model in 18 months to $70,000 profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week. I did it again and much, much faster! I had freedom and it was awesome! But I had no roadmap, just a podcast for others to follow!

I rebranded in the September 2021 to Carfagno Commercial Cleaning and the C3 Experience! I had the mental, time, and money margin to invest into the proper systems for hiring and building a team. I made a ton of mistakes. I studied leadership as my primary role shifted from cleaner/salesman to leader. The C3 Team has grown to 10 part-time team members 18 commercial locations. We are about to cross $200k in revenue for the first time. Our next goal is 32 locations in the niche of professional, financial, and medical office spaces under 25,000 square feet in the Indian Valley. This will likely be around $350k revenue with around 20 total team members, 2 field supervisors, and a field leader (operations). I work from home and barely clean except to cover or onboard a new office. We went to Florida the past 2 Februarys as a family. This is a new level of freedom and it is awesome!

I recently recorded podcast episode #400! And guess what?! I have a roadmap now! It took me 18 years, 2 optimized solo companies, selling 1 and scaling 1 to extract the path to success and freedom for a solo cleaner. In my experience coaching solos over the past 7 years, I have noticed that solos feel so low. You struggle with the 2 UNDERS and 2 OVERS. You feel Underpaid, Underappreciated, Overworked, and Overwhelmed! Does that sum it up pretty well?! It doesn't have to be that way. You can have freedom as an optimized solo cleaner. In other words, you too can earn full-time income through part-time cleaning without the drama of employees. You just need a roadmap to get there! It's called the Solo Elite Membership Roadmap.

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This is a great follow up to "The Value of Coaching with Josh Melton". Josh has been coaching me through Marco Polo in 2023. I ask him questions and he responds. I am very coachable, so the content of my questions evolves over time from basic how-to questions to leadership and how my coach thinks questions. My goal is understand the Mind of Josh. How would Josh handle this situation? I have learned and grown as a student because I apply and take action on what Josh teaches me. I take notes on how the situation went and what I could have done better. The business improves. Do you see what I've done. I never have to ask Josh the same question twice.

Here is the value of the coaching. Josh has the experience that I don't. He has the revenue and the team that I don't. He has the leadership that I don't. What do I have? I have the humility to submit, to be teachable and coachable, to take action on the advice from my coach. I learn from the coaching and action that I take. I take ownership and therefore grow to the next level of leadership, coachability, teachability, accountability. I grow and get closer to winning. My mindset takes a step closer to my coach's. Meanwhile, my coach continues to grow so he always has plenty to teach.

This is music to any coach's ears. We all want our students and mentees to succeed. Here's the problem. Many of you are UN-teachable. You are UN-coachable. You won't take action or you won't take right action with the right resistance as Josh would say. You make the same mistakes over and over again. We try harder to help you get it and in the process, we get frustrated and give up. Do you know why? We want success for you more than you want it for yourself. "That's not true, Ken!" I do want to succeed. Answer me this. How many books have you read on leadership, business development, or people skills? How active and involved are you in your community through business networking, chamber events, and community service? How helpful are you and how good is your name in your community? How many social media posts, phone calls, and emails have you made to attract your ideal customer? How well do you know your numbers? How many times have you asked the same question on how to clean this or how to price that in a Facebook group? How much time do you spend growing and learning from a coach or mentor? How much action do you take and how fast do you take it? How eager are you to Go for No to get to Yes's faster?

Do you see the level of ownership it takes to truly be coachable and teachable? How would you grade yourself? I will be transparent. I would grade myself at a 7 for the majority of my entrepreneurial journey. There is one reason it was this low. I was too slow to take action. I spent too much time overthinking. I thought that I was learning how my coach thought, but how could I? I wasn't taking much action and action is the only way to acquire the knowledge. Napoleon Hill calls it Applied Knowledge. This allows you to get feedback from what you applied, which yields new questions. I grade myself much higher now. I 'm a 9. That's why we've grown so fast and I never ask Josh the same questions twice. That's why my questions have moved from HOWs to leadership questions. This is what it takes to truly be coachable.

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"If you ever see someone standing alone, go over and talk to them." Steven learned this from his grandmother and it has helped him become a great people person and networker.

"Superpowers are things that we just do that we don't realize make such a difference to others."

Steven is a certified financial planner by trade. He found two ways to utilize his skills. He could help people build their wealth or he could help them give away their wealth. Steven found so much more joy in the second.

"You've gotta put yourself into those spaces where we are uncomfortable because that's where we grow."

Being the executive director of the chamber is the first time I've been in the leader role versus an employee. This has been the hardest career change for Steven over his career.

"Why do we network? So we can build relationships with people we know, like, and trust."

"We receive about 4 – 5,000 marketing messages per day."

"If you've seen one chamber, you've seen one chamber." This is joke in the chamber world because each one is SO different.

"Not all businesses should be in the chamber. You have to have a sense of community. A chamber is a membership organization. I'm going to join because there are things I want to give and gain. Some business owners don't understand that you have to give before you get. There's not many of these types of owners. They ask 'Why would I want to do that?'"

"Generous people are happy people."

"The trick to leadership is that a good leader is helping others succeed."

"Jesus says that our heart is where our treasure is, not the other way around. We've got to put our treasure in the right place and then our heart will follow it."

"The more they have given away, the more they have been entrusted with."

"Leadership...It's all about being self-aware. Most of time is showing up, being 10 minutes early to whatever it is they are doing, and being intentional, you're on your way to being 75% of the most successful people in the United States."

You can optimize your solo cleaning business to earn full time income through part time cleaning without the drama of employees! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

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I want to start by giving credit where credit is due. I had the opportunity to connect with my friend Cristal Bosser of Mommy Maids 24-7 serving the North Port / Sarasota Areas of the Gulf Coast of Florida. She was giving me feedback on the Solo Elite Membership that I'm constantly improving and drove home a point that I needed to share! Thank you Cristal!

I was walking her through my Solo Elite Membership Roadmap and asked the question. "Should I target specific revenue and profit numbers at each level of my roadmap?" Christal has built a solo cleaning business once and lost it in Hurricane Ian. She is rebuilding. Plus, she runs a Facebook group with 2 other residential cleaners called "3 Cleaning Queens", where she interacts with hundreds of other solo cleaners. She took my question in a different direction. "Ken, we get to the $1,000 per month mark and get overwhelmed fast. The pressure makes us want to hire someone. It's okay not to hire someone. It's okay to say no to new clients and get our solo business under control." She was talking out of experience.

The light bulb went off for me. I followed up. "You nailed it Christal! I read a study that nearly 70% of the general population are people-pleasers. It's called the Steadiness Personality on DISC and I bet 75% of all solos are S's and therefore people-pleasers. S's cannot say no to new clients. They feel bad. They start out and want new clients. Then they grow by saying yes to new clients. Yay! But at some point, they cannot handle any more clients. One more will handicap them. They still say Yes, when they should have said No 3 customers ago. They should have paused for a strategy break to lock in the ones they had and wait-listed the others. Instead, they can't say no and get to the point where they are overwhelmed like you felt. Their emotions make the decision to bring on a helper or two, or possibly start hiring. They hire out of a position of weakness not strength. There are no policies, procedures, or systems to hire correctly. They are doing it under the table, illegally, and most likely incorrectly. This destroys their business. Plus, the people they bring on feel the pressure from the boss. It's very evident! How do I know?! I lived it in 2008, when my coach told me that I can't afford employees." I was on a roll and continued. "They can't say no. They get overwhelmed. They freak out and panic. They hire out of fear. They don't develop the business strategy to win with employees. They need a pressure relief valve!"

I'll exaggerate Christal's response. "Ken, that was amazing. You are the best solo cleaner teacher in the world." Okay, here's what she really said. "Ken, that's right. Totally! What do you mean by a safety relief valve?"

I'm going to explain the rest to you now. I looked up "Pressure Relief Valve" on Dr. Google.

"A pressure relief valve (PRV) is a type of safety-related component used in the pipeline or with vessels in pneumatics. Relief valves are used to limit the amount of compressed air pressure in a system so that it doesn't build up above a pre-set level and cause damage to machinery or people."

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​This episode released almost 2 years ago to the day! I was still doing house cleaning and transitioning Carfagno Cleaning to Carfagno Commercial Cleaning and the C3 Experience! We were preparing for our maiden journey to Florida for the month of February 2022. I am not wired to have trouble saying no. But many have that challenge. It's in their personality. In this Best-Of episode, I share a conversation between my daughter and I. I had just turned down a residential client and she couldn't believe it. "How could you say no? I couldn't do that!" I taught her about the 4 personalities in the DISC Assessment. I am a mix of 'C' for Conscientiousness and 'D' for Dominance. Neither of these personalities struggle with saying no. We struggle with a host of other things, but not that. I explained to my daughter that she is a 'S' for Steadiness. S's are people-pleasers and have a hard time saying no. DISC puts out statistics that 69% of the general population are S's! Furthermore, I collect applications and DISC assessments for prospective solo cleaners to work for our company. 75% of my applicants are S's! I know for a fact that saying no is a big problem. I want you to listen to this episode and the follow-up to move your business forward big time!

Are you a solo struggling like my daughter in saying no? You need to see why this is hurting your business. You need the ISO Model and the Solo Elite Membership! You can optimize your solo cleaning business to earn full time income through part time cleaning without the drama of employees! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

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Learning how to deal effectively with other people is one of the Solo Elite 4 Fundamentals. People skills is a broad term tossed around. What does it mean? In my opinion, it's the ability and skill to effectively build relationships with other people so that they know, like, and trust you. I want to focus on one people skill today. It's responsiveness. How responsive are you to customer inquiries and complaints? If you have employees, how responsive are you to their questions? What about your personal relationships? How responsive are you with your spouse, children, parents, siblings, close friends, church and other acquaintances? What boundaries do you have? What standards do you have? I'm going to focus this episode on helping you develop a single boundary in your communication and responsiveness. Are you always available in your business 24/7? Do you have an off switch or a boundary for personal time? What is an appropriate reply time? Let's dig in!

I need to first take you back in time. I found this article from a staffing company that is very interesting about business-as-usual before the advent of email. The article references two old-timers in corporate America. The lawyer said this. "The difference between the 1990s and today is that things move more quickly, the primary advantage being the ability to attach documents. Here today, there today. Fax machines suck, have always sucked, and will always suck. But I see the Federal Express driver a whole lot less these days." A business consultant shares her perspective. "Then, in our prior email-less world (gasp!). Mornings consisted of riffling through your inbox of hand-scribbled notes from your colleagues and phone messages from callers interpreted by an assistant. Can you imagine it? You responded by scribbling the responses and dropping them off in everyone else’s inbox. You wrote lengthy letters to clients, dropped them in the U.S. mail, and waited 7-10 days for a response. All letters were official, on letterhead, so everything was written formally. No mistakes. No sentence fragments. At this pace, the quick decisions we are accustomed to today were more than hard to come by. Modern workers, especially those who have never lived in an email-less workplace, could not imagine functioning like this. Still, just as email has solved a lot of our problems, it has undoubtedly created some as well. Messages from clients and colleagues come by email, but they are sent and opened around the clock. You are on 24/7! You write to clients as quickly, briefly, and often as informally as you do colleagues.”
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The lack of technology and universally understood business hours provided built-in boundaries on our expectation of responsiveness. Everything back then was 7-10 business days when mail was concerned. This is up to 2 weeks! Can you imagine having to wait that long for a response now?! Most business communication was done formally and at much longer response times. That was normal. That allowed workers to be off the clock after they left the office. There were other forms of communication back then too. There was something called a phone and an assistant. The boundary and expectation was simple. You make a business call to the assistant of the business person you need a reply. They took a message and you would hear back within a few days. 48 hours was a reasonable expectation. If you waited longer, you'd consider it poor responsiveness. If the written communication took longer than 7-10 business days, you'd again consider this poor responsiveness. Both are bad.

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I teased this episode in the previous one, so here it is! Did you know that your good name can be good marketing? I want you to think about this. How many companies do you buy from on the name alone? Have you ever hired a babysitter or other service provider in your home because they come from a good family name? How many times have you done the opposite when the company or person in question has a poor name and reputation? I work very hard to add value everyday to our good name. The Carfagno name means something to me. We are disciples of Jesus. We are hard workers. We are honest. I could go on and on. What are the values you add to your good name? I encourage you to develop these in your home and with your family. Transfer these values to your kids.

I get inbound leads through my website and Google every month. This is so cool to me. We've followed Jesus. We've worked hard. We've been honest. This has earned my name and our company a great local reputation. Our Google profile has 34 5-Star reviews, an article showing us winning the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year for 2022, and many other helpful insights for prospects to learn about us. When I receive an inbound lead, my policy is to call within 1 business day. It's a boundary. I chit-chat and learn about the job. I always ask how they find me. Usually, I hear. "I searched online and found you highly rated in the area." That means so much to me. I desire a good name and this is showing it. The Carfagno Name in my area is respected and I'm so thankful for that.

A lead came in recently that seemed like any other. I returned the message within 1 business day. It was a local accounting firm. The office manager and I chit-chatted about the job and then I asked the question. "So, how did you find me?" I expected the same thing. She said. "I searched online and saw the name Carfagno. I'm a Carfagno on my mother's side. I wondered if we were related. I just went to our Carfagno Family Reunion. Maybe you were there? Your name got me to click on the Google profile and I saw the big award you won and your reviews. It felt right." We spent 5 minutes on geneology trying to find out if we were related.

This is a side note. I live in Harleysville, PA but grew up in Norristown, PA. When I was a kid, I used to joke that although our name was obscure and uncommon, there's a half page of Carfagnos in the Norristown phone book. After college, we moved to Greenville, SC. There wasn't a single southerner that could pronounce my last name. I was the only Carfagno down there. We moved to Upstate New York for 16 years where plenty of Italians lived. More could pronounce our name, but I still phonetically spelled C, A, R as in Ralph, F as in Frank, A-G as in Gary, N as in Nancy, O to just about everyone. There were no Carfagnos in the New York phone book. We moved back to Montgomery County, PA in 2018 and I felt like I was in Cheers. Everybody knew my name. They could say Carfagno. They could spell Carfagno. Heck, many of them knew a Carfagno. Here's a funny one. My uncle Bob Carfagno married Patty Carfagno. Her name was actually Carfagno when they met and they weren't related! She married a Carfagno in her first marriage, kept the name, and married Bob! In my area, the name Carfagno is more known. It's a marketing niche of its own. I know this won't apply to all of you or perhaps not many of you at all. But imagine you have a name that is less popular or common. You go out and make a name for yourself and add value to your name. Then when prospects come across your Google profile and see your name, they feel good about hiring you.

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This was one of my favorite episodes to create. It gave me a chance to research more of my family lineage and share one of my favorite bible verses. This teaching is foundational in my home and I wanted you to all hear it. This replay is intentional. The next episode takes the good name to another level. Did you know your good name is good marketing? You will. Re-listen to this one first! 

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​I shared this exact post in a free Facebook cleaning group and thought it valuable enough to include on the podcast. Here's the post.

I'm new to this group but not to cleaning. I love this industry and helping newbies. I see pricing posts all the time and wanted to share some insights that I just shared with another member on her private question. The question goes something like this... "Is this price too high, too low? "People are so cheap. How do I get them to value what I do as a professional cleaner?" Here's my response that will help you overcome these pricing objections. It's not your price. It's your process. When people ask for price first and quibble over price first, one of two things is happening psychologically.

1. They don't trust you yet. SOLUTION - Remove your price list first. Don't lead with that. Lead with YOU. Lead with your unique solution to the community. Lead with your personality. Lead with how your service will make their lives better. This builds trust. The price question will come up, but not right away. In my experience, my best and highest-paying clients didn't even ask about price until the end of a phone call or in-person meeting. They were so excited to get their problem solved through my service.
2. They don't respect cleaning as a craft or field of expertise and are treating it like shopping around for the cheapest widget. SOLUTION - Either EDUCATE these people through your content (Google, FB, website, blog, in-person presentations) or AVOID them to find better clients. They are easy to identify! There is an abundance of potential clients that want a professional cleaning service that solves their problems.

It's nice to be here. I pray that speaks to you. This is good for solos to hear as they consider scaling or those already doing it.

This post was well received with many exclamation points in agreement. I want you to study the 2 reasons you are struggling with cheap prospects. Have you dealt with each scenario? How did you deal with them? Did you try to appease or lower your prices? Did you get mad and complain to someone on Facebook? Did you learn what you could from the scenarios and become a stronger business owner? Do you realize that knowing who you don't want is many times more valuable than knowing who you do want?

Are you struggling with pricing and cheap clients? Would you like to find the best ones that appreciate you and pay your prices? You need the ISO Model and the Solo Elite Membership! You can optimize your solo cleaning business to earn over $50,000 profit cleaning less than 20 hours per week without employees or subs or drama! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

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I have a heart to help everyone who wants to start a cleaning business and optimize as a solo. I have found this to be a great strength and weakness. In two recent scenarios, I have learned that while helping one I'm hurting another. I'm going to teach the destructive mindset in each of my two recent scenarios.

Scenario #1:

A lady found my podcast, loved it, and emailed me some questions. I answered her and started coaching her only to find out that she was currently working for another cleaning company and wanted to go on her own. I don't know her current boss. I advised her to be ethical and not poach any clients. She didn't want to hire, so poaching her coworkers wasn't a concern... now. I did not deter her from starting a business or from quitting her job. I had the mindset that there is plenty to go around and there is still more work than workers. I do believe this still. However, there is a major flaw to my advise. It hurt the current cleaning company she is working for. This company owner paid the price to start her own company. I know what it takes to win a cleaning company. I know how hard it is to find good people and to train them and keep them. This cleaner that contacted me had benefitted tremendously from the work and training that her boss provided. Like so many cleaning employees, they perceive that the boss isn't doing any of the cleaning, yet making so much more than the cleaner. It's not fair. It's entitlement and scarcity mindset. They don't yet know how hard it is. They think erringly that being a good cleaner (which they only know because of their boss) will make them a good cleaning business owner. We know from the previous podcasts that this is not true. They don't yet have the 4 fundamentals of Financial, Mindset, Strategic, and People conquered. So many cleaners perceive the easy street it appears to change from employee to owner. They quit and then call on the houses or offices they were cleaning and steal them. And that's exactly what it is. Theft. Then they call their former co- workers and offer them a better deal.

What happens next? The cleaner turned owner doesn't know to get any insurance or to become legit and professional. They put themselves and their stolen customers at risk. They have very shallow roots and the new business is scorched by the hot sun and pressures of being in business for yourself and the business dies. The customers are hurt as they lose their cleaner. The original cleaning company is hurt as it lost customers and employees. The new cleaning business is done and begging for their old job back. The employees that jumped ship don't know what to do. This is destructive to all. If I would have helped this cleaner, I would have helped them succeed in their business for sure. But I would have helped the other cleaning company lose a good employee and potentially customers and employees. I would have helped one to hurt another. I will NOT do this! It's not ethical for me. Plus, if there is a non-compete in place, it's possible that I'd be complicit in helping a cleaning employee illegally break their binding contract. This is a potential legal liability for me. Again, I won't do this. And I didn't help this cleaner once I realized the potential destructive downstream path.

I don't want to be all doom and gloom. In limited cases, this works out. For example, there are cleaners that inform their bosses that they want to start their own company. These company owners are Dream Managers and mentors and actually help them do it. They ensure that there is win-win and more than enough to go around.

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If you've been following this podcast for any duration of time, you should have noticed a major shift in how I am teaching. I have organized my content for helping side hustlers, startups, and solos around 4 basic fundamentals of success: Financial, Mindset, Strategic, and People. I highly recommend that you check out the previous episode to gain the perspective I've learned on why so many of you are struggling. It's called "Why Side Hustlers, Startups, and Solos Struggle".

Armed with the basic understanding that these 4 are essential, I wanted to compare and contrast a few business opportunities out there. The first one is the multi-level marketing business. I was an Amway IBO for 10 years. I am thankful for my time and mentorship in this business opportunity. We didn't make it. Many don't. Why? Well, let's look at the 4 fundamentals.

• Financial – It's less than $100 to start! This is why so many can join. There really aren't any P&L's to study.
• Mindset – You can invest in books, weekly audio lessons, quarterly in-person conferences, and 1-on-1 mentoring sessions to grow your mindset. Coaching and mentoring and personal development in MLMs are second-to-none.
• Strategy – I was provided with a strategy and game plan for success from Day 1. The MLM strategy falls under the category of a business system or franchise. They know what works. You just have to follow the proven system and do the work.
• People – This is the most difficult part of the MLM. There is a tremendous momentum to overcome with people. You have to become an amazing people person. You have to learn to handle objections, stay positive, win people to your cause, and lead people. It's such a simple business model, but extremely hard to get buy-in from people. People is the biggest barrier and struggle in this business opportunity.

The second business opportunity is a manufacturing company producing widgets that everybody needs. The 4 fundamentals are different here. There are no objections to overcome with people. You mainly deal with larger B2B situations where what you sell is needed. Strategy can be challenging, but the simplicity is this. Just scale and grow your operation to handle the demand. Mindset is also challenging as scaling is taxing and stressful. Dealing with complaints and legal and regulations can be difficult. The biggest barrier to this business opportunity is Financial. It may require $1 million to even start! That wipes out most of us right there. You also need to be incredible with your numbers as the margins are small in most cases and you better know how to guarantee profits at every level. Financial is the biggest barrier and struggle in this business opportunity.

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I recorded this training for the 2023 Maid Service Success Summit

Fundamental #1: Financial

Start with the Stats!

• 90% don't know their numbers (Life After Sale YT)
• 98% don't know the value of their business (cnbc.com)
• 72% don't know their credit score (smallbiztrends.com)
• 73.6% of all statistics are made up (businessinsider.com)

Notes from the Talk!

• Me – I knew my numbers and optimized every 90 days with SMART goals from 2014-2017 to go from 5-6 days solo cleaning per week to 2 days all while earning the same profit! We started at $60k profit and ended at $60k profit. This is the ISO Model.
• Kate – I was helping a friend running a $1.2M residential cleaning company. She has 375 clients. We analyzed her business with numbers and calculated that her average biweekly client is paying $130/visit. She recognized an opportunity to grow that average to $160/visit. I coached her to use the 80/20 rule and assume 20% of her clients are leading to 80% of the high drama and low profit costing her business money. This amounts to 75 clients. We used numbers to determine the potential of her business with the SAME number of clients (375) but replacing the 75 with great ones. It was an additional $50k-$100k per year in profit! When we increased every client from $130 to $160/visit, it added an additional $150k-$250k per year in profit! Same business, same size, better numbers! Mind-blowing.

Fundamental #2: Mindset

Start with the Stats!

• 60% have a fixed mindset (Dweck).
• 98% don't pursue their dreams with confidence and excitment (2% Mindset).
• 33% are held back by fear (Smallbiztrends.com).

Notes from the Talk!

• Fixed vs Growth Mindset – "This is the idea behind a growth mindset: we believe our intelligence and abilities can be developed over time. Growth mindsets are one end of the spectrum of how we think about ourselves, with fixed mindsets on the opposite end. Having a growth mindset means we are eager to learn, adaptive, find value in embracing challenges, and believe that being effortful can improve certain skills, compared to the fixed mindset’s belief that our abilities are unchangeable." A fixed mind sees limited opportunity and the cards they were dealt are the ones they must keep. A growth mind can change and must change as nothing in life ever stays the same. It either grows or dies. So the irony of the fixed mindset is that it is decaying or dying over time. You have to grow a little to "stay the same". (Carol Dweck, "Mindset")
• A growth and business-owners mindset sees investment, not cost. They see delayed gratification vs immediate. They see long-term thinking and planning vs. immediate. They seek mentors, coaches, and value life-long learning.
• If you don't believe you can grow your mind, you're right. And if you are fixed in your mindset, you better know your numbers because you'll be holding onto whatever you've got as the only way to grow your income in to grow your mind.
• How do you acquire a Growth Mindset? First, you must believe it for you. Second, become a reader of personal development books and NEVER stop. Get around those that stretch you. Stretching your mind shows you the gap and forces you to want to grow to fill the gap.

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I have a friend, whom will remain anonymous. I won't share their full story, just the high level. Let's call her Jill. Jill ran a very successful and profitable solo cleaning business in Florida. Hurricane Ian pummeled her area and completely wiped out everything Jill had. Thankfully, her family was okay. But not her house. Not her vehicles. Not her business. Jill invested years to build and it took a few days for a natural disaster to destroy. What could Jill have done differently? Not live in Florida? I suppose. But that's her home. Here's the good news. Jill has a great mindset to grow her cleaning company. She is resilient and determined. She grew it back. What would you do if you lost it all? Would you be like Jill or would you give up?

My goal here was to dial this podcast back a bit and get you to stop and take inventory of your life, your family, your health, your business, and your eternal future. My goal was for you to pause and be grateful for what you already have and sure up the things you don't. Like Jill, many of you live in areas with natural disasters. A tornado or earthquake or forest fire could take it all away in an instant. What happens when you work hard to build something and then lose it all from something totally out of your control? Like a once in a decade category 4 hurricane that wipes out Southern Florida? On the other side of a disaster like that, how do you pick yourself back up and start over? The words for this are called grit and perseverance and hope and faith. What gives Jill and some of you out there the courage to build when the Big Bad Wolf might come and blow your house down again? I'm going to share this amazing quote from Jesus.

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock." (Matthew 7:24-25)

The answer is simple. We need to all build a company with a strong foundation. What are some ingredients of a strong foundation? As a follower of Christ, I put a relationship with Jesus as my rock as number one! This may not be true of you as you listen to this. That is absolutely okay. For me though, having a firm foundation that God owns it all and I am a steward to manage what is already His. This allows me to go with the flow more and trust that God's in control. It doesn't mean I don't work hard. I do. I just have faith that God has a greater plan and purpose for me. So if a major storm would have wiped everything away, I still have Jesus and that's all I really need. That may not be what you believe. That's okay. We're not clones. What are some other ingredients of a successful foundation? I believe being out of debt and having cash and a solid financial plan is super vital for your foundation. I believe if you're married, that you and your spouse are on the same page and walking in unity. I believe trust and amazing relationships with your customers, your team, and your community is a vital ingredient. If you have these ingredients in place and another storm hits and wipes you out, you have hope. The community binds together to fix it. The relationships you have in the community are strong and you get involved even if you have nothing. On the other side, the community rallies around you and your business grows again. The point is this. Regardless of where you live and the natural disasters that may surround you, nobody has a certain future. Jesus declares it plainly. The wind and the waves are going to hit. It's not a matter of if, but when. And like the third pig who built the house out of brick, will you be prepared when it does?

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I recently revealed the "The 4 ISO Model Fundamentals " as Financial, Strategic, Mindset, and People. It doesn't matter whether you own a solo cleaning business or a catering company. If you want to grow your company to create the life you've dreamed of, you'll need to master these fundamentals. I am not a caterer... obviously. I can't coach caterers. I can't coach photographers or digital agencies or doctors. I'm a 16-year solo cleaner that has optimized 2 solo cleaning companies to over $50,000 profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week without employees, subs, or drama. I've successfully sold one solo cleaning business for $80,000 and I've successfully scaled another solo cleaning business to allow my family to go to Florida for the month of February the past two years. I have mastered these 4 fundamentals for winning with a solo cleaning business and therefore, I am highly qualified to be your coach if you're looking to master your solo cleaning company.

In that podcast episode, I stated that I wanted to lay out the 4 fundamentals in simple terms first. Then, I promised to follow-up with episodes adding more depth to each. Today, we start with the first one called FINANCIAL. There are thousands of cleaning business owners in Facebook cleaning groups. I have interacted with hundreds and personally coached dozens over the years. The ones I've coached have been side-hustlers, startups, solos, and striving to 7-figures. I have enough data to make this bold statement.

Of the 4 fundamentals of a successful solo cleaning company or any cleaning company, the most lacking skill is Financial Fluency. In my experience (and the combined experience of other reputable coaches in the industry), over 95% of cleaning business owners do NOT know their numbers. They are Financially Illiterate.

This is scary as these cleaning business owners go year-to-year making jokes about "sucking at math" or "not knowing where they are". It's not funny. It's sad. 95% of you RIGHT NOW are literally treading water and about to drown. You are one bad wave or rip current from financial bankruptcy and you don't even know it. 90% of you are anxious, stressed, and overwhelmed because you don't know where you stand. When you are Financially Illiterate, you are standing on sinking and shifting sand. You have literally nothing firm to build on. So what do you do? You continue to work harder and harder and hope that the money works out. Enter geniuses like Mike Michaelowicz and his book "Profit First". Mike was Financially Illiterate until he took the first step. He went from not-knowing his numbers to knowing his numbers. This didn't make the business any better. But it did allow Mike to place his feet on something firm and something he could build from. His stated mission is to help the millions of us in the same place and to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty.

My friend Ellen was once in this position. She ran a successful cleaning company with 20 team members and close to a half-million in revenue. She did not know her numbers at all and she was the first to admit it. I helped her set goals to over a 3-month period to learn her business through a Profit and Loss Statement or a P&L. Once she understood her P&L, she was able to set financial goals and track her business through a financial dashboard. Ellen has grown quite a bit since this major change. There are thousands of Ellens' out there, so don't feel bad if that's you. We will address all 4 fundamentals over time.

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Pricing questions are one of the most commonly-asked in Facebook cleaning groups. The post usually goes like this. There's an image of a house or details of the house or office. It is followed by "How much should I charge for this?" The only question I have seen more often in the last 7 years on Facebook is this one. "How do you clean this?" and there's a picture of something.

I visited Angela Brown's Professional House Cleaners private group on June 5th, 2023 and answered multiple questions with the same response. I noticed there was a common struggle with pricing that I wanted to address, so I posted this the same day to the group.
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Watch out for Watch-Watchers! Don't Charge by the Hour!

I've seen this play out so many times in the cleaning industry and quite honestly, in many industries. Many of you are still charging by-the-hour. You can do what you want. You can make a case for it early on if you're terrible at numbers and estimates. But it will only attract "Watch-Watchers" and drama. These customers will time your every cleaning and you'll be penalized for taking longer ("Why am I paying so much?") or taking shorter ("Why were you so quick, what didn't you do?"). It sets you up to never earn more per hour unless you raise your hourly rates. It sets you up to have customers watching your every move and watching their watches. This is not good for you or your customers. Don't do this!

Solution: Learn how to price. Know your numbers and stop making the excuse! You need to price badly in the beginning and learn through experience how long every part of cleaning a house or office takes. You'll never price badly again. You'll even learn how to set buffers on different types of jobs so you'll stop underestimating jobs, which we all do. The good news is that we underestimate less with more experience. Set by-the-job pricing, get your rhythms for each house, and speed it up over time with high quality. Your hourly rate that you calculate internally will skyrocket. I got mine to the $80-$120/hour range when I was solo for many years and this was pre-pandemic before prices shot up. I still average above my competitors locally as we build our team. By-the-job pricing is a Win-Win for you and your customers. The customer simply wants excellence and quality. They also want you in their house or office less. Minimizing our times minimizes our footprint into a homeowner's or office's schedule. The less we are there, the less they think about cleaning. The less they thing about cleaning, the happier they are. As long as the quality is amazing as usual, they win. We make more per hour and per day and we are happy. We win.

I ended the post with this call to action. Feel free to discuss. I think this will have a lot of passionate responses. It's always fun to hear the feedback of others. Some agreed with me. Some did not. I want to share some points of view from both sides.

Victor Jaramillo, Jr. – "Agree 100%. The only issue I transitioned to by-the-hour for initial cleans while I trained new staff but now that they’ve been with me for a few it’s time to switch to a flat rate as I calculate in my head. My staff will either maximize or minimize their hourly earnings based on their following our system."

Bert Sloan – "Charging by the hour opens up a plethora of problems."

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My sister Jenna is doing amazing in her career so far. She just finished a few rotations as a traveling nurse and is currently working on her Nurse Practitioner license. She just got back from a 2 week trip to Europe and has saved a ton of money. I'm such a proud big bro. She visited our family in Sarasota, FL this February when we were escaping the cold Northeast winter along with my mom and step-dad. It was a great visit where we checked out multiple Gulf Coast beaches, sunsets, kayaking in the mangroves, and Jake's amazing ice cream (shout out to Jake in Siesta Key)!

Jenna asked me an awesome question one night after all the kids were sleeping. "I want to start my Roth IRA, but I'm leery of hiring a financial advisor. They cost a lot, right... and I'd have to pay them a commission out of my investments?" She was asking a great question that was a 25 mile per hour, high-arcing softball pitch that I had a wide-barreled aluminum bat ready for!

I pulled up a quick Google search to teach her with an example from real estate. "Jenna, there are many homeowners that ask the same question. Why should I hire a realtor? I can sell it myself and keep more of the money. Yes, this is true. You do keep a higher percentage of the sale price when you do a 'For-Sale By Owner' or FSBO. However, FSBO stats online show that only 11% of FSBO sellers actually succeed at selling their home. And to make it worse, the 11% sell their homes for 26% less than their professional realtor counterparts." I let this sink in. Jenna is very sharp. I continued. "These stats suck! Let's say you own a $300,000 home. Let's say you actually figure out how to sell it and that's a BIG IF! This is an example. You sell it for $300k! Yay... and you save 3% on realtor fees. You saved $9,000 and walk away with potentially $292k. That's amazing. What if you sold through a professional, marketing machine realtor like my friend John Schuchman (host of the Real Estate Survival Guide)? Using the 26% upsell average, John sells your house for $378,000! John splits the $22,700 commission with the buying agent. John makes $11,350. He is motivated to sell your home! You pay the same closing cost plus the realtor commission. You keep $357k! That's $65,000 more when you hired the professional."

That pretty much put the whole topic to bed. Jenna simply said. "Okay, I'll hire a financial advisor." Now, I want to talk to you, listeners of the Smart Cleaning School Podcast. What are you skimping on, trying to save money on and do yourself? Jenna had a SPENDING MINDSET, which literally cost her $65,000! My big-brotherly talk changed her thinking to an INVESTING MINDSET. It's so ironic too. Jenna is highly educated. She has invested over $100,000 in her overall college education to soon become a Nurse Practitioner. This investment allowed her to make serious bank as a traveling nurse, go to Europe for 2 weeks, and have the cash in the bank to even ask me the Roth IRA question. Mic drop for Jenna! I'm so proud and love my baby sister. By the way, I was 14 when she was born so I've been a big brother and fatherly role to her.

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I used to watch the show, "Cheers" as a high-schooler. I didn't much care about the bar scene. I just loved the stories and the camaraderie and collection of people. They were all so different, yet they bonded every night after work.

Sam the Bartender, Coach the Bartender, Woody the Bartender, Carla the Waitress, Diane the Academic, Norm the Accountant, Cliff the Mailman, Frasier the Psychiatrist, Lilith the Psychiatrist, Rebecca the Manager

The show aired from 1982 through 1993 and is regarded as one of the top 10 greatest TV shows of all time. Why was it so popular? I believe it's because Cheers appealed to a basic human need. Every one of us has an internal programmed need to belong. We find clubs, teams, companies, families that welcome us and make us feel like we belong. This is what Cheers was to that neighborhood in Boston. Just listen to the theme song lyrics.

*"Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you've got
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot
Wouldn't you like to get away?

All those nights when you've got no lights
The check is in the mail
And your little angel
Hung the cat up by it's tail
And your third fiance didn't show
Sometimes you wanna go

Where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came
You wanna be where you can see (ah-ah)
Our troubles are all the same (ah-ah)
You wanna be where everybody knows your name

Roll out of bed, Mr. Coffee's dead
The morning's looking bright (the morning's looking bright)
And your shrink ran off to Europe
And didn't even write
And your husband wants to be a girl
Be glad there's one place in the world

Where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came
You wanna go where people know
People are all the same
You wanna go where everybody knows your name

Where everybody your name (where everybody knows your name)
And they're always glad you came
Where everybody knows your name (where everybody knows your name)
And they're always glad you came
Where everybody knows your name (where everybody knows your name)
And they're always glad you came
Where everybody knows your name (where everybody knows your name)"*

The problems the writer talks about are common to the everyday working man and woman in that area and around the country. The characters felt safe leaving their problems at the door and having a place to escape with others dealing with the same stuff. The viewers of the show watched these characters for 30 minutes each episode to escape their problems too. They felt like they belonged sitting on a bar stool next to Cliff and Norm.

The Cheers model is a wonderful thing. Cheers gave outsiders a place to be an insider. We all need a place like that. Let's transition this Cheers model to a solo cleaning business that you just started. You begin by entering Boston not knowing anyone. No one knows your name. You carry your problems all by yourself. You struggle. This is what it's like in the beginning of the Initializer portion of the ISO Model. You have to start.

Once you figure out there is a place called Cheers and start showing up, you are not only welcomed but accepted. You become a part of the Cheers family. Similarly, you start putting yourself out there and showing up in the community. The community welcomes you and your cleaning service and then they accept you. Over time, the characters in Cheers became so known to each other that it became the bright spot in their day. They had a place where every body knows their name.

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I've been teaching the ISO Model for optimizing your solo cleaning business for years now. I'm noticing a theme emerging from the countless coaching calls, hang-ups and challenges of my students, and keys to success. What causes the winners to win and whiners to whine? In this episode, I will introduce the 4 ISO Model Fundamentals to prepare the soil. Over time, I'll follow-up with individual episodes on each fundamental.

Here's the starting point. The WHY. Why would you want to have an optimized solo cleaning business? Answer these questions.
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· Are you frustrated with your day job and want more time and money to be with your family?

· Are you paid well at work, but you're stressed out too often and your family gets the last of you instead of the first?

· Are you running a solo cleaning business in residential or commercial, but you're overwhelmed, frustrated, underappreciated, underpaid, and you want to quit?

· Are you growing in your solo cleaning business and making good money, but you're running out of time to do it all and you DON'T want to hire people?

· Have you tried everybody's coaching program to hire, scale, or whatever and you are sick of it all and just want to be successful as a solo?

· Does the idea of earning $50,000+ per year cleaning less than 20 hours per week without employees or subs or drama sound amazing?

Did you answer "YES!!!" to any of these questions? If so, you need the ISO Model and the Solo Elite Membership. The ISO Model is my proven system for solo cleaners to turn every one of these questions around in your life. Why do I call it proven? Simple. I've personally used it to create $50,000 - $70,000 per year income on 2 days per week times in two different states. I've personally coached over 25 solo cleaners over the past few years to do the same. It works, but you have to invest and do the work!

There are 4 fundamentals that you MUST conquer if you are going to succeed in my ISO Model. I've seen these 4 play out in every successful and not play out in every unsuccessful student.

1. FINANCIAL – The majority of the cleaners I've helped and encountered in the industry at all stages and levels have this unfortunate problem. THEY DON'T KNOW THEIR NUMBERS! How can you accomplish anything if you don't know where you are or how to measure progress? This 1st wheel of your business will not spin if you don't dig into your numbers and know them. It's not that hard. Do it yourself or hire an accountant or bookkeeper. There is NO excuse for not knowing your numbers. It is the most prevalent issue I see in the industry and it's the biggest excuse cleaners make, "I'm just not good with numbers." Stop saying that and do something about it!

2. STRATEGIC – If you don't have a goal and plan and a map, it doesn't matter how fast you're driving. Zig Zigler used to say, "if you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time." You need a strategy that will allow you to hit the goals you want to hit. This 2nd wheel of your business will definitely turn, but it may be spinning so fast and getting no traction.

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I've been looking forward to doing this sales pitch episode for WHY you need to start a solo cleaning company. I have no idea where you are right now as you listen to this episode of the Smart Cleaning School.

You may be sucking wind in your current solo cleaning business and not feeling like this business is fun or exciting. You're feeling overwhelmed, underappreciated, underpaid, and close to quitting. You're working everyday and have nothing to show for it except high-drama clients, stress, and an achy body! You physically can't do it all and you're either afraid of hiring or you absolutely don't want to. Listen closely. I'm speaking to YOU.

You may be working a full-time job and need some extra money badly and you don't want a second job. You desperately want to have your own business and earn your way out of the rat race. But then, you hear how I just talked to the first group of solo cleaners and you're doubting whether you could actually make it work? Could I succeed in my own cleaning company? Do I go for it? I know this... I can't stay at this job the rest of my life. I want freedom. I'm speaking to YOU.

You may be in the Valley of Despair with a cleaning business creating between $250,000 and $400,000. You have a team, but you're completely swamped with admin, systems, hiring, customer issues, scheduling, you never get time to yourself, your business is a nightmare. To make it even worse, you have nothing to show for it. You want to quit and stop the bleeding. I'm speaking to YOU.

These 3 scenarios describes SO many of you out there. Honestly, if you're beyond these issues, you're probably not listening to this podcast! And I'm totally okay with that. I want to serve and have everyone experience the freedom that comes with a properly run cleaning company.

There are 2 solutions to each of these inflection points. You can either go big the right way and earn your freedom. Check out the Interview, "CBF Success Stories with Debbie Sardone and Friends". Or, you can stay small and solo and absolutely crush it with $50,000 to $100,000 annual profit cleaning a few days per week without employees or subs or drama. It's called the ISO Model for the Optimized Solo Cleaner. I've already made my sales pitch to residential cleaners that want to scale to 7 figures in previous episodes. Now it's my turn to make my pitch to start solo, get the ISO Model as your playbook, and stay a solo for the coming season of life.

I'm ready. The pitcher takes the mound. That's me. I'm ready to toss a series of sales pitches to each scenario of listener WHY you need to become an Optimized Solo Cleaner. First of all, I need to sell you on cleaning. Did you know that cleaning is one of the fastest growing industries right now. Check out "The Cleaning Industry is Exploding". More than 50,000 new cleaning businesses are starting each year in America alone. Cleaning was made essential during the pandemic and was in the forefront of reshaping the country. Cleaning used to be in the background, unglamorous, and unnoticed. Now, it's on many investors and side-hustlers minds as a great business to start. There are 12 "Pros of Solo Cleaning I & II" I shared in the first 2 episodes. Today I have one more pitch to add to these 12 to get you off your butt, get the ISO Model Course and optimize your solo cleaning business!

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James Harper was the host of "Two Cents Worth" and Angel Sandoval was the host of the "Sales Rehab" show. The two shows focused on sales and personal development and actually competed against each other in a productive way. James invited Angel to be a guest on his show and a friendship was formed. They decided to join forces under the common belief that 'Sales Saved My Life'.

Both were excellent interviewers. Angel was interested in his guests and was a very good at knowing where to dig deeper based on inflection and tonality. This soft skill was learned in the trenches of sales and cold-calling. James has always been amazing at connecting really smart people together. He plays point guard to the conversation and then gets out of the way. James is a master connector and Angel is a master of reading the room. Putting these two skills together is the foundation of the powerhouse today called Day Porter and the Profitable Cleaner Podcast.
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Angel was born in Mexico City and came to the US to El Paso, TX at 10 years old. He developed a huge dream to learn English and Naturalize. It took him 8 years. He graduated with a marketing degree from UTEP and was an aspiring ballet dancer. James was born in Denver, CO. He dealt with a lot of grief, anger, and drugs and faced 2 – 5 years in prison. He found sales in a Halfway House. Sales was the only career that would take him.

Angel created a mission to help those without mainstream options to get into selling through SWITCH (Sell With Intention to Create Happiness).

"My initial motivation was fear. I lived in fear a lot of my life. How do you combat fear with comfortability, especially when you're the weakest one? You got to make a connection and learn to blend." – James Harper

Angel shares his creation process that propelled him in the dance world and how that helped him as an entrepreneur. You start with creation and tell a story throughout the dance. This story gets perfected and marketed. You need to test the creation to see how it hits with audiences, then feedback to make it better. I loved this mindset.

"I brought Survival Mode with me for many years. But I had to change because Survival Mode brings scarcity. It serves you, but you need to evolve from that." – James Harper

"Most of us don't actually go through a rough life and that's okay. Whatever card you get dealt in life, you roll with. Don't let someone else's difficult path discourage you from trying it." – Angel Sandoval

Angel, James & Ken dive into our Christian testimonies and have church! Multiple topics come up that you need to hear like Humility & Gratefulness, Stewardship, Good for Orderly Direction (GOD),

"I feel that once you encounter God, there's no way not to believe in God." – Angel

"Stewardship is not just money. We are called to steward money, time, health, and relationships." – Angel

"When I look at my life, there is no logical way how things have played out. If I do try to put logic to it, the only answer I can put to it is God I've tried to prove God wrong and I just can't." – James

"Illogical Moments Lead to Logical Faith." – Angel

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I am an active member in my local Chamber of Commerce and have been since joining in October 2019. Check out one of my first episodes from Dec 2019 called, "I'm the Only Cleaner", where I shared my initial impression of joining my first-ever chamber in 15 years in business at that point. Also check out the episode, "Get a Name for Doing", where I was mentored by fellow chamber member and leadership coach Ken Byler of Higher Ground Consulting. Ken taught me how to add the most value to the chamber and make the greatest difference. Ken was SO right. I dove in right away and was able to make a big difference during Covid. I developed a reputation and name for doing. I've never taken my foot off the pedal in my goal to get a name for doing and adding value. Last fall, I joined the Membership Committee and immediately helped them determine how to have greater impact with the current membership as well as how to add more. I suggested that we, the membership committee of 8 members call the entire membership of 300 to connect with them and ask them some questions. Here's what we asked.

1. What is your business's greatest struggle?
2. How can the chamber help you in this struggle?
3. What is the chamber's blind spot? What are we doing that we shouldn't and what aren't we doing that we should?

The list of members was sent out and we each selected who we would volunteer to call from October through December 2022. I was a little ambitious and selected 60. The others teased me a little, but they were impressed. I then took time each week and emailed and called every single one of the 60. Most were difficult and unreachable. I made contact in some form with over 20 and had meaningful 30+ minute conversations with 15 members. It was amazing! I had so much fun and met some great fellow members of the chamber. After I was done, I created a report and submitted it to the chamber office. I had no idea that this report would become the basis of the 2023 5-Year Chamber Strategy Session. I was invited into this board-only process as a special guest. The work I did for the chamber and the growth we had in Carfagno Commercial Cleaning (C3) locally made our cleaning company the unanimous choice for the 2022 Cornerstone Award. This is a prestigious award for Small Business of the Year in the Indian Valley Chamber. It's amazing to see this play out now. I simply did what Ken Byler advised and it earned me the top reputation among all companies in my local community. This is leading to tremendous influence and business growth.

That first part was an update and sales pitch for WHY you should join your chamber, especially if you're in commercial cleaning. Let's switch gears. We, as a membership committee, learned through actual data and 1-on-1 conversations that the #1 struggle our members are facing is hiring. They were very concerned with how to find quality applicants, how to retain them, and what's going on out there in our culture? Why don't young people want to work? Where's the ambition?

The chamber of commerce is an international organization. They operate independently, but are well connected. Our chamber executive director, Steve Hunsberger, is very plugged in at the local, county, state, and federal levels to learn and bring back to us, the small business owners in the community. Steve is seeing similar struggles nationwide. The workforce is declining. Businesses are getting nervous. They are having more trouble picking up clients as hiring is affecting them and both their clie

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I used to be such a sucker for the vending machine. My weakness was the potato chips, peanut butter crackers, and always Fritos! The vending machine is an interesting machine. It's simple. You choose what you want, check the price, insert your payment, push the corresponding button, and your treat spirals out of its holder to the slot below. You now own your treat and can enjoy it.

There are some anomalies. Sometimes, the spirals delivering your treat jam and the bag of chips stops just short of releasing into the bin below. What do most people do when that happens? They feel robbed and go NFL linebacker on the vending machine by punching it, shaking it, or hitting it with their shoulders. Some people are more calm and either ask an attendant to get it for them, while others leave it alone and say, "oh well." Which are you?

Another anomaly is the double treasure. This happens because someone left their lost treat alone. When you pay for your bag of chips, two come out. Do you get excited and take the 2 treats? Do you leave one for the next person as a pay-it-forward reward? Do you go tell an attendant?

Whichever or however you answered these questions is more of a self-check on your heart and attitude. That's not the main point of this episode. I just wanted to ground my lesson to the vending machine.

A job is like a vending machine. You see available job postings, select the one that makes you happiest, apply for a position by pushing the button, and get the job. Once you show up for work, you put hours in and get money out every time. The bag of chips that you wanted comes out EVERY time. But what if it doesn't? What if the bag gets stuck? This can happen when the company fires you or lets you go. I say 'when' not 'if' because you will not make money at that company forever. They fire, downsize, lay-off, sell the company, merge, offer early retirement, etc. Some will last for longer than others, but all will eventually see their bag of chips get stuck. What will you do? Will you try to tackle the job vending machine, shake it, or punch it to get it to work again for you? I hope not.

How about the other scenario. Do you ever get two bags of chips coming out at your job? I guess this is conceivable if you work an hourly skilled job that pays time-and-a-half and double-time. My dad worked a job like this for years. He would work 40 hours regular pay and always seemed to get 20+ hours of overtime. The overtime was awesome because it could triple his paycheck. What other scenario can you think of with two bags of chips? I can think of the professional world where employees have company-matched 401(k), pensions, and stock options. These definitely can pump out multiple bags of chips from the job vending machine. However, you don't get these multiple bags right away. You have to put in your time, develop your value to the company, and prove that you're worth their long-term investment.

In most cases, a job is very simple. You get out what you put in and the output is expected. If you don't get out what you put in, you feel robbed and cheated. This mentality of trading time for money is what is commonly called 'Job Mentality'. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. This country needs hard-working people to do the jobs of industry. If you are listening to this and have a job, I want to say thank you for turning the gears of industry and keeping all of us alive! Job mentality is simply this. I get money back for every hour I put in.

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I don't proclaim to know all the answers. My M.O. is to listen more than I talk for two reasons. For one, I can learn from anyone. Secondly, I am emotionally sensitive and want to hear others speak so I can try to relate to them or possibly find a way to help them. This is my nature. Why did you just say all of that Ken?

Recently, I was perusing the posts, questions, and problems of residential cleaners in my friend Angela Brown's Professional House Cleaners group. By the way, if you haven't heard Angela's double interview on the Smart Cleaning School, you NEED to! This Moment with Angela Brown & Snag Success with Angela Brown
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I've followed Angela's group for 8 years and will stop by from time-to-time to comment on posts to help others. At least, that's my goal. As in other free help groups, I see a common theme of posts. About 80% of the posts are from newer cleaners asking how to clean, what to use, how to deal with people, and how to price. 10% are strategy questions and 10% are wins from members. Don't quote my numbers. It was a guess from experience. I don't enter into the majority of the posts, rather focus on the business strategy and people issues. I believe these are the most important to building a successful company.

On my recent perusing of posts, I noticed a pattern of common questions and issues that I've listened to over the years. Here's a few from residential and a few from janitorial.

*"My customers don't respect me as their cleaner and they won't pay me what I'm worth."

"This one customer is constantly watching me clean and timing me."

"I have a few customers that constantly reschedule or cancel service. How do I tell them this isn't okay?"

"[They post a recent text thread from a high-drama client and vent.] This customer is complaining again..."

"They want me to use their cleaning products and vacuum cleaner. How do I tell them I use my own?"

"I get a customer complaint every Monday morning about something little that was missed in their office."

"One of my customers keep asking me to do extra things not in the contract or cleaning arrangement."

"Just because they pay a lot of money for their cleaning service, they feel like they own me or I work for them. I don't like getting bossed around!"
These questions are all pain points for cleaning business owners. I have personally experienced each of them over my 18 years in the industry. I am empathetic and recognize these issues for what they are. It is high-drama. Period! I did a fun episode called "Why I Fired My First Client*", where I divided all of our clients into 4 groups - low-paying & high-drama, high-paying & low-drama, high-paying & high-drama, and low-paying & low drama. When you hear these listed out, it's obvious that we want the high-paying & low-drama and don't want the low-paying & high-drama. It's the other two groups that cause us so much grief.

That's why I responded the way I did recently to multiple posts with the same answer.

"When you NEED clients badly, you take whatever you can get. Here's what I recommend. Get out there and add, add, add. Get UNNEEDY. Then you can start dictating your terms!"

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Ken continues his interview with Debbie in this surprise episode, where Debbie shares insider teaching from Cleaning Business Fundamentals and brings on 3 CBF success stories. Let's start with a summary of the 6 components of CBF proven success system. If you don't do ALL 6, the system doesn't work.
1. Owner's Role – You can't clean and do 90-day mop-free formula
2. Unique Money-Mix Profit Formula – Keep it simple. You track 3 main numbers (KPIs) in CBF.
3. Unique Empowered Pay – This attracts and retains "career cleaners" vs. "chronic quitters". This is beyond rare in the industry that has very high turnover.
4. Culture of Quality Employer Training System – This Speed Cleaning training system trains new cleaners efficiently and in scale.
5. Marketing & Branding Client Attraction Blueprint – You need a strategy that stands the test of time versus a tactic that comes and goes. An example of a branding strategy is a cause-based business.
6. The Math is the Path – The way to wealth is through metrics. 3 numbers matter – customer acquisition cost, profit to the owner, and client attrition.

There are 3 main groups (avatars) of residential cleaning service owners that can benefit from CBF.

1. Start-Up to Scale – 50,000+ new cleaning businesses are starting out each year, especially after the pandemic. Most have NO idea what they are doing and fail. Some invest in themselves to learn how to grow a cleaning company. Debbie has many students that didn't want to clean solo and wanted to scale from Day 1. Morris McRae joined us for his CBF Success Story with Maids of a Mission in San Antonio, TX.

2. Solo to Scale – These are cleaners that work by themselves. If they're on their own, they're tired, overwhelmed, and frustrated. They want out. If they're Solo Elite Members with Ken, they are optimized with great profit on a flexible schedule. They are ready to make the jump to a team. Jen Rodgers of Just Peachy Clean in South Daytona, FL joined the podcast as our second CBF Success Story.

3. Despair to Scale – Debbie typically meets these cleaners at the $300 - $400k per year in revenue. They are making no money and wanting to quit. Our Valley of Despair CBF Success Story was Katie Stepp of Katie's Cleaning Service in Manassas, VA.

Today's episode was brought to you by Cleaning Business Fundamentals or CBF. Do you want to start a house cleaning business and never have to do the cleaning? Are you a residential solo cleaner wanting to scale your business to earn your freedom? Are you a residential cleaning business trapped in the Valley of Despair with a team but no profit for yourself and close to quitting? Check out the Smart Cleaning School's CBF Exclusive Deal. Get Debbie's impactful "Succeeding on First Time Cleans" for 50% OFF and a free CBF discovery call with Debbie or one of her certified CBF Coaches! Just go to smartcleaningschool.com/resources and you'll find "Featured Sponsor" at the top of the page. If you want to scale your residential cleaning business to a million dollars, get CBF now!

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It was an honor to interview residential cleaning industry legend Debbie Sardone a second time. At the time of this recording, Debbie's first interview "A Buffalo Charges the Storm" was the third most-downloaded interview of the Smart Cleaning School's 45 published interviews. Debbie really barred all and shared personal stories she's never shared. It was a powerful episode with powerful stories and lessons.

I wanted to re-connect in the beginning of this interview and ask her some follow-up questions on two quotes I loved from her first one. They were.

*"When you are confident in your beliefs, you're not really wavering or shaking in your beliefs. It's much easier to shield off the bullets from your haters... much easier."

"Anyone can succeed when it's east, but will you still be standing when it's hard?" Debbie and I really dig into these topics in the first half of this interview. Here are some additional quotes from Debbie that are powerful.
"We are all influencers. Some of us have bigger platforms, but we're all influencing somebody for good or for bad. An influencer is neutral."

"You do desperate things when your business is a broken mess."

"It was the shame of what I did that helped me decide that I will never let my business get me to the point that it gets me to do something that I know is wrong."

"Leave people better than you found them. Treat people the way I should treat them, not the way they deserve to be treated."

"Learning produces results and results produce confidence."*

This last quote lead Debbie and I to discuss knowledge versus confidence. We agreed that having more confidence than knowledge is called arrogance. They talk a big game, but have nothing to back it up. The opposite is called Imposter Syndrome. They have more knowledge than confidence and are afraid to speak up as they feel they don't belong. This is equally detrimental to arrogance because it hurts people. The arrogant can lead people into making them worse off. The imposters have the ability to help many, but are afraid to do it. This hurts people because they never actually help them.

"You need to break the pattern of quitting. Most of the people who quit in business. They go on to quit another business and another business. And when you see people that say they are serial entrepreneurs. Often times, they are serial quitters."

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Are you a person that flies by the seat of your pants? Do you fly like Maverick in Top Gun where your instincts dominate? This is absolutely cool in the movies, but it kills pilots in real life and the ones that kills are the amateurs and the experienced professionals. It's called spatial disorientation. First, let me give you a definition.

Spatial disorientation – It's the inability of a person to determine his true body position, motion, and altitude relative to the Earth or his surroundings. Both airplane pilots and underwater divers encounter this phenomenon.

Teresa and I earned our PADI Open Water certifications in July 2001, which allowed us to dive 60 feet. PADI stands for Professional Association of Diving Instructors. We then went on an epic adventure in the Fiji Islands to vacation and SCUBA dive the Great Barrier Reef. This is one of the best diving spots on the planet. It was a life-changing experience. We saw incredible tropical fish, puffers, tiger sharks, all kinds of coral, and amazing sea life and creatures. You gain a respect for what's underwater. When a human becomes like a fish, you better respect that environment. We were trained to follow our instruments down to 60 feet, which basically included a buoyancy control device (a BCD), a regulator, a suit, and oxygen tank depth gauge. I learned to trust my depth gauge. It was crucial to follow my instruments as well as use my eyes and ears to decide to go up or down while diving. There's charts you follow so you don't get the bends. There are many more components. I'm just trying to keep it simple. I can remember a few times where I swam up, thinking I was going down. Even worse, I swam down, thinking I was going up. Thankfully, I learned to trust my instruments to correct my positioning under the water. When you are that deep, it is really hard to tell which way is up or down. It's scary, but it's true. I'm so thankful that I was taught to trust my instruments.

Here's another example of spatial disorientation. My friend Royce Repka, owner of Double R Flight Academy out of Perkasie, Pennsylvania jumped on a phone call with me to explain the phenomenon of spatial disorientation from the flight instructor point of view. He's been doing this for nearly a decade, and he knows his stuff. So I'll paraphrase.
"Ken, think of it like this. Humans spend 99.99% of their time on the ground. It seems flat, right!? In reality, we are standing on a curved surface that is spinning and rotating. We can see the ground and we can visually see the horizon. The ground is down and the sky is up. That's obvious. You have reference points."

I understood this from personal experience dealing with Lyme disease and vertigo. A physical therapist, who is trained in the inner ear for vertigo taught me that our eyes see the ground and the horizon and it communicates with our inner ear to balance your body in relation to the level of the earth. People with vertigo suffer dizziness because their inner ears are out of whack. Others can even get crystals that dangle in the inner ear. It can trick the senses to give you vertigo even when you're standing straight. And there are techniques that physical therapists can do to remove those crystals.

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I want you to stop what you're doing. And I want you to really listen as this could be the most important podcast you have ever heard. Do I have your attention yet?
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I have a vital question for you. What would you say if everything you said came exactly true as you said it? Keep your mouth closed, listen, and think. What words would you allow to come out of your mouth if you knew that every word you spoke would come to pass? Do you know that your words are powerful? They are not, and never were just words. Our Creator made us with the ability to design our own lives. It's all controlled or steered by a tiny rudder called the human tongue. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. Words are seeds and seeds grow into plants. Everything you speak is a seed and God will not be mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that he will also reap. You will be held accountable to every idle word spoken. Speak what you want!

Those sayings were an assortment of Bible verses that hammer the power of the spoken word. Here's a secular version from Napoleon Hill's, "Think and Grow Rich". Napoleon Hill studied over 500 millionaires during the decades of the 10s, 20s, and 30s. He released this book in 1937. It's a wildly popular best seller for almost 100 years. Here's the portion of text I want you to hear from Napoleon Hill.

"The pages of medical history are rich with illustrations of cases of "suggestive suicide." A man may commit suicide through negative suggestion, just as effectively as by any other means. In a midwestern city, a man by the name of Joseph Grant,a bank official, "borrowed" a large sum of the bank's money, without the consent of the directors. He lost the money through gambling. One afternoon, the Bank Examiner came and began to check the accounts. Grant left the bank, took a room in a local hotel, and when they found him, three days later, he was lying in bed, wailing and moaning, repeating over and over these words, "My God, this will kill me! I cannot stand the disgrace." In a short time he was dead. The doctors pronounced the case one of "mental suicide. Just as electricity will turn the wheels of industry, and render useful service if used constructively; or snuff out life if wrongly used, so will the law of auto-suggestion lead you to peace and prosperity, or down into the valley of misery, failure, and death, according to your degree of understanding and application of it."
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Do you believe me yet, I'm going to really bring it home now. Our senses are designed to receive information and store them into our brains. Our subconscious brains store them like a library. Our conscious brains can access this information when it makes a decision. Furthermore, the information collected most often gets stored in the same place in the library. Think of the librarian. She's getting the same book over and over. She has to go to the same shelf to put it back because every book has a call number. As this librarian is going to the same shelf with the same book over and over and over again, she's wearing a deep groove in the carpeting to that shelf. This deep groove in our brains is called a neural pathway. The deeper the groove, the more profound the influence of that piece of information to the outcome of your life. Our own words are so powerful because they enter our brains through our inner and outer ears. Our brains are most tuned to hear our own voice. Therefore, anything you say out loud wears pathways (neural pathways) faster and deeper than any other bit of information the brain collects. This is spiritual law from God and scientifically proven. You cannot dispute the law of the spoken word. It's like gravity. You can try to deny it by stepping off a building, but you will only confirm the law of gravity. Speak what you want!

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Amar Ghose is known around the cleaning industry as a digital nomad, world traveler, SaaS Founder of ZenMaid. His name came up on the interview with Courtney Wisely ("People are Inspired by Honesty").

Here are some highlights and quotes from Amar on this interview.
"Your dream is your dream and your rich life is your rich life."
"The Wifi leads the way for the nomads." I thought this was an interesting point Amar made. Digital nomads can't go ANYWHERE they want. They can go anywhere that has good WiFi.

"Nomadic life has helped me appreciate the differences all around the world. It has given me such perspective on gratitude."
Amar read "The 4-Hour Work Week" by Tim Ferriss when it came out in 2007. It was finally the permission that he needed to take a shot. He thought about this book and his dream for 8 more years. 2015 was his first year living it. Amar has always been all-in on personal development. This culture is throughout the ZenMaid Team. Amar wants people that are taking advantage of improving themselves and is willing to invest into them by paying for the courses and books.

"First-time founders focus on product and second-time founders focus on distribution." Amar noticed early-on that a first-time founder will be very focused on what the product is, what the idea is. Very little thought is given to how you're going to get that product or idea into people's hands. This is natural because if you're never owned a business before, you're going to focus on the product and the idea. Once you've tried before and failed, you realize that you need to build the tribe or user base first and let them tell you what to build. Amar says this. "As a more experienced founder, I am spending my time on how to distribute the features of the product."
"I wouldn't be starting a maid service today if I didn't already know how I was going to get my first 10 or 15 or 100 clients. Just setting up a cleaning business and having no idea how you're going to get those first clients is just setting your business up for failure."
Amar is a member of the Dynamic Circle, a community for nomadic entrepreneurs. This has given him a group of friends to grow and live life with.

Amar on lifestyle freedom - "That's what I enjoy the most. It's not that I work less hours than people of anything like that. It's just that I can make my own schedule and work when my mental energy is highest. Ideally, I like to work 10 – 20 hours per week and have the rest of my time just opened to me. The ultimate definition of freedom is choosing to work 10 hours or 80 hours in a week and not having to do either."

"Our biggest goal at ZenMaid is making things accessible and easy to use. Simplicity and ease of use are core values of the company. Our vision is to serve more remote maid service owners We also see the future where the more savvy maid service owners can customize their own perfect solution using ZenMaid software."

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There are so many reasons why I decided to start and build a cleaning company. I want to talk about an internal motivation that's always been beneath the surface. And I suspect it's in you as well. What does your name mean to you? I want to inspire you to desire a good name. This is called legacy.

First, I want to read you a quote from King Solomon. Now who is King Solomon? Let me build up his credibility. King Solomon is the richest and the wisest man in human history. He reigned over the Kingdom of Israel from 970 to 930 BC. Scholars have estimated his wealth in current dollars around $2.2 trillion. For perspective, the richest man in the world right now is Bernard Arnault, who is worth around $200 billion. If King Solomon were alive today, he would be worth 10 times that of Arnault. Here's more perspective. If you search Google for the richest man of all time, they seem to omit King Solomon. You will find Mansa Musa who reigned King of the Mali Empire from 1280 to 1337 AD. His net worth in today's dollars is estimated at $400 billion. This is two times the richest man today. Yet King Solomon is still five times wealthier than Mansa Musa. I have even more perspective. Do you know how King Solomon got so wealthy? He inherited some from his dad, King David. But did you know that world leaders at that time would literally travel far distances via camel, I suppose, just to hear his wisdom and learn from him. They would bring him the wealth of their country and give it as a tribute just to hear him talk. This is mind-boggling to me. I shared all this because King Solomon wrote a book that I read often. It's called Proverbs and it's found in the Old Testament of the Bible.

"A good name [earned by honorable behavior, godly wisdom, moral courage, and personal integrity] is more desirable than great riches; And favor is better than silver and gold." – Proverbs 22:1 Amplified, Attributed to King Solomon

I first read this at the age of 25, when the Bible was still new to me. But this verse really captured my heart. I wanted to make a name for myself. I wanted to make those that poured into me and made our name valuable, proud of me. I wanted to carry on their legacy. Here's a few examples of men who knew their name and purpose.

"Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die." Inigo Montoya knew his name and he knew his purpose.

"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife." Now that's a man who knew his name and his purpose.

The first one is a little bit silly from "The Princess Bride", but it does show the power in a name. The second one from "Gladiator" is just chilling and awesome and gets men to want to fight for this man.

Now it's my turn. My name is Kenneth Joseph Carfagno, III. I was named after my Pop-Pop, Kenneth Joseph Carfagno, Sr. My father Kenneth Joseph Carfagno, Jr. named his firstborn son after his father. My Pop-Pop, Kenneth Sr. was the sixth child, and fifth son of Genaro Carfagno. Genaro was the firstborn of eight kids of Giuseppe Carfagno. Giuseppe is Italian for Joseph and Genaro is Italian for Jerry. So I carry the name of four generations of my fathers. My middle is Joseph, the English version of my great-great grandfather Giuseppe. My first name Kenneth is the same as my father and grandfather. That is so cool to me. So much has been poured into me and into that name. I feel the weight of responsibility to make that name even better!

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I attended my first ever commercial cleaning conference last month in Washington DC. The event was called Cleaning & Cocktails Live, the Interactive Playbook Edition. It was hosted by Michael Brown of Swept Technologies "I Wish You Would Have Told Me" and Ricky Regalado of Route/Rozalado Services "You Still Need the Grit and Blue-Collar". I was the event MC. That was such a cool experience. Big shout out to Michael and Ricky for believing in me, bringing in someone that's never been to a commercial cleaning conference, never MC'd a commercial cleaning conference, to BE the voice of the conference on their most important day. That was a great honor and I am grateful to both Michael & Ricky. I felt really good about it. I had a lot of fun. And I met a lot of great people. I will say this, I was definitely nervous in the beginning. But I noticed that I got more comfortable over time. Now get to put MC of a conference on my resume.

I met a lot of great people at this event. One of my new friends is Brian Comiskey from Legacy Cleaning servicing the Twin Cities of Minnesota. As Brian and I talked, he was sharing a takeaway from the night before that we both heard from Terrell Weg of MSNW. Terrell said. "You don't have to create everything on your own. Just learn to be a great copier. Copy. Copy. Copy." Brian and I agreed this was excellent advice. Why would we reinvent the wheel? It's working pretty good, right? And then Brian dropped this one liner. "Ken, we need to be a pirate, not a pioneer." I said. "Uh, Brian, can you say that again?" He kind of chuckled. "Yeah, sure. You have to be a pirate, not a pioneer." Then Brian explained his mindset even further. "Ken, we need to do what Terrell said and copy, copy, copy. We need to be the best cleaning pirates out there. Show up at someone else's cleaning company (with our Jolly Roger and cannonball and blast the front doors in)!" Brian didn't say that last part. He did say this. "And be a pirate and steal from others. That's what we need to do more of, we need to stop trying to pioneer or recreate everything."

I loved this mindset. It took me back to my days in Amway, when we learned that the most successful companies copied a proven business model. It's called duplication. It's what franchises use. Find a proven model and duplicate it. This is exactly what Terrell and Brian are talking about. No one is saying not to pioneer. We are entrepreneurs. It's in our blood. We would be wise to take the proven stuff and then pioneer from there.

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Josh Melton has been a friend of mine in the industry for several years. We are both Christian husbands and fathers with a heart for men's ministry. Outside of cleaning, Josh has been involved in many side hustles including a coaching program to empower and strengthen men. Likewise, I am an author and was involved in a coaching program to help Dads. Can you see why we'd connect so well? How about this one. Josh built his commercial cleaning business to the level I'd like to attain, which is 6-figures of profit without having to clean. But he did that to earn his freedom to focus on other projects he felt more called to lead. That is also me 100%. During this interview, Josh and I share our stories and ultimately how God has been trying to turn our eyes toward Nineveh. What does that mean?

Here's the short answer. Read the Book of Jonah in the bible or at least watch this short cartoon summary. It's great! Jonah was sent by God to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh. He chose to turn away from God and go his own way. Essentially, God ran away from God's plan. This decision met Jonah with adversity and destruction. Yup, this is the story of the man that was eaten by a whale! That's Jonah. Eventually, Jonah turned toward God and went to Nineveh and all was corrected. Jonah lived out his life in blessing. Josh and I talk in this podcast about our common cleaning roads to Nineveh. It really connected Josh and I even more. I loved this interview and I know you will too.

Josh Melton is the co-owner of the Athens Cleaning Company and the co-host of the Entrepreneur Adventure Podcast.

Resources: In this episode, Josh mentions the janitorial software Swept that his company uses and loves. He also endorsed the book, "Traction" by Gino Wickman.

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I have been fortunate to interview several visionaries in our industry over the past year. This interview with Ricky Regalado was different. He is such a visionary that he inspired me to do greater things in this amazing industry. Take the time to listen to this one all the way through and then listen again. You will not be disappointed.

The first portion of the interview covers Ricky's upbringing and deep family ties. This is where you start to feel the deep sense of connection that he has to the blue collar workforce in America. In the second portion of the interview, we shift gears and talk about the cleaning industry and where it's going. We covered the integral values of hard work, grit, and perseverance that founded our country and is not being taught like it used to. In the final portion of the interview, Ricky shares his vision for the cleaning industry and how we can be a part of rebuilding America.

Here are a few notes and quotes that stand out from this interview.

"If we were going to make this work, there wasn't enough time to have a social life because we had a vision. At some point, we'll be working on this business and not in it."
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*"Love it or hate it, you don't get a 10x return on a blue collar business. You get a 10x on a technology company or an invention."

"A trend isn't a short amount of time. That's a risk, a high risk and can turn around on you as fast as it went up."*

Where does this generation learn grit and develop a backbone? We learned it from our baby-boomer parents and grandparents, who watched their parents and grandparents survive the Great Depression. We learned it from our immigrant parents who scrapped for everything they had. We learned it from our single moms who had no other way but up.

This industry is so poised to keep growing. We're foolish not to capitalize. Ricky is getting letters from private equity firms all the time offering to buy his company. These firms see the marketplace and see commercial cleaning as recession proof and pandemic proof. For the first 5 years, Ricky didn't like being known as a cleaning service owner. It wasn't glamorous. Now, he shouts his business with confidence and excitement. It generates responses like. "Ooh, I need a cleaning company."

There have been 30,000 new cleaning companies formed from 2006 to 2018. That number nearly doubled in 2020 to 52,000 and 2021 is likely more than 2020.

"I feel like they need to know what it is to walk in the shoes of a cleaning technician before any other thing cause then they'll get that humility." Ricky requires every employee of the company at every level must spend their first 30 days in the field cleaning. "The greatest generals started with basic training."

Ricky's Business Growth (Year to Year)
2012 $80k Coverall
2013 $250k Coverall
2014 $600k Coverall
2015 $800k Coverall Sold, $0 Rozalado
2016 $1.8M Rozalado
2017 $2.4M Rozalado
2018 $4.8M Rozalado
2019 $6M Rozalado
2020 $9M Rozalado
2021 $10M++ Rozalado

Ricky's Vision for our Industry
Rozalado is currently at the top 1% in our industry. 9% of the general labor (blue collar) workforce comes from cleaning & maintenance industry! Think of it this way. 9 of every 100 blue collar workers in the US are working for cleaning & maintenance companies. That is mind-blowing. Ricky believes very deeply that he can make a sizeable impact on the American labor force by strengthening cleaning companies. It goes back to the way of life he grew up in. All Ricky knew was blue collar and now he is able to raise the standard of living for the very people he represents through the most unlikely of businesses.

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John Disselkamp is the owner of First Class Commercial Cleaning in Louisville, KY. John was born and raised in Louisville and had a hard-working mentality. This suited him well in his early corporate life and propelled hiim to a bank executive at a young age. John won the prestigious "40 Under 40" Award during this banking stint. In this interview, John shares his transition from corporate to starting a commercial cleaning company in 2016 and growing to six-figures per month in revenue and 50 team members in under 3 years. He then lead his company to $5 million in revenue and 230 team members 3 years later. John is an American Success Story!

First Class Revenue Story
Year 1 - $90k
Year 2 - $350k
Year 3 - $950k
Year 4 - $1.4M
Year 5 - $2M
Year 6 - $2.4M
Year 7 - $4.8M
Year 8 projected- $9-$10M

John has accomplished all of this with mental illness. Since childhood, he struggled with mental depression and anxiety.

"We were in growth mode and growth sucks cash. We had intentional moves to make sure we could scale a company."

John believes that investing into your business is more than just the supplies to fill an office cleaning location. It's in people and in culture. He made sure to keep relationships first, which he learned in corporate, to fuel First Class's culture. John believes that the culture he created is why First Class excelled through Covid and a labor crisis since 2020.

He joined the Strategic Coach Program to up his leadership game. John was challenged with the concept of the 4 boxes that is taught in that program. John early career was spent in the box that represents something that you're good at, but don't enjoy. This is where most careers go to die. John wanted fulfillment and has found it in his cleaning company. He's good at it and enjoys it, a rare combination for adults in the working world.

"What makes a smart person smart or an intelligent person intelligent? It's not knowing what they know. It's knowing what they don't know. And that's always been something that I've taken to heart."

"It's a pretty simple business. If you treat people well, you work hard, you do what you say you're gonna do, you're halfway decent at communicating and building relationships... You're better than most and I've still found that to be true 6 1/2 to 7 years later."

John had a playbook for how to start a cleaning company and couldn't find it. He was going to St. Loius with his future wife and decided to cold call a local company to see if he could learn from then. He called Spencer Commercial Cleaning and a guy named Scott Bader answered the phone. Scott met with John for over two hours to mentor him. John is so grateful to Scott for helping to launch First Class Commercial Cleaning. John still uses the contract templates, pricing strategy, and a few other systems that Scott has taught him.

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Michael Brown is the founder of Swept Janitorial Software, which is an all-in-one app that integrates employee scheduling, tracking, customer supplies, and quality control. As many of you know, Josh Melton has coached me from solo to a team of commercial cleaners over the past two years. Josh personally uses Swept and introduced me to Michael a few years ago. I've been following his journey and had to get him on the show. Michael is brilliant and I couldn't wait to listen to his mindset. I also have to mention this. We've now used Swept personally since 2021 and there is NO way we would have been able to to take 2 month-long family trips to Florida in the middle of winter without this amazing tool. As of the time of this interview, Swept had over 40,000 users in a market of 1 million janitorial companies. They have a lot of space to grow and they will!

In the first portion of this interview, Ken and Michael dig into training up our kids to be life-long learners and critical thinkers. Michael shares a story of a local friend with a large security guard company that designed a program to "give them their brains back". He found out the unique talents and skills of his workforce and utilized them. This made the employees enjoy their work more and it saved the company from investing in specific job functions and roles. Michael encourages other employers to look outside of the typical roles to find gold on your team.

"People will overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten." - Dan Martell

"Dream Manager" book is a favorite of ours. Michael says it was based on Mary Miller's janitorial company Jancoa out of Cincinnati. This company has an incredible culture that the book was based on.

Michael grew up in rural Nova Scotia with no money in the family, so he sought to earn through his own businesses at age 8. He has been a life-long entrepreneur. His dad was a government worker with an incredible work ethic. He was work-oriented and that really shaped young Michael.

"If you have nothing to lose, you can take risks."

"People will give you the advice they would take."

His first business was a rain gutter business in college that he built a million dollars and sold it. He started a commercial cleaning company in 2014 and struggled as we struggle. Michael started Swept for his own cleaning company as an internal tool to support the growth of the company. The software grew from there to where it is now at over 40,000 users worldwide.

"Everything that we want to do is already in us." Michael finds his big ideas and plans while out in nature without devices. Being away unlocks these ideas. "We, as humans, have the ability to figure it out."

"There is a difference between a Leadership Mindset and a Survival Mindset. One is scalable and the other is not."

"I'm fascinated by people. They want the end state, but don't want to do the pre-work. Some would rather risk the money than take the time to validate it before they spend the money."

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We discuss a wide array of topics in this podcast episode anchored on our belief system. What is the underlying characteristic that has helped Debbie Sardone succeed in each of her businesses? It's her belief and conviction that what she is doing is right and is helping people. This conviction creates the self-confidence to take massive action and the massive action leads to massive results. It's this simple. You hear this woven all through Debbie's entrepreneurial journey that spans multiple decades. You hear this conviction rise up during the pandemic in the metaphor of the cow and buffalo and in helping cleaning company owners through the Valley of Despair. Here are some quotes from the episode.

"That's when I realized that there is a solution for everything. But you do have to go find it, you need to invest in it, and you need to follow it. And that's what I did. I'm a very good student."

"The fear was always worse than the reality. You can borrow my confidence until you have it."

"If you believed you could do it, you would pursue it."

At the end of the episode, Debbie and I referenced a mutual friend, "It's Grace for a Reason with Kevin Smith".

Debbie Sardone is the Founder of several companies including Buckets & Bows Maid Service, Debbie Sardone Consulting, and her non-profit Cleaning for a Reason.

Debbie and her team at CBF are offering an incredible deal to listeners of the Smart Cleaning School. Are you scaling a residential cleaning company to $1 million or would you like to learn how? CBF Live is the largest residential cleaning training conference and will give you the boost you want. This event on April 12th, 2023 in Dallas is $697. Go to CBFLive and enter the code "KENHALF" during registration to get half-off the ticket price!

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Recently, a listener to the podcast took me up on my free coaching call option on my website. Niki Kempf of Custom Cleaning in Dyersburg, TN had some pretty big questions. Niki was close to pulling the trigger on a coaching program for $10,000+ and decided to hold off. She left that situation discouraged as her family has big dreams and no idea how to get there. Our call was awesome. I didn't ask her about her business or what she wanted her business to look like. Instead, I asked her about her dream. She shared an awesome vision. First of all, she is recently married and Niki and her husband want to grow their personal ministry to help people coming out of rehabilitation programs. She wants to mentor them, possibly hire them, and definitely donate to organizations that support them. She wants to get her husband out of his job to help her in the cleaning business. This lit her up! Then she told me something amazing. They have a dream to give away 80% of their income. Whoa! I shared the JC Penney story and how he was known for giving away 90% and living off 10%. This is the opposite model of the church/tithing model where the Christian tithes 10% and lives off 90%. Niki loved this. Then I built her dream as I shared a story of a cleaning friend doing something similar. Jessica comes from a rough situation where she dealt with abuse. She has a huge dream to help battered women in her area. She wants to hire woman coming out of the shelters to get them back on their feet. Then she wants to start a non-profit where her cleaning business funds a portion and both the cleaning business and non-profit could be in a commercial building that she buys. Jessica would have a building for everything she wanted to do and the income to do it. Niki LOVED this even more. That's when I shared the Home Depot story.

"Niki, let's say you wanted to hang a picture in your living room. You walk into Home Depot and find a worker. You ask him where the tools are for hanging pictures. Instead of telling you, he asks you a question back. In fact, he asks several questions. How large is the picture frame? How much does it weigh? Is it fragile, made of glass? What type of wall are you hanging it on? Is it plaster or dry wall? If it's plaster, how thick is the plaster and is there brick behind it? If it's drywall, can you locate the studs or will you be able to use studs? You would look at this Home Depot employee like he had two heads. You'd wonder why that all mattered as you simply want to hang the picture frame and need the tools."

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I want to thank a listener of this show and new friend, Megan Combs of Combs Commercial Cleaning in Las Vegas, NV. She had fantastic questions to ask me and even more outstanding takeaways about my podcast. I can't wait to share them. Thank you Megan! You have a bright future in this business!

She extracted something out of me that I used the phrase, "a dime a dozen". This is used to reference something very common. For example, people graduating with a degree in business are a dime a dozen. Out of 12 people, a dozen, 10 have business degrees. Those numbers are not actual but the connotation or meaning is that the business degree is very common. It's not specialized. They're not set apart. Those candidates are going to have to work harder to get a good job. Megan stated that she was a good cleaner. I thought about this and said that being a good cleaner in a solo cleaning business is a dime a dozen. Here's what I mean by that. Most people starting cleaning companies do it because they like cleaning or think cleaning would be a fun business for them because they've done cleaning. Maybe they love cleaning. From my experience, most cleaners enter like this. It's common to either be good at it or like it. That makes sense. But what makes you succeed in a cleaning business? Is it how good you are cleaning? The answer is no.

Cleaning business owners that have a entrepreneur's mind or a business owner's mindset set themselves apart at a high level. They understand people and can communicate well. They know their Why and have dreams. They are self-motivated and inspired. They understand business goal-setting and strategy. They understand investing over spending. They understand delayed gratification. They are disciplined and understand that no is on the path of yes. There are so many business mindset factors that contribute to a winning business. This is what I explained to Megan. Then I thought about it more and realized something extremely exciting. This podcast, the Smart Cleaning School is 175 episodes and growing of business owner mindset and it's ALL FREE to you! In fact, this podcast is my free course on how to acquire the entrepreneur's mind to set yourself apart from the "good cleaners" to become a "great cleaner". How do you like my course so far? Are there topics that you'd like added? Please email me at ken@smartcleaningschool.com to let me know.

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Welcome back to Solo Saturday! Hey solos, what do you think of this new monthly feature? What do you think of the new vibe of the podcast? I'd love your feedback. Please connect with me through my website or email to ken@smartcleaningschool.com. In this month's edition of Solo Saturday, I will provide a sequel to the popular "Excellence Vs. Perfection".

Are you a perfectionist? Do you take way too long cleaning a single house? If so, please go back and learn the difference between excellence and perfection. It may set you free! In that episode, I touched on the mental illness of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I didn't address it much, but trust me. I know all about it. I am diagnosed with Tourette's and OCD. Most of my mom's family has some form of OCD, eating disorders, tics, etc. I have seen and experienced this and don't take it lightly. If you heard my first episode and still can't get over your perfectionism, I want you to listen to this one.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, psychiatrist, or mental illness professional. Nor do I guarantee that ERP will help your OCD.

I'm a regular guy that has dealt with this illness my whole life. And now, I have someone very close to me that is struggling with OCD. It breaks my heart to see the struggle.

I will keep the name anonymous, but this person could not control their OCD and suffered tremendously. They needed real help and it was found in the form of Exposure Response Prevention (ERP). This is a form of therapy that wasn't around for me in the 80's and 90's, but it has shown tremendous results in tic disorders and OCD patients without the need for medication. This individual didn't want meds. They wanted to solve the problem, not band-aid it. In ERP, the counselor and/or psychiatrist goes through a 20-week program to identify the sources of OCD, address each one, and replace the habit with something better. It's grueling, but life-changing and freeing for so many. I have learned a lot about ERP. It's fascinating. One thing that I learned is that the OCD patient has to accept the uncertainty. I learned this from an ERP counselor. She told me this. People with OCD struggle because the compulsions never seem to stop the obsessions. There is no closure, thus the cycle repeats over and over again. One of the first things they have to teach themselves is that it's okay to accept the uncertainty. As an example, I don't know is a full answer. It's uncertain, but final. A person with OCD will want I don't know to become a yes or no. They will obsess on something out of their control. However, when they train themselves that I don't know is a complete answer, they can move on. ERP teaches them how to do this. Once they get comfortable with uncertainty, they experience a reduction in their OCD. As I said, I'm no doctor. I'm just fascinated about this breakthrough therapy and wanted anyone listening to this episode to have hope.

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This is the first Solo Saturday episode. You are still my people. I'm a solo cleaner and have always been one. This monthly Saturday solo show will guide you along my ISO Model. In this first episode, I'd like to start with a 15-minute clip from a recent Optimizer's Workshop I did with Heather Parke from Heather's Housekeeping in Roy, Utah. The Optimizer phase is the final part of my ISO Model. Over the years, I have developed a tool to examine and analyze a solo cleaner's business. It's called an Optimizer's Workshop. I did this workshop with Heather from the Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership as a perk of her membership. We spent 90 minutes together on Zoom to map out her business to see if she was an Optimizer yet. My goal is to show you the analysis needed to properly assess your solo cleaning business. I also realize that this workshop clip is harder to understand without seeing it. Therefore, I have also included the video on my Smart Cleaning School YouTube Channel.

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On August 4th, 2017, I was running my first optimized solo cleaning business in Upstate New York. I was earning over $50,000 profit on 2 days per week without employees. This is when I dove into the world of online courses and coaching in our industry. I was working on the ISO Model Course while I was in the midst of finalizing the optimization of that first solo biz. I also started a YouTube channel called Smart Cleaning Biz and released weekly video blogs to help cleaning company owners. They didn't get many views and I didn't do much in the way of promoting them. I was learning, just figuring out how to help others in the industry. On August 4th, 2017 I was happy and content to be a solo cleaning forever working a few days per week. Little did I know that only 3 months later, the Lord would open the door for us to sell the cleaning business and move back to our hometown in Montgomery County, PA.

I dug deep into the archives to find this gem I will share others from this era of the Smart Cleaning Biz circa 2017- 2019. It's a short message, I was teaching solo cleaners that wanted what I had. They were looking for all of my optimizing tricks. I was still developing the ISO Model and used this lesson to teach solos that they are doing it all wrong. They need to initialize and stabilize before they could optimize. Stabilizing requires people skills and business savvy and cleaning science knowledge. I was encouraging them to follow the I-S-O Model. Many that I encountered were doing it backwards. They would start by initializing. You have to start there. They would try to optimize what they had and then attempt to stabilize it. This doesn't work. They were doing the I-O-S Model, which I called Apple. We're not Apple. Don't follow their operating system. Follow mine to do what I've done. That message has grown over the years, but is fundamentally the same. It is taught in the Solo Elite Membership powered by the ISO Model Course. I encourage you to check it out.

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I was listening to the Tim Ferriss Show again and found another amazing clip... again. This one is from Episode #638: Seth Godin on The Game of Life, The Value of Hacks, and Overcoming Anxiety (Repost). At the 20:00 minute mark of this conversation, Seth shares a teaching strategy on learning how to juggle. I listened and then listened again. It is profound and yet so simple. How do jugglers learn how to juggle multiple balls? Here's that portion of the conversation in transcript form from Tim's website.

"Seth Godin: So I’ve taught more people to juggle than most. I’m not a great juggler, but we’re not talking about figuratively. I’m talking about actually juggling. So let’s talk this through, because I think it’s a useful lesson. If you’ve ever seen a juggler on television or on video or in person, what you notice is that they don’t drop the ball. Not dropping the ball is perhaps the driving force of what makes someone a juggler and, if you are enjoying the show, you are willing and wishing the balls not to drop.

So if someone says, “You want to learn how to juggle?” you might say “Yes.” This is what always happens when I teach people to juggle. They grab three balls. I say, “No, no.” They grab three balls and they throw the first one. This is easy. They throw the second one, and then they go to catch it because they know catching is the key to juggling. By the time they get to the second ball, they have to lunge for it. Once you lunge for the second ball, you’re out of position for the third one, and then you’re done. It’s all on the ground and you give up on juggling because, if juggling is about catching, you’re terrible at it. What’s the alternative?

Well, the way I’ve taught people how to juggle is simple. I give them one ball and we spend between 20 minutes and 30 minutes throwing the ball and letting it hit the ground, no catching. Then we add the second ball. Throw, throw, drop, drop. No catching. Throw, throw, drop, drop. If you do that for 40 minutes total, you’re going to be really good at throwing. If you get really good at throwing, the catching takes care of itself. This is the part about divorce from the outcome because all we care about, if we want to learn to juggle, is to learn to throw. The metaphor I cannot escape which is, getting better at throwing is what we have to do to build resilience, and it’s what we have to do to live in a world that’s changing ever faster."

"If we try to anchor on outcomes and control results, we’re in the catching business and then we’re really in bad trouble."

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Let's continue the Control Series! My first episode was "You Must Let Go of Your Control", where I shared a few major breakthroughs in my recent ability to let go and trust others. It was an important therapy session. I continued this recently with another breakthrough about your business is not you and viewing trust and control like a rope. Check out part 2 of the series called "The Trust Rope". This is the 3rd part that goes the complete opposite direction! Are you ready?

I shared a Facebook post in early January that got a lot of comments and it wasn't because I did a good job. It was because I did a bad job and owned it. One of our largest customers dropped us. They accounted for 10% of our monthly revenue. It was painful. Their reason for dropping us was quality. Apparently, one of their bathrooms developed an orange film on the sink and our company left it there for weeks. There are so many angles I could take this. I could tell you about the onion principle, but I'll save that for another time. Instead, I want to take their reason at face value. They cancelled service because we didn't meet the quality specifications they required.

In the first 2 episodes of this series, I honed in on breaking the control and perfectionism I had over me for years. It didn't bother me when I was a solo cleaner, but it reared its ugly head when we tried to grow a team. I had to change and I did! I gave some rope and then some more and then some more. I was checking the quality of each of our locations each month to maintain quality and keep our customers happy. But something happened that is scary. I got careless and allowed some buildings to go unchecked for more than a month because I had other things I had to do. Somehow, I pulled a total one-eighty going from an obsessive need to check every building every time to not checking at all. This wasn't true for all of our buildings, but it was for this one. After getting fired, I realized that it had been 3 months since I inspected the quality. 3 months! I could have seen the orange film if I simply would have done 1 measly inspection. 45 minutes of my time could have prevented the loss of 10% of our income. This was a tough pill to swallow. I gave away all of the rope and it cost me.

Let's talk about two words. Quality and control. Quality is simply the level of performance or service that meets spec. It's not perfect, but it does meet expectations. That's quality. Control is the process or system of maintaining something. Put these two words together and you get a vital component of running a successful cleaning company. Quality control is the active feedback loop that maintains the expectations of the customer and keeps them happy. I used to be obsessive on QC, ensuring 100% compliance to every detail, every time. This was unscalable. In late 2022, I went to the other side where I nearly stopped all forms of QC, which is a slow death to any company. Here's the simple lesson. Don't operate on the extremes. Define quality in your organization. Train it. Inspect it. Maintain and work to exceed it. This will give you the balance to keep your rope light, burden-free, so your cleaning business can grow.

I offer free coaching calls to listeners of this podcast. Do you struggle with quality control or perfectionism? Book a free coaching call on the Smart Cleaning School website at www.smartcleaningschool.com to talk about it! You can also check out the many free & paid resources available on the website as well. I look forward to helping you!

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I was asked to share a business showcase in my local networking group a few weeks ago so others knew more about the cleaning services I offered. On the day of the showcase, I didn't have a presentation or notes or handout or sales material. All I had was a picture of my family, a slide of our 5 Levels of the C3 Experience, and my full story. I recorded this showcase and wanted to share it with you. Thanks to my new Google Pixel 7, I have a transcription which I am also sharing in the show notes. After I was done, I received the greatest compliment possible from fellow member Shelby Leight of Keller Williams Realty.

"Great job. This type of presentation guys, and how Tom had done it. You need to know who you're referring and you need to feel a comfort level of what your integrity is. And I thought that this was a phenomenal presentation because we now know what your passion is and what makes you tick. We say it all the time. How many freaking realtors do you know? But at the end of the day by knowing a true story, you can match those people accordingly to who they are. So I'm really glad that you did this presentation."

Shelby is stating a known fact in human relationships. We only refer people that we know, like, and trust. This business showcase increased my know, like, and trust! I am not sharing this to brag on my ability to tell a story. I am sharing it to encourage you to do likewise in your community.

Are you enjoying the Smart Cleaning School Podcast? For the last 3+ years, I have released 2 new episodes every week in hopes that you would implement what you've learned and grow. It's a free course and that's the beauty of podcasting. Thank you for listening! I LOVE doing it. It's a labor of love and it helps so many. But it isn't free to do and it does take a lot of my time. That's why I brought on advertisers last year that I personally endorse and I'll continue adding more. My biggest struggle going forward in 2023 is that I have TOO much content! I have been trying to figure out HOW I can share the extra hours of amazing teaching from each interview guest and entire unreleased interviews and bonus content from Smart Cleaning Tribe Expert Calls and clips from my ISO Model Course and other resources that I discover along the way. I have enough for a second podcast! I would love to share this with you ad-free, but I can't do it for free. I believe this firmly. Those that want to level-up must have skin in the game. To play at a higher level, you have to pay a higher level. That's where the idea of the Smart Cleaning School Premium Podcast came from. What if I took this premium content and offered it for $10 per month? Would this be valuable to you? What content would you be most interested to listen to? Would you pay for something like this? I would greatly appreciate your feedback. Please go towww.smartcleaningschool.com/premium to submit your feedback and potential interest for this new learning track in the Smart Cleaning School. Again, thank you so much for listening. I look forward to hearing from you.

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I have held this story for several months. I am going to share the story of a young man that applied for a part-time job at C3 last summer that had all the signs of a potential leader. Let's call him Larry. One of our core values is ownership. I look for this quality in our applicants. Are they reliable, dependable, trustworthy? This is the foundation of the second core value of excellence. If they take ownership, they will work with excellence. The final core value is safety. If they are a person who takes ownership and works with excellence, they will not let safety slip. I look for this and have a strict filtering process for C3 hiring. It's obvious when an applicant is lazy or not willing to work. My dad was the hardest worker in his gas utility crew. But there was a guy named Hector that always managed to do the least amount to not get fired. He never pulled his weight. Others in the crew including my dad had to do his work. Hector was overweight and lazy. No one liked Hector, but Hector was just fine because he had a cushy job that paid well and others did his work. By the way, that guy managed to retire from the utility company. It's incredible that the leadership of this company allowed 'Hectors' to survive. They kill morale. It's obvious when a Hector shows up in your applicant pool. They stand out. But what about the other extreme?

Larry applied to C3 and completed all of the steps to earn an interview. He was enthusiastic about cleaning. He has been working in cleaning for years part-time with his family. He was passionate about our company's mission and values. He was off-the-charts ambitious. He had young kids and had big goals and dreams. He listened to several of my podcasts and was excited to work for me and get mentored. He wanted to grow his own cleaning company. Larry had an aura around him that rang the bell I was looking for. As quoted in one of my favorite movies of all time (you can guess it)... "That brings us to Larry. Oh yeah. I had to chance to speak with Larry today. That guy is a straight-shooter with upper management written all over him." I saw the potential in him to not just become a cleaning team member. I saw him rising quickly to become my first supervising team leader. I saw him rising beyond that to join the leadership team I will build. I saw all kinds of potential. Have you ever met a Larry? He stands out just as much!

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The topic of letting go is universal across all business and family and relationships. Have you ever heard the rope metaphor in parenting? We use this with our kids. "Hey son, I'm giving you a rope. In the beginning, it's very short so I can pull you back in quick. As you take responsibility and ownership and make good decisions, I will give you more rope or trust. When you make poor decisions that put yourself or others in harm, I take away some rope. When you blame others and shirk responsibility, I take away some rope. My goal is to eventually give you the rope so you can pull me whenever you need me." As I just read this, I get a little emotional as my oldest son is 18 now and is close to getting his rope. This concept of the rope has helped us raise our kids and I fully believe it helps with our employees as well. In "You Must Let Go of Your Control", I shared the breakthroughs that allowed me to emotionally let go of perfectionism and control. It was a therapy session for me. I have a follow-up episode to further help you breakthrough your deep, dark emotional control over your business.

I solo cleaned for 16 years. I was my business and my business was me. If I got a new customer or made one happy, it made me feel great and raised my confidence. If I lost a customer or broke something, I took it personally. I was an emotional yo-yo at times. Can you relate? My business rises and falls on my effort, performance, and abilities. Therefore, I needed to control every aspect of my business. I also profited over 85% from the revenue my business created, so obviously more control equaled more money! Do you see the danger in the solo mindset that I had? I believe this is a cause for many solos struggling with perfectionism. At this time in our entrepreneurial journey, I couldn't conceive of a company where others would clean and I'd manage or even step away. Why not? Here's my therapy session, part 2. I used to work for GE, which was at the time one of the 5 most admired companies in the world with over 300,000 global employees. Thomas Edison wasn't running the business. He was dead. Yet his creation outlasted his life. I worked for an entity (GE) and earned an income based on my contribution to that entity. If GE had a bad year, I didn't get upset as I was just a small piece in a large machine. But I also knew that if I messed up, I'd be out! GE had a high-performance culture and my mess up would impact my contribution to the entity. I did, in fact, mess up and was fired in 2005. I've already covered that story. GE's culture created a need to do perfect because I was fearful of making a negative contribution and losing my job. I was unable to trust others and preferred to do every aspect of the engineering job myself as only I could do it right. I brought this into solo cleaning in 2005 and it remained until last year.

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One year ago today, we arrived back in Pennsylvania after the most epic month-long family trip to the Gulf Coast of Florida. It was a dream and we actually achieved it. Our family lived a full month in another location while the family business operated back home. In this "best-of" replay, I wanted to convey the mindset Teresa and I had when we left Florida. We didn't want to leave, but we knew we had to. Listen all the way through. I said this statement toward the end. "We both moved from sad to leave to excited to come back." Here's that episode replay.

Are you new to the Smart Cleaning School Podcast? If not, please bare with me. I started as a solo apartment cleaner in 2005 and moved into real estate presentation cleaning in 2006. This opened up the doors for solo house and small office cleaning in late 2006. I grew and optimized my first solo cleaning business through 2017 to a 2-day per week cleaning job earning over $50,000 per year in profit. I loved having 5-day weekends to spend time with my family. Check out the introduction episode to hear more of my story. We sold that business in 2018 for $80,000 so our family could move back to our hometown closer to family. I have fully detailed my selling process in the double episode, "How I Sold My Cleaning Business I & 2". We started and grew a new business in the Indian Valley of PA from 2018 to another optimized solo business working 2 days per week and earning $70,000 per year in profit by early 2021. This podcast documents that entire process if you'd like to learn how to do it yourself. Everything changed when we got our "New Freedom Vision", which was followed by numerous monthly calls with Coach Josh, and culiminating with the victory episode called "The Fight was Worth It". Here's the short version. We desired as a family to take the ultimate trip. We wanted to go to Florida for a month in the middle of the Pennsylvania winter. It was a fight, but it was worth it. I encourage you to to back and listen to the episodes I've mentioned. I believe it's important to walk beside me as we scraped and struggled to build the team that would allow us a month away. In this episode, I want to hone in on one statement my wife Teresa said to me as we were packing up on the last day in Florida.

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I originally started this podcast for solo cleaners because I was a solo cleaner. I was the solo cleaner's champion to show that you don't have to scale to win. I had optimized 2 solo cleaning companies to $60,000 profit on 2 cleaning days per week without employees. I was also mainly in the residential cleaning world. At the time of this episode, I was growing my second company and really felt that the vision of moms helping moms helping moms would connect with so many women in the industry. But Ken, you're not a woman. That's quite obvious. But I was in an industry dominated by women, so I wanted to relate more. I have been married for 20 years. I have a daughter and 3 sisters. I'm not totally clueless. 

Would you like to talk about anything in your business. I am here to help. Book a free coaching call on the Smart Cleaning School website at www.smartcleaningschool.com. Make sure to check out the many free & paid resources available on the website as well. I look forward to helping you!

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I attended my chamber's Fall Forum event at a local theater with four business leaders sharing on the state of the economy and business. For the purposes of this podcast, I'll keep the panelists nameless, but will share their backgrounds. Their backgrounds were the following: an analyst from the FED, a chief lending officer from a local bank, a machine shop owner, and the owner of a construction engineering company. I listened to each of the men talk on the state of the economy and business and the lessons they've learned and implemented. A theme emerged in my mind. The construction engineer noticed that customers in residential real estate were more interested in energy efficient homes than ever as they wanted less expenses to operate the home. In past years, people didn't care about this as much. The machine shop owner struggled to get good tradesman to work for him. He was reluctant to take on new work. Therefore, instead of growing the bottom line, he focused on taking care of what he already had. He focused on his existing team and doing the work he could handle. He gave increased compensation and benefits and intangibles. He focused on relationships with his team and his vendors. I thought this was incredible as his culture is now booming and morale is way up and it's more desirable to work for him than ever before. All of this happened because he couldn't grow. The loan officer shared the point of view from his customers that he lends to. He notices that businesses are doing more tightening of the budget and watching their expense lines. They are watching their cash flows also to make sure they can handle what's coming next with increasing interest rates. He mentioned one customer that normally would do a single projection for the next 12-24 months. That same business owner is doing 3-5 projections at any point similar to a meteorologist tracking a hurricane on weather.com.

I really love how businesses are tightening up and getting efficient in their finances. I love how businesses are placing high value on building relationships and culture in their teams. Obviously this was triggered by the tightening of the economy and the inflation and rising prices. As I pondered these answers, I asked myself the questions. Will the lender observe his customers still doing multiple projections and managing cash flows when the economy is booming? Will the machine shop abandon the culture growth when hiring is easy again? Will the construction engineer be doing energy-efficient homes when energy is abundant again? I stood up and asked this question when I had the opportunity to the end. The answers were awesome, especially from the loan officer. He shared an example about his grandparents in the Great Depression. "Those that experienced the Great depression continued to operate as if they were in the Great Depression, even when things got booming again. Those that went through it, don't forget it. That mindset continued. But then the next generation who didn't experience the Great Depression had no idea. And therefore took no precautions when things were good. And these are the ones that got wiped out when it got bad." Our chamber director had a great answer. "A week economy makes businesses stronger and a strong economy can make businesses weaker." The loan officer continued by saying, "the businesses that have gone through these last 2-3 years will not forget and will continue to operate as they've been . They will stay efficient even as they grow in a better economy." He gave a warning. "It's the next generation that concerns me. These are the businesses that never experienced the pandemic like we have."

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The Smart Cleaning Tribehas been a fun membership to run these last 4+ years. Our founding members have grown significantly as they set goals and hold each other accountable each month. Every month, I bring a subject-matter expert into the Tribe to resource the members. Our very own, Kate Sloan of Chicka Chicka Broom in Montgomery, MN, stepped up to lead the call in September 2022. She has a superpower of utilizing standard operating procedures (SOPs) so well in her business. Kate has been such a resource to the other members. We were all grateful for her sharing so much that day with us. This clip is the first 25 minutes of the 100 minute call where Kate describes her business at the different stages. It's very helpful and encouraging. It's sort of like the 45-year-old without a retirement plan yet that suddenly puts it all together at 50. That's me by the way! Ha! That was Kate as well with SOPs in her business. This 25-minute clip is a SOP story with Kate Sloan.

If you're interested in leveling up your goals each month and having a tribe to hold you accountable as you achieve them, the Smart Cleaning Tribe is for you. Check out the videos and testimonials on our Tribe page and apply to join the 1% Club! You can also book a free coaching call on the Smart Cleaning School website at www.smartcleaningschool.com. Make sure to check out the many free & paid resources available on the website as well.

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Coach Josh and I use Marco Polo to communicate during the week. He allows me to send questions as I have them. He listens and responds when he gets the chance. I'm very grateful to have Josh Melton in my corner as we grow C3 to the next level in 2023, which is to add the second building block and earn over $100,000 income from the cleaning business. Josh and I had an exchange on November 8th and 9th of 2022 that was so interesting to me. I've never heard it talked about before in the cleaning groups or other podcasts. I had to cover it here.

Cleaning is a business, but a business is not merely a ledger with a list of transactions. It's easy to pull up a profit and loss report and see all of the income and expense transactions. It's easy to see the text and numbers printed on the screen or page and assume you're looking at the cleaning business. I don't believe a business merely consists of transactions. A business is relationships. A cleaning business is a group of humans cleaning for other humans, all of which have personalities, beliefs, families, interests. It's easy to measure a business in transactions. That's what our accountants do. It's not easy to measure the relational strength of our business.

Josh poses an interesting point in his Marco Polo to me. "I believe that you can trust someone that you don't respect. But I don't believe you can respect someone you don't trust." I agree with him. I can think of people right now that I could allow into my house around my family, but I don't respect them. Therefore, respect is greater than trust. How do you earn trust? I've talked about this a ton. On the "Optimizer's Workshop with Dave Reeks", I defined the 3 C's to build trust as a cleaner. You've got to have excellent character and be the type of person that others can trust. You've got to provide an amazing cleaning service. In other words, you've got to handle the transactions of cleaning with excellence. This includes the cleaning itself and surely the transaction of invoices and payments. You've got to be consistent in your cleaning service and everything you do in dealing with your customers. If you show up with great cleaning and character over a long time, you will develop trust. Another way to build trust is to give it. Others won't trust you if you don't trust them. Trust is mutual. I'm going to add a fourth C. You've got to have compassion for other people and not be selfish. This is so foundational. Show love for your fellow human.

When you put this all together. Start with compassion and character. Become a great cleaner and cleaning service. Handle your transactions with excellence and trust. Give trust. Do this over time. This will earn your trust from your customers. Keep doing it consistently over time and that trust will turn into something greater. It's respect. When your customers respect you, they will want to do business with you for a long time. Most clients will grow with you as you grow mutual respect. However, some clients will only ever think of you as "just the cleaner". Become a person of trust and respect and you'll attract the right ones

I absolutely love this mindset and it thrills me to build this type of cleaning business in my community. Everything hinges on relationships, not transactions. I hope you enjoy this interaction between Josh an I on Marco Polo.

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Have you ever had a customer or an employee that ghosted you and you didn't know why it happened? When this happens early in your business, it really affects your confidence and your heart. Some of you may have had this happen with a first girlfriend or boyfriend. It makes you question whether you should be doing what you're doing. It's natural. Rejection is very difficult.

By 2016, I had optimized my solo cleaning company after 13 hard years. I was very confident in what I did. Later that year, I started coaching others how to do the same. Rachel was my first coaching client. I helped her every week and it felt great to help someone else. Andrea was my second coaching client. I coached her every week and it also felt great. I was really on to something. Maybe I had found a niche that I loved and also way to create a secondary income from anywhere in the country. That was very exciting! My third coaching client... Let's call him Ron... That's not his real name. I want to keep him anonymous. I coached him two times. Ron was working at a factory and had started a side-hustle cleaning company that he wanted to use to get out of his job. I saw some issues with the way he was building it and gave him some hard advice. After our second call, Ron ghosted me. He never gave a reason and he never responded to any of my follow-ups. I emailed him or messaged him probably 10 times over the next 6 to 12 months. I didn't understand what happened. Since this happened, have moved on and added more coaching clients. I met Debbie Sardone who encouraged me to create a course. That course is called the ISO Model Course which is included in the Solo Elite Membership still today. We sold that first solo business, moved to PA and did it again. I added a podcast and memberships through the Smart Cleaning School. I scaled the second cleaning company with a team and took my family to Florida for a month. We're growing and striving to help as many people as possible. But that third customer named Ron ghosting me really affected me early on.

I questioned whether I was doing the right thing, or if I was too hard on people, or if I was too easy, or if I was really qualified to be coaching at all? I had to work things out internally and emotionally build my confidence back up. Thankfully, I was able to help Rachel and Andrea quite a bit, which boosted my confidence. This infamous ghosting happened in March 2017. About a month ago, I decided that I wanted to reach out to every former customer I've had in the coaching business and anything related to Smart Cleaning School memberships. I just sent a simple email checking in with everyone and thanking them for their trust in me and wanting to see how they were doing in their life, family, and business. I sent any email to Ron as well. It was the first contact or follow-up I had done in probably 4-5 years. A month later, I got a free coaching call set up on my calendar. I offer these on my website and mentioned this on my podcast. A guy named Ron booked a call. I looked at the answers to his reasonings for booking the call and it said this. "I just wanted to call and apologize to you."

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I met a young lady named Brittany Holter on a Zoom call in December 2022. Brittany is a mom, military wife, and new cleaning business owner. She is growing fast and starting to struggle with the good problem of too much work. Her niche is in AirBnB. Brittany reached out to me by booking a free coaching call on my website. Our conversation was wide-reaching and I certainly asked her permission to record in case we talked about anything that could help other listeners like herself. Brittany agreed and we did! There were 3 topics that we touched on that I wanted to share in one episode. They are how to deal with hazardous material or HazMat, scaling, and the do's and don't with 1099 subcontractors. I have included a clip from our hour-long free coaching call to give you the highlights.

HazMat - This is a classification of cleaning that you need special training and PPE before you do. Don't be a people pleaser and agree to clean whatever is left, especially in an AirBnB scenario. Either decide that you don't do HazMat or get the proper training and equipment and charge the specialist prices. Otherwise, you're losing time and money and you're putting your health in jeopardy.

Scaling, W2's, and 1099s - It's hard to scale. That's why so few do it successfully. The best ones build strong systems and hire with W2 employees. They train and trust. I shared a brief summary of my experience with Brittany which I capture in this clip. The lazy and quick-fixers just hire helpers that they call 1099's. They do this and have no idea what that even means. The IRS highly regulates the 1099 subcontractor vs the W2 employee. They don't want to get short-changed in taxes. Many cleaners think they can just hire them, call them subs or 1099's, avoid all taxes, and treat them like employees. You can't have it both ways. You either have to hire an employee that you can find, employ, insure, pay taxes for, uniform, train, equip, inspect, correct, and so on. Or you have to outsource the work to a third party independent contractor that has their own supplies, insurance, training. They have their own business with their own customers. You are simply outsourcing work to them. There are do's and don'ts that the IRS highly regulates. Here's an article from the IRS.

1099's Do's and Don'ts, Pros and Cons - I'm adding this as a bonus to the call with Brittany. I am not the expert here, but I did take courses early on in my cleaning career through the experts at Service Magic (now HomeAdvisor). I will refer you to the expert. Ed Selkow is a friend. His double interview on the past, present, and future of the cleaning industry is fascinating. Ed runs the Janitorial Subcontracting Network Facebook group and so much more. Ed knows subbing! Here's the basics from Ken.

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This is a powerful follow up to my last episode, Building Blocks, I shared a story about Legos and building your cleaning company in blocks that are duplicatable. I had developed a building block as an optimized solo cleaner, but there was no scaling needed. I shared in Building Blocks that we created our first scalable building block in 2022 which was comprised on 16 commercial locations and 8 employees. This block earned my family $40,000 income on $166,000 in annual revenue. This is not a good percentage to keep because the first block is very unprofitable. The second block nearly triples our income. There is something vital that I did not mention that really deserves its own episode. How was I able to trust others after being a solo cleaner for 15 years? How was I able to delegate, create systems, and get others to do just as amazing a job cleaning as I did solo? Do you ever find yourself asking that question? Here's the simple answer. You must let go of your control or you'll never succeed with a team.

I had lunch with a new friend of mine. Randy Moyer is owner of Moyer Specialty Foods in Souderton, PA. They sell trail mixes and all sorts of goodies that I was so thankful Randy sent me home with that day! I had posted on Facebook a few weeks previously that I was scaling my business and the E-Myth was a big help. He commented that the book helped him successfully scale past $1M several years ago. We had some common friends and decided to meet. That lunch was amazing. Randy is a very interesting guy with a lot of personal freedom. I consider him a new mentor and am thrilled to have the opportunity to highlight his amazing company. Randy mentors many entrepreneurs. There was a point in the lunch while I was telling my story that Randy stopped me and said this. "Ken, that right there is why so many solopreneurs and small businesses fail. You figured it out. You have already overcome the most difficult thing. Now all you have to do is grow." Would you like to know what story I told him?

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My boys love to build Legos! It's one of their favorite things to do. You should see the look on their faces when they open a brand new 3-in-1 set on Christmas Day. It's even more awesome to see my 5-year-old building that same Christmas Lego set on the kitchen floor a few hours later while his brothers are working on theirs. Once and a while, I'll even help them if they let me. A few years ago, we got them Ikea furniture for Christmas. Boring, right? Nope. They each got 9 pull-out organizer bins with a table top for their Legos. Oh my, did they run with that one. They spend hours taking every Lego and carefully placing them into the right color-coded bin. It was a win for the boys as they could build their own projects easier with the organizer like a true Master Builder and it was a win for mom and dad as it kept their Legos in one place...sort of. Legos are kind of like a virus. They spread. Legos end up everywhere. Since getting them the Ikea organizers, my boys have used all available flat space on the family room hard floors, kitchen table, and certainly their bedroom tabletop areas and floors to construct massive Lego ciites. They combine other building materials like Duplo and wooden blocks from games we have like Giant Jenga and Kapla blocks. They bring their stuffed animals and plastic animal toys into the creation and then play for hours. It's mesmerizing. Boys love to build.

We went to Lego Land last year as well for a day. This was heaven on earth for a then 4, 8, and 10-year-old boys. The 4-D theatre, ride, and laser challenge were highlights. The part that I liked the best was the giant Legos. While the boys were playing in the 3-level playground, I found the pile of rubberized Legos in the parent waiting area. Each block is around 4-by-8 inches and they had a lot of them. I wanted to relive my Lego glory days and impress my sons when they got done in the playground. One thing or block lead to another. After 30 minutes I had constructed a 4-foot tall enclosed structure with entrance and roof. My boys saw it and immediately the youngest ran inside. "Wow, Dad. This is cool. Did you build this?" Oh yeah, my ego was satisfied. I got pictures of all 3 of my boys inside my castle. In fact, other kids were in line to do the same. They thought my house was part of Lego Land. "Actually, I built this."... "Really, you did this?"Oh yeah again, double boost to my ego.

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Action Unlimited Story: "Our founder, Alan Glazar, joined the Marine Corps at age 17. Wounded in Vietnam, the Marine Corps trained him in heating and cooling where he worked for the remainder of his service. While he didn’t enjoy working on HVAC systems, it exposed him to mechanical skills and a field where he was involved in inspections, repairs, quality control, and maintenance. After leaving the military, he became a janitor for a company that distributed cleaning supplies. His responsibilities quickly expanded from sweeping floors to making coffee, adding up invoices, and calculating daily profits. One day the owner said, “Kid, I want you to go out and sell.” That day Alan discovered his calling—helping customers. And boy was he good at it. The competition soon noticed and another company grabbed him. Throughout his time at the company, Alan rose to fill the shoes of general manager, purchasing manager, and sales manager before eventually running the company as the right hand for the owner. In 1982, Alan founded Action Paper & Chemical Co, a company founded with the mindset of a salesman on the street with a simple guarantee: 100% Customer satisfACTION! As time progressed and our product line expanded, a name change was necessary. Today, as Action Unlimited Resources, we are still family-owned and operated and we continue to handle customer needs with a sense of urgency – just as Alan founded the company.

Today, Alan's son Aaron runs the company. They are located just over an hour away from me in Wilimington, DE. In early 2022, I was introduced to a company sales rep, Lynda OLear through one of my local networking friends. I had never heard of Action Unlimited and therefore was not aware of the size and scope of their operation. I asked my friend and Smart Cleaning School guest Kelly Jones about Action. She was emphatic. "They are a great company! I use them personally for all of my supplies. In fact, they are currently making me a product." A few months later, I made arrangements for a site tour or Action and a chance to meet Kelly in person for the first time. It was a great visit. Company rep Becky Eppig was my personal tour guide. She walked Kelly and I around the warehouse and offices at Action. I was very impressed with the operation. The highlight was meeting company CEO Aaron Glazar. He was enthusiastic about his company and had a magnetic personality. I definitely wanted to get Aaron on the podcast to promote his company and, more broadly, to educate cleaning company owners on the chemical supply industry. Aaron gracefully accepted.

Action Unlimited Resources is the recipient of the following major awards:

• Marvin S. Gilman Superstars in Business Award (August 2022)- The Delaware State Chamber of Commerce honors Delaware businesses each year for displaying the highest ethical standards and their model approaches to business and management. Action was one of 4 businesses named in 2022.
• Inc 5000 Award (2002) - This ranks all privately held companies by overall revenue growth over a three-year period. Action ranked #4,689 with a revenue growth of 91%.
• Great Place to Work 2022 - This certification recognizes workplaces that give all employees a consistent positive experience.

This interview with Aaron Glazar takes us into his background, heart, and vision for the company. He also shares the overal industry outlook so anyone in the cleaning industry can make better choices where to buy their supplies.

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This episode has turned out to be one of the most important in my entire podcast episode catalog. I had just joined the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce after meeting with our Chamber Director, Steven Hunsberger in "I'm the Only Cleaner". A few short months later, I was sitting with new Chamber mentor Ken Byler of Higher Ground Consulting. Ken is a leadership coach and amazing listener. I was asking him how I should approach my chamber membership. In this episode, Ken tells me the best advice I've received for the C3 business. "Ken, get a name for doing." It was a selfless strategy to build a reputation in the chamber and business community as someone that cared, that got involved, that made a difference. I took that advice and applied it. Now, I serve on the chamber membership committee and have an outstanding reputation with the membership and leadership team. This reputation has also increased our local commercial cleaning business revenue by over $25,000 per year directly and probably another $40,000 per year indirectly. I highly encourage each and every one of you to soak this episode in and take action!

Carfagno Cleaning is a corporation with various divisions. We have a this podcast and the Solo Cleaning School. I serve team cleaners in the SMART Cleaning Tribe. This all falls under my 'consulting' division. My main division is my own solo cleaning business that I am rebuilding in the Philly suburbs after sellling my first one to Ian Traynor of Albany Pure Cleaning. I hope you've been enjoying this podcast and the journey I've taken you on.

This week was a short one as Thanksgiving cut off 2 days and my family was traveling to New Jersey for a long weekend. I started the week with a meeting with Ken Byler of Higher Ground Consulting. I met him and really connected at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon a few weeks ago. This was a fun meeting. I am used to asking questions and listening, but I met with a greater master than I. Ken skillfully got me to talk the whole time and then asked how he could help me. I literally ran out of time to help him. You got me, Ken! Anyway, here's the answer I gave him. "How do I best use or network in the chamber?" Ken's answer floored me. He said this. "Find out the available Chamber committees and see where you can help. They meet once per month for an hour. Pour into it and show your value. This builds relationships with chamber members and raises your level of trust. From here you will Get a name for doing and contributing. Others in the chamber will want to connect 1-to-1. Set the meetings and connect more. This will lead to lasting relationships, leads, and it helps the community through your chamber leadership efforts." This was a drop the mic answer.

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My boys are really into rap music and my second son Kolby has a legitimate passion to become a rapper. He's 11. Kolby is writing, composing, and performing his own material now and wants to get better. We've began studying other successful artists in the Christian rap genre to learn what they did to reach the pinnacles they've reached. These rappers include Lecrae, NF, Andy Mineo, KB, TobyMac, and others! Personally, I'm a big fan of Lecrae.

Recently, my oldest son was playing a Lecrae song while we were working in the basement together. It's called "Take Me As I Am". As soon as Lecrae starts rapping in that song, I immediately heard 2Pac. It was like 2Pac really came back, converted to Christianity, and dropped this SICK song! And yes, I like rap too. I have gone through so many seasons of music including infatuations with the Beatles, heavy metal, and rap. I've listened to everything. I was a big fan of 2Pac in college and used to play in my frat room. Yup, you just learned that I was also in a college fraternity. It was all before I personally accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I have no regrets and made so many friends during this time in my life. Let's go back to the basement. I stared at the bluetooth speaker totally mesmerized as a podcast idea and teachable moment was forming in my brain. If you ever wondered, this is how it usually happens. I told Kenny. "This is Lecrae. You've probably never heard of Tupac Shakur (and he had not). This Lecrae song sounds exactly like 2Pac. I knew it within moments of the song. 2Pac's rap music was so unique in his style and delivery that I'd know it anywhere, any time because I was a fan of his music. I know 2Pac's unique signature. The best rappers and musicians ALL have a unique signature that separates them from the mainstream and makes them memorable." Kenny thought about that and got it. He rattled off 4 other musicians including some rappers that he would know within moments too because of their unique style and sound. Another Christian rapper that has blown up recently is NF. At first, you would think it was Eminem. Their sound is so similar, yet NF has gone beyond the similarities to create his own sound and signature. Lecrae has as well. I was already doing research on rappers for Kolby, so I found some articles on NF and Lecrae. It was no surprise to me that NF was heavily influenced artisticly by Eminem and Lecrae by 2Pac. In fact, listen to this excerpt in a May 6, 2016 interview with Revolt.TV.

"For an artist who often gets pigeon-held in a box as a “Christian” rapper, Lecrae lays it all out in his new memoir discussing everything from domestic abuse, feeing lost in life, an abortion and Tupac’s influence serving as sort of a surrogate father figure in his life. Lecrae states in “Unashamed” that “without any constant male role models, hip-hop artists became my heroes” and “Tupac became my second parent.”

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Do you remember Claudia Adriazola of CMA Cleaning and Organizing in Onalaska, WI? I did a free coaching call with her, which became "The 4-Week Rotating Schedule". Claudia took my advice and implemented it quickly. Then she joined the Solo Elite Membership and began my ISO Model Course. I offer quarterly coaching in this membership, so Claudia and I were back on Zoom for coaching. She had changed so much since our last call just a month prior. She added 8 new clients at higher prices and sent out price and schedule changes to others. This lady is on a mission to change her family's future. I'm so blessed to get the opportunity to help her.

It happened again. On this coaching call, there was a portion that I asked permission to share. She was struggling with how to present a price and schedule change to a longer-term customer that has referred her multiple clients. I really felt her options were great wins for Claudia, but losses for the client. This is where I asked to press record and teach how to use the art of the Win-Win in price increases. Claudia now has a document that she can be proud of sending. She presented the client with possible win-win options and put the ball in her court. If she agrees to the changes, they both win. If she passes and fires Claudia, it's not big deal either because Claudia has already replaced her with a higher priced new client. Enjoy the mindset in this behind-the-scenes coaching call with Claudia.

Are you a new or struggling solo cleaner wanting to create financial peace from your solo cleaning business? The Smart Cleaning School has resources for you! Check out the ISO Model Course and the Solo Elite Membership on the Smart Cleaning School Solos Page at www.smartcleaningschool.com/elite.

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I've been in the cleaning business for 17 years. I was a solo cleaner for 15 of those 17 years. As I was first exploring the cleaning groups in 2016, I got the impression that solo was viewed as "so low". We are just trunk slammers that buy our cleaning supplies at Walmart and advertise our services on the laundry mat tack board. We are amateurs without any real knowledge of how to run a business. In fact, we aren't real businesses at all. We have cleaning jobs and yet we say that we own a company. A solo cleaner is thus a lowly title to many. If this is you, you're not alone. There are over 50,000 new cleaning companies entering the industry each year right now. In all likelihood, probably 40,000 or 80% are new solos. There are definitely companies that start with the intention to build teams from the onset as well. My point is that we are an army and for the most part feel like we're alone and the minority. We really feel like we're below the other companies. We are SO LOW cleaners. Do you relate? I know you do because I surveyed over 100 solo cleaners in 2019. I found the top struggles then to be #1 lack of money & time, #2 loneliness, and #3 feeling so low.

This was tough for me too. I was a highly educated mechanical engineer and part of the corporate leadership team at one of the biggest companies in the world from 2000-2005. I seemed to have it all from the outside. But I wasn't happy. I felt so low there. This caused mild depression and ultimately lead us to start our first side-gig businesses. A few years later, I was fired from my engineering job and fought each day to put scraps on the table and drops in the gas tank to survive through a new job of cleaning houses for a profession. I was embarrassed. I felt so low and I was. My friends from high school and college were buying houses and I was barely able to afford rent. My friends were becoming managers in their companies and I was cleaning toilets. I even ran into old work colleagues looking for house cleaners. I felt so low. Why would I go through this? Why would I sacrifice the prestige of the corporate life for the so low life?

The answer is simple. I wanted freedom. If you're listening to this podcast and you feel like I did. You have a really good job by the world standards. Your family is proud of you, just like my grandparents and parents would brag about their son and grandson working for GE in his big time job. But if you're also like me with all of that status and accomplishment you feel trapped. You don't know what you want to do, but it's not what you're doing now. That was me. I never knew I would ever in a million years end up in the cleaning industry. But I did. I went from an engineer to a solo cleaner. There wasn't a lot of money in the solo cleaning business in the beginning. I tried to go back to my engineering degree a couple times with no success. Even though my income was about half as much as my corporate job, I had something I didn't have before. Choices. My children were young and I didn't have to go to work at 8:00, 5 days a week, bring my laptop home and do more at home. I didn't have to think about the job on nights and weekends. I didn't have to ask for time off. I called the shots. I made my own choices as to when I wanted to work and which jobs I wanted to take. I traded income and status for a small dose of freedom. Was it really so low? Not at all. As I started gaining more choices and freedom and income, I started feeling more hope and excitement on the potential of this solo business that wasn't so low anymore. I stopped caring what others in my family thought of what I was doing for income after nearly completing a masters degree in mechanical engineering.

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I grew up with a mom that corrected all of my spelling and grammatical mistakes. It was painfully annoying, but she taught me that sending your draft is not what professionals do. Professionals send the edited and final version of their work. This was taught and backed up in my schooling too. I always checked my work and would be embarrassed if my work that I turned in had spelling mistakes. Enter 2022 and the age of social media, instant feedback, communication through a gazillion devices, and automatic text correctors. Many of these communication formats still rely on the written word and professionals are caring less and less on accuracy. I am totally guilty of this and so are you!

How many times have I wanted to send response to a message or text so quickly that I hit send before I re-read it? It's embarrassing the stuff I've actually sent and then apologized for. We all do this now as I have received messages from just about everyone with mistakes... and yes... even my mom! It's the great irony of the times we're in. First impressions are still as important as ever. Let me share this simple example. I got a resume from a candidate looking for part time cleaning job. I only hire professionals with resumes that want a side-gig cleaning the professional offices we serve. This candidate is very professional, working as a case-manager and touting communication skills on his resume. His initial communication to me was this. "Hood afternoon." This is super silly. I know what he means. Do I give him a pass like I do for my friends and family? Well... let's think about it together. He is applying for a job that requires the small details to be handled with care. There are many opportunities in cleaning a professional office to miss an important detail that could make all the difference. If this candidate is sending his first impression email to me with "Hood Afternoon", how many other details is he not double-checking? Don't let this happen to you. How about the funny papers story I shared in this episode? That young man didn't impress me with professionalism. He was eager and that's a great trait, but he had no questions for me and I want someone who can think, figure stuff out, take ownership. It's a core value. Here's another example. What if I spent hours and hours for the opportunity to do a walk through estimate for cleaning with a top-tier wealth management company and then sent a professional proposal asking them to spend $1,000 per month with C3 and my email started with "Hood Morning." They may overlook it, but they may not and I could end up losing thousands of dollars because I wouldn't double-check my work. This is something that I've been working on more and more in this fast-paced culture. I am a professional and I use spell-checker. I'm like Santa and check my list twice. It takes moments to check yourself, yet the rewards versus consequences for not checking are huge.

This episode was meant to be short and sweet. Slow down in your communication and impress with being different by being accurate. It mattered in 1963, 1993, and it matters in 2023.

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Recently, I had the opportunity to share an educational piece with a local networking group. It was a follow-up to a talk I did a few weeks prior on setting new habits that would transform their lives. It was 2 weeks later and I started out purposely finding out how accountable the members were to their new life-changing habits. The outcome was encouraging as over half had taken action. They were accountable and for a local group of successfully run companies, I was not surprised. These members knew I was doing a second talk 2 weeks later and perceived that I may ask the accountability question. They were prepared. I have done this same talk in other venues. The overwhelming #1 habit people want to change relates to their health. I observed a similar result. The groups that I returned to had over 50% implementation and accountability. The others had less than a 10% rate of implementation. Accountability is vital. Let's link this back to "Goal-Setting IV - The Accountability Roadmap" Only 17% set goals! 3% write them down and less than 1% have accountability around their goals. The success rates are as follows: 10x for goal-setters over non-goal-setters, 30x for written goals over non-goal-setters, and 100x for accountable to goals over non-goal-setters.

In the spirit of accountability, I'll share a short update from my life. I set several goals in "2 Rewards and 1 Consequence". Here are my stated October 31, 2022 goals:

1. C3: Add 4 locations (to 20) or add $2,500/month revenue --> We added 2 locations at $1,925/month revenue and lost 1 small one totalling $200/month.
2. C3: Add 2 Team Members (to 6) --> We added 2 Team Members and lost 1, so we have 5 total.
3. Health: Do my 3x3 workouts weekly, be 90% gluten-free, complete a 10-day water-only fast, and sleep 8 hours per night to achieve 165 lbs, 20 chin-ups, half-mile treadmill at 9 mph, and 100 calories burned for 15 minutes at resistance 10 on the rowing machine --> I CRUSHED every one of these health goals!

Teresa and I celebrated with a 3-day getaway to Amish Country as our reward! Now, we're going for the next 90-day goals sprint to secure our 2nd month-long family trip to Florida! What are you being held accountable to? The Smart Cleaning School has a great resource for you! It's called the Smart Cleaning Tribe, where the 1% of the cleaning industry meet weekly to create goals and hold each other accountable to achieving them! I'd love to connect with you and potentially invite you into this Tribe!

Here's a clip from that talk I did with my local networking group for you to hear the interaction in the room.

Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page at smartcleaningschool.com/resources.

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These initial episodes were done before the 2020 pandemic. They were important then and I believe they are even more important now. We need to have purpose in what we do or we'll never have the passion and commitment to see it through. In this replay episode, I help you identify the Why in your life so you can jump onboard the goals train! Have fun!

This was a breakthrough week for the Big Picture of what I'm doing. I have business SMART goals that I set for my solo cleaning business on 1/1/20. I share this mindset in my goal-setting series (What is Your Why, Why Set Goals, Make Your Goals SMART, The Accountability Roadmap, and Kill Parkinson). The lessons and reminders from this week in business forced my hand to create a 6th installment to this series.

As many of my podcast listeners know, I have other streams of income. I run the SMART Cleaning Tribe for team cleaners. I host this podcast and the connected Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership for my students to learn my ISO Model to hit their goals. I am also at the beginner stage to consulting large cleaning companies with employees that would like to scale with optimized solo cleaners or Solo Teams. I'm also a published author of an interactive book for fathers to read to their kids called "Arctic Land". In past years, I have struggled with holding it all together and being productive with multiple irons in the fire. This year is different. I have figured out a way to prioritize and follow through. I call it reverse engineering your dreams and I hope this podcast will help you find a similar system that works for you!

I knew (prior to COVID) that this year needed to be our breakthrough year. We needed to build a new solo cleaning business to become an optimized part-time 6-figure income. There were multiple reasons for this:

1. To teach our kids the "family trade" by working with dad, earning income, saving, giving, spending, and investing.
2. To show YOU (the listeners) that my ISO Model works by building and optimizing a second solo cleaning business to the same level as my first in a fraction of the time.
3. To earn a main income source in the schedule I was willing to clean that would provide everything our family needed too thrive in 2020 & beyond, not relying on any online income.

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These initial episodes were done before the 2020 pandemic. They were important then and I believe they are even more important now. We need to have purpose in what we do or we'll never have the passion and commitment to see it through. In this replay episode, I help you identify the Why in your life so you can jump onboard the goals train! Have fun!

I'm calling an audible to my original plan. We started this now 5-part series with Goal Setting I "What is Your Why" and talked about the most important aspect of goal-setting. It's your reason for getting up and doing what you do. The "5 Why's" exercise is an effective way to peel back the layers of your reasons to get to the core of what makes you tick. We are not robots, but emotional creatures. Mike Michalowicz, in his epic book "Profit First", shares why rational accounting doesn't work. He uses an example of plate sizes. Do you know that the average size has grown from 9" to 13" in diameter. That's DOUBLE! Over the same time period, the average American male's weight increased from 160 lbs to 190 lbs! Why? Mike goes to say that humans consume everything they are given. It's human behavior. They also use every available amount of time to finish a project and every dollar to fill their budgets. This is why Americans don't have 'extra' savings on hand or 'spare' time or 'uneaten' calories. There is a name for this. It's called Parkinson's Law.

Parkinson's Law states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." We have to fight against this human behavior to win and learn how to Kill Parkinson!

Our SMART goals are subject to Parkinson's Law too. If you set a SMART goal with a 'T' of 3 months, you will either miss the goal or make it just in time even if you could have done it faster. This is human behavior. I want to encourage you to set goals so that you can complete them in the beginning and get the wins. However, you need to get more aggressive as you progress. I'm going to use this example. I interviewed my friend Courtney Wisely of Rescue My Maid Service on a FB Live to help her set a SMART goal. She wanted to complete a technology course for cleaning service owners to help them be more productive and automated. I asked her if she could get it done by December (12 months away). Her answer was "Heck, yeah!" Then I asked if she could have it done this month. She said, "Heck, no!" I asked about June, which was 6 months away. "Um... yes." She wasn't as confident, but knew she could. Then I said April or 4 months away. She was very uncomfortable, but believed it was possible. I encouraged her to set her SMART goal for April. Here's the psychology behind this and it looks at the 'A' in SMART or 'Attainable'. I pressed Courtney and discovered she could achieve this massive goal in 4 months. However if she set the goal like most people for 12 months, Parkinson's Law would kick in and she'd allow the work to expand to fit the time. That would waste 8 months of potential goals or create a huge Opportunity Cost. Courtney won't do this. She will set the goal for 4 months and kill it this year. Just keep in mind that Courtney is a hyper-focused goal-achiever. We're not all there. So start where you are. The 'A' in the SMART goal has to be defined by YOU depending on where you are in your goal-setting journey. What's barely attainable now will be a joke in a year, so you cannot continue to set the same goals.

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These initial episodes were done before the 2020 pandemic. They were important then and I believe they are even more important now. We need to have purpose in what we do or we'll never have the passion and commitment to see it through. In this replay episode, I help you identify the Why in your life so you can jump onboard the goals train! Have fun!

We're at part 4 of our goal-setting series. You should have a great handle on your Why, why you set goals, and how to create a SMART goal. These are all vital steps in getting traction and achieving. However, there is more to the equation. Let's talk about an accountability roadmap. Think about a huge map of the country. There's a car off on the side of the map. Where do you want to go? Well, that's a silly question. We first need to know where you are now on the map.

Step 1: Know Your Numbers! You have to know your business numbers, which includes your key performance indicators (KPIs) or scorecard, profit & loss, and where you want to go. This will help you assess exactly where you now compared to your goals and allow you to have the measurables to set solid SMART goals.

Step 2: Know Your WHY! Now that you're car is off the side and on the map in the location of where YOU are, you can pour the fuel into the vehicle and set the direction you would like to travel.

Step 3: Determine Your Route! You will need a series of milestones every 90 days in the form of SMART goals to create the dotted line on your map to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

Step 4: Put on Your Wheel! You need wheels to make your gassed-up car to roll to its destination. My friend Courtney Wisely of Rescue My Maid Service uses these 5 areas to measure the health of your cleaning company: Human Resources, Operations, Marketing, Administration, Finances. I added a 6th area and that is Goal Setting & Accountability. We can place these 6 criteria as 'spokes' on a wheel. Simply segment the spokes with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Then grade yourself on each to start your journey and connect the dots. You can see this exercise done on my FREE SMART Goals Masterclass. You will need to create a circle so your 'wheel' can get you to your destination.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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These initial episodes were done before the 2020 pandemic. They were important then and I believe they are even more important now. We need to have purpose in what we do or we'll never have the passion and commitment to see it through. In this replay episode, I help you identify the Why in your life so you can jump onboard the goals train! Have fun!

Goal-setting is a science and an art. We covered some of the art and the emotion of why to set goals. Now it's time to dive into some science. The S.M.A.R.T. Framework is a methodology of setting goals that allows you to measure and track your progress. Without a system like this, your goals are likely just wishes. Check out my free "SMART Goals Masterclass" to get a great recap on the Why of goals and for an in-depth explanation of the SMART Framework.

In this episode, I want you to grasp that each letter in SMART has a greater purpose. However, I don't think the letters are in the right order. For the purpose of an acronym, SMART makes sense. The true order should be RASMT.

• R = Relevant - This is the most important letter in the goal. It must get you closer to your Why! It must be relevant to your BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)
• A = Attainable - The Slight Edge requires slight inputs. You need to get the ball rolling with small wins. Set your first goals small and always make sure they are realistic otherwise, you will not do them.
• SM = Specific & Measureable - This combo makes the goals easily tracked with numbers or scores. As they say, "What gets measured gets managed."
• T = Time bound -This ties it all together and makes it accountable by giving your trackable goal a deadline. Without a deadline, nothing happens.

SMART Examples:

• To grow my book club to 25 members. S, M, A - This is NOT relevant to your cleaning business and there is no deadline!
• To grow my book club to 25 members by 1/31/20. S, M, T - We added a deadline, but it's not feasible to add 25 members in a week. It's not attainable. And by the way, this isn't relevant at all to your cleaning business!
• To grow my cleaning business. A, R - Now we have a relevant goal, but it's too vague. It's not specific or measurable and there's no deadline. By the way, you could literally pick up the phone and call one prospect, get a no, and say you took action that "grew" your business.
• To grow my cleaning business by $1M by 1/31/20. S, M, R, T - This is the first goal that seems to have the whole package, except one thing. It's not attainable! Thus, it's not SMART and you won't get traction!
• To grow my cleaning business by 5 new biweekly clients. S, m, A, R - This goal is relevant and specific. It's also attainable. But, there is no deadline and it's not fully measurable. It's not productive to keep a scorecard and only measure the results. Adding 5 new clients is a result. You need to understand the entire process from the initial marketing to the first message to the estimate and sales. Do you know the level of marketing activity to achieve "5 new biweekly clients"? Once you do, swap in the actions and your goal will go from 'm' to 'M'. If you control the actions, you can control the outcome!
• To create 25 cleaning leads (for 5 new biweekly clients) by 3/31/20. S, M, A, R, T - Bingo! We finally have a goal that is SMART. Do you understand why? Read these notes and listen to this episode until you do!

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These initial episodes were done before the 2020 pandemic. They were important then and I believe they are even more important now. We need to have purpose in what we do or we'll never have the passion and commitment to see it through. In this replay episode, I help you identify the Why in your life so you can jump onboard the goals train! Have fun!

This is our second lesson on goal-setting. The first was "What is Your Why", where we saw the importance of finding what makes you tick and use that to keep you inspired. In this lesson, I want to prove to you why you need to set goals if you want to succeed. In fact, I'll let the well-known Harvard Business Review study tell you why!

• 83% of people do not set goals.
• 14% of people do set goals and succeed 10 times more than the 83% that do not set goals at all.
• 3% of people have goals and write them down. This group succeeds 3 times more than than the goal-setters that do not write them down and 30 times more than the non-goal-setters.

In a separate study of people that set goals and write them down, 40% do not go back and look at their goals!

This is a remarkable finding. Out of 100 people, only 3 write down their goals and less than 2 (on average) write them down and review them on a regular basis. Furthermore, it is my guess that 1 out of 100 write down their goals, review them on a regular basis, and are held accountable to someone they respect to complete them.

Which of these 100 people would you like to be? If the goal-setters succeed 10 times more than non-goal-setters and the goal writers succeed 30 times more, how much more successful are the 1% that go all-in?!

I want to be a 1%'er. How about you?

Reference: The verse I quoted from the bible is Habakkuk 2:2-3

Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.

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These initial episodes were done before the 2020 pandemic. They were important then and I believe they are even more important now. We need to have purpose in what we do or we'll never have the passion and commitment to see it through. In this replay episode, I help you identify the Why in your life so you can jump onboard the goals train! Have fun!

We are starting 2020 with a 4-part podcast series on Goal Setting. Recently, I was asked by Courtney Wisely of Rescue My Maid Service to be an expert on this topic. I did a live training through Zoom to 8 growing cleaning business owners in St. Louis to identify what topics connected the most. Then I refined my presentation to record a 60-minute masterclass on Goals & Accountability for Courtney's Maidivation subscription boxes. Since this content has been received so well by cleaning companies with large teams and growing businesses, I knew it would connect with my solo cleaning family! Surely, you can go to my website and watch my free 60-min masterclass or just listen to all 4 parts of this podcast series.

Why does the Why matter so much? Let's just say it this way. Simon Sinek has built an entire company, platform, and brand on helping people and companies figure out their why. In his book, "Start With Why", Simon shares the concept of the Golden Circle where the WHY is in the center and the How and What flows outward from it. His experience with thousands of individuals and companies show that those that truly start with why, achieve the most success and significance. The ones that just go for the details, tend to lose their way. Without the Why, the How and the What doesn't matter.

I learned a great exercise in San Diego at Social Media Marketing World. It's called the "5 Why's". In this exercise, you peel back the onion until you get to the real & true heart of your why. This is the vulnerable and most cherished part of you. It will create the fuel of inspiration verses the outside need for motivation, which is more of an air pump. This concept really connected with Courtney's Rescue Retreat attendees. In fact, let me share an example from the retreat.

"Why are you here at this retreat?" RESPONSE: "To get my systems in place."
"Why?" RESPONSE: "To be able to automate my business and get to go back to Mexico for 4 months of the year.
"Why? RESPONSE: "Well, really to have my business fully run so I can go back to Mexico and start a family?"
"Why?" RESPONSE: "My 1st marriage didn't work and I want to start again and be a mom."
"Why?" RESPONSE: "I've always wanted to be a mom and raise a family and travel."
As you can see, the responses got deeper and more personal. This woman wants her cleaning business to provide the income and time freedom so she can live her Why. By the time you get 5 Why's deep, you should have something that is highly emotional to the person and is highly likely to light their own pilot light for inspiration verses outside motivation. The light of inspiration will never go out.

Go to my Resources page to see my recommended book list including "Start With Why" by Simon Sinek. I also referenced my good friend Josh Melton of Athens Cleaning Company in Athens, GA in the Funny Papers. He co-owns this commercial cleaning company and helps other commercial cleaners nationwide get to the 6-figure income mark.

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Courtney Wisely is the founder of Magic Maids (Festus, MO), Rescue My Maid Service, and Spotlight Community Theatre (Festus, MO). I have known Courtney for over 4 years including a few years where we were in a mastermind together. Courtney is relentless in her work ethic and service toward others. She has achieved a very high level of success in her community and the cleaning industry. She has achieved her dreams and enjoys freedom with her son and daughter. This interview deconstructs her success from her highly dysfunctional roots in Bellville, IL and every where in between. After this interview, you will absolutely believe that if Courtney can do it, I can do it.

Here are some quotables from the interview:

"Why give validation to someone that is failing at life about what my future is going to be like. That's insane!"

I asked. "You had a horrible childhood. If you could go back and change anything. If you had an eraser, would you?" Courtney responds. "No. I would be someone different person and I love who I am."

Courtney's favorite book series outside of "Harry Potter" is "Runaways (Orphan Series)" by V.C. Andrews. These books gave the young Courtney the hope and encouragement she needed to escape her childhood. Her favorite professional book is "The Four-Hour Work Week" by Tim Ferriss. This taught Courtney how to work to live vs how to live to work. She lives this life today.

She found her life mentors at Cold Stone Creamery, where Courtney spend most of her 20's. They allowed her to be creating and perform within the Cold Stone culture. This also moved her family to Missouri.

"People are inspired by honesty and inspired by people that actually live their truths and don't care what others think. That's what people want to do, but are too scared to do."

One of the biggest lessons that Courtney learned between doing free Rescue Retreats to charging for her services. "A very important lesson to learn as an entrepreneur. People are going to pay if they actually want to take things seriously."

"I didn't try to force a team together. I let it naturally happen."

"I built what I wanted, so that I could live my dream of living musical theatre."

Thank you Courtney Wisely for your willingness to share your story in such a honest, transparent way. You have done here exactly what you said in the interview. Your honesty has inspired me and definitely many that are listening to this right now. Stay tuned for Courtney's upcoming book called "Relentless".

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Let's wrap up this 2-part interview with my wife Teresa. She is the secret sauce and secret weapon in our family to keeping us healthy. I am excited to share her knowledge, so your families can benefit too.

Resources mentioned by Ken & Teresa:

• Podcast - "The Model Health Show" by Shawn Stevenson
• Podcast - "The Genius Life" by Max Lugavere
• Blog - "The Wellness Mama"
• Article - "The Proper Way to Make Elderberry Syrup" by the Franklin Institute of Wellness
• Courses & Blogs - "Cold Care" by Learning Herbs

Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page at smartcleaningschool.com/resources to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

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My wife Teresa has been a mom for 18 years. She has always had an interest in wellness and specifically, natural remedies. I have always supported her in this approach. Over these last 8 years, I have seen her transform into a mom that knows how to treat her children and husband. She has been the secret weapon in our family to keeping us healthy. She is not a medical professional, so any advice she shares in these back-to-back episodes is general advise to our family. You should absolutely do your own research and consult with your doctor before any changes. Teresa has also learned and was mentored by medical professionals in the areas of integrative medicine, homeopathics, and naturopathics over the years. She reads books and listens to podcasts on wellness topics all the time. It is her hobby and she has helped every member of her family be healthier.

I first shared my wife's knowledge in the episode, "Healthy Home Boundaries with Teresa Carfagno II" She touched on health topics and healthy eating for your family. At the same time, my friend Dave Reeks in our Solo Elite Mastermind asked me to do an episode on solo cleaning longevity. I released a double. Here's the link to episode 1 and 2 of "Keys to Solo Longevity". These episodes focus on a multi-channeled approach toward caring for your cleaning machine to last a long time. Since we've only touched on the health topic and it was currently cold & flu season, I wanted to bring my wife back for a follow up. Our interview on natural remedies to boost your immune system and help to heal you of viruses went 40 minutes so I divided it into a double as well. I hope you find these 2 episodes helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at ken@smartcleaningschool.com.

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Before I even begin, let me first share the context of this episode. There are so many people struggling financially in America, which used to include us. I did not come from money. I have never made a lot of money. I am not currently a millionaire. "Ken, why are you teaching this topic?" In a matter of speaking, I am teaching it through my podcast. But the real credit goes to my friend Greg Shepard of Dallas Maids. His interview called "Sail Around the World" was a powerful example of how to think and solve problems in your business. Several months ago, I had the opportunity to hang out with Greg in Dallas for a few hours. Greg is a millionaire, many times over. He is very modest, so I clearly won't share his numbers. I will, however, share his mindset on money and becoming a millionaire. It was the simplest and most believable path I've ever heard to attaining wealth. His mindset is not unique. In fact, most money guides and gurus teach it already. Greg taught me 3 simple steps that every single person can take (no matter where they are from) to attain wealth during their lifetime. And that's the key word... "lifetime". Wealth can be overnight and fast, but not usually. The prevailing mindset now on wealth now is that it's lucky and immediate... right place, right time. It's the lottery mentality. Greg taught me a powerful lesson that day in Dallas. I started implementing it and teaching it to my kids. Now I want to share it with you. This will rock you with its simplicity.

What do you need to create wealth? Let's reference the late, Napoleon HIll. You need to "Think and Grow Rich". There is a mental mindset you need to have on work, time, and money that allows you to conceive ideas that you can take action on. You need to believe that it is possible because without belief, you won't take the level of action required to convert an idea into wealth. You also won't be able to attract committed people to your vision that will help you accomplish it. John Maxwell says this. "A leader that lacks confidence has a team that lacks commitment." A strong mental mindset will produce the ideas. Strong ideas with action will build your belief. Results from your action will increase your belief. Increased belief produces confidence. This is where we need to get to. Now, I'll tie this back to my favorite quote in "Think and Grow Rich". "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." I love this quote... always have since the first time I read it in 2002. Now that you have a basic premise of what it takes to create wealth, I'll share Greg's very simple and practical advice that he has followed in his life.

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Another solo cleaner took advantage of the free coaching calls that I offer on my website. Claudia Adriazola of CMA Cleaning and Organizing in Onalaska, WI has a big goal to build her cleaning company with systems and a team to provide her with time and money freedom. However, her current solo business is a mess right now. She cannot optimize her solo business because she has no scheduling foundation. That's when I asked permission to record her coaching call so I could teach the four-week rotating schedule. She accepted. This is the lesson that I cannot believe I missed in 300+ episodes. It is so vital and foundational.

Every cleaning company builds a customer base on a schedule. The schedule cannot be monthly. It has to be a fully recurring schedule and the calendar is 52 weeks. First divide the calendar into 4-week blocks. This produces 13 time blocks in every year that are identical. Otherwise, you end up doing what Claudia did. She allowed customers to pick the frequency of cleaning that made sense to them. Claudia had to learn that she is running the business and offering the service. She will have to stop all tri-weekly cleanings and move these customers to biweekly or monthly, which is every 4th week. She will have to stop monthly clients as-is and move them to every 4th week. This will allow her and you to build a repeatable schedule that you can absolutely optimize and scale to achieve the future goals that you have!

In this free coaching call, I also give Claudia 5 steps to completely transform her business with a fully automated schedule, working the same hours she is now, and to increase her income by $1,500 per month. I was thankful that Claudia allowed me to hit record as this was a lesson that should have been taught in the first 10 episodes. It's never too late!

Are you a new or struggling solo cleaner wanting to create financial peace from your solo cleaning business? The Smart Cleaning School has resources for you! Check out the ISO Model Course and the Solo Elite Membership on the Smart Cleaning School Solos Page at www.smartcleaningschool.com/elite .

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This original episode was a free coaching call from a podcast listener. Shasta had grown her initial business with low-paying customers on an hourly rate. She couldn't figure out how to transform that business into one that produced a livable income and time for herself to rest. I quickly saw her block. She had a scarcity mindset of thinking that there were no new customers out there. She thought her only option was squeezing her current bag of lemons until the skin started breaking. I explained to Shasta that there is no more juice in there and that she needs a brand new bag of lemons. This scarcity mindset is prevalent in new cleaning owners and especially the solos out there. 

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This will be short and sweet. One of my favorite books is "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg. Here's the excerpt. "In a brutally competitive world where everyone seems to be fighting to earn more and achieve greater success, 'The Go-Giver' offers an alternative set of business success principles built on giving and adding value to others." This is a must read for all business owners. I have made it a must read for my kids as we teach them the value of entrepreneurship and service. They go hand-in-hand. You can't be an entrepreneur without serving others. About 2 years ago, I had a chance to be on a Total Life Freedom Community Call with Bob Burg. What a treat. He was so full of wisdom on building relationships in business. But it was this one-liner that moved me the most.

"If you sell on price, you are a commodity. If you sell on value, you are a resource."

This hit the nail on the head to all of the questions I've ever been asked. "Ken, how did you charge over $100 per hour cleaning houses?" This same question popped up so many different ways as I shared my story on social media and inside online cleaning groups. Many were in disbelief that I ever earned that much. To me, it was a simple process that I call the ISO Model. I have known that trust is at the core of this upward price trend. I have known that I needed to become the community specialist for cleaning. I had to be different and set apart from the masses to charge what I charged. This one quote from Bob Burg helped me take what I knew and put it into an easier teaching format. Let's try this out!

What is a commodity? Let's define it from Webster.

"An economic good: such as a product of agriculture or mining, an article of commerce especially when delivered for shipment, a mass-produced unspecialized product."

Typically, a commodity is something that everybody needs and uses. There are many who sell them and compete for thin margins. How many cleaners out there are treating their business like a commodity? They are selling or offering their cleaning service as the low-cost option. They are assuming that every cleaner is the same, offering the same, doing the same thing. Therefore, they need to sell on having the lowest price. This is a model that does win in cleaning, especially in commercial cleaning. It's the Walmart Model. Sell on price and create a ton of volume to make money.

There is another option. What is a resource? Webster says this.

"A source of supply or support : an available means, a natural source of wealth or revenue, a natural feature or phenomenon that enhances the quality of human life, computable wealth, a source of information or expertise, something to which one has recourse in difficulty, a possibility of relief or recovery, a means of spending one's leisure time, an ability to meet and handle a situation."

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This episode is a follow up to "The Messy Middle" There was a place in between your initial goal to start your cleaning business and the place that you defined as success where things got messy. It got really hard to stay motivated. You weren't sure if you made the right decision. Your doubts and fears and condemnation crept in to try to steal your dream. This is the messy middle. I shared this truth about setting big goals and starting something new. "It always gets messier after you start!" I want to turn your attention to another destructive habit that can steal your dream. It's called anger. This will not apply to many of you, but for the ones that it does, please listen. I have personally listened to a lot of podcasts and many on cleaning and entrepreneurship. I have never heard one on anger.

I was in the Messy Middle in our first New York solo cleaning business from 2007 - 2015 and from 2019 - 2020 in our second Pennsylvania solo business. I know what that feels like. If you've never heard me speak or share my story before, here's the nutshell. It took me a long time to develop my ISO Model for solo cleaners. In fact, it was the 8 years in the Messy New York Middle that I figured most of it out. This ISO Model allowed me to duplicate our first solo business in a fraction of the time. I want to dive into my 8 years in the valley, the mess, the pit. I was working so hard, going where ever I had to go to clean and make money. I was cleaning around the clock on many days. I injured myself by tearing tendons, meniscus, and even contracted Lyme Disease. I was often tired. I was often filled with doubt. I was often sad. And I was often very angry. Thankfully, I was walking with Jesus through this time to help me keep my peace. But even I'm no where close to perfect. I would lose my cool and freak out. I'd be late leaving the house and miss my shower. I'd have a foot of snow and ice on my car at 7am and 5 below. I'd get stuck in morning rush hour traffic and be even later to my first house. I'd trudge through the snow into the house. I'd bump into a piece of furniture with my cleaning gear or smack my knee or hip against a sharp wooden door or railing. I'd set down my gear and spill it all over the customer's floor because the duffle bad was torn from use in 3 places. I'd be vacuuming and suck up a carpet fiber that wrapped around the beater bar until the vacuum seized. I'd suck up a penny and seize it too. I'd crack my head on the shower metal or on a low doorway. I'd turn on the shower while cleaning and get soaked in the middle of winter. I'd break something in a house by accident. I'd be cleaning with spray bottles in each pant pocket when one would unscrew and dump a whole 32-oz bottle of cleaner on the customer's floor. All of these things seemed to happen to me when I was already struggling and mad. They would take me from mad to angry and many time angry to wrathful. I would literally leave the house and start screaming outside. I may even take my seized vacuum piece and either smash it on the ground or toss it in the bushes. Yes, it's dumb, but haven't you ever been angry?! It's irrational. I'm irrational when it happens. I would waste time, lose money, and lose belief that I was doing the right thing. Meanwhile, my friends from high school and college were all growing in their jobs, buying nice cars, having kids, buying them nice things, and living in nice houses. And we were driving old beaters and living in rented houses. I'd question myself all the time. I was angry again and again and again. Over the years, I learned my triggers and managed my emotions better. It wasn't easy, but I did it.

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I have told this story so many times to friends and on other podcasts over the past 6 years since I've heard it. The Country Preacher teaches a powerful model for decision-making that I have used in the toughest of decisions. Are you familiar with a Venn Diagram or the overlapping circles? Look it up if you're not familiar. Picture 3 circles overlapping in a way where there are 3 areas where any 2 circles intersect and only 1 area where all 3 circles intersect. Here are the 3 circles the Country Preacher used:

1. Desire - Do you want to do it? Whatever the decision is, do you want to do it. Are you excited about the potential of i t working out? Are you passionate about going that new direction?
2. Open Door - Is the opportunity available right now? Or is the door closed right now?
3. Peace - How do you feel in your spirit about this decision? Does it give you anxiety or total peace?

If you have a scenario where you have the desire and the opportunity is open, but there is no peace, do not do it.

If you have a scenario where you have the peace and the opportunity is open, but you don't want to do it, do not do it.

If you have a scenario where you have the desire and the peace, but the door is closed, do not do it. In this case, pray through the closed door until it opens (if it ever does).

Let's use an example of a difficult decision our family faced in 2017. Do we leave 16 years of family and business roots we've forged in Upstate New York and move back home to the Philly Area? And by the way, I heard this message in 2016 and used this decision-making process to make this vital decision. We had a deep desire to go back to our hometown and be with our family. We missed Sunday dinners after church with my Nana and Pop-Pop after 18 years of living in other states. We missed my younger siblings having babies of their own and spending time with them. Yes, we had desire. After much prayer and talking as a family, we felt total peace that this was the right time to go back home. The kids were excited about it. We were excited. Sure, it was stressful to think how it would all work out. But that wasn't up to us to make work. We could only take action on the desire and peace we had. Was there an open door? Flashback. We wanted to go back to Philly just about every year we were in New York. But there wasn't an open door. This time there was. We prayed hard and long about this part. We'd have to sell the cleaning business. I'd have to replace myself as a Royal Rangers leaders. We'd need to find somewhere to live. In October 2017, we got the desire and prayed. In November, we were offered a free place to live with our family of 7 for a year with Teresa's mom. In December 2017, I replaced myself as a Royal Rangers leader. And in January, I took Ian to Dallas to a Debbie Sardone event called Speed Cleaning. Ian decided that he wanted to buy the cleaning business. There was the last part of the door opening. This one was hard as we didn't get the answer right away. We had to take action. The open door came. We've been out of New York for over 4 years now and it seems like a dream that we were ever there. We are so thankful to be back home. We got to spend Sundays with my Nana and Pop-Pop for 2 years before they both passed. We have been to birthday parties and beach days with my 3 nieces and 1 nephew. We have seen and rebuilt relationships with friends and family members that we haven't seen in years. I am back in a position of leadership with the Royal Rangers and the new cleaning business is growing! This decision has been blessed because we sought after God's Heart on the matter. We made sure there was intersection of desire, an open door, and peace.

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I introduced a new Smart Cleaning School character in "I Can't Take Any More Customers" His name is Robot Bob the Solo Cleaning Machine. Bob doesn't eat. He doesn't sleep. He only needs oil and a battery charging station. This stud of a solo cleaner can leave his charging dock at 7 am Monday morning and start cleaning his first house by 7:30am. He cleans 3 houses without a lunch break. He doesn't stop to answer a phone call. He is a phone. He doesn't check the news or social media. It's all hardwired inside of him. Robot Bob just cleans and drives. Oh yeah, Robot Bob can drive because he has a self-driving electric car. Robot Bob finished 3 houses by 4:30pm and earns $150 per clean or $450 for his house cleaning day. But he is not done. Bob stops back at his charging station for a 1-hour recharge and then drives to clean his first office. Robot Bob arrives at this first nightly office at 6pm and proceeds to clean 4 offices straight through the night because he is a Solo Cleaning Machine. Robot Bob finishes his 4th office at 5:30am Tuesday morning. He earns $600 in offices for the night. Robot Bob then drives to his charging station for a 1-hour recharge and is back to clean 3 houses on Tuesday. That's just one day in the life of Robot Bob the Solo Cleaning Machine. He cleans 3 houses and 4 offices from Monday through Friday, then he cleans 8 offices on Saturday and Sunday. Isn't Robot Bob a total stud?! He is creating $7,650 per week in revenue and since he doesn't eat or sleep, his expenses are very small. He only has to pay for electricity, oil, maintenance on his car, cleaning supplies, and insurance. Yes, even Robot Bob realized he needs to be a professional. These numbers are insane for the Solo Cleaning Machine. Robot Bob is profiting $350,000 per year!

Today, I was able to bring Robot Bob onto the Smart Cleaning School to answer some Q&A.

Ken: How are you able to be here for this Q & A at 12pm on a Wednesday?

Robot Bob: Bob is cleaning right now. Bob am always cleaning. Bob has a built in computer and phone. Bob receives your questions and answers while cleaning.

Ken: Wow, you are quite the Solo Cleaning Machine. What do you think of the humanoid solo cleaners who try to clean as much as you?

Robot Bob: Bob laughs. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. No humanoid can clean like Bob. Humanoids need sleep. What a waste of cleaning time. Humanoids need food. What a waste of money and time. Bob only needs oil and a recharge. But Bob does wonder about the humanoid Chic-Fil-A experience?

Ken: I'm sure glad that I'm a human...oid because those waffle fries and vanilla shakes are delicious! Bob, here's another question. Where is your recharging station?

Robot Bob: Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Bob laughs at your humans. Bob earns $350,000 a year in profit. Bob invested in a recharging station park with 100 charging stations. Bob uses one station and rents the other 99 to stupid humanoids to charge their Teslas.

Ken: Robot Bob the Solo Cleaning Machine. And now he's Robot Bob the Slumlord. Last question for today. Robot Bob, do you have any advice for the solo cleaning humanoids who have the weakness for needing to eat, sleep, and see their families that say they can't take on any more customers because they don't have any more time?

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I have a friend that I wish to keep anonymous. However, her story is one that I think many can relate to. Let's call her Abby. Abby is a single mom with 2 teenage kids that need her a lot. She also has a full-time job that needs her even more it seems. She can't seem to balance it all to get time for herself. Add to this that Abby was in a bad car accident as a young adult and suffered severe back injury. Thankfully, the accident was not her fault and she gets a monthly payout from the law suit for life. Obviously, it's not enough and can never pay for her back. But it helps her get by. The back injury has made sleeping virtually impossibly as she suffers every night with pain and discomfort. Many nights Abby will get to bed around 8:30pm and toss in bed sleepless with pain until 4:00am. When she finally falls asleep, her brain only registers an hour and a half to 2 hours of sleep because Abby has to get out of bed to go to work to pay the bills and take car of her kids. Somehow Abby has been able to function in life with little sleep. She gets her work done. She gets home to get her kids to and from school, feed them, clothe them, help them with their homework, and keep the house. Abby is a hero to those kids. All she wants is some sleep and some time for herself. So she pays a big cable bill to have her shows to give her some peace before another long night of sleeplessness. Can you relate to this story about Abby at all. Do you know anyone like this?

In a recent call with Abby, I learned some incredible news. She found a magic pill that one of her doctors wanted her to try. It enabled her to sleep through the night! Abby also noticed that she was more focused after getting good sleep. She could get things done at work faster. She didn't go through the day depressed or anxious. She had more peace, more ability to perform, more patience for others, more of a mom to her kids. This was incredible! I was nearly shouting through the phone! Just two of these pills and she could sleep. Praise God, right? Yes. But... it isn't free or part of a prescription plan. Abby has to pay close to $200 per month of money she doesn't have to afford the magic pills. She wanted help figuring this out.

Abby has no money left over at the end of the month, so where was she going to find an extra $200? Since I'm a total numbers nerd, we dug into her budget and I saw the problem right away. The answer glared back at me. She was paying $275 per month for her cable bill, which included her internet. She also drove a luxury car which has average maintenance costs at $500 per visit to the shop. Everything else on her budget looked reasonable to me. I looked up her car compared to a similar Toyota model and found it to cost $13,000 more from purchase to maintaining for 5 years. This was an additional $220 per month in luxury car expenses. So I explained to Abby that she is also spending an extra $150 per month minimum for her high-end cable and internet service. Thus, I saw a potential of $370 per month in budget cuts. I compared that to the $200 per month expense that is changing her life with better sleep and productivity. I explained further that since she was asking my advice, that I would say it plainly.

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I have been habitually late my whole life. This is not new news to long-time Smart Cleaning School Podcast listeners. In fact, I blamed it on my mom in a past episode. Let me first right a wrong. My mom declares that it was not her that was always late when I was a kid. Yes, our family was always late for events (all of them). But my mom has edited my blame from her to her husband, my step-father Paul. Sorry Dad. You're the culprit of lateness. I was influenced by this as a kid and carried lateness into adulthood. It wasn't until a few pivotal times that I learned some things that would change me. One is from the Royal Rangers Ministry that I am very invested. I've been to leadership training camps with the Rangers and hear this from the beginning to the end. "5 minutes early is on time and on time is late." The other is from my Pop-Pop. I shared in "He Built You a Clock" how my Pop-Pop showed me all throughout his life that being on time was important. It showed others that you value their time. I learned this on the weekends growing up and learned lateness during the week. At the age of 45, I can say that I finally get it. I don't want to be late anymore. I want to show people that I value them by being there on time. In fact, I want to be early. Does this relate?

How do you change? It seems so silly to ask, but let's break this down. You and I have been so programmed to leave the house at the exact time you need to get there on time. In many cases, we leave a few minutes later and believe we can make it up with going faster. We leave no margin for traffic, for forgetting something important at the house, for anything that could go wrong. In fact, we try a sort of inverse margin by leaving late and trying to miraculously make up the time. This margin is called a buffer. I want you to hear some notes from one of my favorite books called "Essentialism" by Greg McKeown. This comes from an article from mentalpivot.com.

Chapter 15: BUFFER: The Unfair Advantage

• “A buffer can be defined literally as something that prevents two things from coming into contact and harming each other.”
• Buffers are effective strategies for dealing with the unknown and circumstances beyond our control.
• “The essentialist looks ahead. She plans. She prepares for different contingencies. She expects the unexpected. She creates a buffer to prepare for the unforeseen, thus giving herself some wiggle room when things come up, as they inevitably do.”
• Extreme preparation vs. ideal circumstances as illustrated in the story of Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott in the race to the South Pole. Amundsen build slack and buffers into his plan with food/supply caches, redundant supplies and frequent trail markers. Scott’s planned for the best-case scenario and once external circumstances upended Scott’s plan, his team paid the ultimate price.
• As a rule-of-thumb: Double your time estimates.
• Planning Fallacy: Human tendency to underestimate how long a task will take (even if they’re familiar with the task and have done it before).
• Questions to ask when building buffers for personal projects:
  1. What risks do you face on this project?
  2. What is the worst-case scenario?
  3. What would the social effects of this be?
  4. What would the financial impact of this be?
  5. How can you invest to reduce risks or strengthen financial or social resilience?

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This will be a fitting follow-up episode to "2 Rewards and a Consequence" I shared an elaborate goals structure for 90-day SMART goals. That's what I'm doing. I didn't want it to necessarily be what you're doing. Each of us is unique and responds to goal-setting differently. I know that I've covered these stats before, but listen to them again. 83% of people do not set goals. 14% set goals, but don't write them down. These 14% are 10x more successful than the non-goal-setters. 2% set goals and write them down. They are 30x more successful than the non-goal-setters. 1% set goals, write them down, and are held accountable to achieving them. This 1% Club is over 100x more successful than the non-goal-setters. The takeaway should be abundantly clear. Set goals, write them down, and get into accountability. If you don't, you'll wander aimlessly with the 83%. Let me also be clear. I never said the 83% were unsuccessful! Many of them do extremely well and many of them do not. These stats simply show that the average of the non-goal-setters pales in comparison to the focused few that have goals.

Now, I would like to introduce a concept to you. It's called the Messy Middle. I have referred to it in this podcast before. I'll describe it first outside of cleaning. This is my wife's project right now. You are fed up with the state of your home. It's cluttered and full of 20 years of kids stuff, trinkets, unused furniture, books and more books, papers, keepsakes. This has been mounding up for years and nothing you do ever seems to reduce the size. It just grows. [Notice that I didn't say that the kids themselves were the clutter.] You feel tight and stressed every day you walk through your home and see it. Is this a Hoarders episode? No, this is no where near that. But it's bad and stressful and an eye-soar to you. You've finally had it! You proclaim a new goal! I am going to declutter this house. I am going to get rid of all the junk. I am going to create space. I am going to have peace back in my home. There's an "I've had it" moment. This happens in way more than just your house. It's in your health or weight, your relationships, your finances or debt, your business, your job. Do you relate? Back to this decluttering project.

You've proclaimed your new goal. The thought of a decluttered and minimized home sounds like paradise. You get excited. In fact, you get really, really, really excited. You are ready to bag everything, tear down drywall, and personally lift dressers by yourself to accomplish this goal. Adrenalin is rising. It's the beginning and you have a new goal's Dopamine spike! Have you ever been there? You can see what it will look like in the end. You begin.

You're a few days into your project. The work is getting cumbersome, monotonous. You're starting to struggle with decision fatigue on what to get rid of and what to keep. Do you keep this beautiful work of art from 12 years ago that simply says "I love you, Mommy" in green crayon on red construction paper. There's no date, no name. But you know who did it and now they are driving a car. Even though the work is getting to be work, you're still excited as you can see the finish line. You keep going.

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It's been a while since I shared a business update from Carfagno Commercial Cleaning also known as the C3 Experience! This podcast started exactly 3 years ago as the Solo Cleaning School because I was starting my second solo cleaning company. If you are unfamiliar with my story, please go back to the "Introduction to the Solo Cleaning School". I encourage you to continue listening from the introduction as this podcast is a "how did Ken do it" course for free. The other major episode to check out is "A New Freedom Vision", which is where I declared that I was done solo cleaning and that we were going to take a family trip to Florida for a month. I started sharing monthly updates with Coach Josh with our family and business progress on transitioning from solo to a team with systems. It was very difficult, but "The Fight Was Worth it"! There, I've given you a 3-year C3 update referencing 3 popular episodes.

Here's the C3 update. I don't clean houses anymore. We do still have 2 residential accounts, but I've delegated them to my son for extra money. We currently service 18 commercial locations and just hired our 5th team member. We are so thankful for these amazing people. They have found a part-time job that pays them well and provides them with the flexibility they desired. Each of our team members has a goal and we are actively working together to help them win and achieve. One of our team members was living in a toxic situation with a duplex neighbor. They wanted desperately to get out. The part-time money from this cleaning job has been a huge blessing in helping them make an offer on a new house that has no neighbors. Another team member saved up her part-time cleaning money to take a vacation to Myrtle Beach to see her sister for the first time in a while. I love these stories and it really motivates me to continue finding more amazing team members and customers. We added 2 new locations in June, 2 new locations in July, and lost 2 locations in August. Our revenue for commercial cleaning is currently $12,000 per month, plus we have $777 per month of residential. C3 is currently at $153k in annual revenue. We have 15 of 18 locations delegated to the C3 Team. I personally clean 2 vet hospitals every weekend with my kids.

This all sounds great, right? Yes, it does. We're very thankful. However, I pulled some numbers from the end of the summer when I was traveling a lot. We may have hit a few trailing goals. We did not set or hit any leading goals. This is a dangerous sign and told me that we were running an unhealthy business. What do I mean by that? Coach Josh continually tells me that we must be always rowing with both paddles in the water. The business needs to be adding new team members and new locations on a regular basis. People will quit, even ones achieving goals. This happened in July when we had to replace a team member. Customers will fire you. This happened in August when we lost 2 in the same month. We can never rest on our laurels. I'm going to share with you Smart Cleaning School how poorly our leading indicators look for future growth. First, I'll share them. Then I'll teach you what all this means.

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I have prescribed a heavy dose of business owner's mindset on this podcast. My desire is to level-up the newbies and speed up their success. Plus, I really enjoy teaching this stuff. Sometimes I teach something on the podcast and use it as a lesson to my kids or in a local networking group. Sometimes I teach in my local networking group and share it as a podcast. In this case, I taught a lesson to my daughter with my wife that I also wanted to share with you. If you are new to the show, go back a few episodes and listen to "Beginner's Business Mindset". It's a great place to start your journey as an entrepreneur. Speaking of entrepreneurs... let's do a test. Are you an entrepreneur? Entrepreneurs are always thinking. We are looking for problems for the opportunity to solve them. This leads to so many new businesses, inventions, books, etc. Some entrepreneurs are overactive problem solvers like my friend Vincent that they're always in problem solving mode, finding problems even when it doesn't exist. It's a curse and a blessing of the entrepreneur. We are ALWAYS thinking, figuring, bettering, tinkering, creating. We can't stop. We say "How Can I" to every problem, where the employee mindset will say "I can't".

My wife and I were walking with our daughter and training her on these basics of entrepreneurship or growth mindset. She is 14 and is operating her first business creating and selling greeting cards in diners. She is so gifted with the cards. She also has a Why to use the profits to support her ballet dream. During the walk, we noticed that she has ideas to grow her business but she's not taking action. She was not being proactive. We explained to her that she's acting more like an employee, where she's waiting for Mom and Dad to tell her what to do next and then she'll do what we tell her. We explained that's not how entrepreneurs think or act. She understood. I shared. "Christianna, we taught you how can I over I can't." She remembered that for sure! I continued. "Here's the next lesson that goes hand-in-hand with this one. There's a difference between proactive and reactive. Here's the simplest version. In a reactive state, something happens and then you take action based on what happened. In a proactive state, you take action and then something happens based on what you did. In a proactive state, you are driving the business or the idea. If you were being proactive you'd be like a boat on the lake cutting through the undisturbed water. You are proactively cruising through. This causes a wake behind you, which disturbs the resting ducks on the water. The ducks now have a choice. They either move, fly away, or deal with the wake. You were proactive and cut A new path and the ducks were reactive and had to find comfort somewhere else. There is always someone being proactive and someone being reactive as a result of someone else being proactive. If you're proactive, you can get ahead of problems (like the wake) before they come. The ducks could have seen the wake and decided that they were going to move before the wake got there or move over. That would be proactive to them. They don't. Some people are always waiting for something to happen before they take any action. They live in a reactive state and will rarely have control of their environment. They are at the mercy of so many other people and things. They are ducks! Proactive people drive change and have so much more control and flexibility over the outcome of their life."

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This interview originally released on December 13, 2021. At the time of our interview, I did not know that we would sponsor Damon's product the T-Bag. We were simply having a conversation from one cleaning business owner to another. Damon has a great story of try, fail, and adjust. He has been in this industry for decades and found a pain point that he wanted to solve. Damon invented the T-bag to solve the problem of janitors wasting time replacing trash bags while cleaning. It's a simple invention, but so is the coffee collar and the button. These inventions remain in the creative minds of most. It takes a special type of person to take a chance. That's why I support Damon Washington so much. Before I replay this interview, I wanted to give an short update on the T-bag since last December.

2022 has been a profitable year for the T-bag. The Waist 1pocket version of the product has taken off pretty well. This allows cleaners to wear the T-bag on their waist, which has application to janitors not rolling around a trash can. I am one of those janitors. Damon sent me the Waist 1pocket earlier in the year. It's a welcome addition for sure! Damon was also proud to report that he was able to get his product into Johns Hopkins University and Indiana State University. An unexpected success has been the reception of the T-bag into the landscaping community. Damon will be a vendor at the ISSA Convention in Chicago from October 10-13, 2022 if you happen to be in that area and would like to meet him. Great job Damon! Here's the replay...

Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page at smartcleaningschool.com/resources.

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Colette is my personal accountant and she closes out a 3-part interview series we did on the Smart Cleaning Tribe. Colette gets into the nitty gritty of what a valuable accountant can do for you. First of all, she dives into business budgeting and how the business owner and accountant partner to help the business grow and plan for the unexpected. I took Colette's advice from the last episode "Hire Professionals on Day One" I hired an accountant in my second year when we had no money. I purchased insurance on day one. I found an attorney to work with in year two. However, I never had an accountant that does as much as Colette does for us. Beyond business budgeting, Colette explained what tax planning looks like. This is a huge value add your accountant can add for you. She shared some 2022 tax updates and how they may impact each of us at a high level to demonstrate how vital it is for us to have the right tax professional. Make sure to listen to Colette's checklist of what questions we should be asking our accountant when tax planning. Lastly, Colette gives us a checklist to us, the cleaners, on what we need to do on our end to help our accountant help us.

Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page at smartcleaningschool.com/resources to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

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In part two of this 3-part interview with my accountant Colette on the Smart Cleaning Tribe, she dives deeper into the role of the accountant. In one question, she explains the benefits of hiring an all-in-one bookkeeper and accountant to help the business with tax planning and prep way before tax day. In another question, Colette surprised us all. "When should we hire an accountant?" Colette said that she is a big believer in hiring insurance, tax, and legal professionals in your business on Day One. Yes, it will cost you in the beginning. But the cost of fixing bad books or hiring a legal team after the fact or not having insurance coverage and an event happens is WAY more expensive. She is an advocate therefore of hiring these 3 professionals on Day One. Colette answers an interesting question about state versus federal tax laws. Plus, I share how Colette personally bills me for services. I think it's brilliant as I can budget accounting all year at the same price. It's a win for the cleaning business owner. From her side, she has reliable recurring income. That's a big win for her. I highly recommend an accountant that bills on a monthly retainer.

As mentioned in episode 1, feel free to reach out to Colette with questions or to hire her for accounting services. You can find her at CMBA Solutions.

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I asked my personal accountant Colette Melott (CMA, EA) to join the Smart Cleaning Tribe for an Expert Call to help cleaning company owners understand their numbers and who to hire in their specific case. Colette starts this interview with the accounting basics.

Bookkeepers helps you track transactions with your money coming in and your money coming out. In most cases, a bookkeeper does not help you apply what those numbers mean to anything. They are putting your puzzle together, but they're not telling you what the picture on the puzzle is. There are not too many certifications for bookkeepers. However a Quickbooks Pro Advisor is a great designation to find especially if your business utilizes Quickbooks. These certified bookkeepers are proficient enough to adapt your business numbers appropriately and legally to Quickbooks.

Accountants puts it all together for you. Bookkeeping is a task of accounting, but they don't stop there. They take those numbers and apply meaning to them to help you make business and tax decisions. There are several designations of accounting professionals.

• General Accounting - This is an accountant with a Bachelor's Degree in accounting that operates UNDER a CPA or CMA licence. For example, Colette used to work in two corporate positions where the company held the certified accounting license and Colette worked under it. This is exactly how I operated as an engineer. GE held the Professional Engineer's license and I was a general engineer under this certification.
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA) - This designation is granted at the state level. The accountant must pass a high-level exam to obtain their CPA license. Plus, they must maintain this high-level each year. There is a high standard. At the corporate level, they are qualified to take the numbers a publicly traded company provides and certify them to the public. They are on the company's external team. However, most CPAs operate out of smaller offices and work with small private companies.
• Certified Management Accountant (CMA) - This is an international accounting designation. Therefore, their training must keep them familiar with domestic and international accounting standards. At the corporate level, they are qualified to be the comptroller or CFO to help the company compile the numbers to present to the public. They are on the company's internal team. The CMA must also pass a high-level initial and annual exam process to obtain and keep their license. There is a high standard.
• Enrolled Agent (EA) - The IRS has 3-part tax proficiency exam and certification process to enroll accountants in the IRS code. This allows them to prepare tax returns The Enrolled Agent is one of 3 designations that can legally represent you on an IRS audit. The other two designations that can do this for you are the CPA and the tax attorney.

Tax Attorneys are the only ones who can practice law. They help if you need representation in tax court. This is a high level professional that you need when you're in trouble! Therefore, study this episode and hire the right professional so you never NEED this pro!

That's part one of my interview with my accountant Colette. These are accounting designations I wised I knew 20 years ago. I hope that Colette helped you understand the landscape of accounting professionals.

Would you like to connect with my accountant? You can find her at CMBA Solutions.

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I was in Dallas with my son for a podcasting conference in August. It was a blast, especially hanging out with my son. We stayed at the downtown Sheraton, which afforded us the ability to walk the city a bit. I also had the opportunity to connect in person with two former guests of the Smart Cleaning School. I went to lunch with Greg Shepard from "Sail Around the World". We had a blast walking around the city and enjoying a quality Mexican meal. Greg is a friend and definitely a mentor. He stretches me big time. The day after lunch with Greg, I had a personal tour and breakfast with Debbie Sardone from "A Buffalo Charges the Storm". Debbie is highly regarded coach in the residential cleaning industry as well as a friend and mentor. Back to my son and walking Dallas. I really, really wanted to visit Dealey Plaza. As a kid, I was enamored with the movie "JFK" starring Kevin Costner. The movie makes a compelling case for a second gunman on the grassy knoll. I have seen the Zapruder film so many times, that I already felt like I've been there. I was wrong. Being there was different. Kenny and I walked into Dealey Plaza. I was in awe. He knew more about the Lincoln assassination than Kennedy, so I described it as best I could. That's when I noticed a guy with a bike helmet and bike showing the Zapruder film and explaining the details of the assassination. Kenny and I walked over to listen. We stood on Elm Street in front of the old Texas State Book Depository as he pointed to the 6th floor corner window. The window is half open with boxes arranged exactly as they were in crime scene photographs. He paused the video on his phone and pointed to the first large "X" on Elm Street. This is where JFK was struck the first time in the neck. He played the Zapruder film. We could see Kennedy grab his neck. It was too surreal. He kept the film running as JFK was struck with the kill shot. He pointed to the second "X" on Elm Street. "On November 22nd, 1963, that's where an American President was assassinated." Chilling. We thanked him for his history lesson and walked the plaza. We stood on the "X" and took a picture. We stood on the grassy knoll and took a picture. We stood where Abraham Zapruder took the movie and yep, we took a picture. It was much, much different in real life. Dealey Plaza is virtually unchanged in 59 years. History is powerful, especially when we can be there in person.

There's a reason I shared this story. In the early 1960's, John F. Kennedy was beloved and respected. He was a member of the Democrat Party and generally regarded to have political views left of center. He considered himself a Liberal, yet he opposed Communism, supported the 2nd Amendment, and voted for tax cuts. Those were positions held by the Democrat Party then. Today, these same policy beliefs would be called Republican. Here's what I find interesting. If JFK were running for office right now, he would likely be a moderate Republican. This is not my opinion. You can search it online and read for yourself. That's not the point of this podcast. Here's the point. JFK didn't change. How could he. He's been dead for 59 years. What did change? Now we're asking the right question. It's called the Overton Window and I find it fascinating.

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In March 2002, Teresa and I joined the Quixtar business as Independent Business Owners (IBOs). It was the first business we ever owned. I was excited. I was ambitious. I had discipline. I had it all, right? Nope. I didn't have a business owner's mindset. I did not think like an entrepreneur. We started learning from Diamond IBOs. We saw the Diamond lifestyle of total freedom of time and money and we wanted it for our family. We heard this from our mentors, from CDs they gave us, and from Diamonds on stage. "You will be in 5 years based on the books you read and the people you associate." This was the starting point of our business owner's mindset. We were learning the fundamental truth that humans highly influence other humans. We are all creative miracles with immeasurable possibility. We all have the same brain and nervous system which the late, great Zig Ziglar said surpassed the world's best supercomputer of his era. As I learned this stuff, I asked the question. Why are the poor, poor and the rich, rich? There are many factors, so please don't dig too deep into this. I starting reading success stories from the poorest of the poor ascending through the poverty to become wealthy and influencing millions. I also heard of trust fund kids with all the money in the world descending into drug addiction and losing it all. That quote became truth to me. "You will be in 5 years based on the books you read and the people you associate." As I read those stories of success, they all had this in common. Other successful people helped them change the way they thought so that they could get where they got. Does this make sense? I was learning that I had an incredible brain and potential. But I wasn't tapping into it. I needed to start associating with different people that thought differently. I needed to turn off Sportscenter and the news and start watching successful people that I admired. I needed to put down magazines and Dean Koontz books and read wealth mentality books. I'm not the same person I used to be. I've been reading books to grow my mind and success for over 20 years. I've been associating with mentors that stretch me in every area of my life. I'm still becoming the person that I want to be in 5 years. In today's language, I needed to find mentors on podcasts, social media, YouTube, and attend conferences. That's what this podcast episode is all about. If you are brand new to the cleaning industry, I hope you choose to follow this show and absorb the mindset so you can grow!

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This conversation with Crystal Hamm was wide-ranging in topics, but mainly focused on her past. In the present, Crystal runs a $3 million dollar residential cleaning company. Her team loves her and she loves them. She has build a company in the Raleigh Area that serves people greatly called the Go 2 Girls. I can't endorse this company enough if you live in Wake County, North Carolina.

Check out this interview with Crystal and listen to her story. She comes from rural America, climbing trees, and sliding into 3rd base for softball. She has come so far from her beginnings as the daughter of a coal miner to an employer of over 60 team members. She has a truly remarkable story. Here are a few quotes that I especially loved...

"That's my mentality. We never stop learning."

"My self worth was tied to that growth. So I felt that once I hit a million dollars then this small town girl was going to be good enough." 

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I am a listener to the Tim Ferriss Podcast and have been for years. I don't relate with every episode, but some of them really move me to action and inspire me. Here are some examples. Kelly Slater taught me to be humble. Hugh Jackman inspired me to utilize the rowing machine in my workouts! Chris Bosh showed me that my problems aren't that big! In this episode, Elizabeth Gilbert taught me the Art of the Simple No.

So many of us struggle with the two-letter word no. It's hard to say. We feel that we need to explain ourselves whenever we decide to use it. Statistically, 32% of all people tested with the DISC Profile are the S-Type for Steadiness. An S-Type person is very loyal, a great listener, easy to talk to, even keel, reliable, and generally tends to be a people-pleaser. Therefore, 1/3 of us out there already have a difficult time saying no. I once heard this and it floored me. "No is a complete sentence." This is exactly what Elizabeth Gilbert is talking about in this clip from the Tim Ferriss Show. The full show is linked in the show notes. I highly recommend the video version available on YouTube so you can see Elizabeth's body posture and gestures as she explains the Simple No.

Here's my question. How can you implement this strategy into your life? Would it make your relationships strained? Would it give you more time as you'd be saying no more often? I pondered these questions myself and have been more intentional to place a higher value on my time. I hope you do too.

Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page at smartcleaningschool.com/resources to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

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This talk was originally given for Coach Josh. He runs a Facebook group called TwelveTwo, which exists to empower entrepreneurs to pursue excellence in their finances and relationships. I had been working on this exercise after attending the Growth Now Summit Live in Lititz, PA with Justin Schenck. During this conference, my friend and Movement Influencer Andre Young taught me a simple exercise to help board rooms narrow down their company values to core values. What does that mean? Andre runs "You Evolving Now" and explained that leadership teams can think of many words to explain what the organization believes in. However, this exercise helped the teams he has coached to force their long list of values down to the vital few that were truly core. They are the ones that capture the essence of WHY the company exists, HOW they operate, and WHAT they do. I just pulled in a little Golden Circle by Simon Sinek too. Anyway, I borrowed this exercise from Andre along with Simon's mindset and adapted it to creating better habits.

I have been a student of habit-building for years. There are 4 books that are all foundational and well-worth the read.

1. The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson
2. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
3. Atomic Habits by James Clear
4. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Each of these books takes a different angle, but have a common message. You can change your habits. And when you change your habits, you'll change your life. The Slight Edge and the Compound Effect teach us that small incremental changes made daily and consistently add up to mind-blowing changes down the road. Atomic Habits teaches that some habits inspire you to be stronger in others. They are called Keystone Habits. The Power of Habit was actually the first audio book I ever listened to on Audible. This book is for the ones who would like to understand the psychology and anatomy of a habit and how to create new ones. It's fascinating.

Once I built this workshop, I tested it on me, my wife, my friend John Schuchman on the plane to Podfest, the Smart Cleaning Tribe, and my Total Life Freedom Mastermind. I learned from each and found something out. People were choosing their health as the #1 thing they wanted to change in their life at a high rate. Coach Josh helped me add a major component to this talk on the grip FEAR has on us. Once we realize that we'll never be perfect and the only way to overcome fear is with action, we'll begin making the changes in our lives needed to become all that we desire to become. I recorded this talk for TwelveTwo and later adapted it to fit for the 2022 Maid Service Success Summit.

Now, it's time for class! I want each and every one of you to complete this exercise. Please email me at ken@smartcleaningschool with the subject, "My #1 Change" and then share your #1. I will personally respond to each email with encouragement! Also, if you would like to collaborate with other cleaning companies nationally on your goals and habits. Check out the Smart Cleaning Tribe. We are a family of cleaning company owners who connect every week via Zoom to brainstorm, solve problems, set goals, hold each other accountable, and support each other.

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This was episode 11 of this podcast, originally published on November 14, 2019 which was a tough month for me. We had successfully built and sold an optimized solo cleaning company in Upstate New York and moved back home to Philadelphia after nearly 20 years away. I desperately wanted to have a career where I could work from home and enjoy my kids growing up. I made an assumption that I'd be able to build up our online business of courses, memberships, and the proceeds of this podcast while living off the sale revenue from our NY cleaning company. I had just returned from the Total Life Freedom Gatlinburg Retreat with a new direction. I told my mastermind and my wife that I would continue to build the online business. However, I promised them that I would get back into the trenches of solo cleaning and prove to whoever was listening to the podcast that I could do it again. I built one solo cleaning company over 15 years to $60,000 profit cleaning just 2 days per week without employees. I vowed to do it again and set SMART goals of $20,000 revenue goals for the upcoming year of 2020. I even called this goal - Vision 20/20! We all know that 2020 turned out differently, but that didn't stop us! We accomplished every goal in 2020 and shared every detail in the first 100 episodes of this podcast.

This November 2019 episode was very important as it taught a vital lesson in HOW I was able to raise prices and optimize a solo cleaning business so fast. If you're thinking to yourself, 'how, Ken?' The answer is in the title. Enjoy!

Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page at smartcleaningschool.com/resources.

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The Solo Cleaning Elite and the ISO Model Course are the classes available to solo cleaners in the Smart Cleaning School. I am the original student and have honed the curriculum for any solo cleaner to create the profit, time, and freedom they are looking for without ever having to hire employees. I created the curriculum with our first solo cleaning business in New York as the model. We built an optimized solo cleaning company with 17 clients that created $60,000 annual profit on 2 cleaning days per week. It was awesome as I could be home with my family 5 days per week! This business sold for $80,000. Over the past 5 years, I have coached dozens of solo cleaners through my ISO Model with success. I have also built a second solo business to $70,000 profit on 2 cleaning days per week and scaled this business to almost $200k in annual revenue and a team of employees. Why do I tell you all of that? Simple. One of the classes in the ISO Model is called the 3 S's of Solo Cleaning. You can only optimize so far and every solo cleaner must make this decision at some point. Will I STAY a solo cleaner and continue to optimize to my ideal income and schedule, while turning down many prospects? Will I SELL my solo business to move on or enjoy retirement? Will I SCALE my solo business with a team of employees so we can grow to impact our community? I have done all 3 S's of solo cleaning. Therefore, I am a credible instructor for the ISO Model Course.

The first stage of the Optimizer lessons is to complete an Optimizer's Workshop with me. Heather Parke had started her business in January 2021. She quickly Initialized (I), Stabilized (S), and was ready to start Optimizing (O). Heather was ready to get the green light from me. All she had to do was update her ISO Model Scorecard with me on a workshop. If her scores were high enough, she'd be in a fantastic place to start optimizing toward her freedom. She was positive that she was ready. I knew better. I knew any solo cleaner can build a company quickly and hit the financial metrics of an optimizer. I just had my doubts about the level of trust built. If you get a chance, go back and listen to the clip from my Optimizer's Workshop with Heather Parke. You'll see why she was graded at the Stabilizer Level. This helped her reformulate her goals and move on.

I recently completed another Optimizer's Workshop with Dave Reeks. Dave has been featured on this podcast recently as he is the one that asked about Keys to Solo Longevity I & II. Dave was in a similar position as Heather. He is 6 months into his business in Australia and doing amazing. He has been a great ISO Model student. I am truly humbled and honored that Dave and Heather were willing to submit the strategy of their solo cleaning business to my expertise. Thank you Dave for trusting me and giving me permission to share this clip from our workshop.

During this workshop, Dave inspired a new training on the Trust Factor Metric. I taught the 3 C's for building trust. They are Character, Consistency, and Cleaning. When your clients trust all 3 C's in you as their cleaner, their Trust Factor increases.

If you're a solo cleaner at any level, you can enroll in the ISO Model Course or register for an Optimizer's Workshop to learn your solo business score!

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I hear this statement so much in the cleaning groups. It sounds like a great problem to have, but in reality, it's a defining statement. Let me give context to the people asking it. They are called solo cleaners. I was one for 16 years. A solo cleaner starts out super excited to make money for their family. They love cleaning and can do it as a side business. As they get better and their name gets passed around, they start adding more and more customers. But here's the problem. A solo cleaner has a limited number of customers they can work with. Even the most efficient solo cleaner even has a limit. For fun, let's create a solo cleaning robot named Bob. Bob doesn't sleep and is able to clean 3 houses Monday to Friday during the day and 4 offices each night and 8 on Saturday and Sunday. Bob is a machine, literally. He cleans 15 houses and 36 offices every week by himself. If each house and office is worth $150 per clean, Bob is creating just under $400,000 in annual revenue and approximately $350,000 per year in profit as he doesn't sleep or eat. All he needs are the supplies and insurances to do the work. This is absolutely ridiculous. No one can work like Bob. I just wanted to show you that a solo cleaning robot could earn $350,000 per year. But he couldn't earn any more. What if Bob was reprogrammed to need sleep? He would tap out around $175,000 or $200,000. The point is simple. There is always a limit in solo cleaning. Most solos out there are no where near Bob. Does that strike a chord? Are you working like crazy and have no more time to take on more customers. Congratulations! You've hit the wall. So what are you going to do about it?

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I need to give credit to where credit is due for this episode. Thank you Vincent Pugliese for this mindset. If you don't know Vincent, check out "Content But Not Satisfied". Vincent has grown an online community called Total Life Freedom with over 100 strong in the past 4 years. The members inside this community have access to expert calls on various topics of online platform building, elite masterminds, internal courses, retreats, and of course, the extremely valuable connections between like-minded, freedom-seeking entrepreneurs. I have been a part of this community and mastermind since the first day. In fact, I am an original member and was there to help Vincent set up the foundation. I've had a unique perspective of watching Vincent build this community and raise up leaders from within it. I remember the hard times too, such as last summer. We stayed together in Nashville for Podcast Movement. When the masses went to the insane iHeart afterparty with drinking, we stuck around the hotel to mastermind. You see, Vincent had built a great community. But like any business, he had some parts and people that were higher maintenance than others. I showed him my 2 x 2 grid to map out the various aspects of his business. I talked about this in "Why I Fired My First Client", where I divided all of our clients into 4 groups - low-paying & high-drama, high-paying & low-drama, high-paying & high-drama, and low-paying & low drama. When you hear these listed out, it's obvious that we want the high-paying & low-drama and don't want the low-paying & high-drama. It's the other two groups that cause us so much grief. I explained this to Vincent and he started getting excited. Then he asked if we could add a mid-range box and make it 3 x 3. That's when I got excited. We started mapping his various clients and income streams on this grid. It spoke so loud that we knew what he needed to do. I did the same exercise for us as well. By the way, this is vintage Ken & Vincent since we met at a Dave Ramsey, Seth Godin, Gary Vee conference in 2014. We mastermind so well together. When the drunkards returned from the iHeart party, we were chilling in the hotel restaurant with wings and our maps. We were so excited. Vincent pledged that he would raise the standards in his community to have 100 amazing people that were all low-drama. Some were low-paying and some were high, but no one brought drama. They would be an ultra generous community always looking out for others. This was the vision. This episode releases at the 1-year mark of that mapping meeting. Vincent's vision has come to fruition. TLF has leveled up more than I've ever seen it.

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When I started this podcast in late 2019, I never imagined in a million years that I'd be eulogizing my father a year later. If you get a chance, check out the Tribute to My Father from December 17th, 2020. Ken Carfagno, Sr was born in Northeast Philadelphia on May 11th, 1936. He was the youngest of 6. Ken Sr. married Gabriella Corbett on October 20th, 1956. They were 20 years old. Soon after, they had their first of three sons, Ken Carfagno, Jr. That's my dad. 18-year-old Ken Jr married 16-year-old Lynn Driban in August 1976 and Ken Carfagno III was born on March 1st, 1977. Ken Sr became a Pop-Pop at the age of 40. My parents didn't stay married long. I have shared this so many times in this podcast as it's so vital to understand me. My single mom raised me during the week as a kid, while my dad and mostly my Pop-Pop raised me on weekends. The most influential man in my life has always been my Pop-Pop. In latter years, I started calling him my father because he raised me into the man that I am. Thank you for listening to this opening and my genealogy story. I just wanted to give you context to this episode.

My Pop-Pop had a favorite breakfast diner. It's called the Jem Restaurant in East Norriton, PA. Tony Bello opened this restaurant in 1974 with the sole goal of serving & providing a place for the community to connect. Due to the 1950's theme, it attracted many patrons that are nostalgic from that era. My Pop-Pop definitely found this at the Jem. He LOVED the 50's. As I said, he fell in love with his bride, my Nana in 1951. He went steady with her while they finished school. He worked at her parent's bakery to save up money listening to his favorites of Frank Sinatra and Jo Stafford. Pop loved the 50's and he would mosey into the Jem every Saturday morning for years. His routine was the same. He's sit at one of the counter stools with his newspaper and talk to the other old guys that were there. They all knew him. Tony knew him. He'd order the same thing. A decaf coffee and corn muffin. He was so proud of me. I heard stories over the years of how the old guys and Tony at the Jem all knew that Ken's grandson was a Penn State grad, an engineer. He owned a cleaning company. He was married to the best daughter ever. He gave the family the first girl (Christianna) in 3 generations. The only thing he didn't brag about me was how badly I'd beat him in ping-pong.

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I gave this talk at my local Montgomery Country Business Alliance (MCBA) meeting in June on Interpersonal Skills. Here are the notes from that talk!

MCBA Talk on Interpersonal Skills – Ken Carfagno 6/21/22

This is a HUGE topic to cover! I will barely scratch the surface in 30 minutes. Therefore, let me give you a few books to check out on your own. My story: I was a selfish, shy, introverted engineer when I left PA in 2000. Teresa and I joined Amway in 2002 and I started devouring books on business, personal development, people skills, goal-setting. Here are a few of my favorites in the people skills / developing meaningful relationships genre.

1. "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie
2. "Skill with People" by Les Giblin
3. "Art of Dealing with People" by Les Giblin
4. "How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People" by Les Giblin
5. "The Power of Meeting New People" by Debra Fine
6. "Dynamic People Skills" by Dexter Yager
7. "Personality Plus" by Florence Littauer
8. "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman
9. "Bringing Out the Best in People" by Alan Loy McGinnis
10. "Be a People Person" by John Maxwell
11. "Five Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lincione
12. "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Steven Covey
13. "The Wealth of Connection" by Vincent Pugliese

2 Rules to Help!

• 2:1 Rule: In an conversation, use the 2:1 Rule. Listen 2 times as much as you talk. This lines up with God's design as we have 2 ears and 1 mouth.
• “93/7 Rule: 93% of communication occurs through nonverbal behavior & tone; only 7% of communication takes place through the use of words.” – John Stoker

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

• Habit #4 Think Win-Win
• Habit #5 Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood

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In "This Moment with Angela Brown", we relive her childhood and early adulthood through the lessons she learned along the way. It's so interesting to see how the traits that make her successful today were forced at various ages. In this episode, we conclude the interview with Angela Brown.

This portion of the conversation with Angela opens with a question on how she is able to take so much action. She says. "I call it Snag Success. You don't get success without the snags. A snag is the place where you don't know what do to next. I go as fast as I can to get to the next snag. Then I figure out how to get through the snag so I can run to the next one."

We discussed overcoming fear. She said this. "It's about them, them, them, them, them. They don't care about me. They just want a solution. The fear is lessened when you can realize it's not about you. People just don't really care about you that much."

Angela shares her early housecleaning business and how she was able to grow so fast. She applied everything she learned up until that point and even went back to community college. She grew across North and into South Carolina. Other cleaning companies found her and asked for help. She started flying to other cities on weekends to train cleaners around the country and 31 other countries. Her schedule was mind-blowing to build her local cleaning business and building her team during the week. Then she boarded a place to another location somewhere in the world to train other cleaning company owners. There are so many "coaches" in the cleaning industry. They achieve something and then say they are a coach. Angela has trained companies in 31 countries for years. She is a coach because of her experience and success. The reality is that few are true coaches and others are guides.

Angela wraps up this episode with a touching story about helping a troubled teen. It lead her to sell her 25-year house cleaning business. She needed to work from home and saw the opportunity on the internet and YouTube. She wrote a book, "How to Start Your Own House Cleaning Company" and gave it away for free for a year. This bought her the time to take her years of training and move it online. That is the Genesis story to the wildly popular, "Angela Brown Cleaning" YouTube Channel with over a quarter million subscribers as of this podcast release and her podcast, blogs, and online memberships and courses through Savvy Cleaner.

Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page at smartcleaningschool.com/resources.

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Angela Brown is a 25-year veteran of house cleaning, #1 YouTuber and podcaster with her show "Ask a House Cleaner", and a guru in our industry. I have been friends with Angela for 5 years. In fact, she was the first person to really challenge me to start a podcast in late 2016. Angela is highly respected in the residential cleaning world and is helping thousands to grow their house cleaning businesses. In this double interview, we dive into so many topics that make Angela... Angela. You will see that she is just like you. She just persevered through every adversity over and over again with an insatiable desire for learning. I love this quote early on in part 1 of the interview.

"I was taught how to learn and I never stopped learning. When most people go through school, there comes a graduation time and for some reason they give themselves permission to stop learning. For me, it wasn't about being humble. It was more about me being aware that my learning never stops. No one was ever coming to graduate me... ever. So everyday, I say. How can I do it better? How can I look at yesterday and do it better?" This is what sets Angela apart.

Angela grew up in a family of 19 kids in Utah. She is the 4th oldest of 7 girls and 12 boys. Large families was all that Angela knew. It wasn't weird or different until she moved east to find families with 2 kids. Growing up in such a large family on a farm taught every Brown the meaning of hard work. It's the defining characteristic that Angela took from her childhood.

This Moment Concept - We have all been raised with a certain set of beliefs, characteristics, hardships, and privileges. Then we arrive at a moment in time with others that have another set of beliefs, etc. Now that we're here, what can we learn from each other in order to enhance our own lives and make other's lives better?

Angela was brought up in a patriotic family that truly understood and appreciated the Land of Opportunity. She realized that she already lived in this country and didn't have to earn her way to America. She was already there and could go pursue this opportunity with her hard work ethic. This was taught in her homeschool and she read many immigrant stories.

She moved to Charlotte, North Carolina at 17 to become a nanny. But her integrity and care for families forced her to leave this job. This opened up many hardships and opportunities. Curiosity, hard work, honesty, vulnerability were traits that transformed an 18-year-old homeless girl into a Toastmasters, National Speakers Association, bartering, cleaning, and Success Magazine inner circle influencer. Brian Tracey was a huge mentor through his tapes and books. She tells a great pay-it-forward story about meeting him in person.

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This is the first-ever podcast swap on the Smart Cleaning School. I was recently interviewed by my good friend John Stange in front of his Platform Launchers live audience. In this interview, John wanted me to teach the benefits and synergy of running a local service-based business along with growing a platform. Let me briefly tell you about John Stange. He is a pastor in the Philadelphia area that has developed over 10 income streams outside of his pastor's income. He is a platform builder. John's first platform is called DesireJesus.com, where he has been blogging, selling books and ads while helping Christians grow closer to Jesus for years. John also started the Daily Audio Bible Podcast in 2016, which has just surpassed 8 million downloads. I remember meeting John in person for the first time. We met at Five Guys. As he strolled up to the storefront, I heard his voice and instantly thought, 'this guy has a voice for radio'. 8 million others apparently agree. John has been able to reach the masses with his 2021 book, "Dwell on These Things", that I promoted in the self-titled podcast. John has been so successful in developing his own platforms that he chose to start Platform Launchers to help others do the same. I highly recommend his membership if you're a cleaner wanting to do something else to help others. I hope you enjoy this podcast from Platform Builders and John Stange. John has given me permission to share it.

Make sure to check out Platform Launchers if you have ever thought about starting something on the side to help others.

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After 12 years of solo cleaning, I ventured into the world of online coaching and courses in this amazing industry. Andrea McCoy was my second one-to-one coaching client. We talked for an hour every week for over a year as she was getting her business started. I interviewed her in the summer of 2019 as I was preparing to launch this podcast. Andrea definitely edified me as a coach, but that's not why I aired her interview as the 3rd episode of this podcast in October 2019. I loved her Why and her message. Andrea just wanted a business that would provide peace of mind for her large family. Peachy Clean out of St. George, UT has provided that for her over these last several years. I wanted to re-share this episode to newer listeners. Andrea's interview is still ranked in the Top 10 of all Smart Cleaning School podcast episodes in total downloads.

Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page  at smartcleaningschool.com/resources to see if CBF could be the right solution for you. 

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In "Keys to Solo Longevity I", I established a few foundational principles. First of all, there is a clear difference in a Ford and a Honda. I prefer my cleaning machine to operate more like a Honda. They last longer and require less maintenance... and I shared this from my experience having owned 4 Fords and 8 Hondas in 30 years. Secondly, we deconstructed the domination and longevity of all-time sports greats Tom Brady, Cal Ripken, Jr., Serena Williams, and Roger Federer. Each of these greats believed very deeply that we will get out of our machines what we put into them. I shared the sleeping, dietary, and exercise training routines of each. Serena valued strength training through HIIT, while her male counterpart in tennis Roger Federer valued 12 hours of sleep per day. Cal valued exercise and strength training more after each birthday, which helped him to become MLB's Iron Man. Tom does everything. He's a cyborg. Can we emulate what these peak performers have done? We can try! In this episode, I will share my own health journey and winning routines. It's my hope that you can make a small change and stay consistent over time so you can reap the rewards of a long solo cleaning career.

Step aside Tom Brady and Serena Williams. Here comes Ken Carfagno. My professional solo cleaning career started at 28. At this point, my solo cleaning stats are ranked #1 in the industry. I guess that makes me the G.O.A.T., which means I'll be inducted into the Solo Cleaning Hall of Fame. Oh, you didn't know about that... did you?! Maybe I'll start it. Anyway, I'm still in the field cleaning every week, but no where near what I used to do solo. I'm 45-years-old and have dealt with my share of ups and downs. I've torn both meniscus in my knees, a tendon in my right elbow, and sprained my left wrist. Injury has been difficult. I've dealt with major fatigue, nausea, vertigo, and brain fog in my 8 year battle against Chronic Lyme Disease. I know what chronic symptoms are like and have fought through them. I have woken up at 6am to clean all day after no sleep as we raised 5 babies over the years. They tend to keep you from sleep. I share this to relate to you. I have been there, yet I have been consistent for 17 years. What has set me apart? I believe it's several daily habits.

1. Sleep - I agree with Roger Federer that sleep is vital. Outside of my late cleaning nights or sleepless baby nights, I have disciplined myself to follow the advice in Shawn Stevenson's book "Sleep Smarter". I firmly believe that sleep is the foundation of a great day. I believe it is a keystone or cornerstone habit. It's the one ring that controls the others. I don't always hit this goal. I aim to wind down from the day, cut the screens off, take my nighttime vitamins, and get to sleep by 10:30pm and wake up by 6:30am. That's 8 hours on an ideal night.
2. Water & Vitamins - I drink 2 pints of purified water or around 30 ounces first-thing! This gives my internals a morning bath and gets things moving (if you know what I mean). I also take my morning vitamins including a multivitamin, Omega 3, Vitamin D, NAC, and possibly other supplements that were part of a healing protocol of the time.
3. Bible - I love starting my day with my Creator by listening to the bible while I exercise, get ready, shower. I also enjoy reading the bible or a devotional and praying. This sets my day toward others with gratitude.

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This 2-part podcast was inspired by a Solo Cleaning School Elite member, Dave Reeks. Dave started implementing the ISO Model in early 2022, operating The Finest Clean in South Wales, Australia. I am so proud of his diligence and commitment. Dave has grown from an Initializer to the Stabilizer phase of the ISO Model in 6 months. I recently did an Optimizer's Workshop with him to help him hit his next goal. He is a male solo cleaner like I was and growing quickly with almost 20 house cleaning customers in a short time. Dave recognized the need to keep his body operating at peak performance and wondered if I had any tips for other solo cleaners. Thank you Dave for this question! Yes! I do. I was a solo cleaner from age 28 to 44. There have been seasons of physical domination when I could stay up all night and clean and clean and clean. I have also struggled with fatigue, injury, and chronic disease. Regardless of the season, I had no choice but to keep going... and I did. In this initial episode, we will deconstruct the habits of multiple peak performers from professional sports to learn from them. Then in the second episode, I also will share several keys to solo longevity that I have learned along the way from my triumphs and struggles. I believe this will help all cleaning companies as we all have people cleaning, whether it is us or a team we've hired.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor. I am sharing what I've personally done for cleaning longevity. See your doctor before making any major changes to your routine. Baseline your level of health now and set goals on where you'd like to go. Use this podcast as a guide.

Let's start with an analogy that takes me down vehicle memory lane. The joke in high school was that Ford stood for "fix or repair daily" and "fails on race day". My friends with Hondas boasted on their longevity and reliability. Hondas were the gold standard. My cars from age 16 to now have been in this order: Honda, Ford, Ford, Mitsubishi, Honda, Honda, Honda, Honda, Ford, Honda, Ford. Isn't that funny. I've owned 6 Hondas and 4 Fords. I won't go over every detail on our cars as that is probably boring. I will just say this. All of my cars have been great. I have so many memories from each. But I do generally agree after owning 4 Fords and 8 Hondas (my wife owned 2 Honda Odysseys) that the Hondas are way more reliable and spend less time in the shop. Sure there were some duds. We had an Odyssey that lasted 2 years and needed a new engine at 150,000 miles. We own a Ford Fiesta with 100,000 miles and a Honda Pilot with 140,000 miles and both are running great. But there is not doubt that our Hondas have been cheaper to operate and lasted a lot longer as 5 of the 8 were over 200,000 miles when we got rid of them.

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This is part 4 with Teresa Carfagno. We have already covered three other great topics, such as "Living with an Entrepreneur", Work / Life Balance and Healthy Eating Habits for our Kids in "Healthy Home Boundaries I & II" In this final part, we will help all of the families out there curious about the pros and cons of homeschooling your kids. Teresa has helped over 10 families start homeschools over the past 10 + years and has earned the nickname, The Homeschool Whisperer. If you've ever considered homeschooling and would like some solid information to start your research, this episode will help.

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In the last episode (part 2 of this series), Teresa shared useful lessons from the Carfagnos in the area of Work / Life Balance or what we call the family business and the busyness of the family. In this episode, Teresa concludes her thoughts on this topic and dives into the tender topic of keeping our children healthy. There is no right way to do this. But this episode reflects how we have raised healthy kids. Hopefully, this will educate, inform, and give you confidence in your home!

Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page. 

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In part 1 of Teresa's expert call from the Smart Cleaning Tribe, she dives into what it is like "Living with an Entrepreneur". In today's episode, Teresa unpacks a few key lessons the Carfagnos have implemented to achieve balance between the family business and the busyness of the family. I hope you find these lessons useful yourself.

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This phrase is one of the most used when I'm training a new C3 Team Member along with "We don't clean everything every time. We clean everything over time". I wanted to dive into some mindset to encourage you, regardless of whether you're on the C3 Team, a solo cleaner, or a cleaning company figuring out the basics of growing a team. Let's first explore what it means to put in your reps as I lay out the construct known as the 4 Stages of Competence. I will use cleaning vernacular and share bits and pieces of the C3 training system to help anyone listening.

Stage 1: Unconscious Incompetence - You just started cleaning professionally and barely know what you're doing. You're just doing what you think is right. If you don't have anyone training you or mentoring you through this stage, you'll never get out because you won't ever know that you're terrible! Most solo cleaners and cleaning team members start here. This stage doesn't exist in the C3 Experience.

Stage 2: Conscious Incompetence - You know you're not a good cleaner. This awareness is conscious. You want to get better to make your business viable or make your employer happy they hired you. You're following checklists and training videos and everything is still confusing. I talk about this stage in "Where is the Flavored Water?". This is me in the grocery store. I want to be better at finding items. But I'm woefully awful and my wife knows it. This is where most cleaners truly begin. Don't fret at how slow you clean or how poorly you do it. Are you following the system, the checklists, the training? You will improve. Be okay with being not okay at cleaning yet. This stage represents a brand new C3 Team Member going through orientation, training videos, and in-person training. In the case of a standard 3-hour office in the C3 model, you're probably getting Excellence scores around 6 and taking 5 hours to finish.

Stage 3: Conscious Competence - Ah, you are finally a quality cleaner. You've been following the cleaning checklists and training videos. You get it all done and you do a good job. You're competent at cleaning. Congratulations! Don't rush the process. Don't try to get faster yet. Just keep following the checklists and training. You will continue to become more competent and at some point it will just CLICK! Your brain will store the program and you'll move from conscious to unconscious competence. This stage represents a C3 Team Member after a few solo cleans. In the case of a standard 3-hour office in the C3 model, you've achieved the Excellence score of 8 but you still take 4 to 5 hours to clean! You're doing great! Remember, excellence before efficiency.

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It is so critical for each one of us to align or be congruent with how people see and perceive us as a business person in our communities. Before there was an online aspect of doing business, all we had to do was be out in the community building valuable relationships and adding value wherever we could. This got us referred. Our branding was all about who we were and what we did in person in the community. In the early 2000's, websites started becoming a prominent branding component for cleaning companies along with Google, Yahoo, and even (dare I say it) MySpace. Social media then erupted on the scene in the 2010's and now our online branding may be the most important side of our branding. The reality is that for most cleaning companies, more and more people are finding us through our online branding first. I want to keep this episode short and sweet. There's two scenarios that can happen:

1. Scenario 1: Great In-Person, Bad Online - Your in person branding is awesome. You can easily convert prospects into new clients and people want to be around you and refer you because of your overall level of service and excellence. But your online presence and branding is terrible or maybe just okay. I have a friend from my local networking group with this exact scenario. You'd meet him in person or at a networking group or see his work and think how amazing he is and how impressed you are. But then you search for him online and you're less than impressed. This is a huge opportunity for this business owner to get congruent and have their online align with their in-person brand. You have an online marketing issue. It's easily corrected with the right professional help.
2. Scenario 2: Great Online, Bad In-Person - Your online branding is amazing. You are attracting a TON of interested prospect customers and employees. But your in-person branding is not. When these prospects meet you after seeing your website and online social media, they are less than impressed. You are not true to what people perceived of you online. Either your character is not good or your business savvy is not good in person. It's possible that you're just not good with people. Whatever it is, you do not align with your online brand. This is a bad scenario as you will lose almost most of the prospects that meet you. Eventually, your online brand will crumble as well. This is not a marketing issue. It's a character or personal growth issue. This is not easily corrected. You need a coach! If you're in this scenario right now, you have to make up the gap as fast as possible. You've got to be perceived online and in-person the same.

Let's all get brutally honest. Which scenario are you in right now? Do you need to increase your online or in-person impression? Decide and take action!

Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

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In March 2021, I brought my wife Teresa Carfagno onto the Smart Cleaning Tribe as an expert to talk about our decade plus of homeschooling. The call went 2 hours and we ended up covering 4 topics that were of interest to Tribe members, which included Living with an Entrepreneur, Work / Life Balance, Healthy Eating Habits with the Kids, and Homeschooling. As this podcast approaches 300 episodes, I wanted to FINALLY introduce my secret weapon. Teresa keeps me grounded. She nurtures me and helps me when I'm feeling overwhelmed and under stress. She loves me no matter what. She walks the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ with me so we can bring up our kids in the way they should go. We are a team. This podcast wouldn't be possible without her. In fact, many of you know that it was Teresa that started Carfagno Cleaning in 2005.

I recently went back to this expert call and loved it! I decided to cut it into 4 parts and release it to the Smart Cleaning School. I hope you find as much value as the members of the Tribe. This first episode is called "Living with an Entrepreneur" and covers the first topic from Teresa's call.

Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page.

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This episode is mostly for C3 Team Members, but I wanted to share it with the Smart Cleaning School. In the episode, "Introducing the C3 Experience", I laid out the company mission, vision, and values. When I first released that episode, I had no idea it would become a mandatory piece of the C3 Team hiring process. I truly believe that episode was the single most important one that I recorded in the past 18 months! It shares so much about who I am as a follower of Jesus Christ and steward of His business. I remember starting my career with General Electric in 2000. I was so excited to work for GE. I joined the Edison Engineering Development Program (EEDP) and was thrilled to pursue my dreams in my new career. The onboarding process was basically checking off boxes and part of that process included me getting the GE core values on an index-sized piece of card stock. I glanced at it and then pinned it to my cubicle wall. I never looked at it again. I didn't care. That wasn't important. The work was important. The engineering was important. I mean, that's why I was there. Most of America enters corporate settings the same way. Core values are part of the onboarding process, but no one really "lives" them out. That's a problem and most don't even realize it.

Fast forward. Teresa and I started Carfagno Cleaning in 2005. It was a way to earn income so our family didn't starve as we spiraled out of control financially in 2005 - 2008. It become my full-time career by default and out of total necessity. I never created a mission statement and certainly no core values. Who cared? They were lame at GE and didn't help me make money. But then we started having kids and raising a family. As our oldest entered Kindergarten, we opted to homeschool after much research and prayer. This was in early 2010 after putting Kenny in preschool for a few months. We barely scratched the surface of putting our son is school and we were done! We made decisions all along the way about how we wanted to raise our kids. We thought hard about the type of adults we wanted to put into the world. We wanted to teach and model Christian discipleship in our homeschool and family. We wanted our homeschool to result in independent, creative, problem-solving, entrepreneurial leaders. Without even realizing it, we had created a mission for our family and homeschool. The mission was the table top and the core values were the legs. We then put bible verses to each of the legs or core values and put this up on our family room wall. We truly cared about the future of our kids and realized that we needed to design what that would look like. That's when I looked back upon the core values from GE and realized something very profound. I never cared about their core values because I was never a fit for GE! I wanted to be a part of GE because they were touted as the #1 place to work for engineers. It was the best career opportunity. But in all of my research, I NEVER once read their mission statement or examined the legs of their table. I never read the core values. I wasn't a culture fit for GE, so I shouldn't be shocked that I was fired in 2005. So many young people make the same mistake. They go to work for the biggest company with the best benefits and highest salary and best advancement. This is important, but what if they don't fit into the culture like I didn't fit into GE's?

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I shared this episode as a personal C3 business update and hopefully serve as a teaching lesson on how to incorporate core values into your company. I never imagined that this podcast would become a keystone piece in our C3 Team hiring process. Shortly after the original release of this episode, C3 added 6 new locations totalling $4,000 per month in new revenue just 2 months left before the Carfagno Family left for Florida. How would we find amazing people to fill the C3 Team spots? That was a question that Coach Josh and Ken talked about a lot. In the end, we decided to use this podcast episode to my advantage. Make it a required listen in the hiring process to even qualify for an interview. It worked so well. Here's what I've discovered. I put my mission, vision, and values out there to such a level in this episode that C3 prospects either wanted to be a part of the team or wanted nothing to do with us. There weren't any luke warm candidates. Thus, this podcast has served as a tool to filter the right people in and wrong ones out. What does that mean? This podcast shares our team culture and the right ones are attracted like a magnet. The wrong ones are repelled. Needless to say, this episode is the most downloaded of 2021/2022 in the Philadelphia Area. My hope is that you'll get an idea from this episode on how you could incorporate a podcast, video, or even a blog on your website to serve the same purpose.

If you're interested in our C3 Experience and want to check us out. Our website is www.C3xNow.com. We are professionals that clean professional spaces with ownership, excellence, and safety.

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In the last episode, we touched on a few controversial subjects. I encourage you to check out "Poor Character Produces Long-Term Pain" and let me know your thoughts. I want to take a more positive approach in this episode. Just as poor character produces short-term gain and long-term pain, good collaboration produces short-term pain and long-term gain. Before I share my stories, let me explain. It's hopefully clear that the 2 example stories from last episode created a short-term solution. It made the cleaning companies more money in the short-term. But in my opinion, it hurt them long-term in reputation and ultimately revenue. When a company is less referable, they will create less revenue. Collaboration is an act of generosity and focuses in on one of the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. Stephen calls it, "Habit 4: Think Win-Win". When we collaborate with another local company, we build a bridge between us. Our customers can become their customers and vice-versa. It allows us to stay in our lane and service the areas we are best able to serve, while allowing our collaborator to do the same. This ultimately creates a better outcome for the customer that we share as well. Let's go back to the past example. The house cleaner that decided to add carpet cleaning was able to earn more revenue on each customer, but she wasn't providing the best carpet service. She was also spreading herself thin and potentially watering down the quality of the main lane she served. If this occurs, the customer receives a lesser house or office cleaning along with a lesser carpet cleaning. This customer is less happy and less willing to refer the business. Let's examine these two stories from the C3 Experience.

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Over the next 2 episodes, my desire is to show you real stories from my local business network of how we can control whether we experience long-term pain or prosperity. This episode will focus on two stories where poor character produces long-term pain. The next podcast will focus on 2 stories where collaboration produces long-term prosperity. Each of these episodes has the thread of selfishness vs. generosity woven through them. Let's go!  

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When I started this podcast, I predicted certain themes would come up often like pricing, people skills, leadership, business owner mindset, and cleaning efficiency. But I never saw the theme of overcoming fear emerging so often. In "Yeah, That's Fear", we explored the 3 Failure Diseases of Excusitis, Detailitis, and Procrastination. Go back and listen to that episode to refresh. Fear disguises itself in so many ways. Fear causes us to stop taking action or never start. I want to share a story in this episode from my friend James Hardy of the Carpet Guys. He is such an expert in floor cleaning and carpet & upholstery restoration that it's preventing him from scaling his business to the next level. This was me for years as a solo cleaner. First I'll share the story and then we'll unpack it. This will become part 4 of the Perfection Series, which includes "Excellence Vs. Perfection", "Accept the Uncertainty", and "Perfection is the Enemy". Each episode has covered different angles of how perfection crushes our productivity and growth. I encourage you to go back and re-listen to the previous 3 episodes as you have the opportunity.

Here's my James Hardy story! Jim apprenticed as a carpet cleaner at 17-years-old and moved into his own business soon after. We are the same age, so that's over 25 years in the trade. Malcolm Gladwell penned mastery of a skill after 10,000 hours of hands-on training in his book "Outliers". By that measure, Jim is far beyond at 50,000 hours of carpet, upholstery, and floor cleaning. Jim knows the science of floor cleaning better than anyone I know. He has a reputation in our area as the Cadillac of carpet, upholstery, and floor cleaning services. In fact, Jim does restoration cleaning which "restores" the carpet to its original condition. I've seen him work and he's truly an artist. A couple weeks ago, Jim asked me to breakfast at Sammy's Bullfrog Cafe. Backstory... In early 2020, I released "Apologize with Action". I was submitting a cleaning proposal to Sammy's at this time and also made an introduction to James Hardy. Sammy never hired our cleaning service, but he did hire Jim for carpet cleaning of the cafe every 6 months. I said yes to breakfast and asked him why the sudden invite. "I was out at Sammy's on Monday night and I just wanted to see how the carpets turned out. Would you come with me?"

I had to make a pit stop at the vacuum cleaner store and met Jim after. He was already surveying the carpets and shared this. "I moved all the tables off the carpet and cleaned it once like normal. But it was really dirty and I wasn't satisfied. So I ran the machine a second time. It looked good, but I know that the final presentation of the cleaned carpet doesn't set for 24 hours. I usually get out to as many jobs as possible the next day to do an inspection. I didn't really feel that good about this job Monday night going home and wanted to see it this morning. I felt weird coming here alone. Thanks for coming."

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In part 1 of this 2-hour interview, "Conspiracies in the Cleaning Industry with Ed Selkow", Ed shared an incredible 50-year career in our industry. He shares so many great stories and lessons that will help you in your business. Ed also shared some incredible criminal stories that I called "conspiracies" that are a must listen! In this episode, we dive into the second half our interview.

Ed shares the past, present, and future of the cleaning industry. Do you want to grow with the industry? There are predictions and recommendations that Ed suggests. Here's a few notes from the interview.

• "You've got to be honing your skills, expanding on what you know how to do."
• "Where there are a whole bunch of companies that are missing, that's an opportunity for me."
• Why are so many new cleaning companies starting out post pandemic. "Desperation drives a lot of people to start cleaning businesses because it costs so little to start. It's possible to grow a cleaning company with no money, but it's also possible to walk from NYC to LA!"
• "Commercial real estate is the mother's milk of the industry." Ed explains that if no developmental growth is happening, cleaners are just trading accounts around as there is a finite amount of buildings to clean.
• Find the country economic people for networking to learn when and where new buildings are coming. Ed believes this is a huge opportunity and better than the Chamber of Commerce.
• The disinfection revenue explosion will normalize like previous fads.
• Ed gets into the intersection of "Big Data" and "The Internet of Things" (sensors), for computer models of building traffic to determine how much cleaning has to happen. This could become cleaning-on-demand.
• The increase in technology will drive cleaning prices down over time. This is what happens with every industry that technology improves. Robotics are one of these advances. For example, there are robots that can empty deskside trash cans. Couple this with cleaning-on-demand technology, and cleaning revenues will likely go down. Ed is predicting this so we can get ahead of it.
• Winning cleaning companies will be the ones that combine of technology and open systems for cleaning.
• Ed highly recommends that we all understand Seth Godin's book, "Tribes". Those that understand this mindset will survive the future.
• Ed highly recommends that we, as building contractors, link up with the BSCAI (Building Services Contractors Association International) as our professional trade association. They are dedicated to the services versus the manufacturers (ISSA). They were also influential to getting the cleaning industry labeled as "essential" to get us back to work during the pandemic.

You can find Ed Selkow at Janitorial Growth Solutions and on multiple social media outlets.
Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

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I sat down with cleaning industry legend Ed Selkow for a 2-hour interview. We covered so much ground that I had to break it into 2 parts. In this first part, you'll learn about Ed's 50 years in the cleaning industry which includes owning 4 janitorial companies and working as an employee for a few of the largest janitorial firms in the country. He weaves in great stories and lessons that make this episode well worth the listen. 

Oh, and then you have the other stories... Ed also shares what I called "Conspiracies in the Cleaning Industry" ranging from subcontracting for NY street guy "Joey Floors" to stolen equipment and being on the payroll of a Russian dog in Chicago to how cleaners were partially responsible for Watergate and causing a U.S. President to resign! Do not miss these stories as we build up for part 2 of this interview on the cleaning industry, past, present, and future.

Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page. 

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There aren't many things that really get me angry anymore. I will share two. The first is when I have a comedy of errors, where one thing after another goes wrong and frustration builds up. The second one is if you challenge my integrity. The second one happened recently at a Honda service shop. It was my first time there after hearing great things about this particular shop. My initial experience after dropping the car off was very good. They gave me a loaner car that was beautiful. They took my inconvenience and made it convenient for me. A great initial customer service experience just like I heard about. The next morning something happened that threw off my day for a few hours. I got a call from the service technician. "Ken, you took some keys from the counter that weren't yours. We have you on camera. We checked it out and we know it's you. We need you to bring those back."

Back up a few steps. I talked to Holly in the morning and she was so kind and helpful. When I was checking out from the table here's what happened. Ken, we won't have a loaner car for you for 45 minutes. Holly came over and said. No, I put one aside for him it's ready. She was holding keys and she put them down on the table in front of me along with some papers. Obviously I took that as those were my keys. When the technician finished getting me checked in he put other papers on top of those papers and I left holding the set of keys and all the papers. I got into my loaner car and there was another set of simple keys with the exact same key fob in the cup holder. I was confused and really should have gone back in to ask why I had the extra keys with the Wawa card on it. I had no idea that Holly had just checked out a customer. She was holding their paperwork and keys when she came to tell me that there was a car ready for me. She put those keys and papers down in front of me. I mistakenly took someone else's keys and paperwork and went to work for the day. This is a huge misunderstanding. I'm kind of a moron for not realizing that they weren't regular keys but I was kind of in a hurry and I didn't process that. My keen powers of observation were not working, so I do take some blame on my end.

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I have a few stories to tell you and I won't take much of your time because your time is worth a lot! The first one is about a little boy who desperately wanted time with his Daddy. The second is about a Daddy who desperately wanted time with his little boy. This second story lead to the creation of a metric I've used in my business for a decade. It's called the Work Day Value (WDV). What are you earning for a day away from your family? Or what are you earning per hour working away from your family nights and weekends as a side hustle. It's okay to make $25 - $30 per hour as a beginner with a plan to grow. But if your still there after a year, you're losing time that you'll never get back. What is your work day value? What is your time worth because you are trading it for time with your little boy. Some of you will feel that question more than others.

The third story happened when I was pumping gas at Wawa. There was a problem at the pump and one of the workers came out to help a customer. At the end of the exchange, the employee said to the customer. "Sorry it took too long to get to you. The customer. It's okay. Hey I'm getting paid." The customer was on company time and had an hourly mindset. It doesn't matter how long it takes to wait at the gas station because he's getting paid by the hour. This man was in his sixties and had a lifetime of job mentality. There's nothing wrong with this at all. But it's limiting and scarce. Here's what I mean. As he stands around doing nothing at the pump for his $30, $40, or $100 per hour, he's fully satisfied. What if he thought differently? What if he valued his hour at $500 or $5,000? There are plenty of people that make that kind of money. He would no longer be satisfied at the level of income he's earning in one hour now. If he was getting paid by the job he'd be very unsettled because he realized he be wasting time. He'd want the Wawa employee to get him filled up and out of there faster. If he was getting $250 to get a job done, he'd rather have it done in 1 hour versus 10. Standing at that gas pump would drive him crazy. The mindset is totally different.

How much do you value your time? How much is your day worth? I don't want to ever leave my family and exchange it for something that is not satisfactory for me. Some food for thought. This works for your compensation for your team and how you charge your customers. It applies to what you might do outside of cleaning. There's so many things you can offer others for other income. Don't ever settle and say you're getting paid as you're standing around doing nothing! Go make a difference and go add value to others and you'll get paid in direct proportion of the value that you serve other people. This was always the hardest part for me. I asked myself this question. How much is my family worth today? I didn't want to bring home peanuts when they were worth gold bars!

Would you like more information on CBF and the potential of growing your residential cleaning business beyond 7 figures? Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

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Teresa and I were struggling big time in September 2008. We had a 3 year old son and infant daughter. At the time, we lived in a rented house that took 40% of our income and we still had over $125,000 in debt. It wasn't pretty. I was working like crazy with 5 part time workers. I had no systems, no money, and no clue. I got on this coaching call with my Amway upline Herb Eplee desperate for a change. I was not happy about Herb's advice, but I was receptive. He told Teresa and I that we were top heavy. All of our profit was going to payroll. We needed to either grow our revenue really fast to make money. Herb told us this is what most business owners do when they are in trouble. They try to outgrow the problem. Some make it. Herb's advice was simple. Go back to working solo. Build up your profits. Then add more revenue incrementally and hire team members. This was solid advice and we took it. I never realized we'd stay solo for 13 more years! I can't complain. We did alright having built 2 very profitable solo companies, sold one for $80k, and built a course to teach others how to start and optimize a solo cleaning company.

This Best-Of episode needed to be re-released so I could say this to Herb. Hey Herb, we did it! We have that team of 5+ part timers again. However, this time we can afford them! 

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The first area that Josh and I touched on were our stories and how they intersected. Josh and I were friends first. We had mutual respect and trust for each other. That's why I invited him onto the Smart Cleaning School Podcast in June 2021. That episode is called, "The Cleaning Road to Nineveh with Josh Melton". That episode was a mirror to me and I saw another guy with the same story. He had aspirations outside of cleaning. He tried to run away from cleaning like Jonah ran the opposite way of Nineveh. Once Josh turned his heart in obedience back to the cleaning business he was supposed to build in 2019, everything changed! I saw that and realized that it was true for me too. Within 2 weeks of that interview, I asked Josh Melton to come Coach Josh in my life. He accepted.

Josh shifted gears to talk about the value of coaching. We made three cases why the free help available in cleaning groups can be dangerous.

1. The information is free. There is no investment involved by the advice giver and advice receiver. Josh says we all need skin in the game, spelled P-A-I-D.
2. Don't take advice from people without fruit on the tree. The fruit must be the fruit you want. How do you know an advice-giver has that fruit?
3. Advice-givers that don't know your specific situation can only give general advice even if they have fruit on the tree. Specific advice creates accountability and accomplishment.

My goal was to go to Florida in February 2022. We completed the "New Freedom Vision" and "The Fight was Worth It".

May 24, 2021 Where we were when we recorded our first interview

Our cleaning business was a residential & commercial mix called Carfagno Cleaning, serving the Indian Valley of the Philly suburbs. I was already well networked and good at acquiring customers. I had no systems for scaling, no employees, no desire to grow. I was a 16 year solo cleaner. I cleaned 2 days per week for $70k profit. Our revenue split was $5,325/mo commercial and $2,025/mo residential. That’s $7,350/mo total cleaning with a 72/28 comm/res split. This split used to be 90/10 res/comm in my first NY business.

May 23, 2022 This interivew, 1 year later

After FL, we lost 4 team members. Josh helped us add 2 more offices and hired 5 more team members to get our commercial business to 16 buildings, 7 team members, and $10,475/mo comm rev (97% increase, doubled in 5 months).

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Dr. David Schwartz shares the 3 Failure Diseases in "The Magic of Thinking Big" that hold masses of people back from their dreams. These failure diseases are Excusitis, Detailitis, and Procrastination. I have addressed these failure diseases in various episodes of the Smart Cleaning School. One such topic is perfectionism. This is a form of Detailitis that causes people to spin their wheels. You see it most in writers who can never quite get that chapter to sound the way they want it. This is why over 97% of writers NEVER finish a book! It happens with cleaners too. They scrub and scrub and brush and brush, hoping to make an area look perfect to them. They can NEVER get there and it ultimately kills their business. Do you relate? Go back to part 3 of the perfectionism series entitled, "Perfection is the Enemy". This will help you overcome this failure disease.

In this episode, I want to address another form of Detailitis known as overthinking. I've done multiple episodes on this topic as it has plagued me my whole life. However, like many who are failing with this disease they don't know their overthinking is causing them to fail. What is overthinking? Simple. You analyze and process and think on everything. You don't make decisions easily or quickly. Why? They don't want to make the wrong decision. Contrast this to the entrepreneurs with courage who makes mistakes on a regular basis while in the action mode. The overthinker is constantly starting and stopping, making it near impossible to build the momentum of success. Meanwhile, the action-taker who trusts their business instincts and makes quick decisions is constantly in motion. They are building the momentum for success as they steer through the failures toward success. Do you see the difference? Which do you do? I am an overthinker and I know it has held me back in my life. I've also learned that all 3 Failure Diseases are masking fear. We are afraid of failing or possibly succeeding. Over the years, I have learned to overcome my overthinking. It's not a total healing of this failure disease, but a definite work in progress. I have recently used a different term to help me make mental shifts and breakthroughs. I say this. "I just need some clarity around this." Here's the implication. I need clarity, so I can take action.

I went to St. Augustine, Florida in February for the Total Life Freedom Retreat to meet up with 20 other amazing entrepreneurs. We are all building businesses around the country and help each other with mindset, ideas, and accountability. I came to this retreat with a need for clarity around this podcast. I wasn't sure of the direction I was taking it as well as the direction of the groups I run associated with the Smart Cleaning School. I was searching in St. Augustine for clarity and I got it with a 10-minute conversation with Sha Sparks. She is a Jedi Master in the force ability to extract emotions and deliver coaching breakthroughs in 10 minutes or under. She does this for other entrepreneurs through her podcast, "The Power of Investing in People". In fact, Sha recently interviewed me for her podcast to share my breakthrough and tell my entrepreneur's story. It was a privilege to share. Thank you Sha for trusting me with your audience. Thank you for the breakthrough you gave me. Here's how the conversation went. It was the end of the retreat.

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This is an episode that has been on my podcast ideas list for over a year. It's funny to me that I was afraid in the beginning that I might run out of ideas to keep a viable podcast about cleaning. I was bad wrong as my list of ideas is over 200! I've been wanting to tell this story for a while and now is as good a time as any. In May 2019, I attended a conference called Growth Now hosted by my friend Justin Schenck. At this point, Justin's Growth Now Movement Podcast had over 2 million downloads. He built had a tight community that Justin brought together in Reading, Pennsylvania for a weekend. I found out about this conference from my friend Andy Storch. He lives in Orlando and said this. "Ken, I just interviewed this guy Justin for my podcast. Cool guy. He's having an event in Reading. You wanna go with me?" My response was this. "Reading! There's nothing in Reading except a Pagoda and outlets!" I yielded as the event was an hour from my house and Andy was flying in from Florida. I had no excuse not to drive 60 minutes if Andy was flying across the country! Not long after, Vincent Pugliese joined the fun and drove in from Pittsburgh. That turned Reading upside down with the 3 of us walking into this conference. I don't know what Justin was thinking inviting us! It was a fun event and it turned out that Reading was a much cooler town than I remembered. I'm only poking fun because my mom lived in the Reading area while I was in college. The 3 Amigos absolutely had a blast that weekend, plus we made the walk to the Pagoda for our epic selfie.

Why am I telling this story? Something really cool happened during the conference. Vincent won a Tarantula for his son because he was the only one willing to go to the front and hold it. Yes, that happened. There's more. On Saturday morning of the conference, Andy Storch showed Vincent and I his phone. He had just sold his first ticket for his Talent Development Hotseat Event that was only 6 months away. Rewind... Andy has been a talent development product salesman for years. He moved from employed to self-employed in his niche and made major strides. In 2018, he started the Talent Development Hotseat Podcast with the strategy to use the podcast to pass the gatekeepers. People that were untouchable, unreachable to a sales pitch at large companies would bend over backwards to be interviewed for a show to showcase their expertise. This played on their ego and that is powerful. It was brilliant and the first time I'd ever seen anyone market a podcast like this. These interviews gave Andy great content and connections with other 100 influencers in talent development. Andy went all in at the start of 2019 and set a BHAG to have his own conference and selling tickets for $2,000 each. It was out there, but we rooted him on. When Andy showed us his first sale in May (5 months after announcing and planning the event), we were psyched for him. Andy then said. "That's 1. I just need to sell 49 more to cover the cost of the conference and 99 more to sell out and 6 months to do it."

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I shared a clip from an expert call in our Smart Cleaning Tribe last episode. I have another clip to share. This one is important. I want you to stop what you're doing and ask yourself an important question.

If something rocked my very existence tomorrow and I needed time to deal and heal, would I have the margin in my business to take that time?

You're either in a crisis, coming out of a crisis, or heading toward one. Never get complacent. Thank you Kate Sloan for your willingness to let me share this clip. If you live in the Montgomery, MN area, make sure to check out Kate's company, Chicka Chicka Broom. They are an excellent company to hire and work for! I also want to give a special thanks to the other members who contributed in this conversation. Kesha Gossett of Your Clean Break in Atlanta, GA, Michelle Allegrezza of Sparkling Homes in Albertville, MN, Jenn Jubrey of Maid Spotless Cleaning in Sand Lake, NY, Carrie Cottrell of Cleaning by Carrie in Galion, OH, Hannah Brees of Shine & Sparkle Cleaning in Dallas, OR, Robert Pierce of This Guy Cleans House in Belleville, MI, and Bryan Morton of KAS Cleaning Services in Suffolk, VA.

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I'll never forget a coaching call I did with a cleaning company owner doing $400k in revenue. I was an optimized solo cleaner and new in coaching. My view of the cleaning business landscapte was very narrow and I had a bit of pride to contend with. Here's the scenario. The co-owners, a husband and wife team, were both working 6 days per week in this $400k revenue company. They weren't cleaning, but lived in their office managing the business. That was foreign to me. Then I heard this part. "Ken, we are profiting $35,000 per year for the family." I clarified by asking how much owner's compensation they pulled. I was assuming they had a salary of $35k and then kept the bottom line profit as well. "$35,000 is our everything." I was floored. How could this possibly be? I responded with snark. "I'm a solo cleaner with 1/6 of your revenue. I work 1/3 as much as you and keep almost double what you do. Something is badly off with the math at your company." I was sharing truth and they knew it. Nevertheless, they didn't like my answer and we never talked again. In "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone", Debbie gives this a name. It's called the "Valley of Despair". I did not realize such a valley existed in my narrow view of cleaning business growth curves. I had read the "E-Myth Revisted" and "Clockwork", which are 2 amazing books on developing business systems to scale your company. Yet, I didn't know these valleys existed until an expert series I facilitated on my Smart Cleaning Tribe called "The 7-Figure Series". I interviewed 4 recent 7-figure cleaning business owners in 2021 with questions from the Tribe with the goal of deconstructing the million dollar cleaning company. Each of these experts have allowed me to share snippets of their calls on my podcast. Here are the episodes:

Part 1 with Kevin Smith - "It's Grace for a Reason with Kevin Smith"

Part 2 with Juan Chaparro - "Million Dollar Milestones with Juan Chaparro"

Part 3 with Josh Melton - "The Cleaning Road to Nineveh with Josh Melton"

Part 4 with Molly Moran - "4 Scaling Struggles to 2 Million with Molly Moran"

This was totally unplanned, but it turns out that 3 of my 4 experts with new 7-figure businesses are all Cleaning Business Fundamentals students with Debbie Sardone. The 4th is my personal commercial cleaning coach, Josh Melton.

I studied these 4 calls along with the wisdom I've collected from Josh Melton, Debbie Sardone, Ricky Regalado, Crystal Hamm, and others I've been fortunate to study along the way. I don't have these numbers down, nor is this an exact road map. However, I have noticed that the path to 7-figures and beyond is filled with many dead zones aka "Valleys of Despair" and sweet spots. Why do we start a cleaning company? Most of say that we want more time and money. We want more freedom in our lives to make the choices we want to make when we want to make them. I have noticed many $2 million plus company owners living large in income and time to pursue their passions outside of cleaning. Their business becomes so large and systemitized that they are no longer needed. Many in our industry call this an absentee business. These cleaning company owners ha

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Teresa and I place a high value on our marriage and making sure to not only date each other, but to take annual honeymoons to connect. We have 5 kids and it's very difficult to get the 1-to-1 time we need as a couple. We have been doing these Annual Honeymoon Retreats for a decade. Each one is different and we've gone to different locations. This year we went to the Glasbern Inn in Fogelsville, PA. In fact, we love this place so much that we've made this our 3rd visit. They have a fancy restaurant on site that is included in the package we buy.

We were enjoying our second dinner where Teresa ordered the chicken and I ordered the duck, when we were distracted by the table next to us. There were two couples in their mid to late 60's dining together. One lady of the four was talking quite a bit. In fact, she rambled on and on to the point that Teresa and I considered switching tables. We couldn't believe that this woman didn't see what we saw. She wasn't "Reading the Room" as Vincent Pugliese shared in his recent interview with the Smart Cleaning School. This woman was highly educated and had articulate opinions on so many ranging topics in education, politics, and cooking. She held the other 3 guests at her table spellbound with her intelligence. Or did she? Teresa and I were observing this play out. We decided it was more fun to observe this foursome interact together, especially since Teresa and I were reading Vincent's book, "The Wealth of Connection".

The other 3 at the table just listened, nodded along, smiled, and mostly stared at her. There wasn't any opportunity for any of the others to talk. It was like she felt it was her job to entertain the dinner table. In that self-absorbed goal she was absolutely successful. Teresa's back was toward them and couldn't turn around. She asked me. "Are the others interested in what she was saying?" I couldn't tell as the other three were very quiet. They weren't fiddling around or doing other things. They were at the surface engaged in her conversation. But then she left to go to the bathroom and something amazing happened. While she was gone the other three all talked and shared the conversation evenly between them. Their body language came alive. Their level of engagement tripled. It was a real conversation with each of the three having input and giving reactions. It was a very balanced conversation. And then I told Teresa this. "Let's see how long it takes for that lady to come back and dominate again."

As she sat down, she took stock of the conversation at hand. I could tell that she was postulating her next doctoral dissertation. The other 3 were will still quite candid for 3 minutes. I timed it. Then she opened her mouth and the other 3 stopped. Their body language shrunk as they returned to listening or lecturer mode. It was very sad. This woman was elated to return to a lively table and then swiftly stole the energy to do what Lauryn Hill describes as "Killing Me Softly". The conversation had returned to the default position with total domination by one lady. Five years ago, I would have never noticed this. I'm thankful that I can now read the room. This was a fascinating study in sociology and human behaviour.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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Vincent is first and foremost, a husband, father, and homeschooler. Vincent and Elizabeth live in Bradenton, Florida with their 3 sons Andrew, Nolan, and Dylan. They are active in their community and church. Vincent is a friend to many and certainly to me! We go way back. You'll hear that story in this interview. Professionally, Vincent spent 22 years as a nationally-acclaimed & recognized photojournalist and sports photographer. But this career started to bore Vincent. Today, you'll see Vincent speaking on stages, leading masterminds & retreats, and hear him on hundreds of podcasts. He is the founder of Total Life Freedom and author of "Freelance to Freedom" and "The Wealth of Connection". Vincent and I have been close friends for nearly 8 years. I have personally watched him apply EVERY one of the 5 C's from the book he released today. This book is the life that Vincent has lived for decades. This process is different from the churn and burn funnels out there for creating business. Vincent has created a human approach to making business personal. It's called The Wealth of Connection.

There are so many wide-ranging topics that Vincent covered in this interview. Clearly, we talked about our friendship and the influence we've had on each other. We discuss his career arc and how he made the leap into the online business world. The majority of the interview discusses topics from his new book and we end with a bold proclamation of what he wants this book to do for the world. I had a blast doing this interview and I highly encourage you to get this book!

Here's some of my notes from the interview.

• Selfish versus generous goals - driven selfish goal-oriented people will absolutely hit their selfish goals. But, they will be empty.
• Frank Sinatra and audience of one - one person with one generous act can make all the difference.
• Charisma versus character - They both attract people, but only character lasts for a lifetime. Charisma with no character is like a pig with lipstick.
• Purpose to ask a question and sit in the front row of every event. This is an act of generosity as it validates the speakers platform and fuels the rooms energy. They will be appreciative and it's good for you.
• Curiosity - Tom Brady asking for the phone numbers of the entire team in Tampa and calling each one to connect and learn about them. Freddie Mercury learning about the culture of each concert area that he was performing at to connect with the audiences. Being curious is generous.
• Hour of giving - Develop the habit of generosity.
• Read the Room - This was a huge blind spot for me personally
• My Takeaway - "I finally understood that I needed to change my character from one focused on selfish goals to one focused on generous goals. Now, I would have said that I was generous then, but looking back, I wasn't. I simply paid lip service to it. I did what I needed to do to get what I needed to get. Going from selfish goals to generous goals was the cornerstone to turning everything around." - Vincent Pugliese

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Let's go back to the beginning. This introduction episode is still the most downloaded of the podcast. Thank you for joining me on this journey.

Would you like more information on CBF and the potential of growing your residential cleaning business beyond 7 figures? Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you. 

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I was asked by the members of the Smart Cleaning Tribe to be the March 2022 expert to talk about real estate presentation cleaning. This is where I cut my teeth in cleaning. I was taught in Upstate New York by the realtors and stagers of Coldwell Banker how to clean professionally for realtors. I learned so many important lessons like this. There is a clear 80/20 Rule with real estate agents. 80% are looking to just get a cleaner in there to make it look nice. They want cheap and fast. Do not go after these customers. There are also 20% of realtors that understand that selling a house that they worked very hard to earn the listing requires a team. They need and collaborate with this team to sell at maximum price. I also learned how the real estate business works and how to communicate with realtors to show them I understood how hard they worked to get a listing. I learned about the emotional buyer and the emotional seller and how vital first impressions were. I learned the language of the real estate presentation cleaner and worked with the 20%. This partnership allowed the realtors I worked with to sell their homes at a 10% higher sales value before the inflated time period of Covid. They made higher commissions and I earned some of the highest cleaning rates in the country, earning between $100 - $150 per hour cleaning houses! This knowledge lead to a membership and eventually a course that I sell on my website. I hope you enjoy this clip from my expert call with the Smart Cleaning Tribe over the next 2 episodes.

In this follow-up episode, I break down the emotional buyer and how to maximize first impressions to help realtors sell homes with your presentation cleaning system. Are you interested in adding real estate presentation cleaning as a niche in your business? Make sure to check out my course syllabus to see if this course could be right for you.

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I was asked by the members of the Smart Cleaning Tribe to be the March 2022 expert to talk about real estate presentation cleaning. This is where I cut my teeth in cleaning. I was taught in Upstate New York by the realtors and stagers of Coldwell Banker how to clean professionally for realtors. I learned so many important lessons like this. There is a clear 80/20 Rule with real estate agents. 80% are looking to just get a cleaner in there to make it look nice. They want cheap and fast. Do not go after these customers. There are also 20% of realtors that understand that selling a house that they worked very hard to earn the listing requires a team. They need and collaborate with this team to sell at maximum price. I also learned how the real estate business works and how to communicate with realtors to show them I understood how hard they worked to get a listing. I learned about the emotional buyer and the emotional seller and how vital first impressions were. I learned the language of the real estate presentation cleaner and worked with the 20%. This partnership allowed the realtors I worked with to sell their homes at a 10% higher sales value before the inflated time period of Covid. They made higher commissions and I earned some of the highest cleaning rates in the country, earning between $100 - $150 per hour cleaning houses! This knowledge lead to a membership and eventually a course that I sell on my website. I hope you enjoy this clip from my expert call with the Smart Cleaning Tribe over the next 2 episodes.

In this follow-up episode, I share my real estate presentation cleaning genesis story, experience, and explain the basics of filtering for the right agents to partner with. Are you interested in adding real estate presentation cleaning as a niche in your business? Make sure to check out my course syllabus to see if this course could be right for you.

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Are you new to the Smart Cleaning School Podcast? If not, please bare with me. I started as a solo apartment cleaner in 2005 and moved into real estate presentation cleaning in 2006. This opened up the doors for solo house and small office cleaning in late 2006. I grew and optimized my first solo cleaning business through 2017 to a 2-day per week cleaning job earning over $50,000 per year in profit. I loved having 5-day weekends to spend time with my family. Check out the introduction episode to hear more of my story. We sold that business in 2018 for $80,000 so our family could move back to our hometown closer to family. I have fully detailed my selling process in the double episode, "How I Sold My Cleaning Business I & 2". We started and grew a new business in the Indian Valley of PA from 2018 to another optimized solo business working 2 days per week and earning $70,000 per year in profit by early 2021. This podcast documents that entire process if you'd like to learn how to do it yourself. Everything changed when we got our "New Freedom Vision", which was followed by numerous monthly calls with Coach Josh, and culiminating with the victory episode called "The Fight was Worth It". Here's the short version. We desired as a family to take the ultimate trip. We wanted to go to Florida for a month in the middle of the Pennsylvania winter. It was a fight, but it was worth it. I encourage you to to back and listen to the episodes I've mentioned. I believe it's important to walk beside me as we scraped and struggled to build the team that would allow us a month away. In this episode, I want to hone in on one statement my wife Teresa said to me as we were packing up on the last day in Florida.

"Do we have to leave?"

My immediate and unrehearsed answer was this. "If we don't leave, we can't come back."

We both stopped, nodded our heads, and had a mutual understanding of how profound that was. Neither of us wanted to leave. That's obvious! We had worked like crazy to earn 30 days in Florida with our family. It was an incredible level of freedom that very few ever experience unfortunately. But both Teresa and I knew that we hadn't built something that could earn us 60 days or 90 days yet. We certainly hadn't built something that could allow us to leave for Florida for a year or permanently. We set the goal of 30 days and Coach Josh helped us achieve it. Teresa and I talked it out for a few minutes, playing out the scenario.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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This episode was inspired by my friend and upcoming guest on the Smart Cleaning School. Vincent Pugliese is a coach, speaker, author, and mastermind leader. I was at his Total Life Freedom Retreat in St. Augustine in February as I've mentioned in a few recent episodes. It was so helpful and inspiring to be around 20 other entrepreneurs from around the country with ranging backgrounds and experiences. Together, we brainstormed and helped each other solve many of our current challenges. I'll be diving into one major takeaway I got in an upcoming episode called, "Yeah, That's Fear". Stay tuned. I want to share a breakout session that Vincent lead that really stretched me.

It's called Putting Someone Over. Vincent recounted the many people that have lent their reputation and credibility to him over the years to give him an advantage or opportunity that he wouldn't have received on his own. It's a phrase that comes from the WWF, where Vincent used to be involved as a press pass photographer. Vincent asked every one of us in the room after he gave credit to the amazing people that have put him over. "Who has put you over? " This is important. Our lives can get easily wrapped up in ourselves and our own goals. But what about those that helped you massively to get there? Have you thanked them?

I want to take the rest of this podcast to personally thank the people in my life that have put me over.

Nancy Marcinko - You encouraged a shy high school boy to pursue his creativity in art. You put me over in my confidence.

Jim Claeys - You took on a young, naive Edison Engineer and showed me how to get things done. You put me over in project management.

Joe Schirripa - You drove me all over the east coast to help us with our business and you mentored a young, immature man into a relationship with Jesus. You put me over in faith, family, and business mindset.

Brett Hart - You offered us a cleaning opportunity and referred us to Coldwell Banker. You put me over in starting our cleaning career.

Jil Denn - You mentored a new cleaning business owner to be an effective vendor for Coldwell Banker's 500 realtors. You put me over in cleaning business acumen.

Vincent Pugliese - You have lent your credibility to introduce me to countless new friends at events and have helped me through difficult business decisions. You put me over in my Wealth of Connection.

Dave Hallenbeck - You taught me everything I know in effective team leadership in the Royal Rangers. You put me over in servant leadership.

Debbie Sardone - You encouraged me to go beyond my own cleaning business to help others that are struggling. You put me over as a cleaning coach.

There are so many others I could thank. But that's not what this is about. We all have dozens of people that have helped us along the way. The 8 people that I just mentioned were integral at various points of my life in using their platform and reputation to lift me up to them. It's a special gift that these people have given me and I wanted to thank them publically.

Who has put you over in your life and career? Have you thanked them? If not, why? You can stop this podcast now and let them know. Go for it! Thank them!

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I was in a 4-person mastermind breakout group that I mentioned in "Confidence Creates Success", where we each helped the others grow the next level. One of the members was Matt Peet. Matt has become a good friend and is a conference videographer extraordinaire! He does all the video work for one of my favorite conferences, Podcast Movement. You've got to check out his website, Re-Peet Productions, to get a flavor or how talented he really is. I'd even recommend you check out his portfolio section and scroll down. The actual wrap-up video from our Total Life Freedom Retreat is on there. It's so good! As we were unpacking his goals to attract other conference venues as clients, I sensed a little apprehension. We challenge each other in these Freedom Zones! I could tell that Matt wanted to grow and gain more clients. I could tell Matt wanted to hit some personal goals. But that's what I heard. He WANTED them. I said this. "Matt, I sense that you really want your goals to happen. That's awesome. Over my lifetime, I've only ever accomplished the goals that I needed to happen. Do you need these yet?" It was a question that got each of us to reflect, including me. Let me share what I mean.

I spent years wanting to succeed in my own business on the side and never accomplished it. I spent years wanting to earn freedom and to travel around the country and never accomplished it. I spent years wanting to get out of debt and never accomplished it. I have wanted a lot of things. That is the problem. I have WANTED to accomplish these things. I didn't succeed in my own business until I NEEDED that business to succeed. That was the cleaning business after I got fired from GE in 2005. I had no choice. I needed cleaning to work otherwise my family was homeless. Air is a need. I need air or I'll die. I need water and food. I need to grow my relationships with my wife and kids. There was a point where I NEEDED to be out of debt so that we could have more money for things we wanted to do. That's when we turned up the heat on this need and accomplished it in July 2020. In 2021, I turned my want to take a month in Florida to a need to take my family for a life-changing month in Florida. We took immediate action on this NEED by renting the house and putting out $6,000 when our business was no where near ready for the trip. We got into alignment with the Lord and the work required to make this NEED happen. We did not rest until the goal was met. Need will always trumps want. How are you looking at your business whether it's a side hustle or full-time gig? Is it a want to succeed or a need to succeed?

Matt Peet is doing great work and has the potential to be the videographer for dozens of conferences across the country. I believe that he'll get there. I really do! But this isn't about Matt or Ken. This podcast is for you. What do you NEED to happen this year? If you'd like to talk this through with me, I'd be glad to help you find your why and needs. Just go to my website and book a free call.

Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page.

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There are multiple pieces of glass and mirrors on a car. They are designed for visibility and safety. The windshield allows you to see what's in front of you. The side windows allow you to see what is coming at you from the sides. The side-view mirrors allow you to see your blind spots. The rear windshield gives you visibility behind you and rear-view mirrors allow a quick glimpse of what's behind you. There are so many coaching metaphors that have been used based on what I just described. The world has been tough over the past 2 years. If you watch the news, it's easy to get fearful, depressed, or pessimistic. Step into this episode with me. I want to share two analogies from the car to give you new perspective.

The first metaphor goes back to the rear-view mirror. A common coaching metaphor here is to say this. Don't spend your time staring in the rear-view and living in the past. You'll miss what is in front of you and crash. That's so good. Here's my version. The rear-view mirror provides a glimpse of the past. In defensive driving, you are taught to take momentary glimpses every 3-5 seconds. Stay focused in front of you or live in the present and look toward the future. However, take glimpses of the past to give you perspective of where you came from. Let me give some examples. I was at Total Life Freedom Retreat in St. Augustine, Florida in mid-February where we broke into four-person groups to mastermind and help each other grow. We were talking about where we all were in our lives and businesses. Frankly, some of us were getting discouraged that we weren't further along. Can you relate? That's when I shared this story about Teresa and I. We were on the struggle bus from 2006 to 2012 with tons of debt, low income, and no family near us. Teresa was home with the kids, rarely getting out, because we had either one car, no money, or she was overwhelmed with raising little ones. I would be cleaning my guts out, constantly working in hopes of digging our way out of the hole I put us in! She would call me and I'd do my best to encourage her. "Teresa, I know things are tight. But do you remember 24 short months ago. I was digging for quarters in car to pay for gas. We recycled cans for a couple bucks to buy a pizza combo date night. We had 35 creditors chasing us down and making your cry. We lived in a house that didn't feel safe and I was always working?" How could she forget. Teresa would go back to that place with me for a glimpse of where we were just 24 months ago. I said. "Look at us now. We still have no money and I still work a lot. But we paid off $30,000 in debt and have half the creditors calling us. We have two cars and live in a nicer house that is safe. We take date nights once per month. They are inexpensive, but better than pizza combos. You're still a stay at home mom." These words instantly softened her heart and I could feel her smile coming. She would thank me for the perspective I was painting. We weren't out of the woods, but we were closer to grandmother's house. In summary, I learned how to measure progress in an emotional way and communicate it to my wife. I did this that day for my friend John Schuchman. He is the host of the Real Estate Survival Guide Podcast, which helps new realtors survive their first few years. I did the same thing for John and shared a glimpse of who I remember him being just 1 year prior. He felt so refreshed. This is called perspective. We all need it. It's the glimpse we take in the rear-view to see where we came from, giving us confidence in where we are going. And confidence creates success.

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Two recent conversations have ignited my excitement about our industry. In my interview with Ricky Regalado, he shared industry growth stats that floored me. Has the number of new cleaning business owners doubled due to the pandemic? A few short months later, I met with commercial cleaning industry leader Ed Selkow for coffee. Our conversation lasted 3 hours and I took so many notes. Ed will absolutely blow your minds when I bring him on the Smart Cleaning School Podcast for a multi-part interview series. He impressed on me something else. Technology is becoming a major part of our industry. We need to learn and grow with it or we'll be left behind. I can't wait to tap into Ed's brain to discuss this topic. In today's episode, I wanted to get the ball moving on where our industry is going. I consider myself an ambassador for the cleaning industry. I want to lift up the experts and resources and teach the newbies proper business owner mindset. I believe this is important work so that every new cleaning business owner can skip years of common pitfalls and mistakes. They can grow into the professional, business-minded leader our industry needs.

Let's start with industry statistics. What is going on and why? Bloomberg reports that the total number of janitorial jobs in the US grew from 908k to 958k in the 2-year period of 2006 to the 2008 recession. Those jobs sharply declined to 913k by 2010 and steadily rose year-after-year to 1.1M in Feb 2020. That's a 20% increase in 10 years! But then the pandemic hit the economy and the janitorial jobs plummeted to 922k by April 2020. I remember April 2020 well. The initial fear was still present, but people were starting to look for solutions. Big hitters like Mark Cuban were predicting the growth of essential industries like cleaning. The cleaning professional organizations were lobbying in DC to acquire the "essential" designation for service providers. I dug deep into the science of cleaning and proper disinfection to create my own free course and series on the "9 Mistakes in Disinfection". Our industry got the essential designation. Residential cleaning companies slowly bounced back and commercial skyrocketed as janitorial jobs returned to the 1M mark in August 2020! That's a growth of 80,000 jobs in 5 months or 12%! Job numbers have continued to climb to the current 1.04M as of February 2022. To put this in perspective, janitorial jobs accounts for just under 1% of all current jobs in the US. The actual number is this. 6 out of every 1,000 workers are janitors or cleaners! For more perspective, there are 1.1M plumbing & HVAC jobs, 977k electricians, 7.5M construction jobs, and 843k landscaping jobs. Cleaning is a big player compared to other blue-collar trades. Here's more perspective. There are 2.9M jobs in information services, 10M in professional & technical services like engineering, 5.1M hospital workers, 2.3M real estate professionals, and 1.1M couriers & messagers like Amazon and FedEx delivery people. Cleaning is carving out a larger and larger slice of the US economy, projecting to go upwards of $88 billion by 2025 or 0.3% of the US economy. This is astounding to me!

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

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In my "January 2022 Freedom Update with Coach Josh", I inferred that we qualified for the trip to Florida that we booked after "A New Freedom Vision". I had just onboarded my fifth and final cleaner to cover our tenth and final building. The other 4 C3 Team Members were all doing well and Florida was inevitable. We had fought hard for several months and especially over the past 60 days to make this dream a reality. However, there was still 10 days to go...

We were due to leave for Florida on Sunday, February 6th at 4am. Let's go back to Sunday, January 23rd. I met the newest C3 Team Member at our biggest client to start training. Our van wasn't acting right either, so I knew it would need a drop at the shop to make sure it was okay for our big trip. The day of training went outstanding. I'm keeping the team member's name anonymous, but they were performing extremely well. I felt confident that I could train this Sunday and the next to get the excellence score over 8 so we could leave for Florida. After 7 hours and no lunch break, I asked if they were hungry. I had asked before and felt bad. I offered to go get food. They decided to take a 30 minute break to grab food, return, and finish the training job. "I'll be back. I promise." That was a weird thing to say. I was sitting in the waiting room of this vet hospital doing some work on my laptop. 15 minutes. 30 minutes. 35 minutes. Nothing. I started to wonder. A text came in at 40 minutes. "I had to take care of an emergency. Thank you for training me, but this job isn't going to work for me." My heart sank. I just sat there. I had been working around the clock since Christmas onboarding 5 new customers, ordering supplies, stocking offices, building out my systems in Swept, hiring & training 5 C3 Team Members. I was managing multiple cleaners at multiple sites at the same time all month. I cleaned houses during the week and offices nights and weekends. Just 45 minutes prior I was so thankful to reach the end of our massive goal to delegate our 10 buildings through 5 trained team members. I was ready to finish this vet, go home, and tell the family we were definitely going to Florida. But now my heart sank into the couch I was sitting. I literally didn't know what to do, but I had a choice in that moment. I could be positive and solution-oriented or I could be negative and accept defeat. I called my wife and shared exactly what happened. We prayed together. She said the obvious. "Well, you better get cleaning so you can come home." I then proceeded to clean the remaining parts of the hospital with my wife on the phone. We talked through everything and made a proclamation. We would not rest until this goal was achieved. We were not going to be denied. We would evaluate our calendar and literally clear everything that wasn't an absolute priority for our family at that time. I got home and told the kids. They got behind mom and dad as well. We prayed as a family.

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I was so honored when Kevin called me after crossing the one million dollar mark. That conversation lead to an expert call on the Smart Cleaning Tribe and a podcast interview with Kevin. I took clips of both and created this "best-of" episode. After hearing Kevin's take on stewardship, I completely changed my pronouns as well. It's not MY business. It's HIS business and I'm the steward or manager. That is the major heart shift that propelled Kevin's rise and it's been a major one for us as well. Enjoy this 2-part conversation replay with Kevin Smith of Grace Home Cleaning in Omaha, NE. 

As I mentioned in the episode, Kevin is a student of Cleaning Business Fundamentals. Would you like  to scale HIS 7-figure company for great income and freedom, check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you. 

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I met a new friend recently from Newcastle, South Wales, AU. Dave Reeks is the owner of The Finest Clean in that area and is a new Solo Elite member. Dave has a ministry background and recently moved. He found the cleaning industry and got super excited about the potential of having his own house cleaning business. We were able to connect on Zoom with the goal for me to help him. But really Dave... you helped me.

I met a new friend recently from Newcastle, South Wales, AU. Dave Reeks is the owner of The Finest Clean in that area and is a new Solo Elite member. Dave has a ministry background and recently moved. He found the cleaning industry and got super excited about the potential of having his own house cleaning business. We were able to connect on Zoom with the goal for me to help him. But really Dave... you helped me.

There are tens of thousands of new cleaning business owners entering the industry every year. I'm an old-timer with a desire to keep this podcast focused on helping beginners in business owner mindset, leadership, and introducing them to amazing leaders around the industry. Dave's questions helped me think like a new person with the benefit of my almost two decades of experience. I want to keep this episode short and sweet because the lesson I learned through Dave is simple. I believe that every business goes through three phases. I have labeled them the ISO Model for solo cleaners. I've explained this many times on this podcast already. In this episode, I want to focus on the Initializer phase.

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In "Building My New Cleaning Network I", I shared my marketing strategy from the summer of 2018 after moving back to the Philadelphia Area. I was scrappy and willing to knock on doors to say, "Hi, my name is Ken Carfagno." My friend Kevin Lacombe did the same thing in his new solo cleaning business when I was coaching him in late 2018. I knocked on 13 doors in the same town where my first new office was located. It worked! I had a few interested companies and one hired me! We then moved our family to another part of the suburbs and wanted to attract new clients. I followed the same strategy of knocking on doors, except I added a personalized piece to my information drop-offs and follow up process that I got from my friend Gustavo Fernandez. He showed me a few ways to stand out and I implemented them. In the month of May 2019, I knocked on 25 doors and generated a few interested prospects. Again, one hired me. I would have continued this guerilla marketing approach each month to add one new customer each month. But it didn't sit right with me. I realized that I needed to serve the community and create a name for myself. Thus, I poured into my newest customer and became friends with his family. We started meeting for breakfast to connect, pray, and mastermind together. That's Mr. Dennis Gehman of Gehman Design Remodeling in Harleysville, PA. I've mentioned his name a dozen times on this podcast because he was that much of a help to me! We still meet for breakfast to connect, pray, and mastermind. This process taught me a huge lesson. I wanted to change my approach from cold door-knocking to attracting warm leads. The only way to do that was through service.

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In "Building My New Cleaning Network I", I shared the mindset of how building your network is similar to building a water well. You can't just turn on the faucet to get water. Here is the conclusion to this October 2019 episode. 

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This episode was recorded in October 2019 as I launched my new cleaning business in the Philadelphia Area. We are so accustomed to turning on the faucet and immediately getting water. But that's not how it worked for our early settlers. They had to dig water wells and later, water pumps. They had to put in the work first to build the system for obtaining water. That's what this Best-Of illustrates. I had to prime the pump or dig the well. It's called building your network. Your network is your net worth. This episode and the next are meant to bring you back to the foundation of my current 6-figure commercial cleaning business that just allowed my family to go to Florida for a month! Pay attention to the seeds and small decisions I made to dig my water well.

After these two Best-Of episodes, I'll share an update episode to show how the seeds from this 2019 work turned into a harvest in 2020 and 2021. 

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I have been fortunate to interview several visionaries in our industry over the past year. This interview with Ricky Regalado was different. He is such a visionary that he inspired me to do greater things in this amazing industry. Take the time to listen to this one all the way through and then listen again. You will not be disappointed.

The first portion of the interview covers Ricky's upbringing and deep family ties. This is where you start to feel the deep sense of connection that he has to the blue collar workforce in America. In the second portion of the interview, we shift gears and talk about the cleaning industry and where it's going. We covered the integral values of hard work, grit, and perseverance that founded our country and is not being taught like it used to. In the final portion of the interview, Ricky shares his vision for the cleaning industry and how we can be a part of rebuilding America.

Here are a few notes and quotes that stand out from this interview.

"If we were going to make this work, there wasn't enough time to have a social life because we had a vision. At some point, we'll be working on this business and not in it."

"Love it or hate it, you don't get a 10x return on a blue collar business. You get a 10x on a technology company or an invention."

"A trend isn't a short amount of time. That's a risk, a high risk and can turn around on you as fast as it went up."

Where does this generation learn grit and develop a backbone? We learned it from our baby-boomer parents and grandparents, who watched their parents and grandparents survive the Great Depression. We learned it from our immigrant parents who scrapped for everything they had. We learned it from our single moms who had no other way but up.

This industry is so poised to keep growing. We're foolish not to capitalize. Ricky is getting letters from private equity firms all the time offering to buy his company. These firms see the marketplace and see commercial cleaning as recession proof and pandemic proof. For the first 5 years, Ricky didn't like being known as a cleaning service owner. It wasn't glamorous. Now, he shouts his business with confidence and excitement. It generates responses like. "Ooh, I need a cleaning company."

There have been 30,000 new cleaning companies formed from 2006 to 2018. That number nearly doubled in 2020 to 52,000 and 2021 is likely more than 2020.

"I feel like they need to know what it is to walk in the shoes of a cleaning technician before any other thing cause then they'll get that humility." Ricky requires every employee of the company at every level must spend their first 30 days in the field cleaning. "The greatest generals started with basic training."

Ricky's Business Growth (Year to Year)

2012 $80k Coverall

2013 $250k Coverall

2014 $600k Coverall

2015 $800k Coverall Sold, $0 Rozalado

2016 $1.8M Rozalado

2017 $2.4M Rozalado

2018 $4.8M Rozalado

2019 $6M Rozalado

2020 $9M Rozalado

2021 $10M++ Rozalado

Ricky's Vision for our Industry

Rozalado is currently at the top 1% in our industry. 9% of the general labor (blue collar) workforce comes from cleaning & maintenance industry! Think of it this way. 9 of every 100 blue collar workers in the US are working for cleaning & maintenance companies. That is mind-blowing. Ricky believes very deeply that he can make a sizeable impact on the American labor force by strengthening cleaning companies. It goes back to the way of life he grew up in. All Ricky knew was blue collar and now he is able to raise the standard of living for the very people he represents through the most unlikely of businesses.

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Over the past several months, you have seen a tremendous shift in my personal cleaning brand as it moved from Carfagno Cleaning (50% house cleaning / 50% office cleaning) to Carfagno Commercial Cleaning and the C3 Experience (90% office cleaning). When I cleaned houses in my first solo cleaning business, I had a certain type of house and customer that I wanted. This is what made me so successful as a solo cleaner. The only aspect that I didn't master was geographic optimization as I was still traveling on my cleaning days up to an hour each way. I sought to change that in my second solo business in PA and was on the right track. I took on houses and offices in a tighter geographic window that I did in NY. However, I wasn't getting the most optimized customers. Some were low profit. Some were high drama. In fact, I made a hard decision in early 2021 to fire a customer because they were not a good fit for my company. I explain this process in "Why I Fired My First Client"The people were very kind and the mission of the organization was awesome. However, we were spending 2 hours there for $500 per month when I had other offices earning $600 per month for 1 hour of work. As a side note, I was working with my oldest 2 kids as my helpers. I knew it was a process. Therefore, I was willing to work through my ISO Model until total optimization was achieved per my goals. "A New Freedom Vision" interrupted this.

I hired Coach Josh to help build a company that I could leave in PA while my family traveled to FL. This was an ultimate test. What would it take? I've answered this in so many other episodes and Freedom Reports. In this episode, I want to focus on one specific aspect. Defining your ideal customer. Josh helped me do this over the summer. I had cleaned all sorts of commercial buildings over the years. My favorites were the low drama, high professional, high profit ones that I noticed fell into these niches. Small professional, dental, and small medical offices. These 3 niches were the ones I decided to hone in as I built my Project 100, which turned into a Project 250 last fall. Ultimately, my new business is loaded with the exact offices I wanted because I chose them, targeted them, and executed the right work to get them.

We just onboarded 5 new buildings in December and January. One of these buildings is 10,000 square feet with beautiful offices and executive areas and marble floors in several rooms. We visit this building twice per week for $1,375 per month. It's a super easy building to clean and it's the closest of all of my customers to my house. To say this is an ideal customer would be an understatement. As I was packing up my things during the initial cleaning, an interesting thought occurred to me. I stared across the parking lot into the school next door. Inside that school was the customer that we fired a year ago. That school was a gift for a short time when we needed it, but it was the wrong customer for our business model in many ways. It was low profit and high drama. However, the location was an A+. I thought this. 'So close, but yet so far.' Here are two buildings, basically next to each other. One was our starting 2021 client and another was our starting 2022 client. They were so close geographically, yet so far in how ideal they are to the C3 business model. I packed up and drove away feeling so grateful for the types of customers we now on-board in our commercial cleaning business. And it's not by accident.

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About a year ago, I had a conversation with Carrie Miyazono. She is the owner of Kaizen Cleaning in Chanhassen, MN and a Black Belt in taekwondo. Her solo cleaning business is highly niched to clean martial arts dojos. These schools have students sweating up the mats every day of the week. In many cases, the owners are either cleaning themselves or have a staff member do it. Therefore, Carrie found a niche that she could serve with excellence. It was so much fun guiding her to pick up her first gym for $400 per month. But she got discouraged after that as no one new was hiring her service. Carrie was working an overnight job at the time that she desperately wanted to quit to have better pay and hours with her new solo cleaning business.

I helped her mindset with an example she knew well. I asked. "What's the difference between a white belt and a black belt?" She answered. "Time, commitment, repetitions, and a willingness to suck." I asked her about confidence and technique and she told me that those two are byproducts of the first four. Then she summed it all up. "The difference between the black belt and the white belt is the use of those four things. More time leads to more commitment. More commitment leads to more repetitions. More repetitions leads to a greater willingness to suck. The cycle self-perpetuates and your technique, form, and confidence increase and so do your belts. Eventually you make black belt."

I thought about the sports greats of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods and their legendary pursuit of practice. When you take 5 shots, you're upset to miss one and may not take too many more. When you take 500 shots, missing 50 or 100 is no big deal because you'll keep shooting. This is what Carrie is talking about. It's the pursuit of becoming highly skilled at your craft. For Michael and Tiger, it was basketball and golf. For Carrie, it was taekwondo.

I related to her growing your solo cleaning business through the ISO Model is the exact same way. This first gym that she got is like earning her white belt. It was really hard to get. She was sloppy. Her technique sucked, but she got the job anyway. She didn't get the best price. However she achieved the first belt and now she's ready for the yellow. The yellow is getting another gym to prove she can do it again. Carrie will need to apply the same fundamentals to her cleaning business and she'll eventually become an Optimizer and a black belt in my system. Solo cleaners out there, think about your business like this. Don't expect to start as a black belt. If you like the business and lifestyle that I had as an optimized solo cleaner has, be willing to put in the time, commitment, reps, and willingness to suck that I did in two different states over 16 years. Fortunately for you, the ISO Model Black Belt can be achieved in 2 years with my system. If you don't want to put in the time or commitment or reps, go do something else. But if you are willing jump into the ISO Model through the Solo Cleaning School Elite, you can absolutely earn all of your belts.

To those that would like to go beyond my black belt system and become a 5th degree master black belt and scale to a 7-figure company with great income and freedom, check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

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There is only one true video game console. It's called NES or Nintendo! And within the NES world, there is only a few real games. They are everything Super Mario, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, and Contra! Where are all my Gen X'ers? And yes, Gen Y'ers too? Let's talk the brilliance of the game Contra in this episode. No. It's not going to be this. "Ken, it's up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start." That's a different podcast!

The game of Contra had several missions where you had to navigate through a constantly scrolling screen left to right and bottom to top to reach the bad guy at the end of each level. The game was near impossible to beat without the above cheat code for 30 extra lives. If you're listening to this and you beat Contra with the non-cheat 4 lives... please email me so I can give you a shout out on this show! Anyway, let's get back on track. There were several choices of weapons you could get. You start with a single-shot semi-automatic rifle. It's not a great weapon. Then there's a few others that are better like the wave gun, where it shoots a single shot that propels in a sweeping wave form. The wave is better than the first weapon. There's the machine gun, which shoots several bullets at a time straight. This is efficient especially for destroying the fortress shields, but it's hard to win a level with the basic rifle, wave, or machine gun. You need the big guns. They are simply known in the Contra Universe as "S" and "L" for spreadshot and laser.

The laser beam sends a long powerful blast that wipes out multiple guys and opens up force field shields in one shot. It has the equivalent power of at least 10 machine gun rounds. It's highly focused, accurate, and powerful. Many Contra junkies can win with the laser and swear it's the best. But the laser camp is much smaller in size than what I and many others believe. There is but one ultimate weapon in Contra. It's called the spreadshot. This gun shoots 10 rounds at once in a spread of 30 degrees. It eliminates everything in it's path from a distance. Plus, you can get close to any shield and the combined power of all 10 shots equals one laser blast. You can see why the spreadshot is the best. Yes, I'm biased.

I'm going to relate this to a conversation. Coach Josh has a business partner Chad Brown and they run the Stronger Business Podcast. They're also partners in the Athens Cleaning Company. Chad is crushing it. Josh is crushing it too but not quite to the level that Chad is, so I asked Josh the difference. Josh said he is super focused and goes after things, but Chad just implements faster and tries more things out. Chad fails at more things. I remember Josh telling me months ago a quote he heard. The difference between a seven figure earner and an eight-figure earner or a six and seven-figure earner is their speed of implementation. People that take more action, fail more. They also succeed much faster. I told Josh this. I think that you have chosen the laser beam and Chad has the spreadshot from Contra. And I probably have that wave gun or machine gun! He liked the analogy and we laughed it off, but it's so relevant.

There are two takeaways you should get from this episode. One is simple. You can win with any weapon, but why not choose the best one. The second is even more obvious. Nintendo is still the greatest gaming system of all time!

What gun are you aiming at your business? Would you like help in helping you see what you may not even see yourself? Make sure to check out the many free & paid resources available at the Smart Cleaning School website. Also, do you have questions for me? Book a free coaching call on my website!

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This month's Freedom Report starts with a clip from a call with Coach Josh. I had accomplished a lot in December as you heard in the last report, adding 5 new buildings and 1 new team member. The 5 buildings added $3,800 per month of new revenue and brought us to 13 buildings and 5 houses to delegate. The new team member would take 3 of the buildings, leaving a lot more still to delegate. I felt confident at the end of December that I could shift focus from marketing & sales to hiring. The #1 priority had to be working my way out of a job!

In this clip, there are a few great quotes from Josh.

"We'll always be leaving money on the table. If we're so focused on getting all the money on the table, we'll never be the greatest at any one thing."

"I have to choose the sanity of my team over the expansion of my business."

"Just because you could pick up these clients doesn't mean you should."

"You're eliminating margin when I don't think you have to."

This conversation has been the hardest one for me in coaching. I'm amazed. The calls where we needed revenue and team members challenged me, but they were all answers that ended in 'yes'. This answer has to end in 'no'. I did focus on the team-building, training, and systems in January. That was how we'd get to Florida. Before I go there, let me share more about margin as that was such a vital lesson from this coaching call. I have made promises to my current 5 houses, 13 buildings, and 5 team members. My number one priority is to honor all those promises. I could do this with the time window, but we'd have little margin. Therefore, I made some key decisions in January.

1. Decision 1 - I don't know what I'm going to do with house cleaning, but I decided to create some margin as I'm away in Florida by canceling my house cleaning while I'm gone. I will lose $800 in profit. I talked to each of my customers and 4 of the 5 are okay with it. The 5th house wanted a referral to another company that could fill in while I'm gone. I fully accept that I may lose this customer as a result. I am okay with it as I am going away from house cleaning and it's my least profitable house of 5. Removing 5 houses from my calendar for a month adds a lot of margin. In other words, it's less for me to think about while I'm gone.
2. Decision 2 - I have three buildings that are monthly. I will not delegate those yet. I completed them at month-end and will clean them again with my kids after I get back. I just had to shift them back one week. This adds more margin as my 13 buildings and 5 houses is down to just 10 buildings. I actually gain about $300 profit as I don't have to delegate this work.

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This episode of the original Solo Cleaning School is one of my most downloaded ones to date. I have personally heard several stories how this episode along with a few others helped someone start a solo cleaning business as a side hustle. I can't tell you how exciting that makes me! I wanted to make one update to this episode based on where I am in my personal business in 2022. If you've followed this show at all in 2021, you'd know that I made the decision after 15 years of solo cleaning to scale my business. In fact, if you'd like to learn how to scale your cleaning business, you can follow this podcast and watch me do it!

In my original episode, I shared that it costs between $500 - $1,000 to get your basic supplies together. At the time, I was keeping it as basic as possible. Would you like to see a list of the specific cleaning supplies & equipment that I personally recommend? I'll give you an example. I've used 3 products from the Amway Corporation for over 15 years. They are eco-friendly, water and coconut oil based, and the smell sells. The kitchen cleaner smells like citrus and the glass cleaner smells like melon. I have literally sold new house cleaning jobs and at least one office cleaning customer by letting them smell my cleaners during the estimate. Maybe that should be a Funny Papers edition. If you're looking for new cleaners or would like to see what other supplies & equipment I recommend, check out the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page.

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I brought Molly Moran onto the Smart Cleaning Tribe in December 2021 as the 4th expert in the 7-Figure Series. Molly started Green Sweep NM in 2009. She lives in Albuquerque, NM. She grew her business to $600k in 6 years with basic systems and a split of 50/50 commercial & residential. Molly decided to sell the commercial side of her company to focus on houses. After 2 more years, she built the residential only portion back to $450k, but she was burnt out! Her business was unsustainable because she had few systems. She was working like crazy and the thought of this business at $1M revenue made her sick as she’d have no life. Molly was scrolling late night on Indeed and Facebook when she stumbled upon Debbie Sardone and CBF. She joined Debbie's coaching program in 2017 as a last-stitch effort to salvage her company and regain her peace of mind. CBF usually helps businesses with $100-$300k businesses get to $1M. Molly was way past that, but needed help. She implemented the necessary systems in a year and turned it around. Molly grew from $450k to $1.2M in 4 years and closed 2021 closing in on $2M in annualized revenue. Molly has opted to be more top-heavy in admin, to sacrifice profit for time. Others opt to be more involved in the business (less admin) and more profit to the owner. This investment allowed Molly to step away more from her business and today she is a certified CBF Coach and helping others turn their residential cleaning companies around and on-track toward a 7-figure absentee business.

There were many amazing lessons that Molly taught us on this Tribe call. I wanted to extract just a few. The first 15 minutes of this podcast are highlights from Molly's overall business journey and lessons along the way including her decision to join CBF. The last portion of this episode answers a Tribe member's question about her struggles along the way. Molly's answer is delivered in a classroom format, where she systematically unpacks the 4 struggles at 4 distinct revenue levels a cleaning company owner experiences. It is fascinating. Here are some notes from the 4 struggles.

• First struggle: $300-$400k. You have 8 people with field staff. You’re working your face off in your business and you can’t afford to hire someone in the office. This is the fist valley of despair. This was a profit issue and needed to hire office staff to grow.
• Second struggle: $600-700k. She was F/T in the business. This was a people power. You have office staff and need more to get to the next level. There is an insecurity of “is this growth going to continue”? You probably need to add a new admin team member every $300-$350K
• Third struggle: $1M-$1.2M. The people you start with aren’t always the people to get you to the next level. It’s a leadership issue. Be very careful with the titles you give people. Using the word manager can limit people. The manager at $500k can’t manage at $1M.
• Fourth struggle: $1.5M-$2M. Capacity. Certain things that scaled at $700k don’t scale now. Customer service and technology are examples. The communication log (ComLog) - they track incoming and outgoing conversations with staff and customers. The CommLog is the running text of the day. There used to be 10-15 entries and now there are 40-50 per day. This has not scaled.

Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

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The FAA requires a runway length of 7,500 feet for a 747 airplane to take-off and land. This length adds on considerable margin for slippery surfaces from poor weather or possibly malfunction. Have you ever noticed how exact air traffic control and schedules are? Your plane has an exact take-off time. It takes a few minutes to depart from the gate and taxi to the assigned runway strip. Then it stops, awaits permission from control, and then barrels down the runway lifting off into the great blue. There are so many great analogies and metaphors that speakers and writers have used over the years to compare this airplane take-off process to some process in our lives or businesses. I was on a coaching call with Josh Melton in early November 2021 and he said this. "Ken, you need to learn how to clear the runway."

Let me explain the issue first. I had booked a month-long trip to Florida over the summer and had 6 months to accomplish a significant goal. This is explained full in "A New Freedom Vision". Essentially, I had to add 5 new buildings in my commercial cleaning company and delegate them to 5 new team members. But I would need to delegate and develop systems as a foundation for this all to stay together while I was gone. This seemed very doable once Coach Josh started guiding me. I was taxiing onto the runway and ready to take off. There were just a few giant obstacles blocking my take-off.

• I had agreed to a major undertaking in the Royal Rangers with my son Kenny. He was going for National Scout and needed to earn his Wilderness in the Frontiersman Camping Fellowship (FCF). I decided to do it with him. This required a 24-hour survival vigil in the woods, building our own shelter, cooking our own food, and staying awake the whole time with no talking. And that was just one part of the testing for Wilderness. There were several other skills we had to learn like black powder muzzle-loader shooting, flint & steel, knife & hawk throwing, primitive navigation, assembling our frontier outfits, and much more. This took Kenny and I all August, September, and early October to accomplish. The Wilderness Vigil was on October 16th, 2021. We both earned Wilderness and Kenny was elected as the National Scout, one of 8 in the whole country and the highest Royal Ranger level of leadership for Rangers under 18. It was worth it. But it took a ton of time and I was not able to devote the time needed toward my cleaning business during that time. Tick-tock...
• I was trying to help my uncle close the estate of my grandparents. We had to sell the family house that my manic father was refusing to leave. We had to initiate a lawsuit, deal with the lawyers, and try to formulate a plan with the realtor all at the same time. Meanwhile, I had a father who was a threat to himself and others. This made the summer and early fall of 2021 extremely tough. I took multiple personal days away from work to deal with the following: meetings with the lawyer and realtor, helping my brother move out of the family house, taking my dad to the ER to clear him for drug rehab (once he was ready for help in October), coordinating the moving company to empty out the family house, and sell the house. It took a lot of time, but my uncle and I sold the family house on October 20th, which would have been the 65th wedding anniversary of my grandparents. My dad went away for a month, which bought my uncle and I the time to do the "business end" of the estate. I prioritized this and the cleaning business slipped. Tick-tock...

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I have shared highlights and interactions from the Smart Cleaning Tribe that I facilitate every Monday. This past week's call was wide-ranging in topics, but one issue spoke to many in the Tribe. Communication. When you run a solo business under $100k, it's fairly easy to maintain all communication of email, texts, and online messages with your customers. For the most part, solos have under 30 customers and they don't have many emails to address. It does get much harder to be responsive and accountable to ALL communication as your revenue grows. In this episode, this issue comes up big time in 2021 to bite Mark's business. He doesn't ignore his emails. Mark runs a very successful janitorial company over $1 million in revenue and gets up to 50 emails per day from customers, employees, and vendors. This is not a task that Mark could or should do on his own. He has tried and it cost him 2 customers in 2021. Here's the irony. Mark (like others in the Tribe including me) are guilty of procrastinating on their communication. They respond quickly to the email, but not fully. This buys us time to come back to the email when we have time. The problem as you may have guessed it. We don't have the time to come back to it. Therefore, we drop the ball and the communication procrastination hurts our reputations and bank accounts.

Lizzy identified an interesting reason for her communication procrastination. She is a perfectionist and waits until she has all of the answers perfect before she replies. This may not happen because of time crunching. Her irony is that she has GETMO quotes all over the wall. Go back to my episode called "Perfection is the Enemy" to hear more on this. Michelle shares her insecurities and failure in this area as well.

When I get to Bryan, we were all surprised to hear him say. "I am strong in this area." He has dropped the ball in the past and has implemented a delegation strategy. He hired a VA to do various office-related tasks for his company. One of those tasks is to monitor all inbound communication and hold Bryan accountable to his full response to every message. Bryan is the one responding. However, he delegated the accountability to a VA and now he is never unresponsive. Mark's solution is similar but also very different. He is hiring a full-time office person to take over all communication. It will their job to never let what happened to Mark ever happen again. Mark will check in with his employee to hold them accountable. He is keeping the accountability piece and delegating the communication. In both solutions, delegation with accountability is the answer.

Would you like to learn more about the Smart Cleaning Tribe? Check out our testimonial videos and free content on the Tribe page!

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We discuss a wide array of topics in this podcast episode anchored on our belief system. What is the underlying characteristic that has helped Debbie Sardone succeed in each of her businesses? It's her belief and conviction that what she is doing is right and is helping people. This conviction creates the self-confidence to take massive action and the massive action leads to massive results. It's this simple. You hear this woven all through Debbie's entrepreneurial journey that spans multiple decades. You hear this conviction rise up during the pandemic in the metaphor of the cow and buffalo and in helping cleaning company owners through the Valley of Despair. Here are some quotes from the episode.

"That's when I realized that there is a solution for everything. But you do have to go find it, you need to invest in it, and you need to follow it. And that's what I did. I'm a very good student."

"The fear was always worse than the reality. You can borrow my confidence until you have it."

"If you believed you could do it, you would pursue it."

At the end of the episode, Debbie and I referenced a mutual friend, "It's Grace for a Reason with Kevin Smith".

Debbie Sardone is the Founder of several companies including Buckets & Bows Maid Service, Debbie Sardone Consulting, and her non-profit Cleaning for a Reason. I am proud to announce that Debbie is also the newest sponsor to the Smart Cleaning School Podcast. Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

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It's time for another Tim Ferriss Podcast reference. Oh my. David Blaine the magician was such an entertaining 55 minutes! There were so many actionable words of wisdom. The one that got me to stop and listen again was this one. David told the story when he was a young magician doing street magic. He was in an airport and he got some bags mixed up because they all look the same. He said I think you've got my bag to a nearby traveler. One of the guys in a business suit said, "No I think that guy over there in the in the white limo has your bag." David had no family left after his single mom passed away. He had nothing to lose, walked over to the white limousine, and knocked on the window. The window rolled down. It was Iron Mike Tyson holding up his fist in the prime of the Tyson era! Iron Mike said, "Hey man, what do you want?" Mike Tyson ended up letting David into the limo and they went back to Mike's hotel where David did a bunch of cool magic tricks. Mike was thoroughly entertained and gave him some life-changing advice. He said. "You know I wasn't supposed to be the heavyweight champion of the world. I was too short. My reach was too short as well. But you know... when you have nothing else to lose, you have everything to gain."

I just meditated on that for a while as I was vacuuming an Animal Hospital floor and sucking up gobs of hair. When you have nothing else to lose, you have everything to gain. It's the same concept as hitting rock bottom. A lot of addicts and people with a lot of distress have to hit the worst point in the life before they can truly get better. I know people that start side hustles but yet they never make it work. Do you know why? They have everything to lose and very little to gain. They may have a 6-figure full time job with great perks, but they want freedom. It's hard for them to make it. I love the Rocky franchise. Look at Clubber Lang vs Rocky Balboa in fight 1. Clubber had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Rocky had very little to gain and everything to lose.

When I was in my first year of cleaning, I was David Blaine or Iron Mike Tyson or Clubber Lang. I had everything against me and everything to gain. I had already lost it all. I had no where to go but up. This motivated me beyond belief and I worked my tail off for scraps. I kept doing it over and over and over until we started getting some traction. If I go to the other end of my first cleaning business, we had a cushy set up in a nice rental house in a nice cul-de-sac. We made good money and I only cleaned 2 days per week. I had a lot to lose and not much to gain (in my mind). The truth of the matter was this. We weren't making it. I should have kept the same intensity throughout my business instead of letting up. I love this advice from Mike Tyson. Where are you at? Do you have nothing to lose and everything to gain? Go hard. Fight your fears and win. Or do you have everything to lose and little to win? This is dangerous as it causes complacency. If you stay where you're at, you will eventually lose what you have. Trust me!

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Welcome to the next Solo Saturday! I'm here for you solo cleaners. Have you enjoyed these bonus episodes just for you? We're just coming off the Christmas Season, New Year's, and now we're hard at work setting 2022 goals. I want to share a scene from one of my favorite movies, "It's a Wonderful Life". This scene is a turning point in George Bailey's life as he decides to follow his calling into the great unknown to help people rather than bowing to the almighty dollar that Mr. Potter was offering. See if you recognize this scene. I'll act it out!

[Quite a cigar, Mr. Potter.

You like it? I'll send you a box.

Well, I, uh, I suppose I'll find out sooner or later, but just what exactly did you want to see me about?

George, now that's just what I like so much about you. George, I'm an old man, and most people hate me. But I don't like them, either, so that that makes it all even.You know, just as well as I do, that I run practically everything in this town but the Bailey Building and Loan. You know, also, that for a number of years I've been trying to get control of it or kill it. But I haven't been able to do it. You have been stopping me. In fact, you have beaten me, George, and as anyone in this county can tell you, that takes some doing. Take during the depression, for instance. You and I were the only ones that kept our heads. You saved the Building and Loan, I saved all the rest.

Yeah. Well, most people say you stole all the rest.

The envious ones say that, George, the suckers. Now, I have stated my side very frankly. Now, let's look at your side. Young man, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, married, making say...forty a week.

Forty-five!

Forty-five. Forty-five. Out of which, after supporting your mother and paying your bills, you're able to keep, say ten, if you skimp. A child or two comes along, and you won't even be able to save the ten. Now, if this young man of twenty-eight was a common, ordinary yokel, I'd say he was doing fine. But, George Bailey is not a common, ordinary yokel. He's an intelligent, smart, ambitious young man, who hates his job, who hates the Building and Loan, almost as much as I do. A young man who's been dying to get out on his own ever since he was born. A young man...the smartest one of the crowd, mind you, a young man who has to sit by and watch his friends go places, because he's trapped. Yes, sir, trapped into frittering his life away playing nursemaid to a lot of garlic-eaters. Do I paint a correct picture, or do I exaggerate?

Oh, what's your point, Mr. Potter?

My point? My point is, I want to hire you.

Hire me?

I want you to manage my affairs, run my properties. George, I'll start you out at twenty thousand dollars a year. Twenty thous...

twenty thousand dollars a year?

You wouldn't mind living in the nicest house in town, buying your wife a lot of fine clothes, a couple of business trips to New York a year, maybe once in a while Europe. You wouldn't mind that, would you, George?

Would I? Y-You're not talking to somebody else around here, are you? you know, th-this is me, you remember me? George Bailey.

Oh, yes, George Bailey. Whose ship has just come in, provided he has enough brains to climb aboard.

Holy mackerel! Well, how about the Building and Loan?

Oh, confound it, man! Are you afraid of success? I'm offering you a three-year contract at twenty thousand dollars a year, starting today. Is it a deal, or isn't it?

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After a networking meeting, I was out in the parking lot chatting with my friend Gary Volpe as we were both making our way to our vehicles. The topic of telling our story came up and Gary lit up!

"Ken, we have a great salesman who is selling windows for $1,200 each that normally go for $800 each. He sells them at a 65% closing rate. This is insanely good in this industry and probably any industry. But this highly successful salesman had a run of three missed sales in a row. He pulled over on the side of the road and was forced to ask himself the question. What did I change on these last three? He realized it immediately. He didn't tell the story." Gary then shared his own company philosophy and story. They are one of the same. Gary started the business in 1970 with his brother and he often tells about carrying shingles on his shoulder and doing all the work himself. He has so many memories of those early years where they had to grind out so much. He wasn't the big name he is now. He was just Gary the roofer, a basic laborer in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. He connected with the everyday guy. Over the years his story has grown to bring in his kids who now run the company. In fact, when you go into their showroom an entire wall is devoted to their story. It's a big timeline with pictures across 50 years of their history. The first time I was in the office I sat on a comfy chair and a showroom facing a fireplace. I turned to the front entrance and I could see Bible verses and this picture timeline. I loved it and I looked at every single picture. I even walked up to see some of the pictures and captions below. I asked myself the question. This is really cool but why is this here. There has to be a reason more than just showing people how long this place has been around. Gary went on to tell me a few more interesting tidbits. When they hire a new salesperson, they put them through a six week intensive program to train them how to sell their product. The very first portion of the training is knowing and learning the story to the point that each salesman can tell the whole story themselves. Gary also told me another example. When a sales guy is presenting the product at a home or business, they are sharing the story of the company first. Just like Gary shares the story at the front entrance's building, his sales training probably invests 10-20% to the story of the company. Also, the selling process itself invests 10-20% of the salesperson's time to tell the Volpe story. Gary said. "The story sells the job. My top salesman forgot to tell our story for those 3 sales presentations. It crippled the process. It's that important. Telling the story makes us more relatable to real people out there trying to afford improvements to their homes."

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I ended the November Freedom Report with peace. We had brought our plan to go to Florida to God and asked Him to show us the way. We had over 20 job applications come in with no new hires. I personally connected and made initial connection to 240 local office cleaning prospects and followed up with close to 100 phone calls to find out if they had a cleaner in house or outsourced and if they were happy. This lead to 7 interested prospects and 4 proposals sent. But the net result of all of this effort was 0 new team members and $0 in new revenue with 65 days left before Florida. Josh gave me a challenge. "1 & 1 and we're having fun." Can I add 1 new office and 1 new team member by the end of November. I recorded the November Freedom Report just prior to month end. Let me just say this. God answered our prayers and broke the dam loose! A lot has changed in 30 days!

2 exciting things happened on November 30th. Around lunchtime, I got a call from the HR manager from one of the 4 proposals I sent to an insurance agency. They accepted my proposal, signed the contract, and wanted to start service on January 1st! And get this! It was one customer and two buildings for a total of $950 per month. I interviewed a promising candidate named Joanne the day before. I talked it over with my wife and Coach Josh. We decided to send Joanne a job offer on Tuesday afternoon. She accepted. For the first time in months, things were looking up. That's 1 new customer and 1 new employee. We met Josh's challenge of "1 & 1 and we're having fun" with hours to go in the month.

We were ready for December... we thought. Let's do the bad first. I did a poor job with selecting Joanne. She worked with us one weekend. Her work was good, but something about the job wasn't a culture fit with Joanne. I can only speculate that she wanted complete autonomy sooner and that she didn't like the family business aspect. I had two of my kids working and helping me teach Joanne our cleaning system. Ultimately, I made a bad hire and this will happen a lot. I just need to keep working my hiring process to attract and repel for culture. Josh helped me work through so much of my hiring system in December. He helped me turn a bad into a good! The clip for this month's Freedom Report is an epic step-by-step on what Josh is looking for and how he attracts them. Here's a recap of the elements of my hiring system we added in December. Josh also issued a new challenge. "2 & 2... it's only a few."

1. We added a 2nd job on Facebook and Indeed. The first was for "Weekend Side-Gig Office Cleaning". The second one we added was "Weeknight Side-Gig Office Cleaning". Josh predicted I'd get more applicants looking to do side work after their full-time job during the week. He was right. Our Indeed ads alone captured over 30 leads in December.
2. I set up multi-step process to get to an interview. I had 5 no-shows in a row in November, then 1 that showed up after setting up a few hoops. I offered her a job in late November but she ghosted me. I had 7 more interviews in December with only 1 no-show or 8 total booked. Each of these candidates completed a 15 minute questionnaire, 15 minute DISC assessment, and 30 minute podcast sharing my company's culture (mission, vision, and values). I wanted to hire each one of them.

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This episode was the turning point of my 2021, where I publicly announced that I was changing my business model from solo cleaning to building a team. If you're new to this podcast, here's why this is so significant. Around the cleaning industry, I have been known as the solo cleaning expert. I have built 2 solo cleaning businesses to $60,000 income per year on 2 cleaning days per week without employees or subcontractors. I started the Solo Cleaning School Podcast and Elite Membership in 2019. I have followed 2 of the 3 paths of the Optimized Solo Cleaner. I have "Stayed" a solo. I have "Sold" my solo business in 2018. This podcast was the announcement that it was time to complete the trio and "Scale" my solo business. We had a New Freedom Vision to be in Florida for a month as a family and I would need a team to complete this vision.

At this point in the podcast, I stopped my weekly updates in my solo cleaning business and moved to a monthly Freedom Report with Coach Josh so you could follow me toward this vision. Please take the time to listen to this Best-Of episode to go back in time to last summer. This will set the next episode really, really well. 

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I have to come right out in the open and make a confession. I have been chronically late my whole life. I overslept and missed the school bus in middle and high school at least 20 times. I was late to my SAT exam. I was late to many of my college classes. I was late to my job at GE and it got worse the longer I was there. I have been late to cleaning appointments and estimates. I have been late just about every Sunday for church. Why am I always late? It's my mom's fault! You didn't see that one coming from the podcast host! All of the admissions of lateness were the ones in my control. Let's turn the clock back to elementary school. I missed the bus several times because my mom couldn't get out of the house in time as she had to drive me. Not only did I miss the bus, but my mom would follow the bus to the next stop to put me on. That was humiliating to have 15+ gawking kids waving and laughing at me from the back of the bus. My mom was RIGHT behind it! I was late to Kindergarten and this was double lateness. My mom dropped me off at my Aunt Donna's apartment on her way to work. Aunt Donna was supposed to take me to school an hour later. However, Aunt Donna liked to sleep and I got to watch a lot of Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. That's when I knew I'd be really late to Kindergarten as it was only a half day. Then there were the days that I got to watch the Price is Right while Aunt Donna slept. Those were the days that we'd pull into school and my friends were being dismissed. I have no idea how I passed Kindergarten! I was late to every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other family get together with my mom's side. We'd typically show up 2-3 hours late. It got to the point that my grandfather (mom's dad) would tell his daughter (my mom) that the gathering was 2 hours earlier to get her there on time. He affectionately called this "Lynn Time" (my mom's first name). We'd still be an hour late. I was early once. The story is told that my mom gave birth to me in the hallway while my dad was getting his hospital gown on.

As you can see, I have a long and rich track record of being late. I adopted this from my mom. I was joking that it's my mom's fault. At any point in my life I could have taken full responsibility and made the decision to be on time. The truth bears out. Being on time has not been a priority to me. My wife is the complete opposite. She hates being late and my history frustrates her, especially with church and family events. That all changed on November 22, 2020. My other grandfather (dad's dad), Ken Carfagno Sr passed away. He was my Pop-Pop. I've told this story many times on this podcast and honestly it's helped me tremendously with the grieving process. For the remainder of this podcast, my goal is to speak to the chronically late and see if I can't wake you up.

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That article was funny for sure! My family got a few chuckles as I read it to them. Let's step back and think about it for a minute. Why was it funny? The answer will hit you like a ton of bricks. The author in each headline or instruction was trying to communicate a message. In some cases, they were trying to warn others of danger. Unfortunately, the authors didn't edit their own writing or have others review. Had they done some basic editing, they could have ensured their communication was delivered in the way it was meant. Instead, we are left with double meanings and funny emails. How are you doing this in your communication to others? How do you communicate with your spouse, your kids, your parents, siblings, relatives, friends? How do you communicate in the board rooms, conference rooms, and Zoom rooms to co-workers or your team? How do you communicate in your texts/IMs/emails to customers, team members, vendors? We live in a world of auto-correct, where we trust a computer to edit for us. This is dangerous. Be honest. How many times have you sent something that auto-corrected to something totally out there? What happened next? Shame, embarrassment, and a follow up text with the correction. Why do we get so lazy and allow ourselves to trust the editing of a computer?

"Ken, you're going overboard. It's 2022 and everyone does it." Okay, you're excuse is that everyone is communicating with laziness and that makes it okay? What about standing out? What about being a person that means what he says and isnt' mean when he says it? What happened to the basic rules of grammar that our mothers taught us as kids? Does all of that go away because we have emojis and spell-checker? NO! I want to urge you to be careful with your words. Be careful with the words you speak as they could be misinterpreted. Be carefull with the words you write as they could be harming your relationships or brand. Is it really worth it? Can't you take an extra few minutes to edit every headline, every email, every blog, every text, plan out a phone call or a presentation? I believe you will enjoy greater success in your relationships and business if you do.

Do you need someone to talk to about your words. I'm here. Email me at ken@smartcleaningschool.com or book a free coaching call on my website, Smart Cleaning School.

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This is an unintentional third part to the Perfection Series. In the first episode, "Excellence Vs. Perfection", I share some stories from struggling solo cleaners as they clean. The takeaway is this. Perfection is selfish. You are trying to make something so clean to scratch the itch you have. You are doing it to please you, not the customer. Here's an example. If perfection represents a 10 in cleaning, excellence is around 8. You can get to an 8 quickly and efficiently. But taking an 8 to a 10 may add hours. These extra hours costs you money and inconvenience for the customer. The irony is that you'll never get to 10 anyway. Go for excellence, which is learning what makes the customer happy and accomplish it every time.

Part two of the perfection series was a revisit of perfection from the mental health side. In "Accept the Uncertainty", I unpack a therapist's tool for helping OCD patient's break free from the perfection. Some of you that struggle with perfectionism also deal with OCD or other mental health. If you can treat your mental health and learn some tools like accepting the uncertainty, you will be able to clean at the excellence level and be okay with it.

In this third part, I'm taking another look at perfection. I'll even go as far as to say that perfection is the enemy! Craig Rochelle is a Christian pastor and leadership coach. He uses the term GETMO, which stands for Good Enough to Move On. We've already covered this in the first two podcasts for cleaning. GETMO is excellence. What is good enough? What is the level of cleaning and customization to each customer that makes them mostly happy. Figure this out, do it, and MOVE ON. That's GETMO. That's excellence. Do you GETMO it?

Let's move this concept of GETMO vs. perfection into the area of building a team. I'm way past perfection in cleaning, but team-building is a different story. I know the exact type of person, personality profile, professional status, and such that I'm looking for. I have designed filters an hoops in my hiring process to eliminate the wrong ones and attract the right ones. This is great and over time may yield the team I'm looking for. There are some problems.

1. I haven't built a team, so how do I know for certain all of the variable I think I know?
2. I have a short time to delegate my entire business so I can take my family to Florida for a month. Can I get by with less than perfect team members?
3. Am I chasing away the right people with too many hoops? Is my process too tight?

Coach Josh has been pushing me on this. He wants me to move away from perfection and use discernment in hiring. In my world of systems and being an engineer, I want the right people to filter through my mechanical process like robots. But people are not robots and I may be losing great people because of the perfection that I'm after. Does this trigger anything for you? What is your next goal for your team? You may be like me where my next goal requires team A, but my longer term goal requires a entirely different team B. Why should I perfect my process for team B members when I just need GETMO team A to get 'er done?

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Nobody predicted 2020 or what would happen in the world. As I take a step back, I notice things particularly in the working world. First, let me go back 20 years! I started my career in 2000 as an engineer for a large corporation. I had to wake up at 6am, get ready, and be in a cubicle by 8am. I would stay in my cubicle farm until 5pm and do it 5 days per week, 50 weeks per year. I had 2 weeks off, which I would typically reserve for the Christmas break. I would dream of owning my own business and not being stuck in this cubicle. That's when I saw the Amway business and jumped at the opportunity to earn my freedom from the corporate world. I learned about this new way of commerce called e-commerce and the Law of the Power Curve. This law plots all major technologies on X-Y axes of time and market penetration. Here's how it works. Any new technology has early adopters who try it out. It takes a long time for a new technology to gain momentum as it steadily climbs to 10% market penetration. In other words, 10% of the market has or is using this technology. This is called Critical Mass because it takes the same amount of time to get from 10 - 90% market penetration as it took to get from 0 - 10%. Then the curve levels off again as it takes just as long to get from 90 - 100% and in theory, never gets to 100%. The curve from start to finish looks like a "S", hence the name of S-Curve Economics. This was mind-blowing to me when I learned about it in 2002. I then studied the major technologies like the phonograph, the telephone, the TV, the PC, the internet, etc. They all followed this curve exactly, except for one difference. Each successive technology was building on the last, so the duration from 0 - 10% was getting shorter and shorter. This gave me the confidence that e-Commerce would be the next Power Curve even though I couldn't in my wildest dreams imagine a world where I would not be shopping in stores. I heard these visionary future thinkers that came to Amway events talking about this new thing called e-commerce. They said stuff like this. There's this new company called Amazon and they're losing a ton of money right now because they are spending way more than they are making to get people to shop there. I heard this. "In 10 years, people won't be shopping in malls or stores anymore. They'll be buying everything on the internet." This was preposterous. When you needed things, you go to a store for it. I went to the bank in person, the pharmacy for odds and ends, Walmart was huge. Auto parts store, electronic store, malls because they had tons of stores. You went to stores to get things you need. An entire industry had built around the need for people to go places in person for over 100 years. I believed the S-Curve would happen because history repeats and good technologies follows this curve. Therefore, I didn't totally reject the idea. I simply believed that internet shopping would increase and it would be good to own an e-Commerce site. That was what Amway was to me in 2002.

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In the last episode, I shared 2 new blind spots that hold me back. Here's a direct quote from "Counting Your Chickens Before they Hatch". "These 2 new blind spots explain why I take my foot off the gas pedal. It's why my pipeline of marketing prospects has run out time and time again over my 20-year entrepreneurial journey. I'm not consistent and it's not because I'm afraid of doing the work. I am a hard worker. I simply get in my own way and stunt my own growth."

Coach Josh found 2 blind spots. Then TLF uncovered 2 more as I stated above. I brought these back to Coach Josh and entered the Easter Egg Hunt again. Josh simply listened and said. "Is it fear?" Josh said it a few times on recent coaching calls and Marco Polos. I heard it, but I didn't listen. Here's a direct quote about another weakness, although I know about this one so it's not a blind spot! "Overthinking causes a lack of action. This is fully masked in fear. Ken, is it fear of failure? Or is it failure of success? Either way, the only way to cure fear is to take action. The majority of men are masses of beginnings." This is a new concept to unpack. Is it fear? Am I getting in my own way and stunting my growth because I'm afraid? If so, what am I afraid of? Am I afraid of failing? As I asked myself this question over and over, I concluded the answer was 'no'. I have failed a ton over the years, so it's nothing new. Eliminating one forced me to ask the second question. "Am I afraid of success?"

This is a preposperous question. Why would anyone be afraid to succeed? That's easy. If you've never succeeded at a high level, it's fear of the unknown. I've never built a $500,000 cleaning company with management and cleaning teams. The steps I'm taking will form that up over time. That's a fact. But am I subconsciously sabotaging my own ability to succeed because I'm afraid of succeeding? I could NOT answer 'no'. By default, if I can't answer 'no', I must answer 'yes'. I do not like this at all. I want to succeed. I pray to succeed. I set goals to succeed and then take the action to succeed. But then I veer off course through my many blind spots and weaknesses. I count my chickens before they hatch. I allow my busyness to be an excuse for not getting required business action steps from becoming consistent. I faked myself out about my pricing for commercial cleaning prospects. And so on.

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This podcast episode is a follow up of "We All Need a Coach". I shared in a recent Freedom report how Josh revealed two blind spots to me. One was that I took my hand off building my pipeline and it dried up. I was living off past work. The other blind spot was that my prices were too high. But they weren't too high as a solo optimizer. They were too high as a team building initializer. These two blind spot recognitions by Josh literally saved me 3 to 6 months of pain. Both of these blind spots were killing my sales funnel. I'm so thankful for great coaches in my life. Wait, did I say I'm thankful? On a mastermind call in Total Life Freedom in October, the guys found two more blind spots. I'm collecting blind spots like my kids collect Easter eggs. The only difference is that I'm carrying a basket and my coaches are putting more eggs in it. I don't mind. I have realized that I need to know these things about myself that I don't see and others do. It is painful, but it makes me stronger. How about you? Would your pride or ego be hurt by knowing your blind spots? Don't say yes unless you mean it.

New Blind Spot #1

The first was simple. Am I putting my whole heart into growing my cleaning business? Am I all in? I have built-in excuses because my health has been a major challenge. I was in a position to step up at my Royal Rangers Outpost and take leadership which has been a lot of work. If I didn't step up my boys would have lost out and I wasn't willing for that to happen. This takes a lot of time to lead Royal Rangers. Just listen to "Play the Background" to hear a recent ceremony that took 3 hard months to plan! I'm also still dealing with my grandparents estate and the complications and dynamics of the family going on. I also have a wife and five children that want time with me. Oh, and I still clean all day Saturday and Thursday and Friday every other week. I have built-in reasons why it's hard for me to get to growing the business. The blind spot was this. Am I allowing those reasons to be my excuse? A winner would fight through those reasons and take action and get everything done. I admitted that I was. I wasn't pouring my whole heart and going the extra mile to get everything done . This blind spot hurt because I was holding back from my potential and allowing real reasons to be excuses. I wasn't acting like my Pop-Pop taught me in "Quitters Never Win".

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I have talked about my involvement in my local Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce at nauseum in this podcast over the past 2 years. I am a HUGE believer in membership at your chamber, no matter what size your cleaning business. Check out this clip from a recent call in the Smart Cleaning Tribe that I facilitate, where we highlighted best practices and tips on effectively utilizing our chamber. This was in response to a question of newer member, Sunny, who wanted to know if she should join her chamber. 

Would you like to discuss a chamber strategy or see if it's right for you? Make sure to check out the many free & paid resources available at the Smart Cleaning School website. Also, do you have questions for me? Book a free coaching call on my website! 

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I used to go shopping at Aldi for Teresa after work during the pandemic. Aldi is a small store, but that didn't help me find anything. I would have a texted list. Inevitably, I'd spend 15 minutes finding the first item and then call my wife. She would literally help me find everything else on the list from memory. I was the arms, legs, and eyes. She was the brains. Men, do you relate? Ladies, do you do this for your men? Here's where it gets better. A few times, I went to Aldi with my oldest son. We were like Tweetle-Dee and Tweetle-Dumb. I would never want to see the surveillance tapes of us wandering the isles.

Teresa and I were on our way to our annual honeymoon retreat and stopped at a grocery store on the way there. We had breakfast and dinners cooked for us, but needed lunches. I am not a grocery shopper. I rather dislike it. The only thing worse than going grocery shopping is clothes shopping for me. However, my wife it's an excellent grocery shopper and an excellent clothes shopper. One of the last items that we were looking for on this grocery trip was flavored water. These are the drops that you can put in your water to make them taste like fruit. They're pretty good actually. We were somewhere in the back of the store when she thought of buying the flavored water drops. I had no idea where it would be as the grocery story may as well be the Amazon rainforest to me. I'm clueless where to find anything. I know there are signs, but they are not helpful. Anyway, Teresa guided us to the flavored water in less than a minute in a grocery store she was never in. She picked it up, put it in the cart, and was ready for the next thing.

My initial comment was, "Wow, how did you find that so fast?!", but playing it off more as a joke. Then I thought about it. If I was given flavored water on a shopping list from my wife and I walked into the store I would have been there for 15 minutes walking every aisle until I found it. The more likely scenario is I would have walked down every isle and not found it after 30 minutes and then asked someone for help. I could have asked someone for help in the beginning but I'm a guy and I don't do that. I would have wandered aimlessly and eventually found that item on my list, been frustrated about it, wasted time, and would have even disliked shopping even more. I am highly inefficient in a grocery store because I don't like grocery stores and avoid them as much as possible. I don't know where things are. Teresa is completely different as she shops for our family on a regular basis. She shops in multiple grocery stores and understands the basic layout of a grocery store. Apparently, there's a system involved where certain types of foods are always grouped together. Instinctively, Teresa knew it would be with the water bottles or with the soft drinks or juices. This is common sense, but apparently it's not common to me. Because she knows the grocery stores so well, she can go into any store and quickly identify, find, pay, and get out efficiently. I am building a case. Are you tracking where I'm going, solo cleaners?

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I recorded "A New Freedom Vision" in May, just 6 months ago. It was a bold proclamation. I could not go to Florida for a month, while scheduled to clean 2 days per week. I had to grow a team. I interviewed Josh Melton for my podcast in June ("The Cleaning Road to Nineveh with Josh Melton") and immediately asked him to coach me. I was ready for the challenge and I was ready to show you all that I could do it. Let me cut right to it. It's 6 months later and we have 0 new clients and 0 new employees. In fact, we have at least $1,000 per month less in cash flow because our expenses went up as we've been building to scale. There are 3 topics to discuss on this episode and unfortunately, I don't have a clip from Coach Josh. His best stuff was on the final coaching call before Thanksgiving and it wasn't recorded. His call-out was tough and I'll share that first.

Josh's Call Out!

I have set out from the beginning of this journey in 2021 to grow my commercial cleaning company in the niche and model I choose. I want weekly, small office clients that I can stack up and complete on weekends. I don't want office cleaning to think about during the week. This preference has held me back from going after bigger revenue accounts or recommending to offices a multi-day pricing option of two. This fully surfaced when Josh was helping me with a quote for a 10,000 square foot showroom with offices. They have a cleaner twice per week that they want to replace. It has 6 restrooms and I'm positioning the price options to sell the weekly option to fit into the perfect schedule I want. Josh hit me hard with this. "Ken, what do you want? Your dream of Florida or your preferred business model? Make it work. Get the revenue. Clean however it comes. Weekly, twice weekly, 5x per week. More people want to work weeknights over weekends. Get up the job ads. Get to work and be scrappy. Make it happen. Just because you choose this now, it doesn’t mean you need to keep it this way. Don’t choose your preferred business model over your dream. You need revenue. Your preferred business model is weekly offices on weekends. You don’t want to work or operate your business on weeknights. I get that. I was like that too. I realized that more nights per week equals more revenue. I'd rather have less clients and more revenue. You're playing too small all in the name of keeping your preferred business model." This is so true that it stung big time. It's me trying to optimize my business when I'm still an initializer. Why do I keep doing this. I just need to get revenue and team members in the door. This conversation convinced me to offer one of my recent proposals 2 out of 3 options as twice weekly. By the way, I never answered the question. I choose my dream! I told my wife and she agreed.

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In this 'Best Of' episode, I share an opening story of a landscaper who didn't care how they drove. They didn't consider their actions behind the wheel to matter toward their job. In the recent episode, "Get Out of the Car", I share a chilling story of my conduct behind the wheel of my car in between cleaning jobs. I encourage you to listen to both of these episodes and them them challenge your ego. Are you potentially harming your business reputation or worse, putting your safety in harm's way?

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Have you ever organized a conference, ceremony, wedding, or performance? It is a ton of work. The guests simply show up and observe the show. A Master of Ceremony (MC) steps forward with the microphone into the spotlight to lead the guests through a journey. They orchestrate multiple speakers to the climax of the ceremony or performance, where the biggest moment takes center stage. I was that MC recently at my church for a Royal Rangers Gold Medal of Achievement Ceremony. The Royal Rangers is a Christian ministry raising up boys to become godly men. They develop outdoor, survival, leadership, and spiritual maturity over a decade-long path. The Gold Medal of Achievement (GMA) is the highest award and equivalent to the Boy Scouts Eagle Scout Award. To put this into perspective, there are over 10,000 Royal Rangers nationally and less than 1% ever earn their GMA. Therefore, we celebrate this accomplishment with as much pageantry, formality, and fanfare as we can create to honor the recipients, their parents, their mentors, their church, and Jesus, their Master Ranger. On November 13th, 2021, Logan and my son Kenny Carfagno were recognized for this high honor. It was an emotional day. I've been preparing my first born son for this day for 10 long years in Rangers. Both young men crushed it! Feel free to watch the GMA Ceremony and hear the keynote testimonies of Logan and my son, Kenny.

There is a reason that I am sharing this story. Certainly, I am proud of my son. But there is a very important lesson I learned as organizer, leader, and MC of this ceremony. There are so many moving parts for the guests to view an incredible ceremony or performance. For our GMA Ceremony, it included the following: Printed programs in English and Spanish to be designed, printed, and handed out, ushers, greeters, cleaners, graphic art, stage design, lighting, sound and microphones, slide show synchronization, live streaming with multiple camera angles, close up photography, ceremony script, timing & placement of over 20 men and boys that were on stage, videos, worship music, the police officers showing up between shifts to carry the American Flag, faithful women in the kitchen preparing dinner for the banquet, our chef preparing dessert, parents getting their kids to 3 rehearsals prior to the 13th, no one getting sick, setting up of the banquet, serving the food, collecting the letters of mentors from across the country, coordinating dignitaries, presenting gifts, and more. As the orchestrator of this ceremony, I was stressed at 3:30pm. I knew it was gametime after 3 months of planning and rehearsal. I was running around to make sure all last minute preparation was complete and everybody was in place. At 3:45pm, it was completely out of my hands. I had to trust that all the moving parts would function in perfect concert. I gave my worry to God, prayed, and sat down to allow others to start the ceremony off. At 4:15pm, I took the stage in front of over 100 guests to begin the formal portion of the recognition ceremony. I was not worried at all. I could see that all the parts were functioning. At 4:45pm, Logan and Kenny took the stage for their keynotes and captivated the crowd.

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I'm recording this episode a few days before Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for. For one, listen to my last episode "Get Out of the Car". I am thankful to be here and able to tell the story. It's sobering. If you haven't heard that episode, stop now, and go back! I am thankful for my health, my amazing wife and 5 kids that all love their Daddy. I am thankful that my dad is picking up the pieces and fighting to get his life back after years of addiction. I am thankful that my mom survived Covid and still has years of life left. I am thankful that I had 44 years with my paternal grandparents, Nana and Pop-Pop Carfagno, who co-raised me. They are very responsible for the man, husband, father, and leader that I've become. I am thankful to have 5 siblings that I'm close with and the 2 little boys and girls that call me Uncle Ken. I am thankful for the house we rent with 2 acres and a creek for our kids to play outside. I am thankful for our church and church family that loves and supports. I am thankful for my friends and the relationships that pour into me. If you've listened to this podcast for a while, you've heard me mention those friends by name. I'm thankful for my business and the amount of time I have at home with my family. I am thankful that we are debt-free. I am thankful to have the assurance of a relationship with the Maker of heaven and earth after I pass away. I could go on and on.

I want you to get into a place of gratitude right now. I want you to do the same thing I just did. Get out your journal and write out the people and things you're thankful for. Look at this list. Consider calling or messaging each person and thanking them. Why am I telling you this? I have observed something simple in life lately that I've always had trouble explaining. It's hard to explain in words what pride and humility are. We know that they are opposites, but when pressed for a definition, we cannot find the words. Am I right? Can you explain the meaning of both? I couldn't until now.

We lived in Upstate New York for 16 years. New York had the most spectacular apples and you better believe we were at the orchards every September and October for bags of freshly picked Honeycrisp and Jonagold and Golden Delicious and many more. I'd hoist the younger kids on my shoulders to pick the ripest apple off the top of the tree. They would always bump 8 others and knock them off in the process. Some would hit me in the head, but without fail, my little guy would grab that ripe one and take a bite. Heaven! Can you picture the scene. Imagine an apple tree with a thick trunk, green leaves, and ripe red fruits. We know that it takes years to yield delicious, ripe apples. The orchard owner plants, waters, cultivates, protects, and prunes their trees every season. In fact, the fresher and tastier the fruits, the healthier the roots. We can't see the roots. They are under the soil, but stretch out in all directions from the base of the tree. It's easy to imagine and accept this truth. If the roots are healthy, so are the fruits. And if the roots are damaged or sick, the fruits will either be rotten or none will produce at all.

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This episode has nothing to do with cleaning, but it may save your life. I'm going to share a story that happened to me recently while I was driving in between houses. Some of you will hear this story and just say, "Ken, that was dumb! I would never do that." Others will say, "Ken, I needed to hear that. Thank you." In the moment, I felt in the right. But for the rest of the night and week, I felt an unbelievable amount of gratitude. I could have been killed in broad daylight at a stop sign in a safe, suburban area and left my wife a widow at 40 and 5 kids fatherless. And for what? My ego!? I hope this story helps you to view the potential dangers other pose at all times. Don't provoke others to anger. Don't get puffed up that you are in the right. We have NO idea what is going on in other people's heads. It's not worth it. I have shared that safety is one of my 3 core values. Excellence, Ownership, and Safety. On this occasion, I failed miserably at my own core value and learned a tremendous lesson. I've heard it said that experience is learning from your own mistakes and wisdom is learning from others. Please gain wisdom from my mistake as a result of this podcast episode.

I have continued to pray for that man. I have no idea why he was so filled with so much hatred. Maybe he lost his job or a loved one. Maybe he just had a bad day. Maybe he is a man with a short fuse that erupted in instant rage. Road rage is real. Avoid it. Avoid it. Life is already too short. Don't make it shorter.

In this episode, I shared some Road Rage statistics. Here's the link to the full article. Please drive safe!

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I started this podcast for many reasons in October 2019. I love creating and expressing ideas to others. I'm a natural teacher and the podcast platform has allowed me to get my ideas out of my head and do an audio journal for myself and for anyone that wants to follow. When I started, I was struggling to get my second solo cleaning business off the ground. The struggle wasn't tactical. I knew how to build a company. I just didn't want to. I was challenged by close friends and a new friend I met at a podcasting conference to start. I used this show as a public accountability to the world that I could and would build a second business. I did. For 175 episodes, I built my company and shared my weekly progress with anyone that would listen. Over time, I've added new features like the "Funny Papers" to entertain you with silly stories. I shared clips of membership and expert calls that I facilitate in the Smart Cleaning Tribe. At the end of 2020, I changed the name of the podcast from the Solo Cleaning School to the Smart Cleaning School, which brought the new tag line of "helping visionaries make the impact they were meant to make." This branding change opened the door to add a monthly long-form, hour-long interview with visionaries from the cleaning industry. I literally did nothing by the book. Normal interviews are organized and questions are sent out ahead of time. I didn't want that at all! I wanted to have a conversation with great people and ask them deeper questions than others in their spheres ask. And I wanted these amazing guests to feel comfortable enough with me to answer them. Therefore, I have no structure to my interviews. In fact, the average 60-minute interview that you hear edited is actually a 90 to 120-minute recorded conversation. I also didn't want to leave my solo cleaning friends high and dry. I added a 10th monthly episode called "Solo Saturday" just for this incredible tribe of cleaning owners that work by themself with no employees. I have simply kept this in front of me. I am creating shows for cleaning business owners all over the world to entertain them and to educate them on leadership, business owner's mindset, efficiency and optimization, and how to live a balanced, healthy life.

Why am I sharing this with you, my faithful listeners of the Smart Cleaning School? Simple. I'm adding the next piece to this podcast and quite honestly, it's something I thought I'd never do. I'm hand-selecting excellent brands and companies that I personally endorse to sponsor the Smart Cleaning School. It blows my mind that this podcast would be downloaded over 50,000 times in all 50 states, 79 countries, and 6 continents. It blows my mind that companies would be willing to pay me to advertise their products to offset the costs of creating this show. The difficult part would be the WHO and the HOW. Who would I endorse and how would I do it? Most podcasts have a corporate feel when they bring in sponsors. The host takes a moment to thank their sponsors and then does a 30 to 60-second read or commercial. Sponsors pay podcasters based on the number of reads and how many people would hear those reads. I hope it doesn't surprise you that I wanted to do it differently. I have no structure to my interviews, except I want to extract the heart and vision out of each guest. I wanted my selected sponsors to be no different.

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I have shared multiple times my network marketing background with the Amway business. Teresa and I were active IBOs in the Britt Worldwide team and then shifted over to Larry Winter's LTD organization between 2002 and 2012. We are still IBO's but only to buy products because I still love and use Amway cleaning products in my house and office cleaning business. We have credited so many good things in our life as a direct result of our affiliation with Amway. For starters, we become Christians at an Amway event as crazy as that sounds. Teresa and I are happily married after 18 years as a direct result of the mentors we both had in Amway. Special thanks to our upline Herb & Susie Eplee and Joe & Julie Schirripa out of Spartanburg and Greenville, South Carolina. We learned business owner mentality from hundreds of personal development CDs, weekly open meetings, late-night counseling calls with our upline, and in-person team meetings, conferences, and attitude sessions. Teresa and I sold out and worked together on our marriage and business. We never achieved the level we had hoped for, but that is not because Amway doesn't work. It's because I never truly worked it. I want you to hear this quote by Crown Ambassador Bill Britt. He is one of the most successful Amway IBO's in their 70-year history. This is the highest level an IBO can reach and it earned Bill and his wife Peggy millions and millions of dollars over his 50+ year MLM career. Sadly, Bill passed away in 2013, the year after we stepped away from actively building our Amway business. Bill's legacy to thousands and probably millions of people around the world is humongous. Here's the quote.

"There is no secret. I simply showed the plan to 1200 people. 900 said, "No" and only 300 signed up. Out of those 300, only 85 did anything at all. Out of those 85, only 35 were serious, and out of those 35, 11 made me a millionaire."

This is true for any business. It's always a game of numbers. Another famous quote of Bill Britt was this. "Some will. Some won't. So what. Somewhere, 6 will." Bill knew that network marketing took a lot of work to build. He not only built one of the largest Amway MLM empires, but he did it the fastest. Bill knew and taught that the Amway business was meant to be built fast. That's the only way it would work. I did the opposite and built it slow. I experienced as many getting out as getting in, while Bill put so many in quick that 11 made him a millionaire. This principle holds true in so many businesses. Bill taught that people are people, no matter what business they are in. You need to bring in new IBO's in batches of 6 to 12 because 3-4 will quit, 3-4 won't do anything, and 3-4 will build the business big. But you have to be disciplined enough to get the 12 in fast, which creates the dynamic necessary to allow 3-4 to rise to the top.

I know that this strategy would work for a cleaning business as well. What if we added a batch of new houses or offices and a batch of new employees? What would happen. There would be a few that would quit, a few that would be meh, and a few that would be amazing. This is how Bill Britt taught his Amway downline to find the good ones. It's clearly defined in his quotes above. We have to be willing to go through a lot of rocks to find diamonds.

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"Do you have a few minutes?" Have you ever been called and asked this? Have you ever been at a store or church or at a business meeting and asked this? I'm sure you have. Does it ever take a few minutes? NO! In fact, is your definition of a "few" minutes the same as the other person's? Nope. I believe this is one of the most dangerous questions known to man! You might say. "Ken, you're being dramatic." Oh, you think so. I have been on 90 minute phone calls that derailed my day because the caller wanted a "few minutes". I have stayed at business meetings 45 minutes longer and missed out on other important things because of a "few minutes". At this point in my life and especially after reading the "7 Habits of Highly Successful People", I can now start to recognize this question for what it is.

A giant time-waster!

That's right. People determined to talk your ear off with no respect for you time will use this manipulative question to get you to help them. You agree because you're gullible and want to help. And sure, why not? It's only a few minutes. But it's not a few minutes. It's 2 hours! If we say yes to other people's "few minutes", we say no to ours. Let me say it this way. Is your time with your family important to you? Every time you say yes to a Time Waster, you say no to your family. This is blunt and hard to accept. It may come off as rude. You may think less of me and wonder what happened to the nice Christian Ken that always shares happy stories on this podcast. Please, don't think that. Just step back and start analyzing where your time is going. Learn to recognize people that are emotional vampires in your life. They will absolutely suck the life out of you if you allow it.

Okay, my rant is over. I did my best to be true to my own advice and not waste any of your time. This was my shortest episode ever and surely a few minutes!

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Hello solo cleaners out there! I thoroughly enjoy speaking directly to you every Solo Saturday. In this episode, I'm going to address a common question I'm asked when I coach solo cleaners through my ISO Model. This time it was asked by Shasta Patterson who is a listener to the Smart Cleaning School Podcast and an up and coming solo cleaning optimizer! Thank you Shasta for taking me up on my free coaching call option on my website. Let's revisit your question and my answer so others can hear it.

Shasta is a new solo cleaner and said that she has started her business legitimately after hearing my podcast earlier this year. First of all, that is outstanding! Way to go Shasta! She currently has 6 clients and is starting to make some money. Her struggle has to do with a few legacy clients from before she made her business legit. They are only paying her $15 per hour. Her question to me was how she could raise the prices of the $15 per hour clients.

I told her this. "You're not going to like my answer but it's the best one for you at this time. You can't raise their prices, not yet. You are an initializer in my ISO model and need to get a bunch of clients fast. You do need to switch to a by-the-job pricing model and charge at least $100 to $125 per biweekly house cleaning client. The answer to your question is you need new clients. Stop trying to squeeze the lemon to get out every drop. That's what you're trying to do with your low-paying clients. You can't squeeze more money out of them because you didn't charge them right. Instead, go get a brand new bag of big juicy lemons so you can be in control and in the driver seat of your own business. Over time, your prices will increase and you'll move through the initialize, stabilize, and optimize phases of your business. Along the way you will increase the prices of these legacy clients and most likely they will not stay with you because a $15 an hour client probably doesn't want to pay $40 an hour. That's okay it's part of your growth curve."

Shasta agreed with me and even said this. "I knew that you were going to say that, Ken." I could tell she was a little discouraged but also excited. I told her this. "Go add 6 clients at $125 biweekly each visit. You will profit $200 per month from each which is an extra $1,200 per month for you in additional income." That got her very excited to go get a new bag of lemons representing 6 new clients. That kind of money will make a huge difference in their family. So what about you (solo cleaner) listening to this podcast right now. Are you an initializer or stabilizer thinking that you're an optimizer? Are you trying to squeeze your clients for more money when you shouldn't be? Are you taking the easy way out and trying not to add new clients? You control your future because you can control the thoughts that you have and the actions that you take. You can control the clients that you decide to bring into your business. So go get some new ones at the prices you actually want! Every single one of us listening to this podcast needs new clients. So go do it.

And remember, stop trying to squeeze those lemons until every single drop comes out. There's a time and place for that, but it's not yet. Go grow your business. I want to thank Shasta Patterson again for reaching out and taking advantage of my offer for a free coaching call and giving me permission to share your question and my answer to the other listeners! It was a great question and you can be $1,200 per month better off if you take my advice.

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Don't you love catchy titles?! I do. This one was totally organic and unplanned. It was my turn to present the next education piece at my local MCBA business networking group. I had a topic that I wanted to test on a group of business owners. I do this with newer content. The result was very good. At the end of the talk, the group was discussing who they wanted to bring in as a special guest speaker during an upcoming "bring a guest day" and the group unanimously chose me! They wanted me to do the same talk again. I recorded both and have permission from every member who commented in my talk. As promised, I wanted to give each of them a shout out and link to their business.

This podcast is the recording of the second time through this optimization talk, but I put the 10 minute clip from the original talk where we go down the road of Thoroughbreds and Donkeys. Here's a big He-Haw for you! Enjoy this podcast episode and think on the questions I pose in my presentation.

Do you need help figuring out opportunities to optimize your customers, employees, and business segments? Make sure to check out the many free & paid resources available at the Smart Cleaning School website. Also, do you have questions for me? Book a free coaching call on my website!

MCBA Members Mentioned

Hugh Gbewonyo - Foot Solutions

Marsha Poust - Signs by Tomorrow

Gary Volpe - Volpe Enterprises

Colette Melott - CM Business and Accounting Solutions

Paul Osborne - Osborne Solutions

Susan Sloan - Real Health Quotes

Dr. Claire DeFazio - Windsor Hills Chiropractic

Royce Double R Flight Academy

Tom McKee - Edward Jones

Jim Hardy - The Carpet Guys

Vernessa Hopkins - H3 Business Solutions

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In my last Freedom Report, I humbled myself with the reality of my situation. I'm striving for this New Freedom Vision, but two glaring blind spots were holding me back. Another month has gone by. How is it going? Short answer. Not good! I am going to share my update exactly as it happened and end with a clip from Coach Josh at the end of October with an encouraging word that helps me and will hopefully encourage you. We all need encouragement. I'm not above that because I happen to have a podcast and talk about cleaning. This scaling and building a team thing is new for me. I am bringing you my monthly results exactly as they've occurred to build you up and hopefully teach you something. Here's an outline of my month.

• I finally completed my Project 100 by my October 11th coaching call. The final tally looked like this. 239 total offices on my prospect list. 49 dental (21%), 69 medical (29%), 111 professional (46%), 10 industrial (4%). 99 are members of the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce where I'm the only cleaner. Josh wanted me to commit to a deadline for introducing myself and my business to every one of these businesses. I chose November 15th, 2021. The strategy was simple from Josh. "Ken, I'm going to guess that 4% of the businesses on this list and any list is currently not happy with their cleaner or actively looking for a new one. These are low-hanging fruit. If you'll just reach out and introduce yourself with a heart of generosity while at the same time promoting your cleaning company, those 4% will request quotes. That's 9 - 10 quotes. You can close 5 and hit your goal for Florida." I have seen this first-hand over the years. I have acquired a few offices because I was at the right place at the right time. I need to strategically put myself there again. This fired me up!
• I honestly assessed my goals with my coaches and my wife. I need 5 new offices and 5 more part-time team members to delegate my full cleaning business and equal the cash flow we currently earn. This is the minimum we need for a month in Florida. I'm simplifying this goal as the 5/5 plan. The 10/10 plan is double and makes Florida a lot more comfortable with about $2,000 in monthly cash flow over and above all of our bills. This makes Josh's challenge to contact all 239 to find the low-hanging fruit vital and a top priority for November 15th.
• As of my last coaching call with Josh in October, I had 100 initial introductions made to my chamber list. 2 requested quotes now. 2 requested quotes in January. 15 are satisfied with their cleaners and will keep me in mind. This is a great start. Josh challenged me to close the month of October, which only had a few days left to send out another 100 and add more to my list. The strategy would include a mixture of emails, direct phone calls, and personal visits to introduce myself in areas where I already have clients. I also collected 2 more customer testimonials to assist in this local marketing approach. The goal is simple. Keep introducing myself. Keep adding new offices as there are at least 50 offices that were missed through my Google and chamber search methods. I fully expect to do initial introductions to 300 businesses by November 15th. This should lead to 12 quote requests and 5-6 new clients in November and December. But there are no guarantees and I have Coach Josh to direct me through each step without me overthinking everything. I need one thing working and that's ACTION!

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I joined the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce 2 years ago when I was told I would be the only cleaner in a chamber with 300 members. I am so glad that I joined and decided to engage with the goal of helping to grow the chamber. This is an important "Best Of" episode to prepare you for the next episode. 

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Today is November 22nd, 2021. It's an emotional day for me. One year ago, my father went home to be with Jesus. I was the one that held his hand, prayed into his ear, and told him it was okay to go home to be with his wife as he took his last breath. It was the most bittersweet moment in my life. On one hand, I lost the man who raised me. Yes, he was my grandfather, but he was so much more. I am Kenneth Joseph Carfagno III. I was named after him. Ken Senior otherwise affectionately known to me as "Pop-Pop" was only 40 when I was born. My dad was 18 and still figuring out how to adult in the world, so my Pop-Pop took me under his wing. He is the one that raised me up and encouraged me to achieve. He is the one that showed up at my sports events. My dad did too of course, but not as often as my Pop-Pop. He is the one that was tough and demanded excellence out of me. He is the one that taught me life skills around the house. He is the one that showed me how to love by staying happily married from age 20 to his death at 84. He is the one that believed in me and challenged me to be better. He is the one that I loved more than any man on this planet. He is the man that I called father. One year ago, Kenneth Joseph Carfagno, Sr left this earth and thus left a huge void in my heart.

But on the other side, my Pop-Pop was a life-long Catholic and didn't have any assurance of his position as a citizen of heaven after he died. He just did the best he could and hoped he was good enough. That changed a few weeks before his death when he truly accepted Jesus to be his Lord and Savior. When he breathed his last breath, I turned to the nurses who had tears streaming down their faces. The one in total shock and awe. The other said this. "I have seen so many end-of-life scenarios in my time in hospice nursing, but I have never seen what I just saw." I was in a state of total peace after my time of prayer and conversation as I walked my father home and asked her what she meant. "Your father's pulse, breathing, and other vitals were rising and falling with every word you uttered to him. He not only heard everything, but I have never seen anybody with the connection the two of you just had." I was speechless. Make of this what you want, but you'll never convince me otherwise that the Holy Spirit wasn't operating and ushering my father's spirit with Him to heaven.

This is a short episode and I want to thank you for allowing me to share the gift known as Pop-Pop. It's been a whole year and I still grieve and cry. We just sold his home of 50 years, the one that I grew up in, and took whatever keepsakes we wanted. Life is so short and this last 12 months have shown me this. If you have lost one or both of your parents, my heart truly goes out to you. I understand how painful it is. Here's my consolation. It's not over for you to make the impact on your loved ones the way Pop-Pop made an impact on me. If you've been semi-absent or too busy to get to the relationships in your life, it's not too late to start.

I want to end this episode with a few funny stories about my Pop-Pop and share his favorite piece of advice to me. He would say this. "Kenny, winners never quit and quitters never win." This advice has helped me so many times in life. I hope it speaks to you. Thank you for listening and go make a difference. Be the "Pop-Pop" in someone's life.

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I attended a recent Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce event called Reinvent. Four CEO's were in panel format in a local theatre to discuss their leadership models through and after the pandemic. I was so impressed with each speaker. Jenny Fujita of Fujita & Miura Public Relations, Inc shared mostly on the modern home-based workforce and proper well-being of the individual. Mark Bergey of Bergey's Auto spoke on personal and leadership development during a supply chain shortage. Mark is a self-admitted podcast junkie, so I immediately connected with his message. I loved his passion for growing as a leader and the man runs a company with close to 1,500 employees! Craig Edsill of the Clemens Food Group has over 4,000 employees in multiple states. He taught me a wonderful crisis and leadership model they used during the pandemic - Discuss, Decide, Support. It's so simple. Take the time with your team to brainstorm, mastermind, and debate in the discuss phase. Make a decision as the leader and do not go back to the discuss phase. Go forward. Have everyone put aside their personal differences and support the decision to make it happen. I loved this! Finally, Dave Freeman of QNB Bank shared the status of available money in the banking system for lending. They are seeing a major decline in the need for money due to the stimulus cash in 2020/2021. This has hurt banks, but he was confident of the return to normal. Every speaker talked about being flexible in your leadership style as nothing is business as usual anymore.

Somewhere in the middle of the panel discussion, Jenny Fujita dropped a MAJOR value bomb that I had to thank her for personally after the conference. I'll paraphrase.

"I've been working from home for 9 years. I'm a mom, wife, and I run a PR firm. I have to run errands during the day in each of my roles. Sometimes, I go the post office to drop off professional packages and sometimes I'm at the grocery store or the kid's school. I'm out and about. Regardless of my day's plan, I dress for success every day no matter what. Even though I work from home and many of the newbies show up on Zoom calls in pajamas from the waist down, I get ready for work as if I were going to the office. Do you know why? Because I am going to the office. So what if my office is downstairs. When I'm on Zoom calls, I can still see myself on camera and it gives me more personal dignity and self-confidence when I'm dressed up for work. Since I'm dressed up, I can go to any of my errands always looking professional. What if I'm at the post office and run into a friend or potential prospect? I want to present myself at all times at my best level because I never know who I'm going to meet."

This was a punch in the gut as I get lazy on my work-at-home days. I am talking a big game about being a professional company, but often go to the store or post office in sweat pants or jogging shorts. I need to take this message more seriously. I am an ambassador for my business every where that I go. The way I look makes a difference. The way I smell makes a difference, so I better shower! The way I interact with others makes a difference. The way my vehicle looks makes a difference. Everything makes a difference. Here's the question that people think but don't ask. "If he takes this much care in his presentation when he's not cleaning, how good is his cleaning?"

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I have mentioned my dear friend and cleaning customer Dennis Gehman of Gehman Design Remodeling many times on this show. That's because he is such a blessing to me. I thoroughly enjoy our breakfast conversations as we both leave sharper and more ready for our day when we do. We had the opportunity to meet for breakfast earlier this week for the first time in a few months, so we had a lot to catch up on. We usually pray to start our meal and toward the end for the Lord's favor on our lives and businesses.

There was one segment of our conversation that was so rich that I had to pause to take some notes for a future podcast. Here's how it went.

"Dennis, I hear so many time management and business coaches teach us to maximize our output by delegating the tasks we don't need to be doing. It might cost $500 to have a graphic designer do a logo for me, but if I did it myself it would be 25% as good and take me at least 10 hours. My time is worth as a minimum $100-$200 per hour based on some of the higher rates I earn in cleaning and coaching. If I spend 10 hours to save $500, I actually am spending 10 hours. This 10 hours costs me $1,000 - $2,000 in lost income or opportunity cost. Therefore, do I delegate the logo or not. Clearly I do."

Dennis agreed with everything and wondered where I was going. I continued.

"When I was in high school, my Pop-Pop taught me how to refinish a dresser, basic gardening, and basic car maintenance. We'd buy the oil and filter at the part store and do oil changes in the garage by putting the car on the ramps. It cost about $10 in supplies in 1993 and 2-3 hours of our time. The same oil change cost $30 in the shop, so it saved me $20 and that was a lot as a 16-year-old. I continued changing my own oil and doing basic maintenance into my early 20's based on what my Pop-Pop taught me. But eventually, I got to the point where my time was more valuable and have been paying my mechanic to do my oil changes and maintenance. Last week, my rear window stopped working. I made an appointment to get it fixed knowing it would cost me $300 in parts and labor. My wife convinced me to do it myself to save $250 as the part was only $50 and there were YouTube videos teaching how to do it in an hour. I was further convinced when my friend Barry from church offered to help me do it at his house since he just completed the same repair on his exact same Honda Pilot. The job took 3 hours total in time from leaving my house to back again and $50 in parts. Again, my time is worth $100-$200 per hour, so I had an opportunity cost of $400-$600 for a project that costs $300 in the shop. This was a mistake, right?"

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I have been journaling for most of my adult life. This "journaling" has constituted many forms over the years. In high school, I took course notes and sketched in my art pads. As an engineering student in college, I transcribed complicated math formulas and mechanical processes along with pictures. I didn't have a laptop, so all of my notes were written and they were vital when it was time to take my exams. I started writing more about my life, family, and personal goals after college when I was an engineer and ran an Amway business side hustle. I attended conferences and took tons of notes on business hacks, tips, and strategies. I read my bible as a new Christian and wrote down lessons I was being taught. As a new husband and father, I would write my personal feelings and convictions about these new experiences. All in all, I have over 100 notebooks in shapes and sized packed away in boxes up in my attick. They are the written "diary" of my life.

Why am I talking about this at all? The topic came up on a recent call I facilitated with team leaders of cleaning companies that I help. One of the team leaders was dealing with so many personal challenges in her family and wanted to share. We listened intently. The more she shared, the better she started to feel. She had a place to let out her feelings and that was invaluable to her. At the end, I suggested that she start journaling and shared 3 distinct advantages. Writing down your thoughts, feelings, and goals engages your brain so much more than keeping it to yourself or typing it out. It serves as a time capsule to go back to whenever you want to. Lastly, it allows you to always share your feelings to yourself like holding up a mirror when you talk. She was excited and realized it was time for her to start capturing the details of her life. Let's talk about these 3 benefits in more detail, then you can decide if it's right for you.

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Denai Wolfe is the first ever three-peat expert guest in the Smart Cleaning Tribe.  She came on this May to talk about basic accounting and teach our members how vital it is to read basic accounting sheets. I'll bring more of this expert call to you down the road. This 18-minute clip reveals an excellent mindset on money and why we ever opened a cleaning business. Plus, Denai shares a few great examples of what knowing your numbers can do for your bottom line.

"The real reason you started your business was to make money. Admit this to yourself." - Denai Wolfe 

Denai used this acronym to help us understand a healthy relationship with money and our businesses. She called it WIN.

W - How much money do you WANT to make? 

I - How much IMPACT do I want to have in the world?

N - How much money do you NEED to make?

Connect with Denai Wolfe at the The Chic CFO to learn of free and paid resources she provides. 

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J. Paul Getty was the wealthiest person in the world for 3 decades from the 1950's to the 1970's! His list of accomplishments are mind-blowing. At the end of his life, it's estimated that his net worth would be worth $27 billion is today's dollars. He was very wealthy. I heard this quote when I was a new business owner in the Amway business in 2002 and it has stuck with me for 20 years.

“I'd rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of my own effort.” - J. Paul Getty

At the time I heard this, I was an engineer working full time and earning $50,000 per year off 100% of my own effort. I saw Amway business owners with teams of 100+ people earned 1-4% off the production of each team member and earning $500,000 per year. This quote hit me right between the eyes. However, I went another route as a solo cleaning specialist after my days as an engineer and multi-level marketer. I decided it was best for me to optimize what I could produce. In other words, how much could I make in how little time could I produce off 100% of my own effort? In my first solo cleaning business, the results were strong. I earned $55,000 and $70,000 per year profit off 2 days cleaning per week in each business respectively. Both provided a decent engineer level lifestyle so I could enjoy time with my family. However, it would never create freedom and lifestyle money. It would never create time, money, and location freedom. This is what I desired.

I'm in a different position now where I am growing a cleaning business and I'm learning a lot about myself. This is an episode for the solo cleaner who is thinking about scaling and has fear or would never scale and has arrogance about it like I used to. Let's break down some numbers. The average cleaning technician can create $50,000 of annual revenue for a cleaning company. If you're a solo, that's $50,000 for you. Applying J. Paul Getty's advice, the numbers are totally different. A cleaning team of 100 people would produce $5M in revenue. If you only earned the 1% that Getty quoted, you'd earn $50,000 per year without having to clean. But the reality is much better. A $5M company ought to pay out 15% to the owner. This is $750,000 per year income for the owner and they don't have to clean. Let's play a game of Would You Rather.

Would you rather work solo and optimize your business on 100% of your effort working 2-3 days per week for $75,000 per year income? Or would you rather build a company and team to $5 million revenue, lead, and earn $750,000 per year income working on your business to lead your team? In the first example, you have no pressure of employees. You do all the work and have a simple life. You just better make sure to stay healthy, travel for short stints of a few days at a time, and budget really, really good. In the second example, you build a massive company, earn more than you can imagine, and live a life of total freedom. They each have their pros and cons. This episode isn't looking to persuade you, rather get you thinking.

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My friend Charlie Schofield from BQ Basement Systems was sharing a 30-second commercial and introduction at a recent MCBA local networking group meeting. He said something so simple that I wrote it down and knew it would be a podcast!

"It's rained a lot lately. Have you had anyone come and check out your home for potential water getting into your basement. Water can crack the foundation and that is a nasty problem to fix."

I did a quick google search and found the answer I was looking for on another basement systems company blog. Here's the link to give proper credit.

"When water from rainstorms, melting snow, broken water lines, landscaping, and bedrock collects around the house, this exerts “hydrostatic pressure” against a home's foundation. This pressure can cause foundation walls to crack and bow, which can result in foundation leaks."

I can totally see this happening. The water collects underground against the basement foundation which is concrete. The sitting water alone wedged between the soil and concrete creates the same type of pressure that allows power breaks to function. This creates one method of compression on the foundation floor. The water also seeps into the basement walls and onto the floor. Concrete is rock. When it is wet through, it expands. This puts more compression force on the foundation floor. The combination of these compressive forces causes cracking and bowing of the concrete over time. I hope that made some sense. Here's the simple version. Water along the edge of your foundation or seeping through your walls is bad. You need a professional to proactively fix it before you crack your foundation. In other words, don't allow the crack attack to happen.

I thought about this and wondered what the foundation and water represented in our busineses. I have an answer to share. Go back and listen to "Introducing the C3 Experience". In that episode, I thoroughly explain the need for a mission and vision statement for your company along with core values. These collectively communicated and implemented in your company is the foundation. It is a strong concrete floor to build a massive house and business on. Then I considered the potential cracks and what could cause them. I'll use my own core values to show you.

• Arrogance - Are you losing your desire to learn more, thus believing you're always right. This cracks away at all 3 of my core values - Ownership, Excellence, and Safety.
• Compromise - Are you cutting corners to get something done. This cracks away at excellence and safety in hopes of reaching more ownership. It doesn't work this way. You can't sacrifice one or more core values to obtain another. Rushing to get the work done takes ownership, but it compromises safety and excellence as an example
• Entitlement - Do you have the belief that you deserve something or are owed something? Are you grateful for the role you have. This undermines ownership at it's core tenant of taking full responsibility for your thoughts, actions, and results.

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This original episode featured a blast from the past. I've been sharing coaching updates with Coach Josh all summer. This episode features a clip from a call with Coach Herb from 2008 when he told me that I couldn't afford employees. What's different about my company now, 13 years later as I scale? If you listen to my last coaching update [Kenny insert Sept coaching report link], the answer is nothing. I still can't afford employees. My income has dropped from $70,000 per year solo to $50,000 per year with employees. It's true that this business has MAJOR upgrades and systems to have the foundation to house a $300k-$500k business. However, the same basic problem exists. I need 10 more offices to support all of the new investments I've made into my company. It's obvious. I wanted to grow. I need to grow. This episode is a reminder to me and anybody out there that we all need to work hard at keeping the pipeline full. 

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September is in the books. It's time for another business update. Afterward, I'll share a clip from our final coaching call from September to close out the summer. Now that October is here, it's time to crank it down! I have 4 months left to build and delegate my cleaning company before my self-imposed deadline of February 1, 2022.

I'm going to come right out and admit. I did NOT hit my goal for September and I know why. I got lazy. If you've followed this podcast since the beginning, I've been building my marketing machine using Google My Business, Facebook, and local networking. It's worked very well to the tune of $60,000 in increased revenues solo in 2020. I was working my marketing hard. My pipeline grew and I reaped the benefit in 2021. I hit my optimizer goal as a solo cleaner by January 2021 earning $70,000 profit on 2 days cleaning per week. I stopped marketing and simply helped anyone that found me through my marketing machine. This generated more house and office leads that I really didn't care if I got or not. Then June happened and I got A New Freedom Vision. I hired Coach Josh and it was time to scale my business with a team. I have shared with you that I built out a few systems over the summer including a hiring and payroll system, a financial system using Quickbooks Online, and a simple office cleaning training system. I also built my foundation with mission, vision, and values (see "Introducing the C3 Experience"). My cleaning business was now ready to grow with a solid foundation and the beginning of the systems that I'll need to support a $300,000 revenue business.

I had offices and house inquiries coming in, so I'd answer them and select which I wanted to bid on. I mentioned to friends personally and in network meetings that I was hiring and was referred a few people. I hired one of them. I was growing today off of yesterday's work. But I wasn't doing today's work by building my pipeline for tomorrow. We as entrepreneurs allow this to happen and don't realize it until your leads dry up. This happened to me in September. I realized it on my own and shared it with Coach Josh. By the way, I was supposed to complete his coaching homework to create a Project 100 in a week back in July. It took me 6 weeks to make this list of 100 offices I'd like to clean. Why did it take so long? I was arrogant thinking that I had a pipeline that I didn't see was drying up. This was my first major blind spot in September.

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We had an interesting conversation in our Smart Cleaning Tribe recently that I wanted to share. I'll play the full clip in the podcast, but here's the scenario. Kate is a very successful cleaning business owner with 18 cleaning techs (cleaners). On this particular Monday, she had 2 call out. It put Kate into crisis mode. Can you relate? What would happen if 2 of your cleaners called out or quit on you? As I listened to Kate describe her employee scenario, I thought of the term negative employee margin.

Let's relate this example to something easy to grasp. Money. You've got $5,000 coming in to your budget. Your expenses are $4,000. You have $1,000 left over. You have positive cash flow or margin. You feel peace. Most of you listening would say, "Ken, that's not me. I'm stretched." I would say that most of America would agree. So here is scenario #2. You've got $4,000 coming in to your budget and $5,000 in expenses! This creates stress, anxiety, fear, worry, doubt, anger, helplessness, etc. You have negative cash flow or margin. Can you feel the difference. Let's bring this back to Kate.

Kate has 18 employees. I asked her how many she absolutely needs to complete the jobs on her schedule. She thought and answered 15. This is great. Kate has 3 extra employees to clean at any given time, so she has a positive employee margin. If 2 call out, she still has 16 to get the work done. Right?! Nope. Here's the part that she shared on the call as well. Kate has a vacation schedule that allows up to 2 on vacation at all times. They rotate as a team to give everyone an opportunity. This is also great for business. Right?! It is and it isn't. Kate has happy employees taking vacation, but she has a math problem.

18 employees - 2 employees on vacation = 16 employees available at any given time. Add 2 call outs and Kate has 14 employees to do the work of 15! This is not positive margin anymore. Kate has negative margin. This is why Kate feels the lack of peace. Do you relate. We talked on this call about Resource Management for her team. How can Kate always create a positive employee margin? We talked about flex cleaners, extra office staff, hiring more, cutting or changing the vacation policy, etc. Overall, it gave Kate a different take on how to create peace in her business.

Would you like to join our cleaning family and be with amazing cleaning company owners like Kate? The Smart Cleaning Tribe is an exclusive membership for cleaning business owners growing teams who desired a cleaning family to help them set goals, hold them accountable, and grow in every area of their life.

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Would you like to know the one book that will absolutely change your life? Come on! Wouldn't you like to know how to cut through the thousands of self-help books out there to the one book that sums it all up? It's so much work to read all of those books. What if you could just listen to this podcast episode and hear my answer to the best book I ever read? Wouldn't that be awesome? It's the perfect microwave answer. You can take your uncooked mind and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes and presto... you have wealth mentality.

This is appealing to so many people because we are getting to be a lazier and lazier society. What if I did have the best book ever to give to you? Do you realize that I have read over 500 books in my professional life over the past 20 years. And I haven't just read them. I've studied them. I've shared them. I've written in the margins. I've changed from one level to the next in my thinking. Here's what I'm saying. It's taken me 20 years and 500 books to tell you which was the best book I've ever read. There's a catch. If you read this book, would it change your life as much? I don't know, but my inclination is to say no.

"Okay, Ken. Stop with the ambiguity. Do you have a book to recommend or not?" Wow, you are so demanding. Okay, I'll give you a few that changed my life.

"The Monster at the End of this Book" by Jon Stone - Seriously! This is profound. Grover from Sesame Street fights so hard to keep the reader from turning the pages. My Pop-Pop read this to me every weekend from age 6 - 9 ish. I LOVED that book. We would joke and make faces, but the lesson is so clear. No matter what the obstacle, keep turning those pages in your life.

"The Choice" by Og Mandino, "The Traveler's Gift" by Andy Andrews, and "The Dream Giver" by Bruce Wilkinson - I've read these books over 15 times at least in my 20's, 30's and now 40's. They get better each time! They touch my heart and help me see WHY I do what I do, giving me the courage to keep traveling.

"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey - I just read this book and it changed my life. This is the book that inspired this episode. I want to be a Quadrant 2 person! I want to operate my life most effectively and I couldn't believe this book wasn't in the first 100 that I read!

You could read these books and they could change your life or they could do nothing for you. So what is the best book for you to read to change your life? I believe that the answer is different for every person. Why? Some of you have read 1,000 books and have a dominant wealth and abundance mindset. Others maybe haven't read at all and still think at the level they always have. Napoleaon Hill had a quote, "Think and Grow Rich". In fact, this quote became a best-seller on teaching how to create wealth. Books help us to think differently. They cut us open and force us to make decisions to either change and grow or stay the same and wither. We are all at different stages of growing and developing. Books are static. This means that the information in the book will affect us differently at any given snapshot of our life. Have you ever read a book three times and get something different from it every time? I mentioned this about me already. The book hasn't changed, but we have so we get something different from it.

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I talk about freedom on this podcast a lot. I talk about finances and building your company a lot. I also talk about family and keeping the main thing, the main thing. But I haven't talked about a topic that is as important if not more important than all of them. Let's talk about our health. In this podcast, I'm going to simply share a story of my own health journey from that of trusting doctors to taking ownership of my own health and being proactive. This has lead me to partner with doctors and health professionals in order to create the most healthy experience possible. Do you know why this is so important to me? I'm 44 years old with 5 kids between 4 and 16. I can still get down on the floor to play and out in the woods to hike and camp. I want to do that with my grandkids and great-grandkids. Therefore, I need to work hard to get healthy and wealthy.

Resources - In this podcast, I mentioned "The Model Health Show" by Shawn Stevenson. Check it out. There are so many hacks you can do to improve your health from anti-inflammatory diets, to cutting wifi while to sleep, supplements, walking every day, and so on. I highly recommend that you find a medical partner that you can work with to achieve your goal. 

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I've built my cleaning company for 16 years solo and have operated under my own set of personal core values. I've communicated them in my marketing system and they have earned me better, higher paying clients that stay with me a long time. However, I've never had to document them or communicate them to a team. My coach, Josh Melton, has been driving this point home recently. He recommended that I re-read the book, "Traction" by Gino Wickman and complete the EOS® VisionTraction Organizer or the VTO. This process is so helpful because it forces me to extract my most inner and core beliefs about me and my company and share them in my vision. I have never done this before. It was scary at first. But now, it energizes me and that's a true tell if my foundation is right. I should be able to communicate my mission, vision, and values. Before I dive in, let me give thanks where thanks is due. I've already mentioned Josh. Josh, if you're listening... thank you! I want to also thank Kevin Smith of Grace Home Cleaning in Omaha, NE. Check out my interview with Kevin called, "It's Grace for a Reason". Kevin shares his mission and vision in this interview and it truly inspired me. I shared the exact one, just didn't know how to communicate it. Thank you Kevin for being so real and transparent about your relationship with God and He leads your company.

Let's return to a previous episode, "We All Need a Coach". I read a portion of scripture from the Book of Matthew called "The Parable of the Talents". I'll paraphrase. The master gives 5 talents to one servant, 2 to another, and 1 to the other. One talent or a talent of silver from biblical times was worth around 6,000 denarii and a denarii was referenced in the bible as a day's wages. Therefore, a single talent could be worth as much as 6,000 days of labor. If the average worker works 22 days per month, it would take him 22 years to earn a talent. I've also seen commentary where a talent was approximately a year's salary at that time. Whatever the answer, a talent is a significant amount of money. The one given 5 talents trades and accumulates 5 more. He is highly commended by the master as a good and faithful servant or steward. The one given 2 did likewise and accumulated 2 more. The master was happy again. The third servant hid his 1 talent in the ground out of fear and gave it back to his master. The master was furious and delivered him to extreme punishment and he gave his talent to the one with 10. This parable really speaks to me. I don't relate to the 3rd servant. I desire to be like the 5 talent servant. He believed that the Master owned it all and he wanted to do his best to multiply His talents. This is called Stewardship. Just like my friend Kevin and the 2 and 5 talent servants, I believe that God owns it all. I believe that He owns my cleaning business. My job as a steward is manage it well for Him. The question I asked myself was this. "Ken, how well do you want to manage it?" The answer was quick and short. I want to manage it like the first servant. He started with 5 of God's talents and ended with 11! That's amazing! God still owns the 11, but the servant was just elevated big time. This became my new life and business mission statement.

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Every time I meet with my chamber president for breakfast, great podcast episodes result. The last breakfast with Steven Hunsberger produced Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable. Why should our August 2021 breakfast be any different? I was sharing with Steven my recent camping trip and the profound influence my phone has on me. He totally related when I said my goal was to simplify my life. I started the next part of the conversation with this. "Steven, I'm trying to do too much and I'm missing the simple things in life. And I really wasn't missing that much but I was convicted at camp. I got back and did my best to not return to where I was. I was changed and I wanted my life to reflect that change.  All the things I thought were so important can all wait, my kids are growing up and they won't wait. It's what are the essential things I need to do to hit our goals but not steal from this valuable time with my kids? That's the question we should ask ourselves? What are the 80/20 opportunities in my life?" Steven loved this and wanted to apply that way of thinking to how he runs the chamber.

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My daughter Christiana said something very interesting. I was telling her about a house I was considering taking on, but totally willing to say no if I didn't get the price and the other parameters that I wanted. She said. "If I were ever to have my own cleaning business that would be really hard for me to do. I'm a people pleaser." I thought about that and it's so true. There's something called the disc profile that helps put people into personality boxes. It's a useful analysis that helps us understand ourselves and others around us. We can learn things like traits, work styles, tendencies, best way to communicate with each other.

D – Dominance – direct, firm, strong-willed, results oriented

I – influence – high positive energy, outgoing, optimistic, enthusiastic

S – Steadiness – accommodating, patient, humble, calm

C – Conscientiousness – accurate, analytical, precise, private

Generally speaking, the D's and I's are extraverts, while the C's and S's are introverts. D's run people over. I's love to be around people. S's are people pleasers. C's are people avoiders. I highly encourage you to take a free online assessment. However, I can guess which one you are. How would I know? You're a SOLO cleaner for a reason. You like to be by yourself working. You are a people pleaser in most cases. You are high detail. This makes you an introvert and probably on the S-C line somewhere. Some of you are I's and D's, but the majority are C's and S's. Let's continue.

Since most of you are C's and S's, let's consider the weaknesses of each. The C's are high-detail and hard to please. They tend to be perfectionists. As much as they want to get faster, they struggle with their own personality. It's an uphill battle. These C's will need to overcome perfectionism with excellence. I have two podcasts on this - Perfection Vs. Excellence & Accept the Uncertainty. Listen to them again and again!!!

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In the opening story, I shared a major breakthrough of how my phone loads stress on me that I didn't even know what there until I had 4 days on airplane mode. I came away from that camping trip with my 8-year-old son with this. Simplicity is the word. It's the word that I need to press into. How do I get simplicity into every area and role in my life? This became a burning question. I learned that airplane mode is simple. The 80/20 Rule is simple because less is better. Less equals less stress equals simple. I was in this place as I was processing the decision to scale my cleaning business for the first time in 15 years. I realized that delegating tasks that I was good or great at to someone equally suitable was simple as it gave me more time and allowed me to function in an ever greater capacity. I realized that creating sustainable systems was simple as it ran predictable workflows through a repeatable process. For the first time, I wanted to scale so I could add more simple into my life. I was in this place as Coach Josh's instruction to simplify my cleaning business to a targeted niche. This helped me narrow my cleaning focus to reduce the loading and make it way simpler to scale. I was in this place when Vincent and I were in our Nashville hotel room during Podcast Movement 2021 and I discovered the 3 x 3 matrix that simplified my business to the key income-producers to focus on to close out the year. Simple. I was in this place when I read "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. I heard so many concepts that I knew needed to be adopted. Above and beyond every one was what Stephen called "Habit 3 Putting First Things First".

I was in this place when I created a worksheet based around Habit 3 and facilitated as the expert in the Smart Cleaning Tribe for August. This call was so powerful for me to learn more about me and to help others gain the breakthroughs that I was having. Please listen to the episode as I pull a clip from this Expert Call explaining the 4 quadrants and how we can become Quadrant 2 people!

Quadrant 1 - The Urgent and Important

Quadrant 2 - Not Urgent and Important

Quadrant 3 - The Urgent and Not Important

Quadrant 4 - Not Urgent and Not Important

Would you like to join our cleaning family? The Smart Cleaning Tribe is an exclusive membership for cleaning business owners growing teams who desired a cleaning family to help them set goals, hold them accountable, and grow in every area of their life.

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I had an awesome conversation with a good friend recently that I'll keep anonymous. He was struggling with anxiety around his lack of control. This is only a problem for him because he has the type of personality that thrives on being in control or at least the perception of it. This is what I mean when I use the word illusion. The conversation was deep and very therapeutic for both of us. We dove into so many topics including health, family, finances, and faith. As I took a giant step back from this conversation, I made 3 observations that I'd like to share.

First, let me take you somewhere. I want you to think of a time in your life (and it may be right now) where you were up against it and literally could not get out on your own. Maybe it's a sick child or parent. Maybe you struggled severely with your health. Maybe it was such a lack of money that you saw no way out. Maybe it was a natural disaster like a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake. In each of these scenarios, all illusion of control is tossed out the window and every man, woman, and child resorts to getting on their knees and praying to the Almighty or whoever might be up there. They may believe that God is punishing them and they need to be forgiven. They may believe God is absent and doesn't care. They may just not know. But they are so helpless, that they're willing to pray, willing to try anything. Have you ever been there? I have three examples that involve the closest people in my life. Last year, I was wrapped up in 3 long-term hospital stays where I felt no control. My mom was suffering from Covid as a Type 1 diabetic. She wouldn't give her children access to the medical records and no one could visit during the pandemic. We were so helpless to get updates on her as endured over 2 weeks of life & death. She survived. Praise God! My mom lived! Both my grandparents passed away in 2020. I've given full eulogies on this podcast. They were my second parents who had a considerable part in raising me, especially my Pop-Pop. He was the father in my life to affirm me. He was the man that I wanted to perform for. My Nana was in the hospital for 7 days and my Pop was there for 26 days. In both cases, it was a roller coaster of good and bad news. Just when you think they're improving, another setback happens to push them further away from coming out. I felt helpless both times and both times they went to be with Jesus. My dad is bipolar and had a severe onset of depression and mania after his parents passed away. 2021 has been a nightmare with him, never knowing where he'd end up and when I'd get a call from a hospital or a coroner. At one point, he went missing for over 48 hours with no phone or car. No control. The last scenario happened a few nights ago. There was a severe flash flood in our area as a result of Tropical Storm Ida. We live in a flood plane with a large creek 100 yards from our back door. The street is the highest point and our yard has a downgrade toward the creek. The water was pouring into our yard and driveway from the street and raised the water level to over 5 feet in our backyard. This is the storm I mentioned in the funny papers with the mouse. Yes, it was fun swimming with boogie boards in our backyard river. But I will tell you this. The water level crept from the creek to our back fence. Then it covered our fence and reached within 20 feet of our back door. This is a storm that tore roofs off homes and had catastrophic loss of life. Cars were swept away in some cases on road by the high speed currents. 55,000 lost power. It was scary. We had no control whether the water would continue to rise and flood our home and trap us in our house.

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This lesson was so profound to me as a new entrepreneur. I have never forgotten it. I want to play it again so you will never forget it either! What fruit are you holding onto so tight that you can't see danger about to club you to death?

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There is so much to dig into for this month's update of my personal cleaning company. If you're new to this show, here's the quick version. I've been a solo house and office cleaner for most of my 16 years in business. I have a system that initializes, stabilizes, and optimizes solo cleaning companies to create over $50k profit per year on a few days per week. In fact, I've done it twice. My first solo cleaning business was in Upstate New York from 2005 - 2018. I optimized this company to create $55k profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week without employees. The company was 90% residential and 10% commercial. I sold this company in 2018 for $80k and moved back home to Montgomery County, PA. We have since built a second solo cleaning business to $70k profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week. This new company is 75% commercial and 25% residential. As amazing as this sounds and it has been, our family wanted more. Our coaches and mentors challenged us to follow our dream as a homeschooling family. We had a New Freedom Vision and booked a house on the Gulf Coast of Florida for a month next winter! We wanted to go from $70k profit on 2 days per week to 0 days! This requires a team and systems. As an engineer, I love systems. But I've resisted them as a solo as I viewed them as tedious. Thankfully, I've hired Coach Josh to walk me into our dream. Josh is a co-owner at Athens Cleaning in Athens, GA. He is a fast-growing commercial cleaning company serving small, professional offices with professional workers. This podcast feature is a monthly peak into my own company, Carfagno Commercial Cleaning, as we build our business with systems and team members in order to start living our dream.

August Update:

• The first week of August was my trip to Nashville for Podcast Movement 2021. This was a great trip for me personally and professionally. I had lots of down time to think, plus numerous opportunities to meet new people and build better relationships with podcasters I already knew. The biggest takeaway had nothing to do with my podcast. On Thursday night, my buddy Vincent and I figured out a way to map out our businesses on a simple 3 x 3 grid. We started with the basic 2 x 2 grid of drama vs profit from Why I Fired My First Client. All we did was add a middle scaling option. The analysis revealed so much to me as it confirmed what I was already feeling. My goal is to simplify every area of my life, so that I can create more memories with my family and art for my community and disciple my family. I needed simple. Of the various income-producing efforts I am involved in, a few emerged as most profitable with least time and drama. All house cleaning is OUT and all small, professional office cleaning is IN! This was a vitally reflective process that will allow me to hyper niche with my coach and go crush it in small, professional, essential offices in my area. If you'd like to learn how to do this with your business, reach out to me on my website and request a free call.

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I attended Podcast Movement in Nashville in August. As usual, this conference was phenomenal. Yes, I learned a few exciting tips to improve my podcast and listenership. But I gained so much more in relationships. In fact, I'd say that the biggest reason I went was to grow my network and boy... did I!

I met Rich Jones (Paychecks & Balances Podcast) and Kwame Christian (Negotiate Anything Podcast) at the 2019 Orlando Podcast Movement. Kwame is the one that challenged me to start this podcast and held me accountable. Have you heard that story? Go listen to the very first episode of this podcast! Rich interviewed me on his podcast shortly after meeting him in Orlando. We talked about my corporate America experience and how badly I botched it. It was super fun and I even got Rich to spew some coffee. The episode was called, "Out of a Traditional Job and Into a New Industry". Rich and I have kept in touch and obviously I've stayed accountable to Kwame! So I was excited to see them both again after 2 years due to Covid. The meetings did not disappoint.

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I was so thankful to have my friend Juan Chaparro of Gmaidsand PipeHire HRMas our Smart Cleaning Tribe Expert for April 2021. I wanted to start a series for the members where I brought in million dollar cleaning owners to share the milestones and lessons they picked up along the way. Juan has an incredible story. He spent 5 years in Dallas growing his company, but he wanted more. He wanted freedom. Juan read the "E-Myth Revisited" and the "4-Hour Workweek" and applied what he learned. He was able to move to Miami to pursue freedom of time and location as he didn’t need a ton of money. It took Juan 13 years, but now he runs a 7-figure business remotely and enjoys a life of freedom.

Juan invested over 90 minutes with our Tribe. It was outstanding. In this podcast, I am sharing one portion of this expert call where Juan goes through the various milestones from startup to a 7-figure absentee business owner.

"This is a simple business. We do the same thing over and over, nothing new to create. It’s simple. We need to have a balance between customers and employees. Keep this growing every month. When you become a master at this. Take this from this call. Become an expert." - Juan Chaparro

Milestones in your company

• 0-$100k How to operate a simple business
• $100 - $250k How to become an entrepreneur, payroll, accounting, numbers, reports
• $250k-$500k Problem with hiring people becomes more real (4-8 employees), have to hire and fire a lot. This problem of hiring becomes real.
• $500-$750k Get organized to do office work correctly, become an office person. Need a great marketing, accounting, and payroll system by this point! Needs to be a well-run machine or you fall behind.
• $750-$1M Growing, but you need more people and hiring becomes the challenge again. You need a manager to replace you a lot more. You need 18-20 people always working
• $1M+ Management, office staff, expansion, growing to other cities. Hiring is still the problem. We have better systems and processes, but managing people is always the challenge.

"I waited too long to hire people fast. I was too nice for too long. I had this hope that people would change and get better. It’s hard to remove the emotional part of this. Being an absentee, I don’t get attached. It’s still hard. Get good to preserve the image and reputation of the company. Don’t let being nice to one person hurt the image of the company and hurt 10 others." - Juan Chaparro

Would you like to join our cleaning family? The Smart Cleaning Tribe is an exclusive membership for cleaning business owners growing teams who desired a cleaning family to help them set goals, hold them accountable, and grow in every area of their life.

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My wife and I were enjoying breakfast at Postively 4th Street Cafe in Ocean City, NJ. We love this place and especially the lattes. Oh my, they are good! During our connecting time, we were searching for ways to improve our business and effectiveness as parents. I asked the question. "How can we become 10 Talent People in each area of our life?" This is a reference to a story that Jesus teaches in the Book of Matthew. I'll read it.

Matthew 25:14-30 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

We are Christians, so this has significant meaning to us. When I asked the question to my wife, "How do we become 10 Talent People", it was our desire to be the 5 talent servant who invests his five to make 10. We want to make 10 talents in every area of our life. From this question, multiple breakthroughs occurred. I'd like to share one of them with you as I believe it will help you a ton. In the Four Windows episode, I painted the image of a window with cross lattices that makes 4 individual panes of glass in each window. Each of the 4 panes represents something in our life.

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Earlier this summer, I was talking with my 16-year-old son Kenny about his podcast editing business. I asked him if he'd like to come with me to Nashville for the annual Podcast Movement Conference. He'd have to buy his own ticket obviously. At first he didn't understand why he would even consider it. This lead into a great discussion on networking and why we build relationships with others in our community, online, and nationally. I'll come back to that conversation soon. But first let me ask you, the Smart Cleaning School listener... Are you building relationships in your local community? Did you answer no? Why aren't you doing it as a strategic part of your work week? Is it because you don't believe it's worth your time because it's just more meetings? Allow me to demonstrate with a few stories...

• Kelly Jones - Her entire Delaware cleaning empire emerged through local netwoking and serving her network. Listen to her interview, Become a Bridge-Builder for the full story.
• Alonzo Adams - Check out Be a Lighthouse, Not a Buoy for the full story. Alonzo attended one conference in Las Vegas that lead to a $100k+ cleaning contract!
• Vincent Pugliese - He attended a mastermind retreat in Nashville when it wasn't convenient at all. He made one connection there with a photographer that turned into a $30k+ ongoing income stream for 2 years.
• Nick Pavlides - He runs the Ghostwriter School and is a friend that Vincent introduced me to at a conference. Nick is the one that persuaded me to name this podcast with "school". Nick attends conferences regularly and I've heard multiple testimonies of Nick closing $20k ghostwriting packages at conferences he attends!
• Ken Carfagno - I attended Debbie Sardone's Speed Cleaning conference in Dallas when we were trying to sell our first cleaning business. I had no time or money to attend this at the time. But I brought my friend Ian who was very interested in my company. He saw the vision of what a cleaning business could do in his life and this conference locked in a $80k business sale for my family. It was worth the $1,500 and 4 days invested!

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In this episode, we pick up where we left off with Kelly Jones of The Cleaning Girl.  You will enjoy her story as it goes from humble beginnings as  22-year-old mom to SBA Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in her state. Pay close attention to the story of how Kelly was nearly featured on Marcus Lemonis's new show, "Lemon-Aid". Marcus is the award-winning host of "The Profit". Kelly is a bridge-builder. She has built thousands of little bridges to get her to that pinnacle. Every bridge is a relationship.

This podcast will show you what is possible when you build relationship bridges and serve like Kelly has done so well.  Make sure to follow Kelly as she launches her first product line for homeowners, Maid in a Bottle.

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Kelly Jones of The Cleaning Girl (Wilmington, DE) was a 22-year-old mom working at a bank. She got into a car accident and was given the summer off to recover. During this time, she enjoyed the pool with her young children. Then the bank came calling for Kelly to come back to cubicle world. Her husband asked her as she whined about going back. "What are you going to do? What can you do?" Her answer is the title of this podcast.

Kelly quickly found a few clients and then connected with a mom selling her company. Kelly went all in and purchased the business. But the business took its toll on Kelly and she was burnt out after 10 years. That's when her husband stepped in again to ask her. "What are you going to do?" Her answer to this second question is what has built The Cleaning Girl to a BRAND recognized and respected throughout her entire state and earning her multiple business awards!

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I recently coached a new friend and solo cleaner, Angelica Pedraza of U B Lazy Cleaning Services out of San Antonio, TX. She had just completed her onboarding as a new member of the Solo Cleaning School Elite and had a few questions. The conversation was beneficial both ways. I was very impressed with her progress. Angelica has been in business 3 years as a solo and she has listened to every one of my podcasts. And no, that's not why I was impressed. She is 21-years-old and has served in our military. Yes, this means she served our country and started her cleaning company before the age of 20. I'm impressed because we hear so much negative about the Milennial Generation and their tendency to look for the easy path. Not Angelica! She is driven and accomplished at a young age. Angelica, if you're listening to this... you have a BRIGHT future! Welcome to our Elite Membership!

She told me on the phone that she is super busy cleaning houses and hasn't even had a weekend off in 3 years! I asked her about her Why and Dream. "Ken, I want to take a month off like you are. I want to make more and work less." She wants time. That is a gift that has to be earned. I then dug up a story that I haven't told in a while. It was meant to inspire Angelica. It's hard for her to see my life and think that she can do it. But I can put myself BACK into her life and share how I did it. That's what I did. I then told her the story of the Monday and Friday Mugs. You'll have to listen to the whole story on the podcast, but here's the takeaway. I had to earn my Mondays and Fridays away from cleaning. Then I earned my Tuesdays. Eventually, I was cleaning 2 days per week, sold the business, and did it again in a second state. Now, I'm earning back the last 2 days. This requires me to scale my solo cleaning company through a team. There was never an easy step in the process. Some steps took me months, while others took me years. Angelica was so encouraged after my story, so I ended it like this.

"Angelica, you have a lot to look forward to. You're 21 and already make good money as a solo cleaner working all week. Over time, you too can drink coffee out of your Monday mug and then your Friday mug. Down the road, you may even have a mug for all 7 days of the week. It's called Freedom and you're on the pathway. You made a smart investment! Let's go accomplish your dreams!" Your dream may seem so far away like it does for Angelica. Don't fret. Just set some smaller bite-sized goals and attack them one-by-one. Celebrate at each achieved goal. Before you know it, you'll be living your dream, one step at a time.

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This original episode was very popular because it spoke to a mindset of defeatism. In a recent episode, "Pick Up Your Problems", I shared a powerful quote from NBA Champion Chris Bosh. "The problem and the solution are both in the mirror." That really speaks to the heart of this 'Best Of' re-run. Make sure to listen again as it equips you to think like a problem solver over someone who takes the lumps and gives up.

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July was a crazy month. As a family, we had a ton going on. We had Kid's Camp and Youth Camp at retreat camp centers for 4 of our 5 kids for 5 days each. During one of those camps, Teresa and I slipped away for 4 days to the beach. I had a 5-day father / son camping trip with my son to the Adirondacks that I do with each son. This was with my 8-year-old Kye. It was glorious being off the grid for 5 days with no phone or social media! We just connected, camped, swam, boated, ate, heard campfire stories, songs, and devotions, and did shooting sports and hiking! Awesomeness! Coach Josh was also away in Florida for 2 weeks, so we had to move our coaching to Marco Polo and email. Even with all of this going on, I had BIG goals!

The first step in this process was putting our money where our mouth was. On July 7th, we booked it! Booked what? We booked a rental house on the Gulf Coast for a whole month next winter! The house is awesome with 7 beds, a porch, and a short 8 minute ride to the beach. There's a pool table too. Our kids are so excited and so are we! We've never done anything like this before. July had to be a big month to get this "Freedom Vision "cranking.

Before I go into the details of our month and share tidbits from coaching, let me give you the end results. We started the month with no employees, no payroll, no systems, a new accounting firm client for $3,000 per month that we had to staff, and no clue! The month ended with no new clients, which is the sad news. But we fully outsourced and completed our Quickbooks migration from desktop to online and have an accountant walking us through whatever we need for a year. Our financial system is now automated! I can't believe it! We hired a payroll service and a background check company. I built out a basic onboarding system, job description, and training system. Teresa and I were trained how to use the online payroll dashboard to submit employee hours. I found out that I wasn't submitting payroll correctly for the state and local taxes. Thankfully, my new payroll company fixed it for me and I'm paying a penalty for the remainder of the year. That's a relief. I hired my first employee. Leah works full time at a daycare and is a college grad. She wanted a part-time job to make $500 per month and found me through a referral. It works out perfectly. She started training on July 29th! It's crazy! I also was privy to systems used by my coach. I am so grateful for this. At the end of the month, Josh introduced me to his HR & Finance Manager. We talked for over an hour. I helped him by teaching him the ISO Model to increase revenues in their company. He taught me their onboarding process and is sending the documents, videos, and other forms & ads I need to start a strategic hiring process. I also completed a branding change from Carfagno Cleaning to Carfagno Commercial Cleaning and my C3 Experience. My friend Billy designed a new logo and I upgraded my proposal to new offices prospects with my new branding. As I even share this, I'm dumbfounded at how much I got done this month when at times it felt like nothing was happening! Last but not least, I added a key member to my team. For the first time in 16 years, my wife Teresa is stepping up to help the family company. She is a busy homeschooling mom of 5, so I NEVER asked her involvement. I am grateful that she is helping with admin and is taking over the QBO and payroll components from me! I am working hard to delegate as much as possible to focus on growth of new clients and new team members!

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I'm currently reading Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People". It's hard to believe that I never read it before. The book is literally eating me alive. What do I mean by that? Do you know when you're out at night in the summer and the mosquitos start to attack? You lose the ability to move forward with your plans as you're consumed with the bugs. That's what is happening with this book. I read a chapter and literally have to stop reading and just stew!!! One concept from the book early one got my attention big time and it should get yours too. So listen up!

Did you ever hear the full story of the goose that laid the golden eggs in Aesop's Fables? Go back and look it up. Here's the summary. The farmer discovers a golden egg and gets rich from the daily production of gold from his Golden Goose. But the farmer gets greedy and wants more than one day's production. He decides to kill the goose thinking he can get all the eggs out of it. To his horror, he opens up his Golden Goose and finds no golden eggs. Even worse, the goose is destroyed as well. Stephen Covey relates this to the business that purchases an expensive machine. This new machine can create widgets better and faster than anything else out there, so the owner cranks its output to top capacity. He only cares about the output and therefore never schedules proper down time to maintain the machine. You know what happens next. Eventually, the machine crashes or fails. All production stops and widgets cease. The machine either requires a significant level of time and investment to repair and get it back on line. Or worse, the business has killed their Golden Goose and needs to buy a new one. In either example, they thought they were being productive and pumping out profits. But in the long run, they were worse off with the machine that breaks and would have been better off with their old reliable system of consistent widget production. What is the lesson here? Does the business decide to stay where they were? No, of course not. Progressive improvements in technology increase profits. However, the business needs to follow the maintenance instructions to ensure that the machine performs at a top level for a long time.

Are you catching my drift yet? Do you see the applications to your life and business? Here are a few for you to ponder.

• How well are you taking care of your machines? Are you doing the scheduled maintenance on your vehicles and vacuum cleaners? They will function for a long time if you take care of them. I learned the hard time, many times with MDT or Machine Down Time. Check out my episode, "Caught Red-Handed".

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I met with a good friend and spiritual mentor of mine recently for breakfast. I'll keep his name anonymous, but not his message. In fact, we'll call him Todd. Todd loves breakfast and knows everyone in the restaurant. He regularly takes his friends out to breakfast and won't even let us pay. As you know from this podcast, I like hanging out with friends like that. I love being around generous people as it rubs off on me. Todd is a retired/semi-retired painter. He was excellent at his craft for over 35 years. He ran crews, teaching and mentoring many younger apprentices over the years. I was staring at the wall next to our table and noticed some trim work. "Would you tape this off?" In my mind, I assumed all painters had to use tape so you wouldn't get paint from one area onto another. Oh boy! I had no idea that this was the wrong question to ask a professional painter! Todd responded. "Painters don't use tape!" He did explain later that there are certain applications where special painters tape can be useful. For the most part, it's time consuming to use tape, adds expense, and lowers the quality of the job. Of course I had to dig into his response.

Todd went through a thorough and detailed technical explanation of how he paints and how he teaches his guys to paint. Here's a few things I learned. He wears special painters pants and always keeps his putty knife, some clean cotton rags, and a screwdriver in his pants. If he's painting molding in a room and happens to get some paint on the wall, he can use his putty knife and a cloth and fix it. I asked him about the tape. He said. "When I get someone working with me, they don't use the tape. They learn with the tools. I teach him my method and I don't care if they mess up and need to use the putty knife nine times. Over time, they'll need the putty knife less and less until it's barely used." Todd was training his guys in his best painting system, yielding best quality and best efficiency regardless of how bad or slow they are in the beginning. This explanation brought me to attention at the table as I recognized so many parallels between painting and cleaning. Todd went on. "Truth be told. The newer guys are not going to be bad. They're going to have excellence, but they'll be slow because they may have to get used to making the mistakes and using the tools 10 times on the first day." I connected that to training cleaners and how they always start out slow and get faster, but you never teach them shortcuts to get fast in the beginning. Why do I train this way? It's a simple concept. Train for excellence first, then speed. This guarantees a level of quality, which can be optimized. You don't lose clients this way. If you train for speed first, mistakes will happen. Things will break. Areas and details will get missed. This will cause you lose clients and tarnish your reputation. Todd finished with this. "Tape is a crutch for painters." They don't have to get excellent as it encourages sloppy work.

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Kevin Smith is a close friend of mine. We originally met at a Speed Cleaning conference in Dallas, TX lead by Debbie Sardone. There aren't many men in house cleaning and Kevin is over 6 foot tall. Therefore, it wasn't hard to spot him. We connected right away because of our mutual faith and the way we honor God with our businesses. It's been over 3 years since we met, yet we've stayed connected through text and phone calls. Kevin's company Grace Home Cleaning in Omaha, NE was doing $100k in total revenue. They do over a million now and he shares in this episode a few mindsets which unlock how he was able to do this.

The episode is split int 2 parts. The first part is a snippet of an interview I did with Kevin where he talks about his company's foundation on God. He shares a great story of an employee who breaks a house shower door and how he handled it. This story lead into the main takeaway from this interview. Kevin says. "I am steward and God owns Grace Home Cleaning. It's a family here. We keep praying and it's grace for a reason." In the second part of this podcast, I share a clip from our Smart Cleaning Tribe where I hosted Kevin as an expert a few weeks after the interview. During this expert call, there were2 questions that Kevin's answer profoundly impacted our Tribe members. I want to share those two answers with you.

1. If you want to HAVE a million dollar business, act like it now!
2. To endure the hard times, lean on God and your mentors. Both are a choice.
3. Is your cleaning company striving toward a million dollars in annual revenue? Would you like help with your goals, be held accountable to those goals alongside others doing the same as you, and gain access to amazing experts like Kevin? Apply for the Smart Cleaning Tribe!

It's grace for a reason. We are Grace Home Cleaning and we're a family. Kevin sees his employees as his kids and his employees see Kevin as their dad.

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I have shared multiple times on this podcast that I am a huge Tim Ferriss fan. "The Four-Hour Work Week" really changed the way I viewed my work and freedom goals. I also listen to his podcast. They are what's called "long-form" interviews in the podcasting world as he spends between 1.5 - 2.5 hours per interview. Joe Rogan conducts his interviews the same way. By spending so much time, Tim and Joe can really dig deep into their guest's life stories. I LOVE hearing these stories of challenge, obstacles, overcoming, learning, and victory. I always hear some one-liners and zingers too that I share on Instagram or Facebook. Plus, I hear some mindsets that I feel compelled to share here on the Smart Cleaning School Podcast. This episode is one such example, similar to "When You're Humble, You're Teachable".

I encourage you to check out "How to Reinvent Yourself" from the Tim Ferris Show where he interviews former NBA star and member of the Big 3, Chris Bosh. In 2010, LeBron James made the decision to take his talents to South beach. Chris Bosh came with him from Toronto to join Dwyane Wade and Lebron. The Big 3 went on to win two out of four NBA titles in four consecutive years. I was always perplexed by Chris. He was a star in Toronto and seemed to disappear in the Miami hype with Lebron and D-Wade. He even changed his game to adapt. Chris was unselfish and ultimately, it paid off with 2 championship rings. Therefore, when I saw the interview with Tim, I had to check it out.

Here are some observations about Chris from the interview. He is a voracious reader. Chris is so articulate and interesting. At one stage of the interview, he broke down why the league changed from playing bigs in the paint to shooters behind the arc (3-pointers). As I watched the game change as a fan, I was disappointed in the changes and never understood. That's when Chris broke it down. It was all sabermetrics and statistics. As an engineer, I loved it. This new style of play was more probable of winning games. It also had less injury and demanded a different type of athlete. I loved how intelligently Chris broke down the progression of the game to a non-basketball fan in Tim Ferriss.

Tim shifted gears to life after basketball. This is the part that really taught me some valuable life lessons. Chris is a current ambassador for the NBA and has found himself complaining. Then he talked to a CEO who had survived cancer and got a totally different perspective and stop complaining. Previously, he had gone to Africa and India and saw real poverty. Chris made this comment. "India made the projects look like a five-star hotel." Chris then said this and it made Tim pause. "What do people say? You think you got problems? Well everyone put their problems on the table. You'll pick yours back up real quick." This is so profound as we all think we're going through the worst thing in our life. But there was always someone better off and there's probably 10 more that are worse off than you. Those 10 worse off souls could be in your community or somewhere else in the world. It's all perspective. If you're carrying a load right now and you feel like you can't push through. Get some perspective from Chris Bosh. He played with at least 3 Hall of Famers in LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Ray Allen and won two championships. Chris also won an Olympic Gold Medal, was an 11-time NBA All-Star, along with many other accolades. And he was complaining.

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One of my favorite movies when I was in high school was Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray as Phil Connors and Andy MacDowell as Rita Hanson. I liked it because it was hilarious. How could you not like a movie with Bill Murray who still makes me laugh from "Caddyshack" and "What About Bob?" I grew up in Pennsylvania as well, so Groundhog Day was a thing that we actually celebrated every February 2nd. Let me elaborate on the plot. A Pittsburgh weatherman, Phil Connors was assigned to go to Punxsutawney on February 1st. He has this assignment every year and he lothed going. The small town hicks as he called them drove him crazy. He was too big for this town and he made his contempt known. Phil was a total jerk and made every effort to get through the day of February 2nd, 1993. He scarred everybody in his path. When he finally laid in bed, he was so thankful that the assignment was over. Phil then awoke to the Sunny and Cher hit, "I've Got You Babe". Was it Deja Vue all over again as Yogi Berra once said? Yes it was. Phil experienced February 2nd all over again and everything was exactly the same as yesterday. It was the worst nightmare in Phil's life, but it was really happening.

This character is the total opposite of the last "Don't Be Like" episode. In "Don't Be Like Clark W. Griswold". Clark was a total optimist. He never saw the potential for bad, only the potential for good. There wasn't a shred of realism in him. Phil Connors is a total pessimist. He sees only the bad in the forsaken town he was stuck in and none of the good that was all around him. As Phil wakes up day after day, you can see the transition. First, Phil realizes what is going on. He is stuck in Punxsutawney on February 2nd, 1993. This caused severe depression and in the first several days, he just tried to end his life. He was successful each time, except that he woke up to the same Sunny and Cher "I've Got You Babe" song again. He had hit rock bottom and many times people with serious mental problems need to get there before they can start climbing out. Do you know anyone in your life that hit rock bottom and did a total 180? It happens all the time. And it happened to Phil Connors. Along the way, he found the futility of trying to kill himself. He had to accept his fate. He was in Punxsutawney hell. That's where Rita enters in. He thought his producer was attractive, but didn't really care for her. He stopped trying to kill himself and made it his aim to impress Rita.

Phil had every part of February 2nd timed to the second. He could save the cat as it fell from the tree. He studied Rita and learned about her as much as he could. Then on a new day, he would wow her with his understanding of her. This started to win her affection. Over time, Phil's heart changed like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. He turned into a man of extraordinary skill and compassion. Some calculate (the movie doesn’t say) that Phil Connors endured 12,403 Groundhog Days or 33 years and 358 days. It took that long for Phil to change before he experienced February 3rd! It's a crazy story line, but makes for a fun movie. Phil changed from the cold-hearted, pessimistic man to a warm-hearted, optimistic one in a mere 33 years. In the end, he wins the girl and sees the beauty in the small town that he hated before. Do you see the lesson here?

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I had a limited mindset on how much money I could make for many years. It was my Upper Limit Problem that Gay Hendricks defines in "The Big Leap". I earned $54,000 at the peak of engineering in 2005 and thought I was rich. Up until then, I never earned over $20,000 in a year. That's mostly because I was in school and working was part time. But earning $45,000 out of college was huge! Earning $54,000 just five years later was mind-blowing income for me. I got comfortable at this level. When I was fired that year and realized that $170,000 in debt and no income wasn't good, I needed to make money. But what did I do? I built my cleaning income to $40,000 over the next 2 years and stayed there. At $40,000, I was living the same lifestyle that $54,000 in engineering provided. Why? Welcome to the world of business tax advantages and owner perks! When our need for more income came in 2011 (4 years of $40,000 income), I did what seemed right. I asked my wife to start making money to "help the family". I really manned up!

We had already decided that Teresa would be a stay home mom and homeschool no matter what. Teresa was pregnant with our 3rd child in 2011 and struggling to keep it together at home, so when I threw out the idea of her babysitting or doing a small business idea for more income the response was not thrilling. How dumb! "Honey, you already take care of 3 kids. How about taking on 2 more?" She got anxious and overwhelmed and I got mad. I thought that she didn't want to help support the family. It was a cause of tension in 2011 because of my Upper Limit Problem.

What is an Upper Limit. It's a self-imposed limit on our capabilities. "I can never earn more than what I earned before. I can't make $100,000. I can never weigh 130 pounds again. I can never..." You fill in the rest. This is negative self-talk that we create upper limits in our minds that prevent us from breaking through. It took me some time and coaching from mentors to realize that if it's going to be, it's up to me! I realized that we needed more money because we wanted to eliminate the debt monster that was crippling our family. My dream increased and my income did not support that new dream. I had to move and take action. My response to the need as I said was to get my wife to produce more income since my upper limit challenge got in my way. I didn't believe that I could earn any more!

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Recently, a listener to the podcast took me up on my free coaching call option on my website. Niki Kempf of Custom Cleaning in Dyersburg, TN had some pretty big questions. Niki was close to pulling the trigger on a coaching program for $10,000+ and decided to hold off. She left that situation discouraged as her family has big dreams and no idea how to get there. Our call was awesome. I didn't ask her about her business or what she wanted her business to look like. Instead, I asked her about her dream. She shared an awesome vision. First of all, she is recently married and Niki and her husband want to grow their personal ministry to help people coming out of rehabilitation programs. She wants to mentor them, possibly hire them, and definitely donate to organizations that support them. She wants to get her husband out of his job to help her in the cleaning business. This lit her up! Then she told me something amazing. They have a dream to give away 80% of their income. Whoa! I shared the JC Penney story and how he was known for giving away 90% and living off 10%. This is the opposite model of the church/tithing model where the Christian tithes 10% and lives off 90%. Niki loved this. Then I built her dream as I shared a story of a cleaning friend doing something similar. Jessica comes from a rough situation where she dealt with abuse. She has a huge dream to help battered women in her area. She wants to hire woman coming out of the shelters to get them back on their feet. Then she wants to start a non-profit where her cleaning business funds a portion and both the cleaning business and non-profit could be in a commercial building that she buys. Jessica would have a building for everything she wanted to do and the income to do it. Niki LOVED this even more. That's when I shared the Home Depot story.

"Niki, let's say you wanted to hang a picture in your living room. You walk into Home Depot and find a worker. You ask him where the tools are for hanging pictures. Instead of telling you, he asks you a question back. In fact, he asks several questions. How large is the picture frame? How much does it weigh? Is it fragile, made of glass? What type of wall are you hanging it on? Is it plaster or dry wall? If it's plaster, how thick is the plaster and is there brick behind it? If it's drywall, can you locate the studs or will you be able to use studs? You would look at this Home Depot employee like he had two heads. You'd wonder why that all mattered as you simply want to hang the picture frame and need the tools."

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The original episode was published very early in my Solo Cleaning School Podcast before I changed the name. I was pausing to reflect upon a major crossroads in my business when I met two coaches at the same time. I chose the less traveled and it made all the difference. As you know, I've hired a new coach. Josh Melton of the Athens Cleaning Company is guiding me down a new road. Meanwhile, I still have my original coach from this Best Of episode, Vincent Pugliese. In fact, I've introduced my two friends and coaches and they appeared on this podcast together. Check it out after re-listening to this popular and sentimental episode.

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Greg Shepard is a serial entrepreneur. He is the owner of Dallas Maids along with 2 other cleaning companies which he founded or co-founded. In this interview, we dive into the subconscious mind and the limitless power we all possess to win at business and life. Greg sounds like a modern day Napoleon Hill, who wrote "Think & Grow Rich". You will love how I probe Greg for his Why and vision behind each step in his journey. And I know you'll love his resolve to earn his next life's dream to sail around the world by building a 4th cleaning company in Toronto, Ontario. This interview was fascinating to me!

Resources: Greg recommended the books, "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell and "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind" by Harv Eker. Greg's cleaning company specific SEO company is Clean SEO.

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I shared in my last Carfagno Cleaning update, "Stay, Scale or Sell " that the seasons are shifting from Spring to Summer. As promised, I'm departing from my weekly business updates to allow space for other impactful episodes like my interview, "The Cleaning Journey to Nineveh with Josh Melton". I will continue bringing you updates, but during this Summer season of me earning my freedom, I'll be starting this new monthly podcast segment.

Purposely, I mentioned the prior podcasts. In "Stay, Scale or Sell", I laid out my case for Why I need to scale my cleaning company. In the interview with Josh Melton, I saw a man with the same story as me and the same business if I were to scale. After the interview, I reached out to Josh and asked him if I could hire him to coach me to his level. Thankfully, Josh accepted. For the remainder of 2021, I am launching this new segment, which will be a monthly freedom report with my friend and coach Josh Melton. The format may change from month-to-month, but the objective is the same. How is Ken doing toward his goal to enjoy freedom in Florida with his family for a month in the winter? This segment will keep you updated. Plus, I will add actual clips of our coaching calls between Josh and myself. I'm so thankful to Josh. He has built a professional commercial cleaning company with over 60 employees, mostly part-time professionals needing extra money. He calls it his "Chick-Fil-A Model", but more importantly, Josh has an ongoing 6-figure income in the same types of offices I clean and he doesn't have to clean or manage. I wanted this and Josh was willing to help me! Here's the coolest part for Josh. He has wanted to help others do what he has done in a coaching program down the road called the "6-Figure Commercial Cleaner". Josh is also the co-host with his business partner Chad Brown that you should definitely check out! It's called the Entrepreneur Adventure Podcast. In the clip of my first coaching call with Josh, I share some recent wins and my need to start hiring. I also share his take on the pros and cons of the business model I'd like to scale.

There are some updates from June that I would like to share. I will do so in bullet form to make it easier to follow!

• My marketing machine is still working well. I still have house cleaning referrals coming in and unfortunately, I need to reply to all of them with this. "I am taking a waiting list on all new houses. Would you like to be on the waiting list or would you like me to refer you to a cleaning friend as I cannot take any more houses?" I have done this at least 5 times in June. Honestly, it's inconceivable to think I would turn down work. But I need to because my goal is financial and time freedom through my commercial cleaning business. Where does that leave me with houses? I don't know. I will likely hire someone or train a solo cleaner to take them over.

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Recently, I was given the opportunity to share an education segment for the MCBA local business networking group. As the co-chair of this committee with Shelby Leight, I have the freedom to share topics I believe will benefit the group. I chose the topic of creating multiple streams of income because I've been on a quest personally to build out a healthy income portfolio of businesses and investments. I've very new at this since we just got of debt last year. Nevertheless, my curiosity lead me to start this discussion and it went really well.

I started with a story about people losing their incomes in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. I recounted some examples of cleaning business owners and others that I personally know who were hit hard. Everyone in the room related as they all knew someone too. As a group, we went through every year where people felt a significant recession. Thankfully, we had so much wisdom in the room (that's a nice way to say age) and we went back to 1975. Here were the dates: 1975 (gas shortage), 1986 (stock market crash), 1993 (short recession), 2001 (9/11), 2008 (the Great Recession & crash), and 2020 (Covid). We all agreed that history and math teach us something. We have experienced these life-altering shifts every 8-12 years since at least 1975 and we're going to experience them again.

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Josh Melton has been a friend of mine in the industry for several years. We are both Christian husbands and fathers with a heart for men's ministry. Outside of cleaning, Josh has been involved in many side hustles including a coaching program to empower and strengthen men. Likewise, I am an author and was involved in a coaching program to help Dads. Can you see why we'd connect so well? How about this one. Josh built his commercial cleaning business to the level I'd like to attain, which is 6-figures of profit without having to clean. But he did that to earn his freedom to focus on other projects he felt more called to lead. That is also me 100%. During this interview, Josh and I share our stories and ultimately how God has been trying to turn our eyes toward Nineveh. What does that mean?

Here's the short answer. Read the Book of Jonah in the bible or at least watch this short cartoon summary. It's great! Jonah was sent by God to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh. He chose to turn away from God and go his own way. Essentially, God ran away from God's plan. This decision met Jonah with adversity and destruction. Yup, this is the story of the man that was eaten by a whale! That's Jonah. Eventually, Jonah turned toward God and went to Nineveh and all was corrected. Jonah lived out his life in blessing. Josh and I talk in this podcast about our common cleaning roads to Nineveh. It really connected Josh and I even more. I loved this interview and I know you will too.

Josh Melton is the co-owner of the Athens Cleaning Company and the co-host of the Entrepreneur Adventure Podcast.

Resources: In this episode, Josh mentions the janitorial software Swept that his company uses and loves. He also endorsed the book, "Traction" by Gino Wickman.

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In a GoFundMe, Staci Merriman wrote the following. "My brother Roland suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm on Friday May 14, 1 week after his 40th birthday. He was found unconscious/unresponsive by friends who called 911.  Transported to Vincennes Hospital then transferred to Methodist Hospital in Indy where emergency surgery attempted to relieve pressure on his brain. From that point on he had limited brain function and suffered strokes then developed pneumonia.   According to his medical team, there is 0 chance for improvement. Today his family made the hard choice  to let him go and end life support. Roland is an organ donor so our loss may benefit others. Funds will go to final expenses and travel to/from Indiana and Georgia. If anything remains it will be set aside for his son who is 6."

Roland Downs was my friend. In this podcast, I share how our lives intersected from 2016 to 2020. I am deeply saddened by his loss and pray this tribute and lessons he taught me will live on through you. Thank you Roland!

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The summer is finally here! This is both literal and figurative. We just celebrated Memorial Day as the weather is heating up. Just like the 4 seasons of nature, my business is entering a new season. After selling my 1st solo business in 2018, we moved to our hometown and stayed indoors. I tried everything in my power to build my coaching and consulting business in 2018 and early 2019. I stayed indoors as much as possible as I didn't want to clean. This was winter. Ultimately, I needed to get outside again and start planting seeds. I started this podcast and my aggressive networking plan in late 2019. This was the start of Spring. By the beginning of 2021, our new business was cranking and I was able to work on my consulting business again. My cleaning business was optimized and it was comfortable outside. Spring was coming to an end. But with anything, being comfortable is not a good place to be. I needed to get my hunger back and stretch myself. I need to put on my shorts, get outside and enjoy the weather. A New Freedom Vision was placed in my heart and we needed to enjoy this summer in the winter by spending a month in Florida in February. This would require me to scale my business beyond the comfort of Spring into the dog days of Summer. This will pay off because Fall represents the harvest of all seeds sown in the Spring. I am so excited to reach that season and earn my family's financial freedom!

Now that you've got the seasonal perspective of my new Philly cleaning business, I'd like to announce a segment change to the podcast. I've been sharing weekly updates on my Carfagno Cleaning business since inception in October 2019. However, I've been adding more and more value-packed influencer interviews and snippets from expert calls within my paid groups, that I don't have the space to continue them. For this Summer season of Carfagno Cleaning, I will shift from weekly to monthly updates on my cleaning business. I will not share every detail as I have been. I will share relevant wins, struggles, and lessons that I feel will best support your own business growth. Most importantly, I will keep you updated on the progress of my efforts to scale my business so this long-time solo cleaner can get out of the field and live a life of time, money, and location freedom.

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I could talk about Clark W. Griswold for hours. He is one of the best characters in American cinema, hands down! Clark is a man with a big heart. He loves his family. He desires to create memories that will last a lifetime. He is a dreamer and has HUGE ideas. Everything I've just said describes me to a tee and I wonder who else it relates to. But I need to pop the balloon now. In part 1 of my Don't Be Like Series, we examined Owl from Winnie the Pooh. Owl is a highly intelligent creature with a desire to own the room. He wants everyone to hear how smart he is. Owl does not know how to read the room. He will tell you all about him on the side of the river as Pooh and Piglet are heading toward the waterfall cliff. Don't be like Owl. Clark W. Griswold has a glaring blind spot too.

Ellen says this early in Christmas Vacation. "I think you're forgetting how difficult it's gonna be having everyone in the house at the same time." Clark responds "They're family. Christmas is about resolving differences and seeing through the petty problems of family life.... All my life, I've wanted to have a big family Christmas (he grew up an only child)." Ellen responds. "It's just that I know how you build things up in your mind Sparky. You set standards that no family event could ever live up to." Clark... "When have I ever done that?" Ellen goes on to name every event over the past few years. This is the perfect lead in to this episode. Clark only sees the best case and everyone else sees the reality. In the first movie, Clark had a big dream to take his family cross country to see all of the sights and go to Wally World. He was overly optimistic and had no idea of the potential downside and issues that would happen. His wife knew the potential and reality but was afraid to talk to Clark about it. She just went along. As every disaster happened, she was prepared to deal as she always did. Every time something got in the way of Clark's perfect vision, Clark would simmer and his internal pressure cooker would rise. Ellen would go with the flow as she knew the reality of what Clark was doing and expected something like this could happen. Again, Clark internalizes everything. He was in shock and felt like it was all going wrong. We laugh at his responses because it's a movie and Chevy Chase is a comedian. They never talked reality and Clark kept pushing toward a pie in the sky optimistic idea that would never really happen. It comes to a head when they arrive and the park is closed. Do you remember the Wally World scene where Clark blows a gasket, punches the moose nose, and proceeds to hold the security guard (and legendary comedian John Candy) prisoner with an air rifle. They ride on every ride and eventually get arrested. The owner of Wally World relents because he feels bad for Clark and the family. Christmas Vacation ends in similar fashion. Clark blows a gasket when he doesn't get his big Christmas bonus. He planned everything in advance. The family swimming pool. Crazy Eddie kidnaps Clark's boss and again Clark gets off. Ellen has a way of smoothing over the situation every time. Clark never learns though. It makes his character one of my favorites. I truly relate to him. Real life is the craziness, not the optimistic, never-go-wrong illusionary world of Clark W. Griswold.

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This episode was released during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic to help my community understand how to properly kill pathogens, especially coronavirus. I shared these 9 mistakes on webinars and it helped me make a name for myself in the Philly Area. I fully believe that this content is the backbone of my massive success in 2020 as a solo cleaner and it continues to propel me forward in 2021. Enjoy this look back!

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It's getting harder and harder to update you on my own Carfagno Cleaning when every time I go to lunch with Total Life Freedom Philly, the lunch gets paid for with varying level of mystery. In the last installment, "Audio Alibis", the "Benevolent Benefactor" of lunch #3 was revealed. We already know that the Pastor aka John Stange paid for lunch #1 and the prestigious Law Firm of Carfagno & Carfagno had to file the second lunch into the cold case files as "Unsolved Mysteries". The TLF Philly bunch met up for lunch #4 this week. I will report exactly how it went down. But first, let me give a short update on my other business, Carfagno Cleaning.

I've shared our family dream and how our cleaning business fits into it, in the episode "Two Questions to Grow Your Network". Just to refresh you, I've been solo cleaning for 17 years. I teach how to optimize your solo cleaning business. I optimized my first solo cleaning business in New York to $55,000 profit on 2 days per week cleaning, then I sold it for $80,000. I grew another solo cleaning business in the Philly Area from 2019 to now. This one is earning me $70,000 profit on 2 days per week of cleaning. I have precedent and could sell it again. I could keep doing it and be happy with that type of profit and schedule. Or, I could delegate and scale with employees. What's the right answer? It's simple really. Start with Why as Simon Sinek would say. Our Why is time, money, and location freedom so our family can create more memories together locally and visit all 50 states for our homeschool. Our near term dream is a month-long trip to the Gulf Coast of Florida in February when it's cold in PA. How can I make that happen? We would need money saved up to pay for the trip and we'd need to delegate our cleaning business as selling it by February is not an option. As I think this through more, we need to increase our revenue by $5,000 per month to account for the cost of employees and to have enough cash for the trip. That's it! We need to increase our overall corporation by $5,000 per month. Our corporation, Carfagno Cleaning has two businesses. One is the local Philly-based cleaning company that I've been updating you about throughout this podcast. The other is the Smart Cleaning School, which is what you're listening to right now! I can add $5,000 revenue monthly through increased cleaning and / or increased paid clients in Smart Cleaning School. It's that simple. In 2021, I am pushing hard to increase revenue in Smart Cleaning School and Carfagno Cleaning, while hiring and training to delegate the cleaning.

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I want to thank a listener of this show and new friend, Megan Combs of Combs Commercial Cleaning in Las Vegas, NV. She had fantastic questions to ask me and even more outstanding takeaways about my podcast. I can't wait to share them. Thank you Megan! You have a bright future in this business!

She extracted something out of me that I used the phrase, "a dime a dozen". This is used to reference something very common. For example, people graduating with a degree in business are a dime a dozen. Out of 12 people, a dozen, 10 have business degrees. Those numbers are not actual but the connotation or meaning is that the business degree is very common. It's not specialized. They're not set apart. Those candidates are going to have to work harder to get a good job. Megan stated that she was a good cleaner. I thought about this and said that being a good cleaner in a solo cleaning business is a dime a dozen. Here's what I mean by that. Most people starting cleaning companies do it because they like cleaning or think cleaning would be a fun business for them because they've done cleaning. Maybe they love cleaning. From my experience, most cleaners enter like this. It's common to either be good at it or like it. That makes sense. But what makes you succeed in a cleaning business? Is it how good you are cleaning? The answer is no.

Cleaning business owners that have a entrepreneur's mind or a business owner's mindset set themselves apart at a high level. They understand people and can communicate well. They know their Why and have dreams. They are self-motivated and inspired. They understand business goal-setting and strategy. They understand investing over spending. They understand delayed gratification. They are disciplined and understand that no is on the path of yes. There are so many business mindset factors that contribute to a winning business. This is what I explained to Megan. Then I thought about it more and realized something extremely exciting. This podcast, the Smart Cleaning School is 175 episodes and growing of business owner mindset and it's ALL FREE to you! In fact, this podcast is my free course on how to acquire the entrepreneur's mind to set yourself apart from the "good cleaners" to become a "great cleaner". How do you like my course so far? Are there topics that you'd like added? Please email me at ken@smartcleaningschool.com to let me know.

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This episode is short and sweet. If it was long, I would defy the lesson being taught. I recently attended the TLF Pittsburgh Mastermind Retreat with 25 other entrepreneurs with a dream of time, money, and location freedom. There was a particular discussion that piqued my interest. I am a classic overthinker. The speed of action for me has always been like a turtle over the hare. But hey, in the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, the Tortoise always wins right?! That's true. But why did the Hare lose? Simple. He was arrogant. He was so far ahead of the Tortoise that he thought he could take a nap and still win the race. In fact, the Hare took advantage of every distraction along the way because he knew he was racing a slow turtle. But what did the rabbit really do? Did he lose to a turtle? No. He lost to himself. The Hare is fast and nimble. He could have finished his race or project in record time. He chose through arrogance to lower his standard and compete against the slow Tortoise instead of against his best self, the blazing fast Hare. The real lesson here isn't to go slow and steady to win the race. The real lesson is to compete in the race or in your business against the best version of yourself. Do not allow yourself to slow down, get distracted, or arrogant.

Back to the conversation at the retreat. Vincent Pugliese gave his talk called "The Why to Wealth". It was awesome as he mapped out the solar system of ways to monetize your platform through multiple income streams. Someone asked the question about planning and overthinking, wondering how Vincent and another attendee, Courtney Wisely, always seem to move so effortlessly through the race. I wish the conversation was recorded. Here is a summary of Courtney's comments. And just so you know, Courtney Wisely is the owner of Magic Maids and Rescue My Maid Service. She is a master delegator and has built a team of over 15 cleaning service owners and employees in under 2 years to produce over $300k in revenues. Her company is fully automated and she only works an hour per week to maintain it! That's insane and I wanted to hear what she had to say on the question of overthinking and the "Speed of Action". Courtney said. "You gotta trust your gut. Move fast with action. Use your business instincts versus waiting for the right plan at the right time with the right people." Courtney kept is simple. She just trusts her instincts about people, timing, and strategy. She takes action and moves fast. She is the Hare competing against the Hare. Vincent lit up like a Christmas Tree with this response and said. "I'm an underthinker." He agreed with everything Courtney said and even elaborated. The reason Courtney and Vincent are massively successful is because they move faster than everyone else. They fail faster than everyone else. They learn faster from the failure and thus, have success faster.

I've been an overthinker far too long. I wanted alignment between the right plan and the right people at the right time. The irony is that you'll never have all three "rights" at the same time and therefore you'll have no traction or success. Do you relate to this? Do you trust your gut and your business? I've been an overthinker for the 7 years I've known Vincent and he has been an underthinker. As I step back and overthink some more, I chuckle at the way Vincent used to end all of our conversations. We'd talk and mastermind for hours. At the end, he'd simply say. "Go!" Then he'd hang up. Doesn't that summarize so much in one word?!

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Liz Trotter has been a leader in the cleaning industry for decades. She is the owner of American Maid in Olympia, WA, a business coach with Mastermind Accountability, where she helps every level of cleaning service grow to reach their dreams! This interview is full of so many nuggets and you will gain so much insight into the power of self-development. Liz is the poster child of the leadership quote by Harry Truman, "Readers are Leaders". This interview was so enjoyable because Liz shares her Why all throughout and you can see how her life & career experiences have shaped her into the person and business leader she is today.

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Before I update you on Carfagno Cleaning and how I got caught red-handed, I need to share a lesson I learned in New York. It's called "Get Your Chad". Chad is the owner of Elite Vacuum in Clifton Park, NY. I purchased 2 backpack vacuums from Chad over a 6 year period and bought vacuum bags too. I used Chad's services for vacuum tune-ups. I partnered with this store to keep my machines running effectively. I wanted to avoid the curse of MDT (Machine Down Time). It's horrible and you lose so much money when your machine stops functioning. I invested into Chad and he invested into me. Because of my loyalty, I could call Chad anytime I had a vacuum question and he would help me think through it. If my machine needed quick service, I could stop by and Chad would drop what he was doing, throw it on the bench, and fix it for me. I was so thankful to have this working relationship with Chad that I taught it to solo cleaners in my early days of coaching.

You probably guessed where this is going! I moved away from New York and away from Chad. I never got a new Chad. It's dumb, but easily explained. I didn't want to grow another cleaning business in PA. Plus, I bought a brand new Mosquito Carbon Lite backpack in April 2018 that would last forever. If you haven't guessed, do you know now? Due to the nature of my work, house cleaning requires me to run the vacuum for an hour 3 times per day on house cleaning days. This does not tax the machine. When I clean offices with my kids, we clean 5 offices back-to-back and I'm vacuuming most of the day. That machine runs for at least 8 hours! After cleaning the last vet on Saturday, I noticed that the power switch stuck a bit. I also noticed it was very warm. This triggered memories. First of all, my wire has been very hot after long use and especially the metal prongs. Secondly, I remember past backpack power switches sticking a few times before it failed. A power switch failure means MDT and hello Chad. I was nervous and then forgot about it since I wasn't cleaning again for 5 days. At my first home, the vacuum power switch stuck and was warm. I remembered the vet from Saturday. At the second house, the switch stuck bad and I almost lost power completely. It was hot. Then I frantically looked for my new Chad between house #2 and #3. I found one. His name is Clint from CJ Miller Vacuum. Clint and I had a great conversation and I felt encouraged to visit their store with my vacuum. Ultimately, I decided not to risk overheating my vacuum or worse, seizing up my motor. I rescheduled the third house and went to meet Clint.

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I was talking with Robert Pierce from my Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership. He's doing amazing. Robert works as a manager at Target and it's been in retail for 25 years. He found me on the Side Hustle Nation Podcast and decided to start a solo cleaning business. Robert understood the value of investing into his new business as he wanted to shortcut years of trying to figure it out himself. He joined the Elite Membership and has subsequently built his solo cleaning business in 6 months to a lean, professional, and profitable company. I was so impressed talking to him as he shared how close he is to achieving his goal and dream of getting out of retail! I was so excited to hear this. We talked about his plan and how many clients and profit he needs to hit this goal.

The main reason for the call was for strategic coaching. He was taking on 1-time and recurring house cleaning clients, but like me, he wanted to get into commercial more. He had a recent opportunity with a tool & die shop. It was set up like any industrial building. Picture a large steel box with offices in the front and huge warehouse and/or manufacturing space in the back. There's a filthy bathroom in the warehouse area and the office space isn't the most pristine either. These are blue-collar workers, running a useful service to the community. Robert did an estimate for cleaning the offices and warehouse restroom 3 weeks ago with no feedback. He wondered if his prices were too high. Our conversation was excellent and I knew it would help others as well.

Robert gave a very realistic price of $200 per visit. He estimated the job would take 4 hours per visit and he wanted to charge an hourly rate of $50. Thus, he gave a flat rate price of $200 per visit. I agreed with Robert on his method and the price was reasonable for the work he was proposing to do. However, I knew it was overpriced! Listen to what Robert shared next. "Ken, I found out that this facility had a janitor that cleaned prior. I figure he was there for 8 hours to clean the place and made $12 per hour. I'm guessing the tool & die shop paid $100 per day to have their facility cleaned. I'm asking $200. I figured it would be fine since I'm an outside contractor and would be fully insured." Robert already knew why they weren't calling him back. This was all the opening I needed. He is absolutely right at his $200 price is completely reasonable. I taught him that in the Elite Membership. But... there are two angles to come in on a price. One is COST PRICING and the other is VALUE PRICING.

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This conversation was full of vision. Paul Auguste is a motivated 30-year-old entrepreneur who knows what he wants and why he wants it. It is difficult to listen to him share his dream and not want to be one of his 7 future millionaires that he's mentoring. Paul's main business is HomePlus Cleaning (Tyngsborough, MA). This interview starts out with an aviation story from a near crash in Paul's airplane and ends with where Paul sees his family in the future and the man is only 30! 

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This podcast is evolving into a show that grows your vision, solidifies your business owner's mindset, and teaches through stories. For the first 158 episodes, this podcast was the Solo Cleaning School. I was bringing vision, mindset, strategy, and most importantly, my own journey as a solo cleaning optimizer. I was challenged to add my journey in Gatlinburg, TN at the TLF Retreat by my mastermind friends that love and support me. Their challenge was simple. "Ken, you've built a solo cleaning business to $60k profit on 2 days per week and sold it for $80k. You are teaching this to solos. Why not do it again in another state and catalog your journey? It would be the ultimate accountability tool from you to those that you are trying to help." I was challenged big time and accepted! If you start this podcast from the beginning, you will experience the growth of my second optimized solo cleaning business. In fact, I've grown this business from $20,000 annual revenue in October 2019 to $90,000. My solo cleaning business now is better than the one I sold for $80,000 in New York. I've accomplished the goal that I set to accomplish in Gatlinburg. In a previous episode, "A New Freedom Vision", I shared what's been stirring in my heart on the future of my cleaning business. Our family has a dream to visit all 50 states! We don't need to do it in one long RV homeschooling trip. We love our area and the roots we've established with our family in the Philly Area. Yet, we are still excited to live a life of time, money, and location freedom. I shared on that podcast how my friend and leader Total Life Freedom, Vincent Pugliese, challenged me to pursue my long-time dream of enjoying a whole month in warmth during the winter. Again, I accepted the accountability challenge. We are going to the Gulf Coast in February for a month! This means a lot of things practically. I need to delegate my cleaning business for a whole month and have enough money to make the trip! My dream expanded. In my first solo cleaning business, I optimized to sell. In this solo cleaning business, I'm optimizing to scale. Ken, the solo cleaner, is hiring in 2021. I will continue to update you on Carfagno Cleaning and my progress toward this dream! I hope you enjoy it!

I've started looking around for quality people to hire. I'm not hiring yet, but I'm hyper aware of everyone I meet locally. If they impress me, I get their names and write them down. By the time, I'm ready to hire I'll have a list of 20-25 candidates to reach out to. I will only need 2-3 employees. I'd like to hire for my office cleaning side as offices are much easier and less stress for me. Plus, they are 1 day per week. I can hire professionals with full time jobs looking to make extra money to help them achieve their next dream like being debt-free. There are tons of people like that! I'm on the fence about house cleaning. I currently have 6 clients and will likely give these clients away to a member of one of my groups, sell them, or possibly hire someone off my list to maintain them. My focus for the rest of 2021 is fully optimizing this solo cleaning business, reducing my house cleaning side to the ones I want to keep, and add a few more offices to replace the current houses. Ultimately, I'd like to delegate 10 offices to my employees for February 2022. I have a lot of work to do. I have 8 offices now.

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I've had this podcast series idea for quite some time and finally decided it was time to share it. I am an avid reader and movie watcher. Plus, I'm a dad of 5 and have read and watched nearly everything out there. Combine this with my appetite for observation. I notice things in books and movies that make me think. I connect invented characters to real-life lessons. This podcast series will consist of a number of Don't Be Likes. This first one is Don't Be Like Owl. I'll do others on Don't Be Like Clark W. Griswold, or Phil Connors, or a Lemming. It's going to be a lot of fun for me to share these characters with you.

You all know Owl. He's the wise, old tree-dweller in Disney's Winnie the Pooh. Owl is far too wise and smart for his own good. He is self-absorbed and loves to hear himself orate long stories. He has no idea what is going on around him when he is speaking. He has no idea if anyone is even listening. He just loves to weave his tales, no matter how boring or unrelated. In fact, his stories often go on massive rabbit trails as he describes some distant family member... and so on. Do you know anyone like this?

There are two stories in Winnie the Pooh that I think epitomize Owl's inability to read the room. It's Owl's MASSIVE blind spot! In the first one, there is a gust of wind that steals poor Piglet away. Pooh is able to keep a hold of him like he's flying a kite. Piglet flies through the Hundred-Acre Wood until he smacks into Owl's window. It's obvious that Piglet is in trouble and Pooh is yelling for Owl to help. All he has to do is open the window to let Piglet in. Instead, Owl thinks of a time when the wind was also very strong. He starts a long oration about a distant family member... Piglet floats on and the scene continues as Owl is still talking with enthusiasm to no one and thoroughly enjoying it.

Here's another one. Pooh's head is stuck in a honey pot, upside-down, and raging in the flood waters toward the waterfall. Piglet is also at the mercy of the flood, stuck on a chair, and heading toward the waterfall. Enter Owl. He sees his friends and doesn't even notice the danger they are in. He takes the opportunity to start another oration, completely in "Owl-land". All Owl had to do was fly over to them and help them out or extend a long branch and pull them back into safety. But that's not what Owl does. He is triggered by their appearance and loses all sense of reality. Owl is still talking as Pooh and Piglet careen over the waterfall's edge. Thankfully, they are okay or it would have been a terrible children's story. Again, I ask you. Do you know anyone like this?

I have encountered so many people over the years that will talk your ear off with absolutely no regard for social queues or the ability to read the room around them. They are so self-absorbed, whether intentional or not, that they push people away. No one in their right mind wants to be around someone like this. Do you agree?

There's an old saying. "Do you know that Ugly attacks 1 out of 3. Yeah, look to your right and left. If you don't see it, it's you!" I ask you this. If you don't know anyone like Owl and have no idea what I'm talking about, it's possible that YOU are Owl. Is your business stunted for growth. You cannot outgrow your level of leadership. Maybe you're the problem?! I urge everyone listening to this podcast to check themselves. Don't be like Owl!

Do you like this series? I hope so because I have more to share in the coming months. If you have ideas of characters you'd like me to analyze, please email me - ken@smartcleaningschool.com.

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The Smart Cleaning Tribe meets on Zoom every Monday at noon eastern for 2 hours to mastermind, solve issues, and most importantly, to talk about our Why, dreams, and vision. Then we set SMART goals and accountability to achieve these dreams. It's one of the funnest things I get to do for income! I love serving these amazing, growing cleaning company owners. Recently, we were brainstorming on a Tribe call for Lizzie. She is an amazing person and has a big freedom dream coming true in May. She is taking her family to Puerto Rico for a month. The deadline forced Lizze to properly systematize and delegate her cleaning business. Everything was on track until hiring became darn-near impossible. There is a dynamic right now in America that most of you should be noticing. The government has handed out a lot of money for struggling families. Unfortunately, it has also demotivated the work force and companies are literally bribing people to work for them. This put Lizzie in a major bind as she needed a few more employees to secure her trip.

I painted an analogy of the gold miner prospecting for gold. They chip away at the rock until they find a speck of gold. When they find a speck, they hope it leads to a vein. The prospector that finds a vein has a good chance of following the vein to the source. Oh my! That's where the old '49ers got the term "Eureka!" In this clip from the call, we discuss various options and rocks to chip away at in hopes of finding a vein of employees. The conversation sparked ideas in the other members and lead new members Steve & Tonsha to discover their vein of part-time college help. I hope you enjoy this clip from the Smart Cleaning Tribe!

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Welcome back to Solo Saturday! Hey solos, what do you think of this new monthly feature? What do you think of the new vibe of the podcast? I'd love your feedback. Please connect with me through my website or email to ken@smartcleaningschool.com. In this month's edition of Solo Saturday, I will provide a sequel to the popular "Excellence Vs. Perfection".

Are you a perfectionist? Do you take way too long cleaning a single house? If so, please go back and learn the difference between excellence and perfection. It may set you free! In that episode, I touched on the mental illness of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I didn't address it much, but trust me. I know all about it. I am diagnosed with Tourette's and OCD. Most of my mom's family has some form of OCD, eating disorders, tics, etc. I have seen and experienced this and don't take it lightly. If you heard my first episode and still can't get over your perfectionism, I want you to listen to this one.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, psychiatrist, or mental illness professional. Nor do I guarantee that ERP will help your OCD.

I'm a regular guy that has dealt with this illness my whole life. And now, I have someone very close to me that is struggling with OCD. It breaks my heart to see the struggle.

I will keep the name anonymous, but this person could not control their OCD and suffered tremendously. They needed real help and it was found in the form of Exposure Response Prevention (ERP). This is a form of therapy that wasn't around for me in the 80's and 90's, but it has shown tremendous results in tic disorders and OCD patients without the need for medication. This individual didn't want meds. They wanted to solve the problem, not band-aid it. In ERP, the counselor and/or psychiatrist goes through a 20-week program to identify the sources of OCD, address each one, and replace the habit with something better. It's grueling, but life-changing and freeing for so many. I have learned a lot about ERP. It's fascinating. One thing that I learned is that the OCD patient has to accept the uncertainty. I learned this from an ERP counselor. She told me this. People with OCD struggle because the compulsions never seem to stop the obsessions. There is no closure, thus the cycle repeats over and over again. One of the first things they have to teach themselves is that it's okay to accept the uncertainty. As an example, I don't know is a full answer. It's uncertain, but final. A person with OCD will want I don't know to become a yes or no. They will obsess on something out of their control. However, when they train themselves that I don't know is a complete answer, they can move on. ERP teaches them how to do this. Once they get comfortable with uncertainty, they experience a reduction in their OCD. As I said, I'm no doctor. I'm just fascinated about this breakthrough therapy and wanted anyone listening to this episode to have hope.

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In November 2019, I was full of enthusiasm as I was going after my second solo cleaning business. I had just started the podcast and made a promise to take you on a journey as I built and optimized my new solo cleaning company. I was more excited when I got my first two biweekly houses. But it all tumbled when I had to start cleaning again. I was out of house cleaning shape. I took too long and I was getting tired and frustrated. I hated my business and didn't want to do it anymore. I whined to my wife, but she didn't accept it. This Best-Of is the episode where I shared where I was during this time.

Turn the clock ahead. I pushed through and endured. Now, I am in cleaning shape and clean 3 houses every other Thursday and Friday. I enjoy it and can listen to podcasts and books while I work. My second solo cleaning business is fully built and I honored my promise to you. What a difference 18 months makes when you set your mind to achieving a goal! I'm so thankful that I pushed through. It was SO worth it!

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It's been a while since I gave a full update on my own cleaning company. This episode covers a few weeks, but has some great lessons. Here you go!

Our Annual Honeymoon Retreat to Glasbern was cancelled last year due to Covid, but not again this year. It's amazing to get 5 days alone with my bride to reconnect, veg out, take long walks, eat loads of food, play games, watch movies, take long baths, and discuss many important topics. In fact, we came to our retreat with 21 important topics to cover in our family and business and covered every single one over 5 days! The biggest breakthrough during our trip was watching Hal Elrod's movie, the Miracle Morning. We were so INSPIRED that we got to work right away on our Life-SAVERS. I won't teach what this acronym is. Go watch the movie and read the book! I will say this. I have been struggling in the mornings with snooze buttons, coffee, lack of exercise, lack of time, lack of energy. I've done morning routines for years, but started slipping. This movie fired us up and I got right to work, while still on our retreat. The habit continued after the retreat as we implemented the first batch of to-do's from our 21 conversations. I am feeling more energy, less need for coffee, feel better about myself, closer to God, and have a renewed excitement for my goals.

Oh, I shouldn't have said that. Enter my friend and mentor, Vincent Pugliese of Total Life Freedom. At the peak of my excitement, Vincent asked me a question. But before I share this question, let me share the last one he asked me. In October 2017, I was fully optimized in my first solo cleaning business. I was looking at the potential of working 4 days in New York, then taking 10 days off every other week. We could possibly move back home to the Philly Area and I could commute to New York every other week for 4 days. It sounded good on paper. "Ken, why would you do that?" I answered. "We want to go back home. We miss our family." He replied. "Then make the decision to sell your business and move. Figure it out. The mastermind will help you." This scared me and excited me at the same time. I was mad at him and appreciate all at the same time. I called Teresa after the Question. She was excited at the prospect. We prayed hard over this and ultimately made the decision to sell our company and go home. I just needed the push out of my comfort zone. You know the rest of this story from my double podcast on "How I Sold My Cleaning Business I & II". We set the vision to be home with our family and raise our kids around their cousins. I would finally get to spend quality time with my Nana & Pop-Pop, who helped raise me and were in their 80's. We set the goal and we made it SMART with a deadline of June 30, 2018. That's when our lease ran out. We hit our goal. We sold our company and moved back to Philly. We had 2 glorious years to enjoy quality time with my Nana & Pop-Pop before they both passed in 2020. Thank God we chose to come back home! This was one of the best decisions of our life, yet also one of the hardest. It was so worth it.

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This episode is a continuation to It's Time for a Fresh Take. I'm a huge fan of the Rocky series, especially being from the City of Brotherly Love. As a kid, I'd watch the Rocky movies and visit the Philadelphia Art Museum with my dad. We'd climb the walls, visit Rocky's statue (from Rocky III), and explore. But we never actually set foot inside the art museum. I'm not going to summarize the entire Rocky series, but there are some basics that you need to know. Rocky Balboa was a washed up, 30 year old boxer from Philly. He was a scrapper, a bruiser, but was thick-headed and going no where. That all changed when the heavyweight champion of the world was due to fight in Philadelphia for a bicentennial title defense against Mac Lee Green. Green hurt his hand and had to cancel. The other challengers were either busy didn't believe they could get into shape fast enough to fight the Champ. Apollo got creative to give a local guy a chance at the title in the name of freedom to celebrate the Bicentennial. Apollo flipped through boxer registrations and he really liked "The Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa". This sequence of events began one of the best movie series of all time to celebrate the Underdog.

Fast forward. Rocky put up an incredible test of human endurance against the Champ, but lost in a split decision. The fight went the distance. This was Rocky's stated goal throughout the first movie as no one had ever taken Creed the distance. Rocky achieved the goal, but lost the fight. Apollo was furious as his critics thought he was bested by a no name. Enter Rocky II. Rocky beats Apollo to become the heavyweight champion of the world and utters the most iconic line in movie history "Yo, Adrian. I did it." Apollo retired after the fight and Rocky went on to defend his title in Rocky III. He lost his edge. The Eye of the Tiger that defeated Apollo Creed was gone. Rocky had gone soft and lost to Clubber Lang, who was played by the epic Mr. T. Rocky was done. His trainer Mickey was dead. Apollo steps back into the series to become Rocky's mentor. He confronts Rocky about what was lost after their last fight. Apollo takes Rocky back to his roots in the old gym where he got his start in Los Angeles. Apollo is determined to help Rocky get his edge back, get his Eye of the Tiger back and defeat Clubber for his title back. Apollo took Rocky back to his old gym to get his mojo back. It worked. Rocky remembered what got him where he was and triumphed over Lang.

So many of you start out like Rocky in your cleaning business. No one knows about you. You're scrappy and solo, doing all the work yourself. You're figuring out what works and what doesn't. You take fights against no names for nothing. I mean... you take on clients that pay you scraps and you embrace the challenge. You had an edge. You had the Eye of the Tiger. You got your big chance and grew your company, then found other "Rockys'" to delegate your clients to. They caused you a lot of pain, but you endured. You win the title against Apollo in Rocky II as you hit your first major milestone of getting out of the field. You're free. No more cleaning, or at least you think!

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This episode is a clip from an Expert Call I facilitated in the Smart Cleaning Tribe last December with my friend Alonzo Adams of Busy Bee Cleaning Company in West Chester, PA. Alonzo is a serial entrepreneur with one of the best business & financial mindsets I've ever had the opportunity to learn from. His cleaning company is top rated in Southeastern PA. Alonzo has also grown multiple revenue streams outside of his cleaning company, which is creating generational wealth for his family. He also just completed his term as the chairman for the Association of Residential Cleaning Services (ARCSI). I invited Alonzo onto a Tribe call to share about ARCSI and it's many benefits. But my true intention was to give Tribe members a dose of millionaire mindset around business, finance, and networking. Alonzo is a master networker. In this clip, I extract the networking portion so you can get a flavor of how the rich become rich.

Here are my notes from the call with Alonzo.

• "Your Network is your Net Worth”
• “It’s not about the How. It’s about the Who”- Dan Sullivan. The Who changed my whole life. I had to change my entire WHO in my life to take me the places that I needed to go. How do I get around the A players in my industry? Alonzo had to invest in his future by buying plane tickets, conference tickets, and connect with people in person. This builds trust.
• In Vegas, Alonzo has connected with a guy in 5 minutes in the hallway that created a 6-figure cleaning contract with Will Smith’s people.
• In Vegas, he asked Derrick Christian, “Who is this room that I don’t know that I should know?” Alonzo met the two people and they are doing financial business together now. Networking is purposeful.
• People miss on networking - It’s not about you. Look to be a resource to others. Show the value of others knowing YOU. Ask this. "Why is it important to know me?" What is you sales pitch that makes you valuable to others. Networking has become more selfish in this decade. Networking takes time and you need to practice. Don’t go to people with agendas. Be interested and be interesting.
• It takes time to craft your elevator pitch. What do you have that’s unique that can help others that makes you stand out. Are you referable?
• You can’t touch and go in networking. You have to water the relationship to grow it. Alonzo told the story of the $100k per 1-hour keynote. Always plant seeds.
• At conferences, the power is in the hallways and dinners verses the chairs. Masterminds and businesses have been created from the hallways.
• We need to look at opportunities for networking events when things open up.
• Two groups in 2020. One tried to maintain and others did more than they ever did. Alonzo got around the ones that were doubling and got around them. Put together a plan and don’t deviate! If you’re not planning to succeed in 2021, you’re planning to stay the same. Control your own narrative and your own destiny! The Wannapreneurs were the ones speaking loudly and didn’t make it. They were shallow.
• “Tough times make tough people!” - Alonzo Adams
• Find 3 people that you want to meet that you’ve never met before. Make a commitment to link up with these people. Connect with these people. Who are they and make a commitment to do it. Alonzo does this every year! Look for people who are Approachable, are Purpose Driven, and have a good Mindset. Habits exposes people. Someone who is financially savvy.

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Recently, I was on a phone call with Wendy Norman. Wendy is a member of the same Total Life Freedom Mastermind as me. She has grown a large Instagram following for her wedding photography business, Apt B Photo out of Savannah, GA. However, Wendy took a substantial hit during Covid and had to do a major pivot. She saw the growing trend of elopements as an alternative to the big wedding and started offering photography packages on her website. They started selling and selling. Now, Wendy is a niche leader in Elopement Photography Packages in Savannah and her name is spreading nationally.

Toward the end of our conversation, she heard the challenges that have held me back. I had shared my lifelong conflict of overthinking everything, which has caused me to take action slower than others that were succeeding at a much higher rate. Wendy listened and then dropped this nugget that I knew needed to be a podcast episode. "Think of life like a scavenger hunt. Everything you get and every person you meet is a new clue along your journey. Have you ever played in a Scavenger Hunt? You are given a map with clues, along with an objective to gather the clues you find the treasure. At the beginning, you have no idea where the treasure is. You just choose a direction and follow the map. Some clues seem valuable, but end up taking you away from the treasure. Other clues are total diversions. And of course, one clue is the right clue that puts you on the right path to the treasure. You don't know which thing or which person is that right clue. Every clue brings curiosity, interest and investment. It's up to us to fully explore the map and our scavenged clues to ascertain the next big move. Eventually, you will reach the treasure and look back to realize that the hunt was way more fun than the treasure." This lines up with a recent episode, Move your Pawn First.

What if we thought like that about other people. Every person we meet is a clue along our path. Be curious about them. Understand them. Find out if that person is the clue that gets you one step closer to your treasure. No person is insignificant, no matter where they are in life. Sometimes clues lead you astray. So do people. You may pick up a clue that leads you to a particular place to dig and nothing came of it and you had to backtrack. So it is with some people and some things. Thinking of life as a scavenger hunt allows you to have fun along the path from every clue versus just wanting to get the treasure. This makes connecting with others to get to know them and find a way to serve them fun. This makes mistakes fun. This makes finding the right clues exciting. This makes facing adversities necessary and easier to overcome. This makes our lives fun. It's the way that Wendy lives her life and I for one was moved by her story. How about you?

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Much time is needed in this podcast episode to clear the names of several members of Total Life Freedom Philly. Before I share the final installment of 'Who Paid for Lunch Clue', I must share a few things that happened in my cleaning business since my last update. It will be short. Trust me! First of all, I was asked to lead an education piece for my local MCBA networking group. I taught on the "They Ask You Answer" process. I have LOVED this book and implemented it into both of my websites for Carfagno Cleaning and Smart Cleaning School. The group enjoyed the discussion as it gave them much to think about. I had a one-time cleaning job booked at a historic barn & wedding venue. When we got there, the plumber was replacing some parts and had the water turned off to the entire barn. The plumber was willing to give us an hour to "do our thing" with water, but I had to decline as we needed at least 5 hours of water. Ultimately, I rescheduled the job and wasted 2+ hours of my day and potentially $750 of other work I could have scheduled. Here's what I found out. The plumber was due to work on Monday at the barn, but got held up at had to postpone to Tuesday. I was scheduled for all day Tuesday. The plumber lets the barn know late on Monday that he can't make it and he'll come over in the morning. This is fine in his isolated world, but in the greater picture, Tuesday was already booked. This plumber should have called the barn and worked out a suitable reschedule date like I did. He didn't and unfortunately, it only cost me not him. If this makes you angry, don't let it. It's my fault. I should have called to confirm the barn Monday night or Tuesday morning to make sure I'd have water. Things happen. I just wish that this plumber was more professional.

Okay, the time is here. I love my mastermind community, Total Life Freedom. There are 100 members all over the US and some out of country. Last fall as the restaurants were beginning to open, TLF Philly decided to get together for the first lunch. At the end of lunch, our beloved pastor paid for the table. It was an act of generosity that I so appreciated. I have struggled with accepting gifts, so I declared that I'd pay for the next TLF Philly lunch and made a podcast episode about it called,"Allow a Giver to Give." I had no intention of this free lunch to turn into anything. But that all changed when we met for the second lunch (Don't Fight Google or Facebook, Fight for Lunch). A few of us had the idea to try to pay, but a "Benevolent Benefactor" beat us to it. In my haste, I filed the case with Carfagno & Carfagno, a private investigatory firm in the Philly Area, one of the nation's finest. Our goal at Carfagno & Carfagno was to crack the case of 'Who Paid for Lunch Clue' on January 13th, 2021.

In Benevolent Benefactor, I laid out the following Clue board of players and my investigatory notes. I'll recap quickly.

• The Pastor aka John Stange - He paid for the first lunch. He is the leading suspect from multiple players on the board. He denies emphatically! There was even a hypothesis that his wife was the silent partner and called in the payment ahead of time. I confronted John in a text and he denied this false claim.

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Actual quote - "Some of you won't move your pawn until you can see the checkmate.

I heard about Caleb Maddix a few years ago when he was 15 years old. I was shocked to hear about this teenager that had already blown past me in annual revenue and was about to earn his first million dollars. Recently, I listened to a podcast with Caleb at 17 (He's 18 now). He rocked me with 3 to 4 solid mindset bombs. I would like to share one with you, Mr. Overthinker, and Mrs. Procrastinator.

Caleb was sharing how he has been able to achieve so much, so soon. He referenced sage advice he got from Oprah. "What is your next big move? Do that through to completion.". Caleb then shared a chess-related metaphor that hit me right between the eyes. "Too many of us are overthinking everything, planning and strategizing everything, that they don't do anything. People are always planning out nine moves ahead until they can find their checkmate. In fact, they won't move their pawn until they can find their checkmate." Bombshell dropped! I'm no chess master and maybe this is exactly how Chess Masters play the game. Maybe they do "see" the entire board 9+ moves in advance. It's quite possible that Bobby Fisher and chess prodigies can literally see 5 different ways to win the game before they even move their first pawn. Or maybe, just maybe, the Chess Master chooses his next best move all the time. He can calculate the statistical probability of each potential move and chooses the best next move like Oprah says. He is willing to lose his pawn or knight or bishop to gain something greater. Risk is part of the reward. He is not stalled or stuck in paralysis by analysis. He must make the next best move all the time to have a chance to win the game.

I find this to be so true in life. We are waiting to move our pawn until we can see the checkmate. Instead, just move your pawn in the best direction and strategy that you can. Evaluate the pros and cons, the risks vs. the rewards, but ultimately, make the move! Do not move slowly. Increase your Speed of Action to increase your speed of results! Make the move and then focus your effort on making that move the best it can be. Then you can quickly assess, so you can make the next best move based on what adversity comes against you. It's always about the next move! Caleb also says this. "Every move you make is going to incur obstacles and life happens. You never know what will come against you. Therefore it's nearly impossible for someone to plan out their checkmate and for every step to work exactly as they choose." So what is your next big move that'll move you forward? If you need help with that, reach out to me for a Free Private Consultation.

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As I listened to this episode recently, I heard myself say that I still have all four grandparents living. I was sharing this in gratitude as it released on February 3rd, 2020. My Nana passed away suddenly on 2/22/20. The main heckler and mentor in this episode passed away on 11/22/20. He never got to hear the episode about the 18 gutter balls. He didn't need to. He lived it and reminded me of it all the time. I want you to listen to this episode again and ask yourself the hard question at the end. "Have you learned yet?" I'd also like you to find the people that are the most special to you and go see them and give them a big hug. Tell them how much you love and appreciate them. You never know when they'll be gone. 

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"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want." Zig Ziglar

My two friends and mentors Vincent Pugliese of Total Life Freedom and Billy Altman of the Altman Crew helped me with a major breakthrough this month. These two friends of mine are relational in nature. Connecting and generosity are a part of their life. For me connecting and generosity is a mechanical task that I put on a list and cross off. I've been connecting in my cleaning business for the last 18 months as you've heard on this podcast. I've adopted the Zig Ziglar attitude and have made it my aim to help other people get what they want. This has absolutely worked for the growth of my cleaning business. Let me illustrate. Every time I get a phone call or I meet someone at a networking meeting or I have someone ask me a question online, I always look to help them without expecting them to hire me for cleaning.

But I haven't copied my own model in my online business, Smart Cleaning School. Sure, I have this podcast and I help you. Vincent and Billy finally got through to me and showed me that I was being selfish. I was more interested in connecting with people to get them into my sales funnel than to truly change their lives. This acknowledgment hurts.

Maybe I'm being too hard on myself. Maybe you've interacted with me and think I'm a huge giver. I appreciate that a lot. But maybe, you've interacted with me and felt like I was selling you something. If that was your experience, I would like to apologize to you over personally. Seriously, send me an email to ken@smartcleaningschool.com and let me know! I think it's easy to fall into the trap of viewing people with dollar signs. That's not right. People are children of God and I have a calling to help as many of my "neighbors" as I can. Do you struggle with viewing your potential clients as dollar signs and parts to your success machine? I ask you to change course now if you do. I want you all (like me) to remember what Zig said decades ago and let it become the selfless anthem of your business life. You see when we help others get what they want our lives are better in so many ways. We increased our friendships and relationships. We increased our influence. We increased on net worth. If you're built relational like Billy and Vincent, you can laugh at this episode. But if your build like me, a task-oriented, mechanical guy, this episode may be just what the doctor ordered.

Therefore, here's my prescription for you! I encourage every single one of you to get yourself out there into the Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, Google, newsletters, in-person networking groups, the chamber, and local business partnerships. Look for ways to help others in your community get what they want and give away your expertise for free. Use the "They Ask You Answer" philosophy. You are not holding anything back. You're helping everyone by giving them all the information. Even if it doesn't seem like it's going to work, help other people get what they want. Introduce two people that you know to each other to help both of them. Send a gift or word of encouragement to someone that needs help. If someone was trying to figure something out, even if it's not cleaning-related, go find out the answer and tell them. Help people get what they want. If they need cleaning done, help them get what they want and give them a cleaning. These things will all increase your trust value in the community. Here's the formula. More people helped = Higher trust value = More clients, better clients, higher pain clients.

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It's time to return to my personal Carfagno Cleaning business for some updates. I got a call through my website after a referral from my TLF Philly friend, Emily Brunner. This is also "Innocent Emily" from "The Benevolent Benefactor". Stephanie is a house manager for a homeowner with a 7,000 square foot house in a wealthy suburb of Philly. She does all of the business to manage the home for the busy owner. I was very upfront and shared my prices would be $250-$500 per visit and could give many options. I gave optimizer prices. It's a little further than I'd like to travel, but the price could be worth it. She liked my approach and scheduled the estimate. I told her that I'd be able to give a tighter ballpark price window after the estimate. She could then request detailed options if the ballpark fit. I am literally trying to get her to filter out if I'm not the right fit. I can only do this because I was recommended, have a great website, and I'm starting a waiting list. This is a perfect combination of creating demand as an Optimizer. Don't copy me if you're NOT an Optimizer! The night before the estimate, I had an uneasiness about going to the estimate and shared it with my wife. She sensed that I was about to possibly take on a client that was high-paying, but possibly high-drama. That's NOT the type of client I want, so I called Stephanie back and said this. "I'm really sorry, but I need to decline the estimate. It's out of my service area and I'm not sure if I can fit it in as a solo cleaner. I do have a friend that I recommend. She serves your neighborhood." Then I connected the two and both were very appreciative. This was a win-win-win. Stephanie gets what she wants. My friend got a lead. Emily looks good that she had a great referral. I don't get the client and that's a good thing. Plus, I created future reciprocity between me and my other local cleaner friend. This is why I turned work down this week the first time.

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This is the first Solo Saturday episode. You are still my people. I'm a solo cleaner and have always been one. This monthly Saturday solo show will guide you along my ISO Model. In this first episode, I'd like to start with a 15-minute clip from a recent Optimizer's Workshop I did with Heather Parke from Heather's Housekeeping in Roy, Utah. The Optimizer phase is the final part of my ISO Model. Over the years, I have developed a tool to examine and analyze a solo cleaner's business. It's called an Optimizer's Workshop. I did this workshop with Heather from the Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership as a perk of her membership. We spent 90 minutes together on Zoom to map out her business to see if she was an Optimizer yet. My goal is to show you the analysis needed to properly assess your solo cleaning business. I also realize that this workshop clip is harder to understand without seeing it. Therefore, I have also included the video on my Smart Cleaning School YouTube Channel. 

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How did I find my buyer? I had 6 months left at this point and no training system to train the buyer. Plus, I no idea how to move clients from me to them. This is where I was ready to hammer my list of 600 people in my phone I had generated scripts and was ready to start the grueling process of asking quality people if they were interested in an opportunity. I was overwhelmed as I had very little time. This is how it worked for me. I'm a Christian and I prayed about it. As I was driving to one of my houses one morning, the Lord clearly said inside of my ear. "Call Ian.". Ian was becoming a good friend and a new commander in the Royal Rangers ministry I had served for 6 years. He looked up to me as I was the Senior Commander. He was 26 years old with a lot of promise and potential ahead of him. I got to the house and I texted Ian. "Hey are you around today." He said. "Yeah call me." I called him and I told him this, which was absolutely true. "How happy are you with your job?" Backstory... I knew that he had been working for a tape manufacturer operating heavy machinery. He had also worked at the rail yard but always doing physical labor. He was beating up his body and was earning $17 an hour. As a single guy, he was profiting between $1,500 and $2,000 a month, but not really getting ahead in life. I knew that if he learned how to clean and saw the opportunity he could triple his income and have freedom. He wanted to do more Royal Rangers, but his job was also second shift, and often was hard for him to get to the church and serve the boys. I knew he could work two or three days a week and triple his money. Back to my question. "How happy are you at your job?" He said. "Well not that happy. Why do you ask?" I told him. "I'm going to move to Philadelphia." He was shocked and said. "Ken, you can't leave!" I told him. "God was calling me to leave New York and go back home to be around my family. I'm going to sell my company and I have a short list of people that I think would be great fits. You are one of them. On my way to work today God told me to call you." We talked about some details briefly over the phone. Then he confided and told me that he was just thinking about his future and setting up a 401k and retirement, but wondering if his job would help him get to the next point in life. He was excited about this opportunity. He asked if we can meet at Starbucks that Sunday. Side note. I was going through my third battle of Lyme Disease and was feeling awful. I showed up and essentially pajamas and slippers to the Starbucks on Sunday afternoon, feeling nauseous and wanting to vomit. I brought my notebook and sketched out my business. He had lots of questions and he kept me there for almost 3 hours. At the end I said. "Hey Ian crazy question. I'm going to Dallas for a cleaning conference. Would you like to come with me?" He had never been on a plane before and said heck yes! By this point, he had known the numbers of my business as I showed him the valuation. He knew the price at $79,500. I told him I would take any expenses that he incurred from the Dallas trip off of the sale price as a perk.

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This podcast episode releases on the 3-year anniversary of the day I sold my first solo cleaning business. Over these 3 years, so many cleaning company owners have asked me how I did it. So many people told me that you can't sell a solo cleaning business because I just owned a job and a job has no value. I didn't believe them. I'm not going to start this story where it really started for me and that's where God put a dream and vision in my heart to leave Upstate New York and go home to the Philly Area. I want to confine this story to the "How", so you can see the practical steps I took.

I had many initial conversations with friends like Billy Altman and John VanderMuelen, who have sold small businesses. I learned a lot and even gained valuable insight into proper expectations. It's hard to get full price. Don't be afraid to do owner-finance and take payments. Use legal documents and document every step of the process. The decision to sell was made in November 2017 and I had to leave NY by late June 2018. That gave me 7-8 months to get it done. I first shopped it around to some cleaning companies after getting a rough valuation of $50,000. One company rejected it after seeing my numbers and signing a non-disclosure agreement. They could get the same number of clients I was selling for less in marketing. One ignored me and one just declined. I sensed early on that another business would not buy mine as it was viewed as a cleaning job. I had to be more creative and package the offer differently. I had to sell a dream and offer it to people looking for what the dream provided. I knew that I had a great dream to offer. I had optimized a cleaning company from 5 days to 2 days per week cleaning and still making $55,000 per year in profit. If all my clients would transition to the new person, I knew this was a great deal for somebody. I just had to find that somebody. I called a few people I thought might be a fit. I could tell they were not the right fit. I considered making a list and what I would say to each person in a script starting with every person in my phone contact list. As I was doing this strategic thinking, I scheduled myself to go to a cleaning conference. I've been to many conferences, but this was my first ever cleaning conference. It was called Speed Cleaning, hosted by industry leader Debbie Sardone.

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Many of us are paralyzed by too many ideas. We get overwhelmed on which to implement, when, how, and most importantly, WHY. This metaphor is brilliant. I heard it from an Amway stage years ago. You can't steer a parked car and you can't park a moving one. The act of taking action is driving. A coach or mentor can't steer your action if you're not taking it. In fact, have you ever tried to steer a car while it's parked? The power steering is off and the wheel is extremely hard to turn. It's the same way with people. It's easy to turn when they're moving, harder to turn when they're slow and hardest to turn them in their parked. There are also people that don't listen even when they're taking action. They are like the car which loses its power steering on the road! That's not as bad as losing your power breaks, but it's scary. Some people are like that too. These people can be just as dangerous to themselves and their future as the ones that are parked and doing nothing. What about the other side of this metaphor? You can't park a moving one. You have to slow down and then stop the car before you can park. What does parking look like in a person of action? It's them slowing down to come into a mastermind retreat or a weekly call or a meeting with a mentor. They're slowing down from their action, parking, to receive new information. It might be pulling in for gas or getting their tires filled with air or their fluid levels topped off. They might be getting a repair or some maintenance done before they can get back on the road of action.

These are all coaching and mentoring metaphors, but they're very useful to everyone listening to this podcast. Do you feel like you're stuck? Do you feel like you're parked and you've got tons of ideas, but you just don't know which one to do or when to do it or why to do it? Do you have people trying to give you advice and steer you, but it only makes it worse? These are all signs of overwhelm. Part of your problem could be that you're an over-thinker with classic paralysis by analysis. Or you could just be confused because you've been given different forms of advice mixed with your ideas and you don't know what to do. The result of either scenario is that you don't move and you keep your car parked This is why I designed and created the Smart Cleaning School. If your brand new or feel that overwhelmed, continue to join me on this podcast journey and I will give you a map to achieve your goals. If you'd like to go beyond making the map and having goals, the next step is accountability to achieving them. Accountability around goals decided by an individual's why is like getting your car out of the shop. Your car is lubed and ready to perform. You will no longer want to stay parked because you know why you are doing your business and you know the next step to take. No one's going to tell you how fast to go, that's up to you. But just the simple fact that you get moving puts you in a place where you can be steered by others who love and support you. That's what it takes to accomplish your goals and dreams through the business that you've created. This is what makes your life, your family's life, and your community better. Would you like this for your life? The Smart Cleaning School has multiple resources, free and paid for you to accomplish this. You can even schedule a free coaching call with me to help you, regardless of where you are on the journey!

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My Total Life Freedom local friends and local networking friend Eric Laylon intersect for a second episode. In "Don't Fight Google or Facebook, Fight for Lunch", my friend Eric Laylon from ReachLocal shared great marketing tips and stats on the digital giants. I followed this with a story of who paid for lunch. In this episode, I am copying the format!

Last week in my local MCBA meeting, Eric ran the business education segment and taught on the benefits of using Alignable for marketing. I've personally avoided it, but Eric gives some great points and tips that may have persuaded me to look into it more. Thus, I wanted to share it with you. LinkedIn is a business platform for business owners and professionals (employees). Alignable is for small business owners locally (not nationally like LinkedIn). The platform is already niched to local and small business owners, which makes it a natural marketing companion to in-person local networking. Alignable has niche groups that you can join of "like interest". Eric says he has gotten so much more business through Alignable vs LinkedIn because of the platform's ability to hyper-niche. Eric explained that you can set up your profile with "who you'd like to connect with". Then, Alignable takes your preferences and puts you in front of those people. Eric uses the premium $30/mo version because the free version limits you to the # of people you can connect with. I thought Eric did a great job presenting Alignable and it really intrigued me. What do you think? Do you use this platform? I'd love to hear about it if you do.

A few leads came in this week. The first one was military-like. My friend James Hardy of the Carpet Guys was in an online group and saw a request for a house cleaner. He was in the process of typing in my name and website when something else caught his attention. The owner of a local cafe gave my name first. He recommended me and then texted me. "Ken, do you clean for the cafe?" I said no, but I do clean the owner's home. Then he told me about the recommendation to Steven Hunsberger. I thanked him and shared that Steven is the president of my chamber and we're friends. Then I contacted Steven and he felt so embarrassed that his friend Ken and the only cleaner of 400 members in his chamber didn't come to mind when he was looking for a house cleaner. There are multiple takeaways here. First, I am so thankful that I was triangulated by multiple friends to recommend me and they all knew each other! Another is that I have done a poor job in communicating that I clean houses to Steven in all of our interactions including our recent breakfast! Steven knew that I cleaned offices, but had no idea that I did houses too. We talked on the phone and I answered all of his questions in hopes of educating him on the various options he had for hiring a house cleaning service.

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As I sit down to record this podcast, I grabbed a Clif Bar from my lunch bag to further establish my point. Right on the label, it says this. "We're Planting 1 Million Trees." This is the mission of the Clif company to appeal to those that love and want to maintain our environment. How many people have never eaten a Clif bar that would buy it when they read this across the label in a store? That is exactly the message I'd like to share in this re-introduction podcast!

I launched this podcast in October 2019 as the Solo Cleaning School with the vision of "Moms Helping Moms Helping Moms". At this point in my life, I was newly resolved to build my second solo cleaning company and potentially sell it again. I wanted a place where solo cleaners could visit and feel like they had a place to belong. I've been a solo cleaner for 16 years at this point and I know that solos feel "so-low" in our industry. Many feel like they're beneath the larger employee-based companies. Others feel like they are working with no goals to win and no way to change. Thus, they feel stuck. My initial vision was to provide a home for these solo cleaners and give them a vision they could grab onto. When you started, you were likely a mom and you cleaned for moms. You're helping moms and they're helping you by providing you income. I grew this vision by introducing the third group of moms. There are successful solo cleaning moms that have been doing this for years. What if they helped you as you got started and eventually, you could be the successful mom helping other moms (in solo cleaning) help moms (clean their homes and provide them peace of mind)? Many of you latched onto this vision and I was here to help you make the impact you were meant to make.

Over the course of the past 18 months since launching this podcast, many things have changed in my life. First of all, my second solo cleaning business has grown to the Optimizer level and I'm highly considering bringing on employees in 2022 to run my company once it's fully optimized. What?! Ken, tell me that isn't so! It is so. I am working 2 days per week for close to $6,000 per month profit now. It's amazing, but I want to have more time and location freedom than that. I want to help more people in more locations. I can accomplish this in one of 3 ways. I can find and train up solo cleaners local to me and sell off parts of my business to them to collect passive income payments over a few years. I can sell my business outright like I did before and also collect a cashout along with monthly passive income payments for a few years. Or, I can keep my income stream and hire employees. This would alter my business model from $6,000 profit per month on 2 cleaning days per week to $2,500 profit per month on zero cleaning days! Plus, I have been networking like crazy over the past 18 months and have developed a name for myself. I have the potential of growing this company to $6,000 per month profit with employees and not cleaning at all and beyond. For now, I just want to optimize my company and use this year to decide which of these 3 paths I'd like to take.

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This statement will resonate with many of you. Do you have customers right now that you know are sucking the profits right out of your business? If you don't resonate, you will soon! I've been doing this solo cleaning ISO Model journey for 16 years as you already know. I would like to share 4 types or categories of clients to keep a pulse in your business.

• Group 1 - The low-paying, high drama clients are easy to spot and optimize out of your business.
• Group 2 - Meanwhile, the high-paying, low-drama clients are easy to spot and clone in your optimizing efforts.
• Group 3 - But there are two other categories that are harder to spot, but they rub you wrong just the same. One is the high-paying, high-drama client. You make great money and have the ability to speed up easily. However, they cancel often, forget to pay, ask for a lot of extras, communicate frequently. This causes you to expend emotional energy on these clients more than you should. It's hard to give these up, but you must in order to optimize.
• Group 4 - The other type hard to recognize is the low-paying, low-drama. They are the easiest clients. They pay on time, only communicate when there is an adjustment or a question, easy to satisfy. However, they don't pay much and if you try to keep these clients as an optimizer, you have to significantly increase their price. That's a hard thing to do. Are you resonating now?

As I've shared in previous Carfagno Cleaning updates, I just crossed from Stabilizer to Optimizer in my solo cleaning business. This is exciting as I can now go 100% toward my 2021 SMART goal of a $6,000 profit per month business cleaning two days per week! As I've stated of the 4 types of clients, there have been 2 of the 15 clients I have that fit the latter categories. One is a housecleaning client that is low-paying and high-drama. I did not get rid of this client as a Stabilizer as I needed every dollar for my family. However, I'll be doing price increases in mid-to-late 2021 and this client will be one of the ones getting a large increase. I'll make sure to have a house on the waiting list that is high-paying and low-drama ready to replace them. The other client is a commercial client. It's a much tougher one as it's a low-drama, high-impact client. I'm cleaning for autistic kids in a school setting. But it's also low-paying. I've done all I can to optimize and speed up this job to no avail. It was one of the first offices in my Stabilizer growth in 2020 and I underpriced it. Had I priced it correctly, I would not have gotten the job. No matter. I was able to earn $500 per month for over 6 months. I've known that a substantial price increase was coming to this client and it was sad. To compound this matter, I got some great news. I've shared that my company has gotten into the jet stream of the local veterinary hospital tribe. I've been hired by two and submitted a third proposal last week. The doctor replied to my proposal this week with this. "Thank you for the detailed proposal. I'd like to start with Option 2 as soon as possible." Option 2 is for $975 per month and it's biweekly. This great news immediately sparked calendar controversy. Adding this office every other week would overwork me and my two kids legally and physically for our weekly Saturday office cleaning schedule. Something had to give. I was either going to put this client on the waiting list and find a way to fit them, eliminate another office client, or hire someone to help. At this point in time with my goals, I came up with the best solution. I would fire my $500 per month low-paying, low-drama client.

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Before you listen to this article, please check out my Carfagno Cleaning article, "Home Trends that Intersect with Cleaning". I credit my friend Mary Ann Alig of Fox & Roach Berkshire Hathaway Realtors for the content that drove this article and this podcast episode. Mary Ann shared 8 home trends that realtors are seeing for this new decade. Trends like these tend to change every decade and currently include barn vs pocket doors, white interiors, shiplap, matching furniture, accent walls, rose gold, open concept, and multigenerational homes. In my article, I showed how these trends affect cleaning professionals. I also hint to all business owners how important it is to know your industry trends so you can stay ahead of them.

There is one trend that I'd like to dig into on this podcast. It's the rise of the multigenerational home. Fast Company in a 2019 article states, But for complex reasons that still puzzle researchers, multigenerational households are now on the rise once more. As many as 41% of Americans buying a home are considering accommodating an elderly parent or an adult child, according to a survey conducted by John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Living with your parents (or your adult children) has plenty of potential benefits–everyone tends to save money, it can potentially benefit health outcomes, and you get to spend more time together." Did you hear me? 41% of Americans are considering this in the 2020's. That's more than a trend. It's a paradigm shift. I want all cleaners out there, regardless of your business model to hear me. If you don't get in front of this shift and ensure your company is a leader in multigenerational house cleaning, you could be out of business in 10 years! It's crazy! Now, I'd like to talk to the solo cleaners that are actually doing the sales and cleaning.

How do you position yourself to acquire clients like this? It's simple really. When you clean for one generation like a millennial couple or retirees, you must earn their trust to stay there long term. When you clean for two generations like a family with kids, you need an even greater trust factor. And if you follow where I'm going here, you need even more trust to clean for 3 generations under the same roof. The answer is trust building. The better you are at trust building, the more completely you can serve 3 generations under the same roof. This leads to more money per client and referrals to others just like them. Imagine this. You have a client like I do. Andy is the dad. His adult children live with him and his father Don lives with him. I have invested time during cleaning visits to get to know all 3 generations. Don has even become a friend and mentor to me locally. I do a great job at their home and have earned a lot of trust. Do you think Andy will refer me? And by the way, he owns a local restaurant and knows a lot of people. Yes, he will. I am positioned nicely to reap a harvest with multigenerational homes because I clean them now with good reputation. I can share that on my website and with new prospective clients. I urge you to do the same.

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I shared in my last business update that I increased the monthly service price of one of my commercial clients by $350 per month. Plus, I was on the verge of adding a new house and veterinary hospital as clients. The estimate with Melissa went well. She never had a house cleaning service before, so I eased her into it. I had her read articles from my website and was able to direct some of her questions to other articles I've written. This really increased my credibility before I even showed up at her home. During the estimate, I also pointed out things I liked in the house that I genuinely liked. I can't go into detail, but one thing was a wedding anniversary gift her husband bought for her. It was in their bedroom and I asked the husband for the website. He was pleased to oblige. I shared what we do for anniversaries and the honeymoon retreat location we go. He was thankful in return. That gesture between me and them build trust, but it was genuine. It wasn't mechanical. Look for opportunities to do that in your business. Make your estimate more than mechanical, but relational. At the end of the estimate I went through my availability and how the proposal process will go with the options I'll put together. She was very impressed. This customer found me through the marketing machine I've built through Facebook, Google My Business, my website, and in-person networking.

I also completed the proposal for a new veterinary hospital. It was super difficult to create this proposal as the client wanted many details covered in the hospital that I don't normally do in the recurring service. Therefore, we worked out a list of these details and I balanced them evenly between 4 rotating visits and offered prices for weekly, biweekly, and monthly cleaning. She was very thankful with my detailed proposal and options.

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The original "Pros of Solo Cleaning" was so popular that I ran a 'Best Of' replay recently. I covered 10 pros that are very persuasive if you're evaluating a cleaning business for yourself. Here are the 10 pros listed out. Check out the original podcast for the details of each pro.

1. Money - A new solo cleaner can set up a part business earning $400-$500/week part time. As they progress through my ISO Model Signature Solution, they can increase their part time income to $1,000/week, increase to full time and earn double that, or transition to hiring employees. The part time money potential is amazing if you do it right.
2. Flexibility - You can schedule jobs when it works for you. You're the boss. If you want days, clean houses. Nights or weekends, clean small offices.
3. Low Startup - For under $1,000, you can get your DBA, make your business liability deposit, and invest in your basic equipment & supplies.
4. Tax Advantages - Your cleaning expenses are tax deductible. You can even write off your mileage and home office. If this is a side business to the family or you're only source of income, the tax advantages alone can make it worth
5. Learning - Once you get the hang of cleaning and your system, you can listen while you clean. It's up to you what you put in. I recommend audiobooks on business, finance, and personal growth and podcasts on the same.
6. Service to Others - You get all of these advantages as you serve moms that NEED your help. It feels great to help people.
7. Easy to Learn - You can do something you already do (cleaning your house) for money.
8. Burns Calories - did you know that a 3-hour house or office cleaning burn 600 calories? Think about it if you clean three houses a day that's 1,800 calories you are burning per day. I used to eat 4000 calories a day, pigged out and never gained weight. As a optimized and had more time in my office I started gaining weight.
9. It's Therapy - Many find the act of cleaning something dirty very calming and therapuetic.
10. You are Needed - There are tons of Alicia & Emily's wanting to hire you! - It's always needed, listen to Moms Helping Moms Helping Moms and listen to Alicia & Emily's story.

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Do you remember "Back to the Future" starring Michael J. Fox? Marty McFly ran in his panic from the Libyans and got Doc Brown's Delorian to 88 miles per hour in the parking lot. He escaped 1985 and entered 1955. The whole movie focused on saving his 1985 family from perishing by helping his mom fall in love with his dorky, bullied dad. Marty also had to figure out how to get back to 1985. It was a fun movie that was super popular in the 80's and still is today. In one scene, Marty visits the 1955 version of Doc Brown at his house. Doc Brown was paranoid and thought Marty was crazy-talking a time machine until he described the Flux Capacitor. Marty yelled through the door that he was in the bathroom, bumped his head, and that's how he got the idea of the Flux Capacitor, the last piece of the invention to take him back in time. Doc Brown came out of the room, showed Marty the drawing he made of the Flux Capacitor, and believed him.

The Flux Capacitor is a made up, science fiction device that gave the time machine the ability to travel through time. All the time machine needed was radioactive fuel or Plutonium. Plus, it needed to reach 88 miles per hour and in 1985, Doc Brown found a Delorian and modified it with Plutonium intake and the Flux Capacitor. One of my favorite lines in the movies is when Doc Brown sees the VHS video from 1985 and hears himself describe. "No, no, no, no. this sucker's electrical. But I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 Gigawatts of electrical energy. The Flux Capacitor stores..." The 1955 Doc Brown then freaks out. "1.21 Gigawatts! 1.21 Gigawatts! Great Scott." The scene is amazing as the two must create the power that the Plutonium nuclear reaction created in 1985. They decide to use lightning from the clock tower and the rest is history... or future... I guess.

That was a fun movie analogy, but it's so profoundly true for my ISO Model. My ISO Model is the Flux Capacitor in your solo business vehicle. The Flux Capacitor allowed Doc Brown and Marty to go where ever they wanted to go in time. So does the ISO Model. If you hook it up right in your vehicle and power it with 1.21 Gigawatts of internal motivation, goals, and perseverance, your business will go where ever you want it to. But the Flux Capacitor isn't just a black box. We know it works for Doc Brown in the movie and the science is legit (in the movie). The point is that the Flux Capacitor does work and it does take you where you want to go if you hook it up right and feed it 1.21 Gigawatts. The ISO Model is the same. You have to hook it up right in your business, understand it, and utilize it. Here's how the ISO Model works...

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This episode released 1 year ago and has been one of my most popular and mindset-changing episodes ever. This one really sets solo cleaners free and it is just as relevant as it was last year. I'll be releasing follow-up episodes in the future to help you even more with this overcoming mindset.

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This message is short and sweet. I teach often and have created my own solo cleaning business niche of presentation cleaning and first impressions. That's what I do. Yes, I clean. But what I do is create peace of mind through presentation cleaning. What does that mean and why is it worth so much? I'm glad you asked. We are all emotional creatures and make our decisions as such. I've shared on previous podcasts that the busy mom doesn't have time to clean, yet dirt and clutter cause her stress and anxiety. My cleaning niche goes beyond basic cleaning and science. Check out the podcast, "Art Trumps Science". I add the art of first impressions to remove the stress and anxiety. This provides my clients with peace of mind. Similarly, I clean the first impression areas in offices to impress their clients, prospects, and staff every time they come into the office. This also has a value. What if a financial company loses a several million dollar client because their office "image" didn't match the website? My presentation cleaning investment can earn that client and easily pay for cleaning for the entire year! That's the point.

Now that you understand that your cleaning itself can go beyond science, I want you to see that you have a part to play before you ever clean at all. You need to be congruent and have integrity. If you're a presentation cleaner, everything about your cleaning business MUST be presentation level. Just about every Saturday morning, my kids and I are cleaning out our totes and I'm constantly cleaning and disinfecting my vacuum cleaning and gear. At this point, my kids could answer WHY in a second. "Dad, you've told us that presentation starts with you and all the stuff we bring in here." I couldn't have said it better. I went on to explain to them and now to you. When you enter a home of office, you have to leave your equipment somewhere. What happens when you're vacuuming and the client sees your cleaning tote? Or, what if you're cleaning a bathroom and they see your rags or vacuum equipment. Would they be grossed out and wonder how you can clean anything if you can't keep your own gear clean? This is a wake-up call for many of you!

That goes beyond your gear. What about your personal appearance? Do you look professional? Do you smell or have bad breath? Is your hair neat and clean. What about your vehicle? Is it clean and presentable. Is trash falling out when you open it? Would you be embarrassed if your clients saw the inside of your car? Do you arrive with glaring music and flicking cigarette butts out the window? Do you ask where the client would like you to park? Is your social media presentable? People DO look at everything these days and every detail builds trust. You can't just presentation clean. You must be a person of presentation as presentation starts with you. If you take this advice to heart, you too can earn $100 per hour cleaning like I have in presentation cleaning.

Go to the Solo Cleaning School tab of website, access the free resources such as the "Solo Cleaning Quickstart Guide" and "How to Earn $100 Per Hour Cleaning Houses" Masterclass, and sign up for a free coaching call with Ken to ask your questions. Plus, you can access the ISO Model Course and more for $50 per month in the Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership.

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I have been a huge fan of the Tim Ferriss Show lately because I love the long-from interviews with world-class performers as Tim dissects how they accomplished what they've accomplished. I LOVED a recent interview with Kelly Slater. If you've never heard of Kelly Slater, he's an 11-time world surfing champion and highly regarded as the GOAT in the sport. I listened to Kelly's interview and was mesmerized by his mindset, attention to detail in his craft and his health, and most importantly, the simplicity of life he lives. I have two life lessons to share from Kelly that really impacted mine.

Tim was asking about Kelly's goals. Kelly response was awesome. He shared how nice it is to be in a position where he can mentor the young guys in the sport as he loves the sport and wants to be an ambassador. He stressed how vital it is for him to "always stay humble because when you're humble, you're teachable. When you're teachable, you can continue growing." He said the best way to learn is by teaching. Kelly went on to say. "If you think you know something, go teach it. That's when you will really know it." There is SO much wisdom in Kelly's words that I want to repeat it. Are you humble? Are you teachable? Are you learning and growing? Are you taking what you know and teaching it to others? This is the process of becoming the best in the world. I am not the best at this, but I am doing my best to teach you all what I know through this learning vehicle called a podcast. I find it amazing that I am constantly learning more by teaching it to you!

In a latter question, Tim Ferriss asked Kelly about money and houses. Kelly stated that he is the middle child, but was forced to become the family leader because other members of his family had emotional and other issues. Kelly has made gobs of money over the years. Wikipedia reports his career surfing earnings over $4M! He shared his love for traveling and the many homes he's purchased in multiple countries over the years. Tim asked Kelly what his happy ending looks like. I love Kelly's answer as it reminds me of the "Mexican Fisherman". I'll paraphrase. The happy ending comes when all the lessons are learned. Kelly has done it all, spent a lot of money, but it never lead to happiness. He joked that what he'd love to do is simply buy a simple van and travel around to his surfing events in it, keeping a simple life of competitive surfing and helping others in his sport. He has learned so much in his 49 years and wants to stay humble, stay teachable, stay learning, and stay teaching. Over a lifetime, he'll collect a book of lessons and that's how he defined a "happy ending". This is beautiful.

This episode is a self-check. Are you humble, teachable, learning, and teaching others? If you are not, these podcasts are a waste of your time. If you are not, you'll never grow your cleaning business beyond where it is now. Sure, it may grow short-term, but it will crumble in the long-term. I urge you to ask those that know you best if they think you're humble and teachable. This is the 2nd window from "The Four Windows". Once you know and get honest with yourself, make the decision to get better. Go and learn the lessons you need to learn to lead toward your happy ending. Then teach it to others and be a difference maker.

Would you like to figure out what makes you tick and how to create an action plan for 2021 that will enable you to WIN?! Check out the "2021 Smart Goals Workshop" and access your free goals worksheet.

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The business week started out great. I recently upgraded one of my commercial cleaning clients by $350 per month. When I got the call at the Airsoft field about another veterinary hospital, I was thrilled. Yes, that's right. The Airsoft field. Here's a short bonus funny papers. My oldest son, Kenny, just 16 recently and we decided to do a birthday party for him. It involved 7 of his teenage friends, Airsoft guns, gear, a 3-hour battle at the Airsoft field, games at home, food (lots of it), cake, and presents. Due to shutdowns in December, we had to move his party to late January. It was well worth the wait. I decided to sacrifice my Honda Pilot over Teresa's family van. I took 4 of Kenny's friends directly from church to the Airsoft field. We met the other 3 there. I helped them get set up and left in the hands of the field referrees to play for 3 hours. I then went to the car to chill out, stay warm, watch from the parking lot, and get some work done on my laptop. While I was waiting, I got a call from a local veterinarian looking for cleaning. She told me that she used to work with Ruth at another hospital I clean. Ruth saw her post on the veterinary private group and proudly referred me. The first takeaway is that I am worthy of being referred. My work and customer service are excellent, which is why I was referred. Are you doing likewise at every house and office you clean? The call lasted for 20 minutes as we learned about each other's background. I learned that she had recently opened a new hospital after working for others for years and she invested heavily into cleaning using her staff (but they needed a break). She learned that I also cleaned for another vet. We worked out a few scenarios of how I could help. I even gave examples of how much I currently charge for other vets and how much it may cost her. She invited me for an estimate a few days later. That estimate went outstanding. We're working on a rotational cleaning schedule that I'll quote her several options for next week. Back to the teenagers... After the call, I realized something vital. My Pilot was equipped to seat 8, but not 8 with Airsoft guns and gear and certainly not 7 teenagers and me! I underestimated the choice of using my Pilot. I called Teresa for an audible. She drove over the field to drop off some gear that Kenny forgot and took most of the gear off my hands. The boys were so stoked after playing for 3 hours and ready for mass quantities of chili, candy, and cake. They were also filthy and muddy. This is where the sacrifice came in. My car still has mud marks all over the back seats, carpet, and vinyl trim. It's everywhere! The ride to our house was hilarious as myself and 7 high school boys cramped into my Pilot. We all joked it was like one of those clown cars in the circus. The rest of the day was great. I knew teenagers could eat, but even I was surprised when they ate an entire pot of homemade chili and like 3 bags of corn chips. My wife had designed "Minute-to-Win-it" games with ping-pong balls, dice, straws, candy, and other dollar store items for the boys to challenge each other. I was MC and scorekeeper. They needed one more player, so one kind teen allowed my 9-year-old son Kolby to be his teammate. Guess what?! Bryce and Kolby won! The night ended with cake, presents, man-hunt outside, and stupid YouTube videos The last boy was picked up at 8:30! Teresa and I were exhausted, but my son was happy and I got a new potential big client! The combination of this client and the increased one ends my commercial cleaning goal before I start optimizing.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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Teresa and I went on a honeymoon retreat in the Amish Country, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was so quaint and beautiful. The rolling country hills with farms, horse and buggy, small antique shops, and farmer's markets were such a breath of fresh air to our normal busy and chaotic life. We planned multiple day trips from our wonderful bed and breakfast called the Barn at Strasburg. Sight & Sound's Esther was on the list for sure. We've been eager to see one of these captivating representations of the biblical account. We booked that. We found many covered bridges that we arranged on a map to visit. We even found a working Amish farm to visit. We checked out the pictures and reviews on Google and decided to make a few hours of it! We were excited to see the Amish make butter, see the schoolroom, the farm. The pictures and stories online really painted a story of what the place would be like. We were excited to see it! But, oh man... the TRUE story did NOT match the pictures.

The pictures showed the house and the farm and the covered bridge out front. You go into the house for a 45-minute tour and then walk around the farm or get a tour of the countryside with a bus. We went to visit and followed the GPS. "Teresa, why is the GPS taking us to Target?" Teresa was perplexed as we drove into the Target parking lot. She spotted a few of the buses. "There. I see some Amish Farm buses parked. It must be close." We drove closer to Target and then it hit us like a ton of bricks. This Amish Paradise (shout out to Weird Al) was right in front of us. It looked exactly like the pictures on Google and the website. It was quaint, beautiful, and very Amish, except for one small detail. IT WAS IN THE TARGET PARKING LOT, 40 FEET FROM TARGET! That's right. You heard me. The Amish Farm was as advertised, but apparently, Target moved in right next door. The covered bridge was off to the side of the Target parking lot. We stopped the car and looked at the Amish Farm. We looked at the Target. We looked at the farm. We looked at Target. "Teresa, we can't go here. This is ridiculous!" As we left, we noticed one more irony. Here's this Amish Farm with home-cooked country food that is next to a Target. And across the street was a Cracker Barrel. You can't make this stuff up. On the whole, we were both very disappointed with the Amish Farm and didn't do the tour. They lost our business because they were dishonest. There was NO hint of Target in their pictures. Somehow, they got the right angles to miss the gigantic Target building 40 feet away!

I learned a lesson from this experience. The story did not match the pictures. How does your story, your true story of what you offer in your solo cleaning business match the pictures you are putting online? Do they line up? This is called integrity and excellence. Are your customers getting discouraged when they hire you because the story doesn't match the pictures? If so, you better fix that quick.

Would you like to schedule a free call with me? I leave 1 30-min slot open per week to connect with listeners! Go to the bottom of the Elite Membership registration page to schedule a time!

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Let's journey together into an update of my own solo cleaning business. 2020 was a great year. I started at $29,000 in total cleaning revenue, which was the beginning of the Stabilizer Phase of my ISO Model. After hitting multiple 60-day SMART goals, I ended the year at $80,000! That's a $51,000 increase in 1 year! Our profit tripled to just under $5,000 per month on 2 cleaning days per week. As you follow my podcast this year, I'll be showing you how I take this $80,000 Stabilizer business, cross the Optimizer threshold, and convert it to a $90,000 revenue, $6,000 per month profit on 2 days per week solo cleaning business. This is my SMART goal for 2021. This Optimizer business will be worth over $100,000, which means I could sell it again like I did in 2018! Please do not take that as a brag. I'm excited and grateful. This has been a journey. If you're new to my podcast, make sure you check out my 2020 catalog of podcast episodes as they take you on the $51,000 increase journey.

I have a few business updates and wins to share with you. My goal is that you gain understanding and belief that you can do it too. 1-time leads started coming in early this real estate season. I did a handful of 1-time jobs for realtors in 2020 and really impressed them. I've built my reputation and now my name is on multiple realtor's preferred vendor list. My friend Jim Hardy of the Carpet Guys called me on Thursday. He was doing upholstery work for a post-construction project in a house. The homeowner needed a cleaner too and Jim thought of me. I arranged to meet the owner on Monday, gave a quote the same day, and booked it for $350 next week. Lon called me on Friday to have me do an estimate for an empty office condo. He dropped off the key and I did the estimate on Saturday. I sent the quote out on Monday and Lon checked with the office owner. Unfortunately, they said no to the $475 price tag. Dianne called me on Tuesday and I did a phone ballpark estimate for her. She is selling to retire in Florida. I asked questions on the house layout and her goals then worked out a $350 - $700 ballpark price. She booked me for two weeks. This job will likely go for $550. I just added $900 in 1-time cleaning in 5 days. The cool part about 1-time cleaning is that I don't need it! It's all bonus cash that goes directly to savings. I am earning over $7,000 per month in recurring revenue that pays all of my business and family expenses. Many cleaning companies have some recurring and mostly 1-time. I don't like my business like that. It's stressful and you're always looking for work. I like it being automatic. And quite frankly, that's why cleaning is such an awesome business!

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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I still remember the car ride to Gatlinburg, TN with my wife when she told me this story. I had no idea that one story about shopping at the discount racks would turn into a podcast episode that has helped solo cleaners understand their value in the marketplace.  

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In my first full year as a solo cleaner, I worked a lot but we had no money. You've heard my story on this podcast a dozen times! We just lost our car to repossession. We had $170,000 in debt and no house! We earned under $2000/mo, lived in a ghetto, had bill collectors calling every day. We lived 5 hours from our closest family and we were new parents. In December 2006, we had no idea how we'd pay for our rent, let alone get a Christmas gift for our 2-year-old Kenny! That's why I'd like to introduce my dear friend Sean Rogers. We were in the Amway business together. After a Nite Owl (business mastermind session after hours at TGIF), Sean gave me a hug and followed it up with the Italian handshake. He had slipped me a $100 bill and said, "Get your son a Christmas present." I was in tears. How did he know we had nothing and couldn't even afford the air we were breathing? My guess is that Sean is a Christian and he was being obedient to what God told him.

Teresa was in tears as well when I showed her in the car. It was a miracle. We'd be able to get Kenny the Imaginarium Train Set he wanted, thanks to a friend that was a giver and was well-off financially. The impact of that $100 bill was huge. $1,000 wouldn't do it today. That simple gesture of $100 gave us so much hope in our future and resolve to pay it forward.

If I met you on the street and gave you $100, would you cry? Would it change your month, year, or decade? For some, no. But for many others out there, big time. I want to challenge you to grow your business to the point where you can give outrageously. I want you to earn so much that you can give hundreds away and not impact you one bit. But to the ones you gave the cash, their lives were filled with hope. Why else would you be building your business? We are put on this earth to help and love our fellow man. Let's all learn from Sean Rogers and do likewise. Grow your business and pay it forward!

My step-dad's awning company is All Seasons Awnings & Fabric Structures (Marmora, NJ).

Are you new to cleaning or considering your own solo cleaning business? Make sure to check out my free Solo Cleaning Quickstart Guide on the homepage!

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In this episode, I have an important lesson to share from a new friend of mine in the digital marketing space on the power of Facebook and Google. Eric Laylon is a consultant with ReachLocal. He understands the online landscape more than almost anyone that I know. He's a new member of the MCBA networking group and had a chance to share a presentation on his work. I asked many questions as I wanted to understand a little more of the trends he's seeing in 2021.

• Google drives 85% of all online traffic and still dominates the online search landscape. Bing is #2 because Comcast uses them as a default, but they use Google ad platforms. Google will continue to dominate. If you're not visible on Google, you're not visible.
• Google My Business is a free way to create SEO for your business through images, reviews, articles, and deals. Ads are an excellent paid option to generate leads.
• Eric says you should be investing 3-5% of revenue into marketing for average returns. 8% is aggressive and 3% is slow growth. Invest 60-70% of this marketing budget on digital. This is what the large companies are doing in 2021!
• Facebook is similar to google. They have 223 million users in the United States alone out of 331 million people. That's 67% of the US is on Facebook. A business page is free and allows you to create interest for your product or service for free. Ads (like Google) are an excellent paid option as well.

Thank you Eric for teaching and sharing the trends and stats for 2021! My takeaway is simple. If you ever want to be found in your cleaning business, you have to be on Facebook and Google as they represent 67% of the country and 85% of all online searches. And you can access both for free through a Facebook business page, personal page, Google my business profile.

That was quick and to the point! Let's dive more into my own solo cleaning business. I have used digital marketing to grow my solo cleaning company in 2020. I tried everything, but focused on Facebook and Google My Business digitally while attending local networking to round out my marketing strategy. I didn't use any paid advertising and grew my company by $60,000 in revenue in 2020. Going forward, I plan to continue. I did get an idea this past week that I had originally planned in 2019 and never did it. I am the only cleaner in a 300 - 400 member chamber of commerce. Many members know who I am now since I've been helpful in leading webinars for the chamber, but I figured that the majority do not know me. I could cold call them and try to fleece them for business. I don't operate like that. Here's what I'm going to do. I'll make a list of the members that have an office that is a good fit for my office cleaning company. These are buildings under 5,000 - 6,000 square feet that need cleaning weekly or less. Once I have the list completed, I'll send emails with personal videos to the owners or contacts through the chamber to say hi and introduce myself. From there, I'll see who has any interest in connecting more with me. I'll schedule Zoom calls or breakfast meetings with the ones who want to know me. Then I'll add these new friends to my twice-monthly newsletter. I am guessing that 150 of the members fit into my demographic out of 400. Out of the 150, I wouldn't be surprised if I can connect and add 30 to my newsletter. Who knows from there. Those 30 could be 10 clients at $500 - $800/month in the future, which is over $60,000 of annual revenue! Either way, I make new friends. Win-win.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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Today is a very sad day for me. My Nana passed away 1 year ago on February 22nd, 2020 and my Pop-Pop passed away 3 months ago on November 22nd, 2020. They were married for 63 years and raised me to be the man that I am today. I miss them tremendously. If you are interested, check out the podcast episodes where I read the eulogies for each of my grandparents. My Nana - It Was All a Blur, My Pop-Pop - Tribute to My Father. I don't want to make this episode about me and the grieving I'm still doing. I wanted to share an important mindset shift that I hope you hear loud and clear.

Have you ever been on a vacation to a gorgeous, picturesque location? Of course you have. Do you take pictures? Let me give you some examples and see if you relate. Teresa and I took our kids to the Philadelphia Zoo a number of times. When we browse the pictures a few weeks later, there are countless pictures of elephants, eagles, and giraffes, yet only a few with my kids in it. Worse yet. There's barely any of Teresa or I as we're the picture takers. We've gone to the beach, the mountains, the amusement parks, and the museums. We were in the moment with our family and excited to be at this location. So I took tons of pictures of the scenery and the rides and shells. Sure, I took a bunch with the kids too. But there weren't many of Teresa or I. As I think back, we had other important people with us on many of these trips. My mom and dad, Teresa's mom, my sisters, my grandparents, dear friends to name a few. But where are the pictures with THEM in it? Oh, there's one out of 50. I took my Nana and Pop-Pop to an Independent Living Facility for a tour in December 2018. In fact, it was my Nana's dream to live in this particular one, so I took her. I have videos of every possible room combination as my goal was to get footage to show Nana and Pop after. I focused on the rooms, not the people in the rooms. We had Christmas with many family members a few weeks later. I have pictures and videos of the kids tearing up the presents, but hardly anything of the most special people sitting on the couches and chairs watching it. Among those people were my dad, my Nana & Pop, my uncle, Teresa's mom, and us. I could go on and on. You get the point. After my Nana died a year ago, I was searching for recent pictures and videos of her to hold on to her memory. I had little. Really, I just had the videos from the tour and Christmas. I'm so thankful that I did a pan of the room in each case because I got footage of my cherished and missed grandparents. But the video was from 14 months prior! I had nothing at all for 2019! Why?!

Here's why! We live in the moment with the people we love the most. When we capture images, we have an incorrect mindset to capture the moment by capturing what we've looked at. Another way to put it is this. We're capturing the main object of the moment, like the opening of Christmas gifts. We're not capturing the moment with the people. I want to impress upon you how fragile life is. It can vanish in a vapor. Those that you love are not always going to be here. Yes, take pictures and videos of amazing views. But focus instead on the amazing people with you. Capture them. You won't regret it. What if you lose one of your family members or dear friends like I have and you don't have the images to go back to? Live in the moment with the people you love and focus your camera on the people. It's always the people! I promise you that!

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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This is an article I wrote for my solo cleaning company, Carfagno Cleaning. I encourage you to check out my cleaning website for ideas on how you could build An Optimizer's Website. 

Would you like to schedule a free call with me? I leave 1 30-min slot open per week to connect with listeners! Go to the bottom of the Elite Membership registration page to schedule a time!

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I'm not sharing as many of my own solo cleaning business updates as my own personal goals are beginning to shift. I am following my own ISO Model System. I am almost through the Stabilizer Phase of the plan, which focuses on growth and earning enough profit and experience to remove ALL financial stress from your family. In 2021, I'll be optimizing my company to $6,000 per month profit on 2 cleaning days per week without employees. Here are a few updates from the past week.

One of my new 2020 clients hired me to replace an amateur cleaner during the pandemic for peace of mind and optics with their staff and clients. They hired me at $800 per month with the intention of dropping to my 3rd proposal price option of $650 per month. Well, they just dropped it for January as they still don't have their full staff back in the office. Plus, I spent the second half of 2020 deep cleaning, disinfecting, and maintaining this office. They are very happy and I am glad to drop the price to serve the company and owner! It builds trust and I'm more concerned with the long-term.

In "How to Do a COVID Clean", I shared my strategy for cleaning a house or office after a positive test. Well, that was put to the test recently. One of my clients (a vet hospital) had a positive test of a vet tech. I changed my cleaning for that week and focused on deep cleaning & disinfecting the high-touch points around the hospital. They were very thankful that I offer this service. I only charged them $100 extra as well.

Before I get to the meat of this episode, here are a few more updates. I met with my good friend and client, Dennis Gehman for breakfast this week. Dennis is the founder and owner of Gehman Design Remodeling in Harleysville, PA. Dennis is a Master Builder (like a real one, not the Lego Movie) and his company is a home design & remodeling leader in Montgomery & Bucks Counties of Pennsylvania. It's always great to connect with Dennis. He is like a dad to me and always has wise counsel on being a better dad, leader, and business owner. I so appreciate our time together. I also checked in with Matt & Laura this week. They were the perfect new house cleaning client from "An Optimizer's Website". However, I found out sad news from Matt this week and pray that things will get better with their family. In the meantime, they cannot add cleaning to their to-do list. I added Matt to my newsletter so he could stay informed on cleaning tips I send out twice per month.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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I love listener questions! Here's one I got a few weeks ago that was a perfect excuse to teach on the topic of affiliations.

"Hi Ken, I listen to your podcast religiously! I got "legit" (DBA, EIN, sales tax ID, etc) at the end of last year, and fully launched at the beginning of January. I previously was a manager for Pizza Hut in my area for 15 years. I started working there when I was 17. When covid started the franchise in my area completely folded. I began working for a janitorial company and was getting a lot of positive feedback. I have a one-year-old son and needed something flexible to work opposite of my husband. I had toyed with the idea of starting a business for a long time (I have a business degree). I just got my solo cleaning business up and running. Your tips have been instrumental! What are your thoughts about joining the BBB? Someone from my local chapter just cold-called me asking me to join."Kelly DeYoung, True Integrity Cleaning, Akron, NY (Buffalo Area)

There are countless affiliations you can join for business credibility and trust. I am not putting down anyone. I'm merely sharing from my own experiences. I am listing several into 2 categories: Industry and Local

• Industry
  • Association of Residential Cleaning Services International (ARCSI), a division of ISSA (International Sanitary Supply Association) - I was privileged to host the chair of ARCSI as an expert in the SMART Cleaning Tribe. Alonzo Adams (Busy Bee Cleaning Services, West Chester, PA) has an incredible business owner & millionaire mindset. He attributes so much of his industry success to the association with our industry's professional organization for house cleaners. ARCSI has certification courses for cleaning, disinfecting, and many others. They also provide amazing networking opportunities with other cleaning service owners so you can find your community and grow together. ARCSI is a recognized and highly respected organization that adds a ton of credibility to any house cleaner. If you're primarily in office or janitorial cleaning, ISSA is the organization to join. ARCSI is a division of ISSA. I was so green starting my business and also prideful and ignorant. I didn't need help, nor did I know about ARCSI. After having Alonzo on the Tribe, I will be joining in 2021.
  • Solo Cleaning School Elite - I created this affiliation and offer advanced training and community for new cleaning startups and solo operators. Solo cleaners tend to go-it-alone. This school pulls together like-minded solos that would like to optimize their profits on fewer workdays through the ISO Model that I created and demonstrated in 2 of my own solo cleaning companies.
  • SMART Cleaning Tribe - As I mentioned with ARCSI, cleaning owners need to find their Tribe. I built this cleaning family for the owners desiring community, masterminding, and accountability around their personal and business goals. There are many other training and mastermind communities available to cleaning service owners. The SMART Cleaning Tribe is the ONLY one focusing on the SMART goal. We grow together, celebrating our goals every month.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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Do you struggle with selling and not charging enough? Do you believe you offer something special to the world? Listen to this "Best Of" episode called "Blueberry Pie". This is one of my favorite episodes of this podcast. I've used this mindset to teach multiple solo cleaners the value they can offer.

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This is a story that will cost a cleaning supplier a lot of money. First of all, I hope you all know me by now. I am not vindictive. I did not have a bad experience with the company I'm going to mention. However, I chose to do my 3-stars out of 5 review to the world because it will illustrate a vital lesson on the lifetime value of a client. I purchased my Mosquito Carbon Lite vacuum cleaner from my friend Joshua Burnstein, owner of Sawgrass Cleaning Solutions, Boynton Beach, FL. Joshua is a authorized distributor for Mosquito, which he does as a side hustle. I now use him exclusively to take care of my vacuum needs. But I almost didn't and here's what happened.

My Mosquito has a uniquely designed tapered hose to maximize power and flow for my 160 cfm motor! That's nerd talk, but it means my vacuum really sucks! All of my hoses start to wear down after 2 years. They tear between the ribs and I have to cut a piece off to keep it working. This particular hose has been cut a dozen times to the point where it's barely long enough to vacuum with. I put off ordering a new part from Josh as he told me the replacement part is $100 with shipping! When I could wait no longer, I did a Google search to see if I could get the part cheaper anywhere else. There were a few at $100 and one at $45, which ranked high on Google SEO. It seemed like a reputable supplier, Salamone Supplies out of Menomonee Falls, WI. I researched the company and found the part I needed on the website for a great price. I told Josh and he was highly suspicious as he knew the part wholesaled for $80 on the low side. He wished me good luck. I apologized for jumping ship as I had to try. I ordered the part. To the credit of the company, they contacted me via email and was kind and cordial in their replies. They received the order, but soon realized that they had the two parts mixed up on their website. The part I ordered for $45 had the part number and picture correct for the part I needed, but they had the wrong price listed. They emailed me to let me know of the mistake and asked if I'd like to receive the $45 incorrect part or the part I needed for their price of $90 + shipping.

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There are so many questions that clients and prospects have asked me over the years. As a consultant in the cleaning industry, I get asked even more. My cleaning company website has an in-depth Learning Library that I'm very proud of. Several of these articles are FAQs that I've pulled to the home page of my website. From time to time, I'll bring you one of these articles. Today is such a time as I wanted to mentally equip you, the solo cleaner, with how to answer the naysayers that believe solo cleaning is not possible, not worth it, or not professional. Here's a link to my article, "How Can You Possibly Clean Alone, Ken?". For the purposes of this podcast, I'm going to read it! There are 6 misconceptions that I highlight in this article and I encourage you to remember them as you connect with potential clients. As a side note, I added a 7th misconception for this podcast for solo cleaners directly.

1. Solo Cleaners are not real businesses!
2. Solo Cleaners take too long! I don't want to pay them extra for the same work!
3. Solo Cleaners aren't as efficient as teams!
4. Solo Cleaners have to limit their clients and I might lose them!
5. Solo Cleaners can get sick or injured and I'll lose them!
6. Solo Cleaners don't have systems and are unreliable!
7. Solo Cleaners don't make much money! Since this one is not on my article. Let me clarify. This is true for the solo cleaner who doesn't realize their value. If you are charging $20 per hour or inherited clients from a friend at $50 per cleaning, you are not making much money and it's hard to imagine earning what I earn. If this is you, I encourage you to listen to every single episode of this podcast! To everyone else, I want you to realize that most of the 7-figure cleaning company owners started out as solo cleaners. I have a friend Hannah who earned over a $100,000 per year cleaning solo in her 20's and a college student. Then she hired and grew a team, so she could achieve bigger goals. Go back and listen to a recent episode I did, "Mission 20/20 Complete [Kenny add link]" to hear the results of my own solo cleaning business and how much income I earn. I am totally transparent and share my numbers in hopes of helping you.

If you would like optimize your solo cleaning company like I've done twice, I encourage you to check out my Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership where I provide independent course work to train you in my ISO Model. You also get access to me through twice monthly Q&A's and access to like-minded, growing solo cleaners in our community.

I referenced a listener of this podcast in the Funny Papers. Tonsha Hokanson is the owner of the brand new company, In a Jiffy Cleaning, LLC serving the Twin Cities, MN. They are doing outstanding work for their clients and in my estimation (having connected personally with the owners), they do it right. I highly recommend reaching out via email: inajiffyclean@gmail.com

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Right off the bat, let me make this statement. There is not one way to properly do a COVID-19 clean and disinfect, but there is science that governs us to follow protocols and procedures to ensure best results. There are so many companies out there doing COVID disinfection. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell which are tried and true with years of disinfection and training from the ones that saw an opportunity in 2020 and short-cutted the system to make money. I would first like to give a shout out to a good friend who has become an expert in disinfection in the Washington D.C. area. Mark Lineberry of Universal Janitorial Services has an incredible article on COVID & Reopening Your Facilities (Guide)and another on properly doing Electostatic Disinfection Services. It will show you just how much training it takes to do this right and I HIGHLY recommend that you begin learning this science so you can help more families and businesses in your community. As you know, I've become a local expert in Philly on the same topic as I've been called to share to various audiences my "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". I don't use a delivery system like fogging or UV or electrostatic spraying. These require a lot of training and expertise that I don't have. They also require a large equipment investment. I have companies that I refer when clients request this. My clients understand that I do "High Touch Point Disinfecting". The philosophy is simple. 80% of the pathogens lie on 20% of the surfaces. I don't need to kill 100% of the pathogens with a complicated delivery system. I kill 80% by hyper-focusing on the surfaces where pathogens are most likely to settle.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from a weekly office client that one of their employees tested positive for COVID-19. They suspected it on Monday and everyone left the office to work from home. The positive test came in on Wednesday to confirm. The office remained closed until the following Monday. The office manager wanted my company to substitute a regular cleaning with a COVID clean. This was not the first time, so they knew I would do a good job. Here's the steps I took:

1. I found out which employee desk it was and where that employee spent time on her day in the office. I determined that her office, the owner's office, copy machines, and restrooms were all compromised.
2. I added the other high touch points like light switches, door knobs, common counter tops, break areas, and file cabinet handles. This gave me a map of WHERE to disinfect. I already knew WHAT to disinfect. It's corona virus and the EPA has a list of registered disinfectants (COVID-19 EPA list). I already have one of these chemicals in my cleaning tote.
3. Assess WHEN to disinfect. My friend Mark in his above-referenced article recommends a 7-day period to allow the pathogens to die-off from surfaces. Reports differ as I've seen 5 days. Nevertheless, this office was vacated on Monday afternoon and I was there on Saturday night. That's 5.5 days, which I deemed safe to go in.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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I have two related funny stories to the theme of this podcast. Have you ever seen the "Polar Express" movie during Christmas? Most of you have. Toward the end, when the main characters are lost in North Pole, they stumble in the elf operations room. There are a number of videos playing of kids and a red buzzer goes off. One kid is shown on the Naughty List as he repeats the phrase, "I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I didn't do it." After the movie, my own kids were repeating that phrase including my 3-year-old and if you have kids, so are they. This innocence is cute as a kid, but not as an adult leading a business. My Uncle Bob told me a story about a friend. This guy is a jack of all trades. He does lawns, gutter cleaning, moving, tree service, power washing, whatever. He just goes wherever the money is. But this Jack is uninsured and thus, unprofessional! He takes on a lot of risk. If he is guilty of any damage, the homeowner better hope he doesn't pull the Polar Express line. My uncle told me that a neighbor of his called Jack over to remove an oak tree. When he asked him if he had insurance, Jack lied and said he did. He successfully removed the oak tree, but he didn't put the tree where it was supposed to go. A professional would survey the yard and take vital measurements first. Jack did not and the cry of TIMBER lead to the sound of an oak tree smashing into the roof of the house! It was a miscalculation for Jack. Thankfully, no one was injured. But the house was severely damaged. My uncle told me me how this will play out. When the homeowner hires someone knowingly that doesn't have insurance they take the risk and hope that their own insurance will cover damages if something happens. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. Sometimes it covers partial, but never the whole thing. In this case, if it turns out the contractor lied about having insurance. The homeowner can file a lawsuit, but the guy has no money and he won't get anything anyway. The homeowner is screwed either way. What's the lesson here? It's pretty obvious. Don't be Jack. Don't hire Jack. Let him keep rolling down the hill with Jill.

For the main part of this episode, I want to share a short story that happened on the way to work with my kids. As I drove to work, a headache was pounding and I said out loud without realizing it. "I meant to bring the Advil with me, but I forgot." As soon as I said it, my brain kicked this thought. "A lot of good meaning to do it brought me. My head still hurts!" I realized how true that statement is for so many. So many people are meaning to do things, but never do them. in other words, "I meant to do it" is a way to justify their intent but never having to do the action. It's a form of making an excuse. I won't accept that type of life. I got home from work that day and immediately put the Advil in my work bag. I removed the excuse for the future. Unless people start changing their 'meants' into 'dos', they'll be feeling a lot of pain at some point too. And by that time, Advil won't cure it!

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In this episode, I'd like to share a few updates from my solo cleaning business. It is true that I stopped striving for my goals in late 2020. But I didn't stop marketing. My "Optimizer's Website", strong "Google My Business" profile, and participation in local networking and chamber events. Recently, I had a couple find me on Google that lead to my website and a phone call. They had their questions answered on my website and the rest over the phone, so they scheduled an in-person estimate. After the estimate, I sent out a proposal my typical menu of customized house cleaning options. Matt and Laura had a few days to digest the menu, so Matt called me to negotiate as any good sales guy would. I explained what my options were so he understood them. One of my monthly cleaning options was of interest but it was about $20 too high above their budget. Ultimately, he asked if I was willing to negotiate, which means could I lower my price to get him as a client? My answer was simple and it never changes. This is not hard for me and it should not be for you either. "I don't lower my prices or my quality, but I can definitely lower the scope or the frequency of my options and provide another option which hits your budget." This would be a win for him as it hits their price. It would be a win to me because I still will earn my same hourly rate because I don't compromise on my prices.

Matt's feedback to me was awesome. "We loved your menu of options and how you customized a plan just for us. We also like that you don't do contracts and we can switch between options as we decide what works best." This is a young family with growing and changing needs . They don't want to be locked into something, they want to grow with a cleaning service. This is a great example of why I advocate and coach to always create a menu to give options. if you only give one price, it can only be yes or no. Many in the industry fight me and say this is not scalable. I disagree. If you have good enough systems and can train your employees, you can definitely scale. The biggest benefits for me is that it allows me to win a higher percentage of clients and spend less on marketing. Plus, it allows me to service the customer better as I optimize my business. They feel listened to, respected, and it allows you to build trust ultra quick. Add on to this, my initial cleaning strategy of staggering over three visits. That's another way to customize and new clients love it because it allows them to get the product without the upfront fee. We shall see if Matt becomes one of my final clients before starting my waiting list.

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It's a new calendar year. 2020 was so difficult for many families and so many are exploring other options for income. In this new "Best Of" series, I bring you an older episode that truly connected with my audience. "How to Start Your Solo Cleaning Business" is still one of my most downloaded episodes to date. Everything that I taught in this episode is valid in 2021 and beyond. The only addition would be for you to take cleaning science seriously. I did a wildly popular talk in my area called the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". It turned into webinars, YouTube videos, and a podcast. I encourage you to become an expert in cleaning science so you can disinfect like a pro and increase your stock as a cleaner in your area. It will set you apart big time.

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I was listening to the Tim Ferriss Podcast recently as he interviewed the one and only Seth Godin. Between comments, Tim uttered the metaphor of the duck does all of its work under the surface. I literally had to pause the episode and write out this one! In my last episode, Mission 20/20 Accomplished, I painted a picture of team cleaning companies growing through insurmountable odds and I shared my success in 2020. I don't want anyone to think that we had it easy or growing our cleaning businesses come easy to us. Let's learn from the duck and then come back with the goal of encouraging you and giving you truth!

The duck appears to always be in control as it glides across the water. It is cool, calm, and collect without a care in the world. Yet, it gets to where it's trying to go. It does change direction and sometimes glides in circles, but it always gets to where it's trying to go. It's easy to see the duck from the side of the lake and say. "Why can't my life be as easy as the duck? They just find the pond or lake that suits them and simply glide across the surface, stick their head under water for a bite to eat, and chill!" Or what if you're thinking this. "I'm watching and listening to Ken build his second solo cleaning business and it seems like he's a duck. He just magically with total calm gets to his destination. He tripled his profits in 2020 during a pandemic. I guess Ken is just a duck!"

You were sitting on the side of the pond looking across the water at the duck. It does look easy from that perspective. My son recently bought the GoPro camera and he can stick it under water and capture incredible video. If your lens is looking at the duck, you see what you see. But if you take a GoPro and point it under the water at the same duck, you will see a different image. You won't recognize the duck. It is far from cool, calm, and collect. You see a duck's bottom and a flurry of webbed feet. That creature looks like he is fighting for his life. His legs are kicking and paddling like crazy. Sometimes the leg paddles forward, sometimes backward, and sometimes stops. But most the time it's swirling and kicking and paddling like crazy. If your perspective of the duck was from the GoPro lens, you would think that life is so hard for the duck. How can ducks even survive at all!? How will he ever get to where he's going?

The lens from the side of the pond is the lens that others see you from, while the lens underwater is the one that you see you through. It goes back to the episode I did on "The Four Windows". The lens from the side of the pond is the first window and the underwater lens is the second window. Let's bring this back to my business growth success in 2020. You've been listening to my podcast and watching me from the side of the pond. I've tried to be vulnerable and transparent so you could get a look from underwater, but it's hard. I am living it and I know just how hard I've been kicking this year. Nothing has come easy. My little webbed feet have been fluttering away for 10 months, many times having no idea which way my legs were taking me. I relied on my faith and worked like it was up to me and prayed like it was up to God. I've been in mastermind and coaching environments where I've been beaten and bruised. My webbed feet have hurt all along the way, yet you've seen me glide from $30,000 to $80,000 in revenue in 10 months of a pandemic, riots, wild fires, political unrest, family issues, illness, and deaths in the family. Are you starting to see yet?

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2020 started with such promise to many. Unfortunately, it ended much differently. This episode is not a co-miserating-let-you-off-the-hook-if-you-did-nothing-about-it episode! This is an episode to fire up the winners. With all the doom and gloom in the media of pandemics, failing economy, and people's livelihoods being destroyed, do you know that there are scores of absolute winners that crushed it in business in 2020 despite the doom and gloom? It's true. In fact, billionaire Mark Cuban predicted it early in the pandemic when he said that many new corporations will be birthed during this time. He also said that the entrepreneur who can pivot toward the future will always thrive. I've paraphrased Mark, but it's so true. I challenge you to search for entrepreneurs who have crushed it in 2020 and learn why and how they did it. Many had their backs pressed against the wall and had no direction but ahead. That's a winner. I facilitate and lead the SMART Cleaning Tribe. This is a group of cleaning business owners growing with employees toward 7-figures and I keep them focused and accountable to their WHY, BHAG, SMART goals. On a mastermind & accountability call recently, we were discussing 2020. They all had SMART goals to double their revenues in 2020. One of the members did. Carrie Cottrell from Cleaning by Carrie out of Galion, OH more than doubled her company well past the quarter million mark. Carrie is crushing it. I've watched her all year. She provides a high quality service at an affordable price. Her product is solid. Plus, Carrie is in a rural, small-town area and she has networked like crazy. She has put herself out there on local news interviews, the chamber, local networking groups, and posting on Facebook every single day something of value to others! It seems that everybody knows Carrie in Galion, OH. She may as well be the only cleaning company there because it certainly seems like it. I'm so proud of Carrie! Jenn Jubrey (Maid Spotless Cleaning, Albany, NY) had to shut down completely by order of the state for nearly 3 months. Yet, she still managed to grow enough just to hit the same revenue as 2019 and position herself to pass $500k in 2021! Her accountability buddy is doing the same thing. Michelle Allegrezza (Sparkling Homes Cleaning, Albertville, MN) lost a large percentage of her clients and staff in 2020 due to the pandemic and she personally dealt with severe illness and family crisis. Like Carrie and Jenn, Michelle is a winner. She dug in big time and went back into the field to personally clean solo again until she had her new hires trained to replace her. Check this out. She finished the year 11% down in revenue from 2019, but was extremely wise with the money that did come in to become a 100% debt-free company! How many business owners can say this in 2020? Michelle and Jenn are racing to $500k and I love stoking the fire of competition! Hannah Brees (Shine & Sparkle Cleaning, Dallas, OR) had wild fires and a pandemic nearly take out her business. Heck, the Oregon wildfires were within miles of her house. She grew her revenue in 2020 while losing more than half of her team and also having to clean solo again for a short time! Way to go Hannah!

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I started this podcast with no expectations. It's a highly niched show for people wanting to optimize a solo cleaning business. When my show got to 1,000 downloads, I was shocked! It kept growing. Recently, the Solo Cleaning School Podcast crossed 20,000 downloads in 13 months! That's incredible to me. I am a member of the podcasting community and the "Downloads" metric is so important to people. I've seen some tote their download number around as if they are really big stuff, yet I've seen others with millions of downloads with such humility, you'd think no one listened. I was somewhere in the middle. I couldn't figure out what this number meant until recently. The man I'm talking about with 3 million downloads and total humility is John Stange. He's a local pastor to me and runs the Desire Jesus Website. John is a total stud. He is a master content creator and has a book coming out this May with a major book publisher. I'm so proud to call John a friend.

When I crossed 20,000 downloads, I got a text from John. He said this. "Congratulations on crossing 20k!" Without thinking, I replied. "Thank you John! That's 20,000 opportunities to impact another for Christ." Obviously, this is a conversation between two Christians, one being a pastor. I don't want you to dismiss it as I kept thinking on this. It dawned on me how amazing this comment truly was. I don't have 20,000 listeners. I have a couple hundred listeners that have collectively downloaded one of my episodes 20,000 times. The number astounded me. What is 20,000 downloads? I've had 20,000 opportunities to impact another life with a message of hope. I've had 20,000 opportunites to coach a struggling cleaning business owner to win. I've had 20,000 opportunities to speak to a struggling single mom looking for a way to earn income for her family. I've had 20,000 opportunities to share why solo cleaning is one of the best businesses on the planet.

This gave me incredible energy as I now have a podcast metric that truly matters. Many will call them downloads, but not me. They are opportunities to impact another human life for good!

Do you know that I have a companion free Solo Cleaning School YouTube Channel ? Make sure to check it out as I give bonus content not on this podcast. And these YouTube views and subscribers are opportunities as well. Thank you for helping to spread the opportunities to others who need to hear them.

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"Hi, I'm Ken and I'm an overthinker." I constantly make simple things complex. That's what an overthinker does. We complicate the most simple task to the point that we cannot take any action to complete it. Another term for this failure disease is procrastination as Dr. Schwartz talks about in "The Magic of Thinking Big". The rare person that can take the complex, make is simple, and take massive action are the most successful in life. Our president, like him or not, is a great example of this. Unfortunately, I'm an overthinker and so are most of you!

Recently, I did new member to the Solo Cleaning School Elite On-Boarding Call a few weeks ago with Carrie Miyazono. She is a super bright and coachable young lady. Carrie just earned her black belt in Tae Kwon Doe, instructs at my friend Ken Hoop's Martial Arts School, and works nights to pay the bills. She is a warriorette. Ken recommended her to my podcast and she is literally the first that I know about that listened to every episode from the beginning to now and she's going through a second time. She has an advantage over other solo cleaners starting out. She has a niche, which is cleaning martial arts schools. And she has a school owner, Ken Hoops, that will refer her to other schools. Carrie had a few questions as she got started. She is a classic overthinker and was building her business in her mind verses taking action. She was already cleaning for Ken, but stifled on how to grow her business. That's where I come in as her new coach. I layed out a super simple strategy to break through the overthinking. In other words, I stopped her from making the simple complex and helped her see how the complex can be simple. Here was my advice. It is viable for many of you listening.

1. Do an amazing job for Ken and make him so thankful he selected you to clean his martial arts school.
2. Ask Ken for permission to take before & aftre pictures of the work you do. Put these on your free Facebook business page and Google My Business listing.
3. Continue impressing Ken, show him the pictures, get feedback. Then ask him for a recommendation letter and introductions to a few other school owners in the area. Get the recommendation letter text in a Google and Facebook review for your online profiles with Ken's help.
4. Connect with these school owners. They will NOT be cold calls as they all know and think highly of Ken Hoops. Trust me. If you knew Ken Hoops, you would too. And if you're in the Chanhassen, MN area or have interest in confidence training for your kids, check out his school! Let these school owners know you clean currently clean for Ken, link them to your recommendation letter and online profiles.
5. Start a mailing list newsletter and place these school owners on the list, so they get updates from you and your business with practical gym cleaning tips every 2-4 weeks. This keeps you top of mind.

I assured Carrie that she WILL get business from this process. This gave her so much energy as she realized how complicated she had made things. Then I asked her how much money she needed to quit her overnight job. I took that number and showed her how just 2 new martial arts schools would replace that income so she could be a part-time solo cleaner and martial arts instructor. Carrie was so pumped up. If you relate to this advice, there are a few options. You can certainly reach out to me. I have a link on my website for listeners to ask me coaching questions. The other option is to take the plunge like Carrie did and join the Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership for $50 per month, so you can access my coaching and full ISO Model Training Course for solo cleaners! I hope to see you there!

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Make this a play on the year 2020. No one could have ever guessed 2020 would go as it did. There was a major pandemic that shut down the country for months. Riots broke out across the country. A presidential election turned into a 2 month battle in court. On a personal note, I lost both grandparents and nearly lost my mom. No matter what goals you set for 2020, few of us were able to hit them. In fact, I've been connecting with cleaning owners from all over the country all year and most were just trying to get back to where they were as 2020 started! At the end of 2019, I shared an important strategy planning episode called "Think Week". I followed that up with a 5-part goal-setting series prior to the pandemic. (Goal Setting I: What is Your Why? / Goal Setting II: Why Set Goals? / Goal Setting III: Make Your Goals SMART / Goal Setting IV: The Accountability Roadmap / Goal Setting V: Kill Parkinson) I highly recommend that you re-listen to each of these 6 episodes as you close 2020 and prepare for 2021.

This episode is a little different. It's hard to look ahead. As you may know, I wrap up each year with a Think Week. This year is different... obviously! I have been achieving my #1 goal all year. Therefore, I already have my "thinking" done for 2021 planning. Instead of teaching you how to think and set goals for next year, let's talk about something related. I was having a conversation with a newlywed couple at breakfast during our honeymoon retreat. I shared when you are starting out in life, every decision seems like a major one. You feel like each decision you're making will last your entire lifetime. But the truth is that our lives change often. Looking ahead, our steps don't seem to make any sense. That's what faith is. God numbers and plans our steps. We must trust in Him (if you're a person of faith). But then I told the newlyweds that looking back, everything is crystal clear. It all makes sense looking back. I've been married close to 20 years and I can see major decisions I've made and which have majorly impacted my life. I shared how a contractor picks up different tools along the way and when he gets to the job site, he has all the tools he needs to complete the job. I related this analogy to this young couple as the "job" is God's purpose in our life. The "contractors" are us and the "tools" are the decisions we make along the way. I added that my engineering training has allowed me to flourish in my solo cleaning business and I could have NEVER planned that one. It just happened. "Life sometimes happens and maybe that's another way that God remains anonymous." This analogy made a ton of sense to the newlyweds and even more sense to me. I said. "Hark, I need to make this a podcast episode." They gave a strange expression and my wife smiled.

As you approach 2021, I want you to obviously do your best to plan your goals as I've taught in the above-listed Solo Cleaning School episodes. But I also want you to consider yourself a contractor collecting valuable tools along the way. 2020 was hard. I guarantee you picked up valuable tools that make no sense now, but they will!

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In my last Carfagno Cleaning update, I shared about my honeymoon getaway with my wife, my grandfather in the ICU, and some wins in my solo cleaning business. I've already shared a "Tribute to My Father" in a previous episode as well, so you know how that ended. I have a few other updates from this week in business.

As I've shared previously, Matt and Laura are a young family with a small child and both working full time. They have kept up the cleaning of the home, but it's getting overwhelming. They've never hired a cleaning service, so they turned to Dr. Google for the answer. Google lead them to my company, Carfagno Cleaning, only because I focused on it this year. Check out "Google My Business Rocks". Matt was highly impressed with my Google profile and called me on the spot. I answered this call while on my honeymoon. Normally, I'd let it go to voicemail, but I was answering everything due to my grandfather. Matt had some basic questions, so I referred him to my website. He pulled up the site on the spot and said. "Wow, you're legit! This is a great website." These are great responses and as you can imagine, increased my value to Matt. He wanted to know about the basic models of cleaning, maid versus cleaning services, costs of each. I referred him to the article I wrote on the question. This impressed him even more. Then I covered some of the basic FAQs from my website over the phone. He booked me for an estimate on the spot and was already talking about hiring me. I did the estimate this week with Matt and Laura. It was fun as they were so engaged. They loved how I customize a home into options to make my higher-end service affordable to everyone. As I left, I promised an email proposal with cleaning options by the end of the week and I met that promise. They are most interested in monthly cleaning. They are a perfect fit and would be the final house I need to complete my 2020 goal for houses. I did want to share this direct feedback to you, my podcast listeners, from Matt and Laura. Remember, they are a young 30's ish couple with two incomes, a dog, and a baby. "We love how you customize our house. When I heard that over the phone, I felt confident we'd get an excellent cleaning at a price we could afford. We knew you were legit and have passion for what you do."

A few weeks ago, I received an inquiry from Erin. She is a local realtor referred to me by my BIB friend and realtor, Mary Ann Alig. She was the selling agent for her niece and nephew and wanted to gift a move-in cleaning to them. There wasn't a way to see the house as it was under contract until the house closed. Therefore, I pulled the real estate listing online and looked at the 50+ pictures to give Erin a ballpark price estimate. We went back and forth until we agreed on a price of $350 and booked it for Thanksgiving week. When I showed up at the house, I conducted my formal walk-through estimate to negotiate a final price and cleaning list with Erin. I never compromise on bathrooms and kitchen deep cleaning, so this portion came to $250. Then I figured out how much I could do in the 10 rooms with only $100 to work with on our pre-agreed-to price. It worked out to about 10 minutes per room based on my formulas. Thus, I proposed a detailed deep cleaning on the bathrooms and kitchen surfaces (outsides only) and a quick dust, vac, and mop of the rooms for $350 to hit the goal. Erin still wanted the inside of the refrigerator and cabinets done. Here's how this went down.

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This was my 4th episode of the Solo Cleaning School Podcast. My goal was to share the top tangibles and intangibles that made solo cleaning so awesome. I also wanted to balance this with the Cons of Solo Cleaning. This has been one of my most popular episodes, so I wanted to bring it back. Enjoy!

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I've shared about my mastermind community many times. Total Life Freedom has members all over the US and for some cool reason, there are a few in my area. We formed up TLF Philly and held our first local lunch get together recently at Chili's in King of Prussia, PA. We had a wonderful time and discussed big ideas, what's working and what's not in our businesses. We laughed. We shared. At the end, the bill dropped and John Stange took it and as quickly as he could be paying with his credit card. A few of the others objected until I stepped in. I shared my lifelong struggle with this and told them to allow John the honor to give to us. They understood and John was so happy. We allowed a giver to give. This is powerful. Now let me explain the mindset.

In the classic book, "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg, he lays out the "5 Laws of Stratospheric Success". The final law ties it all together. "The Law of Receptivity states that the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving". This is vital. You cannot give if no one receives. If you refuse to receive, you literally stop a giver from giving. There is a natural and beautiful symmetry between the two and each are vitally important. It's unhealthy to only receive and never give as this stops the blessing from flowing from you and to you. It's equally unhealthy to only give and never receive. Bob is very clear that we must learn to acquire the skill of each, giving and receiving. When we do, we can function in the stratospheric success.

I have personally struggled with this my whole life. I never wanted to ask for anything, for any help. I would do it all by myself. My wife would have to force me to ask for help when we had to move. I would not ask for money, for help, for even advice. Why? Well, my men's accountability partner Billy Altman answered that for me a few years ago. He said. "Ken, you're a firstborn. You're independent and that's a good thing. But you're not asking anyone for help. Do you know what that's called?" I replied. "No, Billy." He uttered one word that changed everything. "Pride!"

That stung badly because he was right. I was literally holding back givers from their deep desire to give. This is a big problem as givers need receivers. I changed course right away and have been a much better receiver over the past few years. And guess what?! I've been a much better giver too and my success has catapulted. I wonder if this is a coincidence. By the way, the TLF Philly group of John Stange, Emily Brunner, John Schuchman, and Brad Imming will meet up at least quarterly and we'll each get the opportunity to give!

Would you allow this giver to give? I am offering up 30 minutes of my time each week to answer questions for any listener to this show. Just go to my website to request your time slot.

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2020 has been a year none of us will ever forget. Is that not the understatement of the year!? We had a global pandemic, government shutdowns, trillions in stimulus, panic, fear, riots, election chaos, and it's still not over. None of this even scratches the surface of how I'll remember 2020. For me, it's the permanent end of my childhood and the time for me to prove out the legacy left to me. What does that even mean... "the end of my childhood"? In 2020, both of my grandparents on my father's side passed away. On the surface, this may seem extraordinary that I still have grandparents living... and it is. It's so much deeper. Ken Sr and Gabriella Carfagno were my Nana & Pop-Pop for 43 years. In reality, they are the true mother and father in my life. I spent every weekend with them growing up. They are the ones I sought approval and affirmation, especially my Pop. Their loss ends my extended childhood, where I still had a father to go to for counsel. Pop was the patriarch of the Carfagno Family and now he's gone. I'm now left to stand on my own and become the new patriarch, but I don't stand from the ground. I stand upon his shoulders. This episode is a short departure from cleaning as I want you all to pause and reflect on what you have already. What are you grateful for? Your family? Your health? Your business, where ever it is?

Here's the text of the eulogy I gave at my Pop-Pop's funeral:

I would like to thank my dad, Ken Jr, my uncles Bob and David, and my brother Dominic for allowing me the honor to remember our father and Pop-Pop today. Ken Carfagno, Sr was always larger than life to us. We have always felt that Pop was the greatest man that ever walked this earth except for Jesus himself. I am so grateful that I got to spend every weekend with Nana and Pop-Pop growing up. They made me who I am.

Ken was the youngest of five children from Jerry and Concetta Carfagno. Nana Concetta ran out of Italian names, so she named her 5th after the 1930's singer & actor Kenny Baker who she thought was very handsome. Who knew that name would carry on 4+ generations? Ken married his high school sweetheart, Gabriella Corbett on October 20th, 1956 after going steady for over 4 years. They raised 3 boys and half the neighborhood on both Anchor Street and Harvard Road! Nana and Pop were inseparable for over 63 years of marriage. None of us could ever say one's name without mentioning the other. They were Mom and Dad, Nana and Pop. That's how interconnected their souls were. When Nana passed away this February, a huge piece of Pop died with her. Although we're grieving, we know they're together again.

Pop was only 40 when I was born. He was young, full of energy, joy, and life. Nana and Pop raised me as their 4th son (even though I was a grandson). Pop taught me humility, gratitude, how to be a man, how to live a righteous life, how to keep God at the center of your life and make church-going & prayer a discipline. He taught me how to be faithful to one woman your whole life, how to love, how to honor, how to live, how to share wisdom with those you love, how to provide for your family, and how to invest in your future. He was the only man to truly recognize my potential and creativity and he fanned that flame throughout my life. When I met Teresa in 1998, he did the same for her and over time built a very special relationship. Nana and Pop never treated her as an "in-law". She was truly their daughter.

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Let's get back into the driver's seat of my own solo cleaning business, Carfagno Cleaning. I have kept my promise from the introduction to this podcast. I will continue updating you every week with progress from my own solo company. 2020 has been a great year as I've hit several growth goals. Carfagno Cleaning is cranking as a solo cleaning company. My brand and reputation is established. I'm known my many in my community as the cleaning and disinfecting expert. I'm known as a presentation cleaning expert and that my prices reflect that. My marketing machine is fully operational with Google My Business, local networking, an interactive optimizer's website, and a proven sales strategy. I'm finalizing my 2020 desired cleaning schedule of all-day Saturday offices and 3 houses per day, every other Thursday and Friday. I'm getting close to this goal, which will give me a great schedule and over $90,000 in revenue.

This update is different. I am combining multiple weeks that all seem to mesh together. I got back from the TLF Mastermind Retreat in Pittsburgh on October 9th with big ideas to close out 2020 and beyond. But my life took another track. In late October, my Pop-Pop went into the ER for a life-saving procedure. He's been in the ICU ever since. I'm the family point of contact and have been fielding doctor calls daily and updating the family. I've been making difficult decisions on his potential end-of-life care. I've had my phone on loud ringer 24/7, never knowing when I'd get a call and got many in the middle of the night. I've coordinated his care and taken the lead in the family. I'm exhausted.

I'm so thankful that I put in the work this year for my cleaning company to be where it is. I can simply show up to all scheduled cleanings and collect money. We are profiting over $5,000 per month from cleaning alone on a few days per week. New leads come in each week that are filtered out or in by my "Optimizer's Website". I'm attending all local networking that I can attend. I'm setting up new estimates and taking on new 1-time jobs as they are available. This has given me the freedom to take care of my family and Pop-Pop, while in the hospital. Does this motivate you? Would you like a solo cleaning business that's fully operational, optimized, and automated? Make sure to check out this podcast form the beginning to see how I did i

I'd like to share a few updates from the past few weeks in business and in life. The first update is a win from my website. Becky was a lead from my wife. She purchased a table off my wife, Teresa from Facebook Marketplace. When she discovered we owned a cleaning business, she mentioned that she was interested in cleaning. Teresa asked me what to say to her. I told her to link to my article on how much my cleaning services cost and why. Becky loved the article and how in-depth my website was. She filtered herself in and we set up an estimate. They were a lovely family. Becky invited me to sit on the back porch to discuss the cleaning in an interview format. Be prepared for that as some families will expect it. To date, I've done it around 10 times in 15 years. After our conversation, we walked around the house for me to ask questions and take notes. I promised cleaning options and prices in a proposal by the beginning of the following week and met that promise. Unfortunately, Becky and her husband had to say no because of price. She indicated that she really, really wanted to hire me, but the cost was too high. This has happened dozens of times and in some situations, they call back months later. I asked Becky if I could add her to my mailing list. She was excited to get bimonthly cleaning tips!

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Have you ever played an instrument? I've been playing the guitar for a few years as a hobby. I'm no Santana, Van Halen, or Hendrix, but I can play the basic chords to play the majority of songs. I don't know about your instrument, but mine falls out of tune as the weather changes. I have picked up the guitar on many occasions to play a favorite song and it was off. Personally, I can tell by the G chord. If that chord is off at all, the whole song is off. Let me take this further. I enjoy singing with the songs as I'm the rhythm guitarist for the family worship band. I know pretty much NOTHING about musical theory, but I do know this. My voice is perfect for the key of G. How do I know this? My son and other musical scholars told me. When my guitar is out of tune, I have so much trouble matching my voice key to the music. Have you ever experienced this?

Let me relate this to your solo cleaning business now. I shared an important mindset episode called "Excellence Vs. Perfection". In this episode, I helped many cleaners break their perfectionist habits. Perfectionism is doing the best job you can to make you happy. Excellence is doing the best job to make your client happy. At first, you may think they are the same. That's not the case. Perfectionism is a disorder and falls under the OCD category. I would know. Check out my episode, "My Lifelong Struggle with Tourette Syndrome" so you know I understand. A perfectionist is cleaning to satisfy the itch they have to make the house look perfect. You can never accomplish it and many solo cleaners spend 5 - 8 hours cleaning a 3-hour house. This does not make the client happy. No one wants you in their house that long. If they pay by the hour, they are mad. And if they pay by the job, they feel guilty you're still there. The pursuit of perfection is never achieved. It's selfish in nature to scratch the itch. Excellence is another story. You have the client in their proper place. Your goal is to provide the best service tailored to their specific needs.

Do you remember the guitar story? It's difficult to sing and play a song when the guitar is out of tune. Once you figure out what key to play and the guitar is tuned, your song sounds great. Likewise, once you figure out the song that client likes, you can tune your cleaning system to that client. The outcome is called excellence. They are so happy with you because you "get them". When they make requests, you do them, and continue doing them, they trust you more! They feel heard! This is exactly how I optimize my solo business. I have to figure out which type of music each client likes and then tune my instrument to play it better and better every time.

Over 15 years, I have created a cleaning system that plays great for most clients. However, I am always ready to fine-tune my cleaning system to play a slightly different key for a slightly different type of client. This process is constant as I strive to get faster while playing an awesome song! Come join me in 2021 as I optimize my second solo cleaning business with this strategy!

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I've been working on my brand new www.carfagnocleaning.com website as I have time for two weeks. I finished it this week! I'm so happy with it. Let me take you back first. I ran Carfagno Cleaning for 14 years without a website. I've always kept a company profile, but on other company sites like HomeAdvisor, Facebook, and LinkedIn. After getting back from the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Gatlinburg, TN in October 2019, I launched my first website for my personal solo cleaning business. The first version was okay. I just wanted a place to hold my blog articles, share some basic profile information, and provide ways to connect with me. Honestly, I invested way more time into growing my Google My Business profile, acquiring reviews, and then linking viewers back to my website. It's been a solid one-two punch as I've stabilized my new solo cleaning company.

During the pandemic, I've been writing many teaching-style articles and going on local webinars. I have also spent hours on phone calls with cleaning prospects collectively, answering the same questions over and over. I have known for some time that my website needed to modeled after the book, "They Ask, You Answer". I highly recommend this book as you start to switch from stabilizer to optimizer. Here's the basic concept. Most companies hide or protect their information so competitors can't steal or undercut them. Some hide it to use in their sales process. This book shared a giving philosophy. People are research-oriented and like to learn as much as they can on their own. Provide them that! I also learned from my good friend, Courtney Wisely of Rescue My Maid Service, that Google ranks websites higher with site retention over 2 minutes. She figured out that the most engaging way to keep someone on your website is to have a video. If you look at her website, she has a 2-minute explainer video that is engaging. As a result, viewers stay on her site. I wanted to do the same thing. My main goal was to create the ultimate optimizer's website. I want prospects that hear about me to find my website and then feel like they've entered a school environment and had an experience. My new website does that now. It does all the work for me and filters out the wrong and filters in the right! I'm not going to walk you through every page and piece of my website as I did that on a Facebook Live for members of my Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership recently. However, I did take a 15-minute clip from this paid training and put it on my Solo Cleaning School YouTube channel. Make sure to check out this BONUS CONTENT! This was a huge accomplishment for me this week in my cleaning business!

I set to work right away from there by reconnecting with prospects that I'd previously sent proposals for cleaning. I checked in with them and shared my new website, asking if they had any questions. I also reached out to my chamber president to see if I could be of any assistance. Last time I did that, I was invited to help facilitate Zoom webinars for the chamber during the pandemic. This lead directly to 3 new clients! Steve Hunsberger wasted no time! He immediately found a use for me by inviting me to share my chamber experience on a few separate calls as our chamber merges in another local one. I will be sharing my tips on how to get the most from your chamber. It will be fun.

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I had a conversation with my daughter yesterday that really gave me the push I needed to share this episode. I won't go into any details, but I'll just say that my daughter is 12 and she has dealt with a form of OCD that has caused her some pain. This pain has created a very special bond between father & daughter that I would never remove. We sense each other in a extra sensory sort of way. She knows when I am hurting and likewise and we each have a supernatural ability to calm each other. It's a benefit of the lifelong struggle I never thought possible when it started at 10 years old for me. She came to me with a recent struggle and instead of commiserating and allowing her to pull the victim card, I got bold with her and said "You need to get tough!" She was surprised. I went on to tell her that there are no perfect people and that God has a beautiful way of turning our greatest struggles into our greatest victories IF we allow Him to. There are tons of wonderful people with disabilities that have to work harder than we do just to get dressed and start the day, yet they recognize that they will literally have to outwork others in every area to win. They choose not to be the victim. I told her that I've struggled for 33 years, but it has made me stronger. I've had my pity parties, but for the most part, I've used my disability as fuel to win. I challenged her to change the way she thinks. "Stop coming to me with the struggle and asking how to get rid of it. Instead, embrace it and use it as fuel to turn your 'I cant's' into 'How can I's'"! She was energized after this conversation and I truly believe my 33 years of struggle lead me to that one piece of advice that will alter the trajectory of her future. I know for a fact that there are others listening to this episode struggling with the same thing. My prayer is that it gives you hope and a new resolve to embrace your disability, use it as fuel to win, and fight harder every day to achieve the God-given dreams you were put on this planet to achieve. With that, let me share my lifelong struggle with Tourette Syndrome.

I remember playing Nintendo after school with Mike in the 5th grade with this sudden insatiable desire to stretch my arms completely out. When I did it, I felt better. It was like an itch that got worse and worse that needed to be scratched. The movement of my arm scratched the itch. I was full of big ideas and creativity. I was an only child, always playing alone so creativity was my best companion. My mom was finishing her psychology degree and newly married. Many changes were happening in my life. I can remember playing ping-pong with my dad in the basement and the itches expanded to my legs. Now, I had to stretch my arms and legs constantly. These nervous tics only grew from there to nose snorting, squeezing eye blinks, licking my lips, biting the inside of my mouth, neck and head twitches, hand stretching and knuckle cracking. It happened so fast that my 10-year-old brain overloaded and my psycho-analyzing mom could not keep up!

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I thoroughly enjoy giving these business updates. On the last update, $10,000 Watches and The Four Windows, I shared how important it is for me to have mentors and people showing me my blind spots. I attended the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Pittsburgh, PA last week. I've been cleaning non-stop and I'm exhausted, but the sacrifice is totally worth it! I've been cleaning offices with my kids every Saturday, but this past weekend my son was on a Royal Rangers Canoeing Action Camp. I had to clean 7 offices on Saturday and Sunday after a crazy week. I've been tracking the cleaning times of every office since July and this weekend opened up my eyes. My son has been doing bathrooms, some kitchens, and mopping. My daughter does dusting and glass cleaning. I do kitchens and vacuuming. I ended up doing the work of me and my son and identified a few areas to speed up. Each time one of my kids cannot help, I notice things that can be done better or faster. I train this into my kids and ultimately we got faster at the same level of quality.

I'll be talking about this on an upcoming episode, but this week I started a major overhaul and redesign of my Carfagno Cleaning website. It's a ton of work and every change was inspired in some way by my trip to Pittsburgh.

Okay, let's wrap this episode up with an audio recording that I did on my phone during an incredible discussion at my MCBA networking group this week. I've mentioned this before, but I'm the co-education chair with Shelby Miller of Keller Williams to generate excellent discussion and ideas between growing local business owners. I enjoy it. This week's topic was a TED talk by Mike Michaelowicz and his book "Profit First". I opened up the meeting by playing a 3-minute clip of my podcast episode "Kill Parkinson" to introduce the topic of plate sizes and our human psychology to finish the plate regardless of the size. We do this with time and money. Review that episode for more background. Then we opened up the discussion to members of the group and I only wish that I started the recorder sooner! Here's what I did get!

Each person gave me permission to use the recording to help others, so I wanted to personally recommend each of their businesses!

Tom McKee, Edward Jones

Gary Volpe, Volpe Enterprises

Marsha Poust, Signs by Tomorrow

James Hardy, The Carpet Guys

Lisa Reiss, Optivia Health

Melissa Brindley, Quakertown National Bank

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The past 12 months have been a whirlwind of emotion from COVID-19, shutdowns, almost losing my mom, losing my Nana (who was my 2nd mom), getting out of debt, helping my autistic uncle through multiple ICU and mental hospital visits, growing my cleaning business, and so on. Recently, I re-listened to my episode from a year ago called "Free Donuts". I had just returned from the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Gatlinburg, TN and I was convicted big-time to put my pride aside and really crank up my new solo cleaning business. It was also the genesis for what this podcast has become. Make sure to listen to this "Best Of" rewind along with my final comments updating you with 1-year later after returning from the TLF Retreat in Pittsburgh.

One year later, we increased our solo cleaning business from 3 offices, 0 houses, and $35,000 in revenue to 8 offices, 7 houses, and $85,000 in revenues!

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Many ask me how and when to raise prices. In this episode, you'll learn how NOT to. The story I am going to tell in this episode is real and happened recently. I am protecting the identity of the solo cleaner by calling them "Jen". Thankfully, this story ends well. Take heart and do NOT copy Jen's mistake!

What did Jen do and why? I teach a proven strategy for how to raise prices in my ISO Model. I've been using this strategy since 2006. It's smart. It's battle-tested. It's strategic. And it's for optimizers ONLY! Jen is not an optimizer yet. Jen has a solid stabilizer business with around 20 clients. She loves her business and has amazing, loyal clients that will stay with her long-term. All she has to do is continue to serve them. These clients will absolutely pay more per visit over time as every business raises prices as the cost of doing business increases year-to-year. Jen got a call from a commercial property manager. She heard about Jen and wanted her do electrostatic disinfecting in multiple buildings. It was a huge opportunity for Jen and the promises sounded like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. At the same time, Jen was in an emotional state as a close family member was in an accident and required a lot of Jen's TLC. Jen really needed to make more money and have more time. In Jen's excitement at the prospect of the commercial disinfecting, she hastily sent price increase letters by email to half of her reliable, recurring house cleaning clients. Jen thought that some would not say yes and others would not. It would earn her more money per house that stayed and clear up enough time to do the disinfecting work. It was a perfect plan in Jen's mind. But was it?

Here's what happened next. One client fired her. One grilled her for 3 hours during the next cleaning and found out that increases were only sent to half of her clients. One prepared to fire her. She had not heard back from the others yet and decided it was a good idea to reach out to me. As she explained her actions, I panicked with her as I heard so many missteps. Jen could literally lose half of her business in 1 week!

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I'm so thankful for a conversation I had with Patty in 2006. Let me set the scene. She was an executive for an apartment property management company with 13 complexes. I was cleaning for two of them and wanted to grow my solo business to as many as I could. During early to mid-2006, I drove all over the Capital District of NY to knock on the doors of small offices, apartment complexes, and builders to drum up more business. I had information packs with testimonials that I'd hand out at each. All in all, I visited over 300 businesses and dropped off over 50 info packs. This lead to 1 more apartment complex, 1 builder, and 1 new office. It seems like a waste unless you tally up the lifetime value of just that one office. I cleaned for this law firm from 2006 to 2018 and earned over $80,000 in revenue from that client. Yes, it was worth it. I wanted you to see the mode of growth I was in. We were struggling big-time with money and I was willing to do whatever it took.

When I walked into one of my complexes that spring, Patty was there. I knew who she was and that she was the decision maker to hiring me for more complexes. I never got a chance to ask her a question. She approached me and shocked me with this advice that has forever changed my business!

"I know you want more complexes. I've been hearing from our property managers that you've been visiting. But I'm not giving you any more right now because I don't want to lose you!" Patty had my attention and continued. "Do you know why good cleaners like you go out of business? They can't say no and take on more than they can do. They get further and further behind. They don't know how to properly hire employees to take off some workload. They start dropping in quality, missing commitments, lose trust, lose reputation, lose money, and we have to let them go. These good businesses eventually go out of business if they don't change. And we have to constantly replace contractors like you. It's time-consuming. Ken, you're doing a great job for our 2 complexes. Keep it up and truly decide if you want and can handle more."

Her message hit me right between the eyes. It was a turning point for me. I was only pursuing apartment complexes because we needed money. But really, I hated apartment complexes. They paid terrible. The hours were awful. I would often batch 3-4 apartments overnight after cleaning all day and sleep on the floor! They were unpredictable. They were feast or famine. They were dirty. They required a lot of thinking, planning, and mental time. I never did add the 3rd complex. I veered down another path instead. I started growing and stabilizing my company with recurring weekly, biweekly, and monthly houses fueled by working with realtors. The real estate work was tough, but it opened the doors to simple, clockwork houses. I also learned my niche of presentation cleaning and applied it to house and office cleaning to build my reputation.

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Do you know why books, mentors, and being curious are so vital to your future? I loved the "Rule of Thumb" that my friend Jon Appino uses. It's a joke, but exposes a truth. People do not like reading books because they were forced to in school. I was EXACTLY the same leaving college and working at GE as an engineer. But then I started my first side hustle as an Amway IBO and was encouraged to start reading personal growth books. I learned this right away, understood it, and decided to embrace it. "You will be in 5 years based on the books you read and the people you associate with." Then it all connected when I learned about the Four Windows from Amway legend John Crowe. This knowledge has served me well for over a decade and I hope it hits the nail on the head for you. Here's a word of warning. This episode will cut you open and expose some truths about you that you do not like.

Think of a window with cross lattices and therefore 4 individual panes of glass in the same window. These are the four windows. Each has a different viewpoint on YOU!

The top left window represents the THINGS THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT EVERYONE ELSE ALSO KNOWS. Typically, this window contains your physical appearance and outward habits. For example, I have brown eyes, brown hair, and record this podcast. We do not learn much in this window, but we tend to operate here in our life too often. Nothing ever changes and no growth occurs. This window represents the status quo.

The top right window represents the THINGS THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT NO ONE ELSE KNOWS. This can be your dreams and aspirations and it can be your internal struggles, addictions, double talk, hypocrisy. Since no one else knows what is going on in your head, they can't help you. Therefore, if you remain in this window and keep doing the same thing over and over again, you'll get the same results. This is what Einstein calls insanity. Others choose to grow and pursue change based on what they know about them. This was me when I learned how important books were. I made the decision to read personal growth books in the areas I was strong and weak to improve both! This was my first step to becoming a lifetime learner.

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One year ago, I had just returned from the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Gatlinburg, TN in mid-October 2019. My arrogance and pride were exposed to 20 other entrepreneurs from around the country and I was faced with a difficult choice. Do I go all-in to building a new solo cleaning company in the Philly Area and am I courageous enough to share my weekly progress to you, my podcast audience? If you've been a listener to this show for any amount of time, you already know my answer. "YES!"

My update this week takes you behind the curtains as I met with these same entrepreneurs a year later in Pittsburgh, PA. Before I could leave, I had some calendar shuffling to do as the retreat was Wednesday to Friday and I had houses scheduled. Here's what I did. A month before the trip, I connected with each client affected and shuffled them around to keep as many as possible. I was able to move my Tuesday client to Monday, my Thursday and Friday to Tuesday, and another Friday to next Tuesday. I had to cancel one of 5 houses and was able to clean every office over the weekend. It was an insane schedule where I cleaned offices Saturday & Sunday, houses Monday & Tuesday, drove to Pittsburgh Wednesday through Friday, offices Saturday & Sunday! I survived. Here's the point. A solo cleaning business is flexible and the trip was totally worth it!

While I was in Pittsburgh, my pre-scheduled newsletter went out to 100 local subscribers and a few interesting things happened. I was contacted by a Christian publication and radio station about advertising. These outlets found me online and subscribed to my newsletter. At this point, I do not do paid advertising as I don't need it. I'm just amazed that I've been able to build something in a short time that is locally recognized. I'd have to say that my newsletter and attending local networking groups may be the most valuable things I've done in 2020 for my new solo cleaning business. One other piece of marketing occurred while I was in Pittsburgh. My wife was selling some baby stuff on Facebook marketplace. She made a friend, Rebecca, through a sale. Rebecca saw on my wife's profile that we owned a cleaning business and said to her, "I'm in the market for a cleaner!" Teresa asked me what to do. I told her to send Rebecca to my cleaning website, specifically to an article I wrote about how much I charge for cleaning. Rebecca did and loved my website. She filtered herself into my sales funnel and wants me to do an estimate next week. She already knows how much I charge and is okay with it. That's the essence of how my ISO Model Marketing System works!

The Pittsburgh retreat was totally different this year. I was edified in front of the team for my progress in 1 year as I took a solo cleaning business from $25,000 to $80,000 in annual revenue during a pandemic. I was able to develop a comprehensive strategy for the Solo Cleaning School and the Elite Membership offered to accelerate solo cleaners through my system. Plus, I set some new cleaning goals and made some great friends!

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We all have that one child that we seem to teaching the same lessons to over and over. That's my middle son Kolby. He's my main man, 9-years-old and we share the same birthday. I say that the best birthday gift I ever received was him! He loves that. Kolby has a way of asserting his belief that he is always right. He also tends to talk and hear, more than listen. He will interrupt others when they are talking and not realize he's doing it (as he's in his own head). If his mom says it's warm out, he says it's hot. If she says it's hot, he'll say it's cold. You get the picture. I was teaching Kolby the difference between hearing and listening recently. Kenny overhead the lesson and thought it was a podcast episode. So here you go! I hope Kenny was right!

Your ears are designed to receive sound vibrations and transmit them for interpretation inside your brain. If you're truly listening, your brain then processes the sounds and acts. If you are merely hearing, the sounds are received but are drowned out by your thoughts or your words. In other words, hearing is passive and listening is active. To listen, you must fully engage your senses, which includes your ears, eyes with eye contact to the one talking, and your mouth by not opening it. Active listening also includes your body language like nodding along or leaning forward. These signs show the talker that you are truly listening, truly care about what they have to say, and therefore, truly care about them. Hearing and talking over someone is selfish and taking. It harms relationships. Listening is giving and builds relationships.

I told Kolby that I've had to work on this a ton. I've read books on it. In fact, I read on last year that was over 300 pages just on how to listen! He was shocked. I told Kolby that we must all work on this vital skill to be a better human and in our family's case, a better disciple. This skill requires humility and an attitude of curiosity. An active listener has some answers, mostly questions as they realize there is way more they don't know. This takes them from a place of arrogance and pride in their knowledge to a place of receiving and wisdom. Our bodies were designed with 2 ears and 1 mouth as insight into the proportion God wants us to use those organs. Kolby had heard enough. Just kidding. He got the lesson and truly listened to his dad.

Why do I teach this to solo cleaners? It's a vital skill to acquire. We can learn from anyone if we truly believe others around us have value. True listening will instruct you how to serve your community and clients better. You will act on what you learn and serve better, build more trust, and become indispensable. This one skill can literally pull you out of a low paying, low appreciation position to one of honor, gratitude, and high profit. Start truly listening and act on what you hear.

What do you think? Was my son Kenny right?

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This personal business update will be a little different. I do have some updates and it looks like a new client is coming on board as well. I'm combining a few weeks and sharing the highlights. One of the benefits of building a profitable solo cleaning business like I have and being debt-free now is that we can take more getaways as a family. It did NOT used to be like this. We have struggled just as much if not more than many of you listening right now. At the end of last summer, our family rented a house in Ocean City, NJ right after Labor Day with the Pugliese Family. They have 3 boys, which are the same age as our oldest 3 and our families get along so well. We went to the Great Wolf Lodge with them a few winters ago as well. Last year's beach trip was so successful that we did it again last week. We rented a much larger house with 3 balconies with ocean view and a block form the sand. It was awesome. We were on vacation, but we were not idle.

Again, this update has multiple weeks of highlights. I mentioned previously that my cousin Seth and his wife Abby invited us to do an estimate for a historic wedding venue. I worked on that proposal at the beach and was able to email it the day we left. Abby was very thankful. The prices I optioned were much higher than what Abby is currently paying, but it really helped her to see the going rate of an experienced, professional company. My friend Shelby Miller from MCBA referred me to Pastor Bruce. He is the president of the board for a local non-profit community center and wanted a professional company to check out the building and give recurring cleaning prices for various frequencies. The estimate went well. During the estimate, I explained many elements on how to disinfect properly. Pastor Bruce was really connecting as he used to sell commercial cleaning products. He was thankful for my advice. I sent the proposal two days later, really impressing him. I also checked in with a church I sent a proposal last month. Jennifer was thankful for my detailed and honest cleaning proposal and recommendations. Like Abby & Pastor Bruce, Jennifer will let me know once the board meets. As a side note, I want to know if you're paying attention. How did I get these 3 referrals?

Abby - She's family, but she has seen some of my training videos and my webinar on disinfecting

Pastor Bruce - Shelby referred me from my weekly MCBA networking group. She my co-education chair and we have become friends.

Jennifer - Her boss, the pastor, saw my cleaning profile in an email that went out to all Indian Valley Chamber members. I got that profile because of my service to the Chamber during COVID.

The takeaway is that I am creating a word-of-mouth machine in my new area and solo cleaning business. How did I do it? Well, you're going to have to start with podcast episode 1 and follow the bread crumbs as my new business has built to almost $100,000.

Later in the second week of this update, Pastor Bruce called me hoping to get some time and ask some questions. I called him and answered detailed questions right out of my "How to Disinfect Properly" mini-course. He was thankful for the help and gave me verbal confirmation that he's working to get me into clean monthly once he gets the board to agree.

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Toward the end of the summer, I met for breakfast with my Chamber of Commerce friend Ken Byler. He owns Higher Ground Consulting, helping leaders and their teams to thrive. It was fun to reconnect with Ken. He's super smart and knows how to ask great questions. In fact, he hit me with 3 questions that really got me thinking.

1. What did you learn about yourself through the Corona pandemic?
2. What did you learn about your business?
3. What will you change about your business going forward?

This episode is not about me. It's for you! I want you to write down these 3 questions and answer them. Then I want to encourage you to send me your answers to ken@solocleaningschool.com and I will respond to each one sent. This one exercise could propel you further in 2021 than any other. Are you going to do it? I dare you. Oh... I double-dog dare you. Wait... I triple-dog dare you!

I won't end this podcast without sharing my answers. Here you go Solo Cleaning School!

1. What did you learn about yourself through the Corona pandemic? I learned that I wasn't strong enough in the science of disinfecting to truly serve my community. I thought I knew, but I didn't. This caused me to go deep during my time in lockdown and research how to disinfect properly. It turned into a mini-course and my local claim-to-fame now, the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". I've shared this on webinars, blogs, interviews, my podcast, Facebook groups. My local pharmacy made me their disinfection expert. I was willing to change and get better, then get out there and share my knowledge. It felt great. I helped many people and it separated me as a specialist in my area. I gained at least 5 clients as a result.
2. What did you learn about your business? I learned that my business wasn't pandemic proof. I lost 4 out of my 6 house cleaning clients and 1 of my 3 offices. I also learned that my business wasn't big enough. When I lost that much business, it affected our income a lot. Fortunately for me, we were diversified with other income sources like online memberships and the monthly payments on the sale of my former solo cleaning business. On a positive note, I experienced the stability of certain sectors of commercial cleaning during the pandemic. I did lose 1 of my 3, but only for a month. I witnessed across the country that the cleaning companies with at least 25% commercial in their portfolio did better. Many of their commercial clients asked for MORE service during the pandemic to protect their offices and employees when they returned.
3. What will you change about your business going forward? My immediate answer to Ken on this question was that I already changed it. Over the summer, my new specialist role secured me new clients. I bolstered up my commercial side and now run at 67% small commercial and 33% residential. My ultimate goal for my solo cleaning business is to add 4 more houses and 2 more offices in 2020, which would give me a near 50-50 split of commercial to residential. That's where I'd like to be for many reasons and one of them is stability from what I learned during Corona.

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I was having a pre-driving talk with my 15-year-old son and shared my example when I was 16. I wanted to drive a car, but my mom couldn't put me on her policy. I bought my car for $1,300. Then my monthly expenses of car insurance, maintenance, and gas cost a ton. I needed this car to get to my job at the mall, but really I wanted the car to look cool driving to high school. I felt like I was treading water and not going anywhere. Why? I was going to school all day and then working at night. My weekly paycheck after taxes was just enough to pay my car expenses. I was in an ironic situation where I was working just to drive and driving just to go to work. I could have quit the job and hitched a ride to school from my neighbor and spent my time doing something I wanted to do. It took me a few years until I learned how to earn more income with the jobs I took. I was no longer working to drive as I had extra. Thank goodness or I would not have been able to afford taking my girlfriend Teresa anywhere. I could and won her over. I told Kenny. "And now she's your mom."

I then told Kenny another example of this irony, relating to moms. The stay-at-home mom wants to earn more income for the family. She goes out and finds a job. Let's say the job pays her $3,000 per month after tax. That sounds great, except one thing. She needs to hire a daycare service to watch her kids. She needs more maintenance and gas for her car. She needs more money for lunches and coffees and clothes for work. There are so many moms that accept the job before calculating the cost to have the job. Many times they are in the same place as the 16-year-old driver. They are literally working for daycare and putting the kids in daycare so she can work. It's ironic and very sad. Moms have so much on their plates and this puts them into a downward spiral and hurts many families. Aside from the zero profit, the mom is also taking her kids out of the home and getting them around other kids in daycare. Kids in daycare are always sick, so now this mom's kids are sick and it affects the whole family. Maybe the dad gets sick and has to call out of his work or business. This is detrimental.

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I'm excited to take you backstage again into my own solo cleaning business as I work to achieve my 2020 SMART goals! Now that the school year was back for my family and for my clients, I made a shift to my new schedule. I shuffled my biweekly Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday houses to Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. My goal was to reduce driving. When you're adding new clients like I've been, it's hard to optimize for location as you go. I tend to put new ones where I have the time to do an amazing 3-part initial cleaning. Once I speed up and lock in new clients, I begin to play calendar Tetris. As a practice, I try to move clients infrequently like once per year or less. Once I had the new schedule decided, I connected via email and text with each client to let them know. They all happily agreed.

During one of my house cleanings, I connected with my friend Ed Weidman. He helps companies attract their ideal clients through SEO, Facebook & Google Ads. After hearing several success stories on other cleaning companies running successful Facebook Ad campaigns, I decided to give it a try. I only need 4 more houses to hit my 2020 goal. I know that my prospect filtering process is highly effective and it will probably take 30 leads to generate the right 4 clients. Ed was very confident of this. He gave me the outline of what I need to do and I will keep you up to date on how this works out for me!

I've mentioned my cousin Seth Bryan in the podcast. He was on the good and bad end of a podcast. I shared his impressive story of how he finds potential houses to buy on "Finding Opportunities" and another story of how he cracked open his chin on Thanksgiving morning. Seth is like a brother. His wife Abby is part owner in a family business of a historic site for wedding venues and she asked me to come over for a cleaning estimate. We arranged to meet up early with the whole family before we went to a playground and saw a dinosaur show at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. During this estimate, Abby shared how unhappy she was with the current cleaner as well as the scope and frequency of the work. I took detailed notes of the facility and gave Abby much to consider. It's a lot of money, but the hours aren't ideal for me as she needs upward of 2 visits per week with one after 11pm on Saturday night. I promised to get the proposal out to her and go from there.

My integrity was challenged on Saturday morning. As I approached the door to office #2, I noticed a flyer stuck inside. I had to remove it to open the door. It was a business flyer for another cleaning company. Ooh, what to do... what to do? What would you do? Many would take the flyer and throw it away. That's logical. Remove the competition. That's one way to become the tallest building. You can knock the others down. I did something different to align with my integrity. I took the flyer inside, placed it on the receptionist's desk, and wrote a note. "I found this in the door. Have a great week!" This is the other way to become the tallest building is to build your building taller. This comes from a quote from Jim Rohn. Not only did I feel good about myself, but my kids saw me do it. I am confident in my cleaning and this was my way of building my building taller by building more trust with the owners. Remember, "Trust is Everything with Beth Lane"!

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There are so many people with the words, "I can't" as a major part of their vocabulary. It's an easy answer and an easy excuse to fail. Those two words come from a society trained to be followers versus critical thinkers. I've been saying this to myself and my kids for over a decade. If we can change those 2 words to 3 words, everything changes. Do you know what the 3 words should be? You guessed it (it's in the title). "How can I?"

Why should you do this? The answer lies in the questions we ask our brains. Do you realize that most people make more statements than questions. This puts our brains on filing duty versus solving duty. It's a shame too because our brains are a nearly unlimited resource for solving difficult problems. Read the book, "Think and Grow Rich", and you'll see this more clearly. Let me explain what this change does in your brain. When you change the period of "I can't" to a question mark of "how can I" and your brain receives the words as a challenge to solve versus a statement of conclusion. To be successful entrepreneur, you need to learn how to think critically and to solve interesting problems.

Let's make this clear with an example that happened last month with my daughter on the way to cleaning the first of 5 offices Saturday. Christianna currently shares a bedroom with her 3-year-old brother Kasey. She desires to get up earlier than him, but realizes an alarm clock won't work as it will wake him up too. She said this to her dad in the car. "I CAN'T get up on my own because of Kasey". I said this to her. "That's true. Let's change the statement to a question. HOW CAN I get up on my own without waking Kasey?

This intrigued Christianna, but also let her know that she was about to undertake a long process of learning! My son Kenny was with us and he was smirking as he's already been through this many times with dad. I charged her with a thinking assignment while we cleaned. She had to come up with 10 possibilities of how she could wake up without waking Kasey. It was so much fun. We had a dinner picnic in between the 3rd and 4th offices in a park. Christianna came up with 6 ideas. Kenny and I added 4 others. We talked them over. Here they are!

1. Move my brother out of my room
2. Sleep downstairs on nights that I need to get myself up at a certain time.
3. Will myself to get up through neurolinguistic programming (NLP) the night before.
4. Sleep with earbuds and an alarm.
5. Wake up to just light alarm, facing away from baby.
6. Go to bed early enough to naturally awake at your time.
7. Buy (or invent) a vibrating alarm. Be woken by feel vs sound or light.
8. Setup contraption to dump cold water on your head at the wake up time.
9. Put earmuffs or noise reduction earphones on baby or ear plugs.
10. Buy sleep number bed and setup program for head to rise at wake up time.

As a team, we put our brains to work to narrow down the list of 10 to the best viable option for her. She decided. Some of the ideas were super funny and we laughed them out of contention. Others were unrealistic. Ultimately, we settled on our Top 3. They were the vibrating alarm, moving Kasey out of the room, and going to bed early. Christianna asked her brain more questions and she decided that the best solution to waking up before Kasey without waking him was to buy a watch with a vibrating alarm. She was amazed at how simple the solution was. You see, she had lived with "I can't" so long that she never tried to solve it. Once I changed her statement to a question, everything changed!

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I would like to thank a listener to this podcast for this episode. A few weeks ago, I received an email from Katie Young, sharing with me that she was in the planning phase of her new solo cleaning business. Katie was very excited to get started and thanked me for my support through this podcast. Then she asked a question that I have not directly answered yet.

"How do I name my business? My plan is to make my cleaning business eco-friendly and primarily residential."

She went on to share a few names she was brainstorming and wanted my opinion. I knew right away that my reply answer needed to be an episode so others could benefit. Thank you so much for your support and for this awesome question, Katie!

Before I share my thoughts to this question in 2020, let me take you back and explain how my company name was chosen. I consider myself a pretty creative guy, but for some reason, my family members aren't too creative with names. Let me give you some examples:

• My daughter Chritianna named her stuffed Ram, Rammy, when she was young.
• My son Kenny named his stuffed Skunk, Skunky, when he was young.
• My son Kye named his favorite stuffed Elephant, Ellie.
• My wife and I named our first side businesses accordingly. We named the side Amway business, Carfagno International, the writing business, Carfagno Writing, and the cleaning business, Carfagno Cleaning. Yup, we added the type of business to our last name and whammo.

The only standout in our family was my son Kolby. He was the creative one, naming his stuffed dog, Money, and his stuffed cat, Paper. He's our future millionaire. Thus, you can see that my solo cleaning business had absolutely rhyme or reason behind it. Once it was established, I didn't want to change it especially when I paid for 5,000 business cards and embroidered shirts!

I do hold a position on this now. If I were to name my company again, it would not be Carfagno Cleaning. I would go with something like Indian Valley Cleaning. I've been in the cleaning industry for 15 years, but I've only been networking and consulting in the industry for 4 years. I have learned a lot by helping other companies. Are you ready for your answer, Katie?

Naming your business is important, but don't make it a stumbling block to starting. Here are 7 recommendations for you to consider as you name your business:

1. The name of the owner is common for solos. I chose this with Carfagno Cleaning. Many solo cleaner's do this as well and unfortunately many unregistered, uninsured, and unprofessional cleaners do as well. You'll see "Debbie's Cleaning" or "Sally's Cleaning". There are absolute exceptions to this, but naming your business this was has two huge cons. It communicates "cheap", "under-the-table", Aunt Sallie, and certainly a small business. When you name the business after yourself, you become the brand verses what you do and what sets you apart. The second con is that it's harder to sell a business with the owner's name in it. You may say, "but Ken, you sold yours!" That's true. I sold my client list and my systems, but I kept my name when I left NY and started in PA. There is a pro to naming this way. If you intend to keep your business small and solo for the life of your business, naming your business after you will communicate that you get Debbie or Sally every time. Many homeowners desire this. There is a third point. If you ever intend to do commercial cleaning, the more professional and the less your brand is tied to you the better. I also think that using your last name is more professional than your first when going commercial. My business name has never hurt me in the commercial world.

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This week started with content batching. Batching is an optimizer's tool for ultra productivity. Every month, I create blogs, podcasts, and videos for Carfagno Cleaning and Solo Cleaning School. It takes a ton of time to do each week. I used batching in my cleaning business and in other areas of business over the years. When Teresa's mom was available to watch the kids overnight, we jumped on the opportunity and grabbed a hotel for the night. I got so much done as I batched blog after blog after blog. We also enjoyed time together, so it was a win-win. The following day, I rented an office from my MCBA friend Vernessa Hopkins. Vernessa owns H3 Business Services in Harleysville, PA. The office was perfect and I was able to record all of my podcasts for the upcoming month. My batching goal was to invest a few days and dollars to complete all of my content for a month. I accomplished that! Please keep this in mind. The portion of my batching that related to my solo cleaning business was a small part, so it may not be necessary for you to batch your content. However, you may start sending out newsletters a few times per month, maintain your website, and repurpose content to Facebook and Google My Business. Batching would be a great idea for you at that point.

I've been tracking each of my offices from Saturday to Saturday, so I know how long they are taking. Plus, I've made changes to get faster. Over the weekend, I had a difficult email to send. One of these office cleaning clients took me longer because of paint speckles and glitter on the floor as well as increased kitchen areas. I knew I'd have to say something or scope creep would get me!

[Before continuing, check out the bonus video, "How do I Deal with Scope Creep" on the Solo Cleaning School YouTube Channel. You'll learn how easy it is for your clients to unintentionally take advantage of you.]

When the scope of work increases over time, it causes our cleaning times to increase. The great majority of cleaning companies will NOT raise the price as the scope changes so slowly they don't notice it. Not me! I recognized the potential Scope Creep setting in and knew I would have to send a difficult email. I used the sandwich technique with praise and gratitude in the open and close of the email. In the center, I laid out the areas where the scope has increased. Then I shared how this affects my company. "I clean five offices every Saturday right now. I'm in the process of adding more as well. So when one office starts taking me longer, it ends up costing me money. I'm sure you understand!" Then, I offered possible solutions which either forced them to take ownership and have the staff do more end-of-day cleaning or I would submit a new proposal with higher prices for the increased scope. I was nervous about the outcome as it was surely possible to lose the client, but I had to do this. It's my business and I must run it like one! Fortunately, they responded with consideration and we worked through the solutions together. Ultimately, they decided to take ownership for one portion. The other part, where they've added more kitchen appliances, we decided to alternate half-and-half each week. They gave a little and I didn't raise my prices. It also raised my image of trust and professionalism.

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Building a business is a privilege we have as free people in America. Patriots have bled and died to give and preserve this freedom and I never want to forget it. I also don't want to take it for granted. Kathy Barnette is the Republican candidate for U.S. Congress for the 4th District of Pennsylvania. This is the district I live in. She was a guest speaker in our church prior to the election and I was so moved with her talk that I asked her permission, her campaign, and our church for the right to take an excerpt from her talk and share it to my podcast audience. They agreed that this was a powerful message about preserving liberty and should be shared. 

I am keeping my notes on the episode short, but I do want you to see this quote from Kathy in print. It is one of the most powerful questions I've ever been asked. It brought tears to my eyes when I heard it. 

"If God removed you today, would anyone notice the ripple your life is no longer creating?"

Kathy has an incredible story of struggle and victory. Please keep an open heart and mind as you listen to her message. It is powerful!

Learn more about Kathy on her website.

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This episode is in the same mindset of "Top of Mind" and "Get your Name Out There ". My solo cleaning business grew this week with a new client, but first I want to share about Tom and Andrew and how they each helped me. I wasn't afraid to ask for feedback.

Tom and graduated high school together. We haven't talked in 25 years, with the exception of a few Facebook likes. Last week, I got a private message from Tom. "Hey Ken I tagged you on a comment from Ryan Nyce. He went to MHS a few years younger than us. He's a realtor in our hometown area. He was looking for a cleaner for Trooper. If that's in your sandbox, then feel free to comment to him as well. Good luck man! I listened to a few episodes of your podcast. I'm not a cleaner, but some of the business-related stuff I enjoyed! Keep up the good work!" I had no idea that Tom was paying any attention to what I've been working on. I was honored to be honest. I always liked Tom. We had our jokes and goofed off as seniors, but he's done very well in life and I respect him. This message was so encouraging. I did connect with Ryan and friended him. He added me to his cleaning list and we'll connect sometime and I'll share with him my 3 levels of cleaning so he understands what I do.

Andrew has been following my cleaning email newsletters and typically replies to them with an encouraging word. Like Tom, Andrew is paying attention. I'm always thankful. Well, we talked in person at a recent BIB meeting and I asked him for feedback about my newsletter. I was working hard to put out a weekly cleaning article, but it was draining. I wondered his opinion on doing it less often. Andrew gave me great feedback. He said. "Ken, if you were a big company trying to grow big, I would keep it weekly to keep your name in front of people more. However, your articles are really good and every other week isn't as big of an ask for your subscribers to open and read. A monthly email isn't enough. They would forget you." This was such great advice that I made the switch for my August newsletters and saved a bunch of time.

Let's wrap up this episode with a another win from my solo cleaning business. The Skippack Animal Hospital hired me for monthly cleaning, adding another $5,000 per year in annual revenue. This new client hit my personal SMART goal for August 31st to add $15,000 in new annual, recurring revenue. I've not hit 4 SMART goals this year, increasing our revenue over $55,000 in 2020 alone! What an amazing year. I already mentioned in prior episodes that this new client was watching me from the behind the scenes and asking colleagues about me. They were paying attention. If you're putting yourself out there, I promise you there are people paying attention.

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There are two stories I'd like to share to prove that mastery comes with strategic practice. The first story is cute. While making a secret Santa with my son Kye in the basement, I was painting meticulously. Kye marveled and said. "Wow, Dad. You're really good at that. When I get bigger, I'll be able to do it too." I said. "Kye, it's not getting bigger that will make you better. It's a lot of practice. I've been painting for 35 years." He got it right away. It's not how many years you've been alive. It's how many reps you put in. Do you follow this simple mindset?

Once you get better with practice, you will start to notice a phenomenon take place. Your body will just do the best version without you thinking about it. It's called Unconscious Competence and it's where you have a routine that is excellent, efficient, and unbreakable. That's what we need to win in anything. And it's what we need to be able to optimize our solo cleaning businesses. I won't dig into this now, but there are 4 levels to work through: Unconscious Incompetence, Conscious Incompetence, Conscious Competence, and Unconscious Competence.

It takes lots of reps to master these 4 levels. There's another mindset we can borrow from weightlifting too. You can bulk up with high weight and low reps. Or, you can build lean muscle with precision movements, maximizing the negatives of the exercise, through lower weights and high repetitions. That's what I want you to do in your solo cleaning business. Lower the weight and work with precision slowly at first. Master the 4 levels until you reach the pinnacle, then switch to high weight and optimize with speed.

That's the process. Let's close this podcast with a story I've never shared publicly. But if you can get past the funny parts and the title of the competition, you will possibly catch the biggest nugget I've ever shared in the Solo Cleaning School Podcast.

The movie Forrest Gump came out in my freshman year at Penn State. I was an engineering student with homework until 3 or 4am every night. It was brutal. My freshman classes had 300+ students and my sophomore had 100. That's why many said that engineering was pre-business as the drop outs went into the school of business. I couldn't possibly work straight through, so I'd mosey to the freshman commons with my ping-pong paddle, wait my turn, and play until I lost. That's how it worked. The winner would stay on the table accepting new challengers. After a month or two, I improved my already excellent game to become the best freshman ping-pong player. I was already the best in my high school, or at least tied with Scott Shalom, who was a year ahead of me. How did I know I was the best freshman. Simple. I would get on the table when it was my turn and I would stop playing when I was tired. I didn't lose. I was good! There would always be the same pack of Chinese students hovering around the tables and they would cower when I showed up. I was arrogant for sure!

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I've broken a lot over 15 years, but it's all relative. I have two mindsets to discuss before I share my cleaning misdeeds.

1. Your auto insurance company keeps actuarial tables and knows exactly how much an accident costs on average. These numbers are taken into account when you get and pay your annual insurance premium. In fact, it is designed to be a win-win. If you get into an accident or not, the insurance company still makes money. They win. Plus, your accident or claim is covered so you don't have to pay out of pocket. If you cost the insurance company too much money, they will raise your premium to ensure they make a profit and you can still be covered. Insurance is a product. We insure many things. One of those things is our business against general liability and bodily harm. Your business insurance company has the same actuarial tables and business model. I personally pay $550 per year in general liability and yes, I've had to use it once. The first mindset to take is this. You need insurance because things WILL break or get damaged!
2. I'm a former General Electric mechanical engineer and Six Sigma Green Belt. Six Sigma is a design system to minimize defects to 6 per million opportunities. It's an extremely difficult high bar in engineering design to achieve, that's why companies like GE and Motorola in the 90's and 2000's thrived. As a cleaner, I touch 500 things in each house or office. Over my 15 years, I've cleaned an average of 250 houses and 250 offices or 500 cleans per year. If you multiply the this out, I've created 3,750,000 opportunities to break or damage something. I call this a defect. Over this same 15 year mark, I have 75 defects. Continue the math and you'll conclude that my defect rate is 20 per million opportunities. 5 sigma is 233 defects per million opportunities. I've been cleaning for 15 years right on the cusp of 6 Sigma. In fact, I am literally a 6 Sigma Green Belt in my defect rate over the past 5 years as most of my 75 defects happened in the first 10 years. Therefore, my rate of damage or defect is as good as GE designs the airplane engines you fly with!

Side note: If you're struggling with breaking or damaging things, first evaluate your defect rate. Feel free to assume 500 opportunities per house or office. Secondly, if your defect rate is over 50 per year, you need to make changes in how you clean. A few simple system changes and routine can fix it.

Now that you have the proper perspective on my defect record, let's examine some of the 75 so you can see how I handled them.

1. Knick-Knacks - In my first year, I had a client with a LOT of knick-knacks, especially in the kitchen. I decided early on to be a full surface cleaner, so I would move everything in order to clean under it. This house made me change my policy. I had to move close to 100 items to clean the kitchen every 2 weeks. It's no surprise that I broke 3 of them. I would slide them or bump them and it would crack or break. I told the owner each time. After my second break, she held back $20 from my cleaning check and fired me on the third.
2. Coffee Pot - What happens when you attempt to clean a thin glass coffee pot in a slippery wet hand over a hard granite kitchen counter? The answer is a broken coffee pot. I told the homeowner. He ordered a new one and I asked him to dock the amount from my next cleaning. It cost $25.

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I've told this story for years. Teresa and I were in the Amway business from 2002 to 2012. While we were there, we were blessed with incredible friends and mentors. One of those men is Herb Eplee. He build his Amway business to 6-figures and residual income in the early 90's and retired from corporate America at 37 years old. Herb is a self-acclaimed Kentucky redneck. He had a retirement party that literally made the Spartanburg, SC newspapers as he set 5 alarm clocks in a field. He labeled them Monday through Friday and blew them up one by one with a shotgun. All of his friends in the Amway business celebrated with American flags as he quit his job. I met Herb 10 years later. He was my Amway Upline and helped Teresa and I in so many ways along with our other upline mentor Joe Schirripa. These two men, whom I'll share more about in future podcasts taught us business owner mentality and mentored us in business, marriage, and faith.

In July 2008, Teresa and I were fed up with our cleaning business. We had 3 part time employees. I was pulling in $5,000 to $6,000 per month, but kept less than $2,000 in profit. We were starving and full of debt and stress. Our tea kettle was past the whistle; check out "The Whistle is a Warning". We got on this coaching call with Herb wanting help on fixing our cleaning business, so we could be more effective in our Amway business. Well, good ol' Herb gave us some advice we did NOT want to hear. Here are some of the highlights on this call:

• I knew my numbers. This coaching call could NOT have happened if I didn't know my numbers. At the time of this call, I was in business full-time for 2 1/2 years. I've always tracked and known my numbers. This is huge!
• I wasn't able to be a giver. Herb wanted us prospering in our main source of income so we could be a giver and greater benefit to our community. We were so broke that we couldn't even help ourselves. "Ken can do without, but I don't like seeing Teresa and Kenny doing without."
• I was such an over-optimist. My response to Herb's first question, "how are you doin'", was "I'm doing awesome! We definitely could use some more money coming though." I was NOT doing awesome!
• I was employee top-heavy. You have to move yourself into the employee game very slowly. You have to work yourself up until you're very busy, then you bring on someone very slowly so it takes a little pressure off of you. It's a cash flow game. Herb perceived that we needed the entire $5,000 to $6,000 per month for ourselves after taxes to make it. He said, "with 3 employees and paying them, you're way-bad not making it!" This was a super simple way of testing if I could afford employees. Herb said. "Ken, you can afford to pay employees everything over and above what it takes you to float your budget." I wasn't even close! He made one exception. If I couldn't handle my full family budget cleaning solo, then I'd have to make due with employees and fight through with aggressive marketing.
• I wasn't disciplined to marketing daily. I was not marketing to a level that would create new clients fast enough to keep the employees I had. Herb laid out the strategy to grow our business (in 2008) and how I could get my wife Teresa involved as a business partner. Teresa would need 2 hours per day to make 20 phone calls, which would create 1 new client per day and 5 new clients per week. I would need 2 hours per day around my cleaning to complete the estimates and proposals to close the deals.

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Do you know how the tea kettle works? It's simple. You fill up the kettle, leaving some room at the top. There is a small pour spout on top with a hinged lid. The water slowly heats up as pressure increases inside this closed pressure vessel. Once critical mass is achieved and the water is boiling, the pressure inside causes the kettle lid to crack and whistle. The water is ready for making tea. I won't mention the person, but I heard a story this week that got me thinking about the tea kettle. This person has a long commute to work, a mentally demanding job, an elderly parent to care for, and children in high school and college in this post-COVID world. This person is constantly in a state of work, like Vincent Pugliese mentioned in the previous episode, "My Greatest Ideas have Never Come from Being Busy " As this person was talking, I could feel the tension, stress, and internal pressure like the water in the heating tea kettle. I felt terrible, but also realized that once a person is in this state, they won't believe they can get out. They feel trapped because they are under so much pressure, with no mental margin, and no quieting time to get new ideas to change things. The image of that tea kettle kept coming to mind.

I was talking to my buddy Billy Altman after hearing this person's story. Billy and his wife Rebecca are missionaries with FamilyLife and have an incredible ministry helping marriages and families. I told him the story and the metaphor I was trying to draw. He immediately picked up on it and said this. "Ken, the tea kettle starts whistling when the water has started boiling. At some point, the tea kettle will start overflowing hot water. The whistle is the warning." I thought about this profound statement that Billy made. He was right. The whistle is a warning. It tells us when we're about to spill over or blow our lid! At some point, my friend will get stretched past the point of what her tea kettle can handle and it will be messy and take a while to clean up. I am praying for this person. If you relate with this story and you're living life with no margin, your whistle may be sounding soon if it hasn't already. Please, quiet your brain and give yourself mental, physical, and emotional space to decompress, depressurize, cool down, and have peace of mind.

I really struggle to give a personal business update after this amazing message, so I'll share a few wins from this week in my solo cleaning business.:

• The week started off awesome with an email from Pam! She selected a biweekly house cleaning for $200 per visit. This adds $5,000 of new revenue per year.
• Shelby Miller and I were appointed education chairs for our MCBA group. It's an honor to work with Shelby. We kicked it off this week with the topic of family & life balance as we felt it was vital to build a foundation of WHY first. The conversation was excellent and we all felt so encouraged.
• I got a website inquiry from a church that needed a cleaning estimate. The pastor found me through my chamber showcase interview and told his office manager to call me for quotes.

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I brought my friend Vincent Pugliese into the SMART Cleaning Tribe that I facilitate in July as an expert to share mindset on building a life of Total Life Freedom. We covered many topics, but one connected more than any other. It was the concept of quieting your brain. Listen to the podcast for the full discussion. I'll share a few points he made while talking with Lizzie Strohl of Lebanon Cleaning Crew out of Lebanon, MO.

"It's easier to work 60 hours than to work 40 hours. I used to be that way, but you miss a lot. You the miss the ideas and you miss the creativity. Because if you can give yourself that time to relax and quiet your brain, and slow your body down verses always doing something... My greatest ideas have never come from being busy. I can get more work done by doing work, but the ideas that will grow everything that you're doing come from quiet. And when you don't allow yourself to be quiet, you'll just continue to do more work."

Since this expert call, our Tribe members have really taken this quiet time as a challenge. Jenn and Michelle decided to do a daily accountability and share ideas. Kate gets ideas right before waking up, coming out of her dream state. She started writing notes on a pad next to her bed when she wakes up. Plus, she has her phone with her while enjoying her favorite past-time of kayaking. Ellen has blocked off 2-3 pm every day to float around in her pool. She keeps her phone on a raft nearby on 'Do Not Disturb' mode and ready to write down any ideas. Ellen shared on a recent Tribe call that this simple investment of time is creating tremendous ideas. She brought one of them to the call and we had a blast brainstorming with her. This one idea could launch an entirely separate business, allowing Ellen to create the passive income she would love to create. She recognized there were common complaints in house cleaning and may have discovered a way to fix one of them! It's exciting, but I can't share it. Vincent was right. "My greatest ideas have never come from being busy."

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In a recent solo cleaning business update, "Slow Down to Speed Up ", I invested 45 minutes in the driveway talking to potential clients. I answered all of their questions and even walked one through a series of questions to use to interview other cleaning services. Her name is Meghann. She hired me for an initial cleaning last week and it went splendid. Meghann was very impressed and wanted to get quotes for a recurring service either biweekly or monthly. I provided those prices within a day. By the end of last week, we agreed on a monthly recurring service for $160. Yay! It pays to slow down. I invested 30 minutes on the phone and it turned into $2,200 in revenue over the first 12 months!

I've shared the story of Tom and recycled computer parts for my son and that he hired me for biweekly office cleaning. This week, Tom decided to shut down his office again through COVID and drop cleaning to monthly. No big deal. I'm flexible and my proposal has this exact line in it. Tom was grateful.

"Contracts: Carfagno Cleaning, Inc DOES NOT require contracts. Our word is our bond. Keep us as long as you're happy! But please, let us know if you ever feel something was missed. A contract-free service allows you to switch between cleaning options as needed."

Here are some marketing-related activities from last week. My wife noticed that a local restaurant was looking for cleaning and forwarded the message to me. I immediately recognized it as Sammy's Bullfrog Cafe in Harleysville, a place where I've already submitted a proposal for biweekly cleaning. I thought this would be a good time to reach back out to the owners and say hi. It was no surprise that they asked me to send a requote and if I cleaned kitchens. I replied no to the restaurant kitchens, but resent my original proposal. I got a call from Heather for a biweekly cleaning, thanks to a referral from my realtor BIB group friend Mary Ann Alig. I took my time with Heather and gave her a bunch of information to share with her husband. Lastly, I completed the proposals for the owner of a local cafe, Pam, and the Skippack Animal Hospital! I was really proud of myself as I took my house and office cleaning proposal templates to the next level.

Now, it's time to get to the title of this episode. Susan Sloan is a fellow member of my MCBA networking group. She owns Real Health Quotes and recently partnered with her husband Tom on video interviews with local businesses to serve her clients. It's quite ingenious as she can bring experts from various industries to add value to her clients and it brings word-of-mouth power to the experts like myself. We have been trying to schedule this interview since February and finally got it done! Susan prepped me well for two short pieces, where Tom had varying camera angles. The first interview was geared to equip workers and small business owners to go back to work safely with respect to cleanliness. The second interview geared toward moms at home dealing with homeschooling and how to get the kids involved in the cleaning of the house. They were a lot of fun to create.

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I published the article, "Did you Know Cleaning has a Specialist Too?" for Carfagno Cleaning and sent it out as my weekly newsletter. I want to read you this article as it will help you understand WHY I earn more per client than others.

I also want to thank my fellow BIB member and insurance agent, Andew Rumbold of the R.A. Fraser Group for asking me the follow-up question "What is a Level 4 Specialist"? Andrew, that's an amazing question and here's my answer. I believe that the highest level one can attain in a craft or discipline is one of the teacher. You cannot teach what you haven't done. Thus, the teacher is higher than the doer. I labeled Level 2 and 3 as the experts in the science and art of cleaning and therefore labeled myself a Level 3 Cleaning Specialist. But thanks to Andrew, I am changing my label to the teacher and Level 4 Cleaning Specialist. I teach the science and art of cleaning to you listening to this podcast, to my students in the Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership, and my local community through newsletters, network meeting presentations, and webinars. I am a Level 4 Cleaning Specialist and like the doctors and surgeons from the medical field earn the most... so do I!

There is a Level 0 Cleaner too! I call them "Aunt Sally" cleaners. They are sweet ladies who live down the street or clean part-time while in college or raising kids. They are uninsured, under-the-table & non-compliant on taxes, and come with HIGH-risk of getting you in trouble if something goes wrong.

I wanted to lay this out before sharing my prices.

• My House Cleaning Prices: I currently clean houses on a biweekly (every other week), monthly, and bi-monthly (every other month) basis. I've cleaned in Upstate New York for 13 years and the Philly Area for 2 years. Over the past 3 - 5 years, my houses have ranged in price from $150 to $300 per visit and $150 to $250 for just the biweekly.
• My Office Cleaning Prices: Janitorial companies dominate this industry. They are large with many employees and typically clean large buildings multiple nights per week. I don't compete here! I'm a Level 4 house cleaner that has taken my specialty into cleaning smaller offices on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. My current offices range in price from $200 to $1,500 per month (weekly offices from $500 to $1,500).

Here are some tips I offer prospects on my website and conversations to help them overcome price concerns:

• If you are looking to spend less than the prices I charge, I recommend finding a Level 1 cleaner. Do NOT be lured into a Level 0 Aunt Sallie option. They will cost half as much as my Level 4 prices, but the risks are too high especially in this post-COVID environment.
• Most families budget on a monthly basis. An excellent Level 3/4 cleaning service like mine can keep your home cleaned with more excellence once per month than a Level 0/1 cleaning every other week. A biweekly Level 1 cleaning at $100 costs $216 per month. You can invest that same amount into a Level 4 monthly cleaning and "feel" better because higher quality can be felt.
• I don't do contracts for homes or offices, allowing clients the flexibility to switch their cleaning frequency as needed.

If you found this useful, I encourage you to join our Elite Membership for the Solo Cleaning School for $50 per month!

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This is a follow up to "Top of Mind" as I walk through 3 examples of how I get my name out there. Also, make sure to listen to the "Go for No" episode before this one! If you didn't listen yet, stop, and go back! It's hard in the beginning to do this as you fear what others will think of your new cleaning business. I promise you. It gets easier the more you do it. The next mindset you need is one of service and helping others. Getting your name out isn't greedy or self-serving. There are people right now that need exactly what you offer. You would be selfish to hold it back. Therefore, have courage and overcome the fear. Share your knowledge and your business and let God work out the rest. That's what I do. Here's the examples that happened my solo cleaning business over the past 2 weeks.

1. I mentioned this on "Slow Down to Speed Up" This week, I resubmitted a proposal to an office prospect Drew at Town Supply. I have put myself out there to 100 people each and every time I send an email campaign with something of value to my local community. Over the past weeks, I've been teaching on building trust with your new cleaning service. Well... Drew must have connected as he opened my previous emails multiple times and the one from last week 23 times! I knew it was time to reconnect. He asked for the new proposal, sharing all of the details of what they pay the company they chose over me. I put myself out there and it could turn into a $5,000 per year new office!
2. During COVID, I put myself out there and offered to help my chamber run virtual webinars. This lead to more trust between my company and my chamber leadership. Our president, Steven Hunsberger, offered for me to lead a webinar on how to disinfect properly and return to work back in April. Here's that presentation! A few weeks ago, Steven asked if I'd be interested in a showcase interview on me and my company. I said YES! Steven emailed me the questions. I answered them all and supplied some pictures. That showcase went out this week to 300 members via email and I'm amazed at the outcome. My friend and client, Dennis Gehman, along with my chamber ambassador Scott Little emailed me to congratulate me on a well-done showcase piece. Pam owns a local cafe and loved my showcase. She emailed me through my website and wanted to set up an estimate. We spoke over the phone and I took my time (obviously.... Slow Down to Speed Up). During the phone call and in-person interview, Pam asked for other references. I mentioned Dennis Gehman and Evan Gehman (from my BIB and they are not related). She knew both well and it helped a ton. This speaks volumes to the networking I've been doing over the past year! There is a great chance Pam will hire me as a new recurring biweekly house cleaning client!
3. I put myself out there to meet with the realtors in my networking groups 1-to-1 to get to know them better and share how I can help them. This strategy adds my name and business to their list of preferred cleaning vendors. I got a call this week from Ginny who needed cleaning ASAP. It was a long shot and I wasn't available. I asked how she found me. Her realtor gave her my number and told her to call. I never even met the realtor. They just knew me because I was recommended by their office, thanks to one of my realtor meetings!

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You need to read the book, "Go for No". It's recommended on my 'Resources' page! I first read this book in 2007.

It taught me that No is not the opposite direction from Yes. In fact, it's on the way to it! Once I got that, my brain shifted 180 degrees. I was still fearful to talk to people as an introvert, but I lost the biggest reason for the fear. This book lays this out. Most people assume that getting a No to your offer is failure and Yes is success. That's wrong! Getting No's is a part of the process to get Yes's. If I got 1 Yes every 10 times, it meant that it took me 9 No's to get 1 Yes. Thus, No (and many of them) was on the way to Yes and success. I also learned that failure was not trying at all or giving up. This totally gave me freedom and removed a lot of my fear!

Once I got the paradigm shift, I was able to start evaluating and tracking my No's and Yes's until I knew how many No's it took me to get a Yes. As an example, I used to get 7 No's before a Yes. When I got the first No, I kept going through No and No and No. I was excited to get my Yes, but then kept tracking my No's. Over time, it took less No's to reach my Yes. Today, I get 2-3 No's before a Yes. I'm telling you! This book is a game-changer! Read it!

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We need to stop trying to rush everything. I do have a goal and teach optimizing and getting faster at cleaning. However, I DO NOT rush the marketing and new client process. I take a lot of time to connect with potential clients. This pays off as I understand the trust building process. I have a few examples from this week in my own solo cleaning business. Let me paint the picture first. I was gone all day cleaning houses. While I cleaned, two messages came through for cleaning inquiries. I could have answered them, but it would hurt my optimizing times as the distraction would cause me to lose momentum. Plus, I wouldn't be on top of my game to give full attention to the prospects. I took voicemails. When I got home, I stayed in my car for 45 minutes. My wife and kids wanted me to come in and see them. Teresa didn't know why I was sitting in my car for so long, but she gave me the space. I was making an investment. During this 45 minutes, I returned 2 phone calls and took my time.

• One found me highly recommended on the HVL Moms group. She wants 1-time cleaning and recurring. I answered all of her questions as she's never had service before. My advise was to interview companies and ask these questions: Do you have $2M of General Liability? Are you state and tax compliant? What is your COVID protocol? What is your knowledge and expertise with disinfecting? She called back the next day and hired me for the 1-time job and likely the recurring.
• The second call was referred by Berkshire Hathaway as a 1-time renter-ready cleaning. I gave a ballpark of $250-$500. This prospect was very interested and could hire me.

Take your time with your trust-building and client on-boarding process. This will accomplish some vital wins for you. You will attract the right clients that will pay your prices. Over the long haul, this will set your solo cleaning business up for success in optimization. Look my own business forming up. I am averaging $175 per visit per house and the national average is $125! My clients hire me once and keep me a long time. They are grateful, pay on time, and turn into good friends. That's what I wanted. What about you? Slow down with your phone calls and explain what you do, why you do it, when you can do it, and how much it will cost them. In these two examples, I answered all of their questions including price. Plus, I built trust with both by equipping them on what questions to ask other cleaners they interview. Ultimately, this lead Meghann to hiring me for a 1-time cleaning for $250 and will likely turn into a recurring client worth $2,500 - $5,000 per year. Was the 45 minutes of slowing down worth it? You be the judge.

Let me hit some other highlights from my last two weeks building my new solo business. First of all, it's super cool to be attending my networking meetings in person again. At my MCBA group, I shared my overview of cleaning in a post-COVID world. Plus, I connected with fellow member Mike Thompson of Envoy Mortgage who hired me for biweekly cleaning. We confirmed our first cleaning for the end of the week. I showed up on Friday and impressed him! He asked how I got the metal sink so clean and my answer was simple. "It's all cleaning science!" This is my fourth biweekly house! At the BIB meeting, I was given the opportunity to do a short showcase on my business. I shared the TACT model of cleaning, which stands for Temperature, Agitation, Chemistry, and Time. I taught how to clean. It raised my level of cleaning in the group as I taught this.

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I've been cleaning homes since 2006 and have noticed a dramatic increase in home security as technology improves. Alarms have gone from wired to wireless. Cameras surveil various angles and locations of the home. Garages have keypads. Families are more secure than ever and they can do so at an expense less than it used to cost. This happens so predictively that economists give it a name.

The early adopters pay the most like cell phones in the '90s or tvs in the '50s. Once the technology reaches critical mass (around 10% market penetration), the technology floods the market until it cheapens with market saturation around 90%. This is called 'S-Curve' economics. As a side note, this is a fascinating phenomenon to study. Home security has undergone the same S-curve. Check out this statement from a recent article on the state of home security.

"Around 20% of homes in America have security systems, but this percentage is expected to increase over the next five years. In fact, experts predict that the number of homes with security systems will increase by 64% in that time period."

The early adopters of home security were in the '70's, '80's, and '90's. It took 40 years for home security systems to reach 10% market penetration or critical mass. It has taken roughly 10 more years to go from 10% to 20% of all homes secure in the US. This article predicts a jump to over 80% in the next 5 years! That's an 'S-curve' for sure! But I ask you. Is this normalizing effect causing homeowners to feel over-confident?

Unfortunately, I've noticed another trend. Homeowners are forgetting to lock their windows at an increasing rate. I'm a detailed house cleaner and clean complete kitchens and bathrooms, baseboards, wood trim, light switches, window ledges & sills over the course of time. I treat every client as if I was cleaning for my own family. Therefore, I'm a noticer! One of my clients was away for 5 days vacation and scheduled cleaning on the day of their arrival home. While I was there, I noticed that all 4 windows on the first floor were unlocked! These 4 windows happened to be the ones to the left and right of the front door on the porch. This discovery made me uneasy, so I locked them and notified the family. They were so thankful.

I notice unlocked windows more often in upstairs bedrooms. However, you'd be surprised how many windows I've locked in my 15 years cleaning houses on the first floor! I'm not a psychologist, but I will hypothesize. We are placing too much trust in our technology. Many homeowners in suburbia believe that their neighborhoods are safe. Therefore, they can leave their car doors, front doors, and windows open. If there was an intruder, the alarm system would pick it up. I learned recently from a bank professional that criminals are getting smarter too. They are not the Water Bandits from "Home Alone" that can be thwarted by a 7-year-old boy with lots of toys, tacks, and tar. These criminals are timing their crimes to steal from moms while they drop off kids at daycare. They target shopping parking lots. And they target the most "trusting" homeowners. I'm sure this is not new to anyone reading this.

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McDonald's is largest fast food restaurant chain in the world. There are nearly 40,000 stores worldwide totaling $21 billion in annual sales. I used to eat at McD's a lot as a kid and young adult. My favorite meal was the breakfast combo Sausage, Egg, and Cheese McMuffin, hash brown, and juice. Ray Kroc founded McDonald's on April 15th, 1955. He was a big thinker from the beginning and pioneered the franchise model, where you have a system for each new store empowering the spirit of the entrepreneur and leveraging the success of duplication. The company knows how to advertise with their jingles being some of the most well-known on the planet. They know how to entertain, bringing playgrounds inside their restaurants to get more kids to bring their parents. The company knows how to grow and scale. If you ever study this, you will be impressed. So many cleaning companies adopt franchise models as well for the same reasons. Like McDonald's, they can scale to incredible proportions.

Truett Cathy founded Chick-Fil-A on May 23, 1946. He was also a visionary entrepreneur, but his focus was different. They have been open 9 years longer than McDonald's, but have only opened 2,600 stores and these are mostly in the United States. On the surface, it appears that McDonald's is right with it's slogans of "Have you had your break today?" and "I'm lovin' it!" People are taking their breaks and loving it with over 1 billion served! However, let's study this further.

Truett Cathy was a christian man who decided to observe the Holy Sabbath and close his stores every Sunday. This was an unthinkable move as restaurants make a fortune on Sundays! Truett focused on customer service with a smile and treating every customer with love and respect. He wanted his team to love what they did as they knew they were not in the food business, rather the people business. They also get paid more per hour than McDonald's. Truett Cathy decided to only serve chicken and has become world-class at it. McDonald's serves beef and chicken. Personally, I love the Chick-Fil-A Spicy Chicken Deluxe with waffle fries. They also know how to advertise. Their 'Eat Mor Chikin' campaign is brilliant and hilarious, displaying poor-spelling cows begging us to eat chicken instead of beef. Truett Cathy's methods have created raving fans of his restaurants. In fact, there are loyal patrons willing to campout for free sandwiches at new store openings. It's called the "Chick-Fil-A First 100 Campout Giveaway". These patrons are proud of their affiliation with Chick-Fil-A. The only time I've ever seen anyone camping outside of McDonald's are the ones that live there. Oh, and I challenge you to drive by both of these fast food restaurants and see which drive through line is wrapped around the building!

The typical Chick-Fil-A store is open from 8 am to 9 pm, while McDonald's is open from 5:30 am to 11 pm. Thus, the typical Chick-Fil-A store is open 78 hours compared to McDonald's 124.5 hours per week. However, something isn't adding up. McDonald's stores are open 60% longer and they have 15 times as many stores in the world, yet their annual sales are only a pinch over 5 times more than Chick-Fil-A. Do you know why?

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When I was 13, I got a job with the Movie Exchange. It was the company owned bye buy step-grandparents Monty and Shelly Tibbitts, whom I've talked about in prior episodes. They were the only entrepreneurs in my teen years, but I never had the courage to ask them real questions on business mindset. I wish that I had! However, I did learn a ton from them by watching the way the they lived and the way others treated them. First of all, they had money! There were always two Jags in the driveway. They owned a private plane, a boat, a beach house, wave runners. Secondly, they had beautiful decor and they entertained first rate. Check out "Eat with your Eyes First". The Tibbitts' were all about serving and mingling family with business. They made their business deals and built relationships with employees and their families at the dinner table in their home. Their imprint is definitely on me as an adult entrepreneur. I just didn't recognize it until Pop-Pop Monty passed away a few years ago.

I worked for the Movie Exchange for 2 summers. In this podcast, I'd like to share a fun story about swatting flies that connects deeply to how solo cleaners speed up their cleaning. This episode will be a great companion to "Optimizing is More Mental than Physical". During one of these summers, Grandma Shelly sent me into an unused, overflow office area. During the 90's, the Movie Exchange was rapidly growing a pre-viewed VHS division. They would sell acquire grocery store real estate sell these movies for under $10 and they sold very well. The movies had to be inspected, shrink-wrapped, price labeled, and distributed to their display cases in various outlets. In fact, my step-dad Paul was a lead salesman for this division of his parent's business. As a side note, I got to work in the shrink-wrap & labeling side the summer after this story takes place. Now that you understand the business model a little more, Grandma Shelly took me out to the empty office areas and showed me a full room of movie jackets (covers). She wanted me to organize these movie jackets alphabetically, so that they could easily match the VHS movies from the warehouse to the correct jacket faster. This work felt like busy work; a way to teach a teenager humility and work ethic. But no... I confirmed with Grandma Shellie recently and she assured me this was an important step in the process in 1990. She showed me where the box cutters, tape, and empty boxes were located and told me to stop by her office with any questions. That's all of the direction she gave me!

I remember this job distinctly 30 years later. There was a large central room approximately 40 feet by 30 feet and few side rooms. One of those side rooms was empty and the other was stocked floor to ceiling with movie jacket boxes. In 1990, I was a HUGE Beatles fan and was already wearing out the cassette tape of the Beatles Greatest Hits 1962-1966 on my Sony Walkman. I was ready to play this over-and-over while sorting through boxes all day... and I did! The Movie Exchange was paying me minimum wage of $3.85 per hour. I worked through July and August for 5 hours per day. It was awesome earning that biweekly paycheck as a teenager.

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I met Tom while living with my mother in-law. He was so nice and gave recycled computers to Kenny from his computer repair store. It started Kenny on a path to do computer flipping as a side business. We stayed in touch with Tom, with a possibility of Kenny doing some interning for him. I bumped into Tom again when he was on the Chamber webinar where I taught the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". Tom was really impressed and wanted to have me speak on the topic in a local business owner's group. We stayed in touch as COVID slowed. He invited us over as he had more recycled computers for Kenny. I've been very grateful that Tom thought of my son and helping a budding computer entrepreneur. I showed up with my son a few days later during a podcast recording day. I was dressed in shorts and a tank top. While Kenny was rummaging through computers, Tom mentioned that he was interested in getting a cleaning quote down the road. Of course, I told him we could set it up. But as Kenny took his time, Tom said. "Would you like to see it now?" I was not in professional dress and told Tom that I felt funny. He laughed and took me around the building. I took notes and promised to get some quotes out to him. When I saw the bathroom, I felt challenged by the rings in the sink. I knew Kenny wasn't done yet, so I said to Tom. "I'll be right back. I'm going to get the big guns and make this sink look awesome." He didn't argue at all. By the time Kenny was ready, the sink was glistening and Tom was amazed.

The rest of our visit at Tom's was very interesting. Tom agreed to allow Kenny to cut videos for his YouTube channel on computer repair for beginners, so we staged a video of Kenny knocking on the back door and Tom letting him in. The video then cuts to Kenny carrying computer parts and monitors out of the store and loading our SUV. He described what and why he was there. During our conversations with Tom, he shared something very interesting after I mentioned a mutual friend in Tom's industry that I just started cleaning for. Tom said this. "He's a MSP. I'm in the break-fix side of the business." He then explained the two business models in his industry and, of course, I related it to cleaning. Tom shared that break-fix businesses deal with smaller companies and have computers dropped off. He can work by appointment, and have a lot more flexibility. Plus he doesn't need many technicians to accomplish the work. It's a small, efficient business with flexibility. Tom explained the MSP (or Managed Service Provider) model like a hospital nursing station, where the company has screens monitoring the computer systems of all their customers in real-time. The MSP must be quick, nimble, on call, and ready to tackle anything that comes their way. They work on a recurring model paid monthly. Tom doesn't have a paid monthly model. He does one-time fixes. However certain customers come in for tune-ups few times a year most likely or have multiple repairs in a year as Tom is "their guy". Tom is the solo cleaner version and Chris is the team cleaner version. Both are excellent as they are different models and appeal to different clients. Tom knows what he is and why he does it. It was so encouraging to connect with a solo cleaner in the computer repair industry. I was also able to sent Tom's proposal two days later and got a "Yes" within 15 minutes! This is a new record for yes-time!

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I loved and hated the movie "Patch Adams" when it came out in the late 90's. There is one scene that is burned into my mind and unfortunately, I'll never forget it. Patch and his girlfriend Carin Fisher were serving the community with a medical clinic. A man named Larry enters the clinic and they take him in. He is mentally ill and disturbed, but seems harmless. One night, Larry calls Carin and asks her to come over and help him. She is so trusting and willingly comes over. She enters Larry's house with a smile, says his name, then sees his face. The scene ends as my heart fell into the pit of my stomach. I knew what happened and it was confirmed when the scene ends and goes to Patch receiving the news that Carin was murdered by Larry, who then killed himself with a shotgun. Years after this movie, I still think of this scene for my wife, my daughter, and even myself as I enter homes and offices to clean by myself. What could Carin could have done differently? Are there steps that solo cleaners can take to protect ourselves? I admit that I don't worry as much as a guy cleaning, but I've still had my doubts from time to time. The majority of solo cleaners are female, so I've asked a solo cleaning community that I lead for suggestions. Here's what they said...

• Beth Lane - I always try to vet them online through Google, the socials, etc. On the walk through, I only agree to the job if my “gut” tells me it’s okay. And if not, I need no logical reason to say no. My instincts are enough. Also, I don’t service homes of single men. Nothing against single guys...it’s just not my personal comfort zone as an unmarried woman.
• Heather Albrecht - I keep a Google calendar and my clients addresses are all in it. Its shared with my husband, he always knows where I am. If my clients leave, I lock the doors behind them. I keep my phone on me. I try to always be aware of my surroundings. If I go to meet a new client, I make sure to have my pepper spray, keep my keys on me, I also again make sure my husband knows where I am.
• Chelsea Donaldson - Look the person up on Google/Facebook. I always feel better if we have mutual Facebook friends. Once, a bachelor client had a news story done about him rescuing a dog that was hit by a car. Generally, single male clients are the ones I'm most nervous about, but that news story made me feel much better! 2 years later, I still clean for him bi-weekly. Great guy! Carry pepper spray the first time and always let them lead when showing the home (i.e. don't let them walk behind me). I do a walk-through before EACH cleaning. This is to see which areas need most attention, but also to make sure nothing is out of the ordinary or potentially dangerous. Lock the door when I'm alone in a house. My husband always knows where I am and when. I like to say hi to any neighbors or delivery/service people that I see before I go in. Just extra people to know who I am and where I am. I'll add here. If you have mutual friends on FB, check with those mutual friends and see if they have any feedback on this potential client.
• Letra Grayer I bring pepper spray and share my location with someone at all times. Sometimes, I may call someone to let them know I made it to the location in front of the customer and I let the person know that I’ll call them when I leave. They have the address and contact number and will do a follow up service call. Mainly to ensure I have left the premises.
• Carol Lange Always make sure you know the address. Keep your phone on and charged. Consider obtaining your conceal-carry permit. My husband always knows where and when I'm supposed to be. Lock all doors. When exiting he also knows this. Been doing this 23 years. Never be alone when they have workers in the home.

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I shared in previous episodes that marketing is layered. You add one at a time. Well, I began to use the free Google My Business listing in November 2019. It's a simple tool and totally allows me to showcase my strengths. I call this in my ISO Model Course, a "Profile to Win". Here's the gist. What can I display about me and my company to create trust and credibility before they ever call me? In my 15 years, I have learned that before & after pictures, professional credentials, and recommendations are essential. This is what I love about Google my Business. You can collect 5-star reviews, add posts and credentials to show off your level of specialization, and post before & after pictures. Google has internal analytics that I can easily track called "insights", allowing me to see the impact of these updates. I currently have 21 5-star reviews, tons of pictures, and a weekly blog with links to my website. Google uses this information to boost me for free up their search algorithms. In fact, when you search "House Cleaning Harleysville", you'll find my company highly ranked in the map pack on page 1. I've been wondering if this effort was going to pay off as no leads have come yet (at least that I knew about). Please understand. I ran my solo cleaning company for 14 of 15 years with NO website. I didn't have a Google My Business listing until last year and started my Facebook business page 2 years ago. You may be asking yourself how in world I ever got any leads! I grinded it out and was referred by word of mouth and I had a ton of success in earlier years with ServiceMagic (presently HomeAdvisor). However, some marketing channels that worked in prior years may not today. I ditched HomeAdvisor for Facebook, Google, and a website. It's so cost effective as I only pay like $20 per year for the website and the others are free. Anyway, it goes without saying that I've never received a lead through my website until this week! Thank you Google!

Last weekend, I got two leads through Google My Business and Facebook simultaneously. Here's a HUGE tip. When you have multiple marketing channels, it's hard to figure out which one they found me on. People are looking everywhere. Sam searched for a house cleaner and found my Google listing. She dug deeper and found me recommended in her Facebook mom's group. Sam visited my website and called me! Kathryn found me on the Facebook mom's group and then searched me online. This lead to my Google listing with my reviews, pictures, and posts. Ultimately, Kathryn visited my website and called me!

I also got my first ever website email inquiry this week. This potential client saw my posts on the Skippack Pharmacy Facebook page, which linked her to my Facebook buisness page. She liked my page. I friended her and thanked her for liking my page, plus offered to help with cleaning. She visited my website from my Facebook page and send me an email a few weeks later to clean her new home. I closed the deal on this lead with a phone call and phone estimate. I booked this job for a ballpark price range of $600 to $1,000 next week. This is a common strategy I use to lock in 1-time jobs as I'll price the exact quote prior to starting.

Are you starting to see how marketing layers work together? After the fact, I went back to my Google insights and looked at the past quarter. This blew my mind. I've had 550 total searches driving people to my profile over the past 90 days. 38 of these searches landed on my website and Google reports that 5 have called me directly! Now, I'm not sure how Google figures this out, but I definitely got 2 calls this week!

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This episode is completely different from others! I made a mistake in my industry, owned it, and it turned out really well! I'm a member of various cleaning groups on Facebook. One of them is called Professional House Cleaners, run by my friend Angela Brown of Savvy Cleaner. There are over 10,000 cleaning service owners active in this group to share lessons and best practices for the benefit of our industry. That's how it's supposed to work. We are all a part of the same industry and we understand that a rising tide, rises all ships.

I typically go in this group a couple times a month to skim the posts, learn, and answer questions. At any given time, there are thousands of brand new cleaning owners that have very basic questions like... "How much do I charge for this house?" "How do I clean this shower?" I don't typically engage with these questions. I like to answer deeper science or people-related questions. Well, I was on Facebook late one night and thought I'd skim a few recent posts. I saw a dozen or so of these basic starter questions and scrolled past. Then I stopped to answer a few newbie questions that were mindset or science related. It was late. I was tired and admittedly, I didn't read the entire posts. I got to this guy, Mark Baker. He had a post on the use of Bar Keeper's Friend in kitchen sinks. I barely read the post, made the assumption in my tired state that Mark was a newbie, and answered why BKF works using basic cleaning science. Then I shut down and went to bed.

In the morning, I had a personal message from Mark Baker. Here's what it said.

"Hi Ken.. thanks for your comment on my post. I felt a bit like you were talking down to me a bit with it and I wanted to reach out and let you know. I know you run a business assisting cleaning pros and I'll be listening to you at the maid summit. Just wanted to note that my post didn't insinuate I don't know the science of cleaning. I actually built my business from solo to 1.87 million in annualized sales (before pandemic shut down) in under 5 years in a very small market with just residential and now have a national company with cleaning pros in dozens of cities across Canada. We are well educated on the science of cleaning from HCT training to GBAC training, to pretty much every cleaner training program out there and have our own program which combines them all. I don't put that out to the group much as I enjoy learning and I am a cleaner at heart and every single day the group teaches me new things and I love interacting with my industry peeps. With all that said, i'll check out your solo cleaning tribe website. I wanted to share as most would appreciate the comment but for some of us it can come across as condescending as you made an assumption I wasn't in the know and you were. Looking forward to checking out your site!"

I immediately felt terrible about what I had done. I wasn't trying to put Mark down. I just made an assumption in my tired state and he rightly called me out on it. Here's my response!

"I'll have to read my comment and will edit it. I never want to infer arrogance. I'm very sorry about that and thank you for bringing it to my attention. It was late and I rarely go into the other groups lately. I was answering questions and saw your post on the sinks and BKF. I prefer the creme version. Congratulations on your success and I really like your desire to stay 'new'."

I followed this up with 2 voice messages directly to Mark explaining and apologizing again. Then I updated my comment on his post. I didn't delete it. I owned it by typing "update to original comment", followed by an public apology to Mark and a better explanation of my full answer to the cleaning science I mentioned.

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Let's start this Carfagno Cleaning solo business with a WIN! Last week, I got 5 referrals through my local network (listen to Play Powerball with your Business). The lead from my friend and carpet cleaner, James Hardy, converted to a new office cleaning client! Since this new client is a school, I had to jump through a few more hoops. First of all, I needed to go beyond adding them as a 'Certificate Holder' on my general liability policy. I needed to increase my insurance for this additional customer. This is called 'Additionally Insured'. My current policy provides $2 million of coverage per year at $500 in annual premium. This new client cost me an additional $50, which I count as an expense. I also had to coordinate a cleaning time with the school and their weekend janitor to let me into the building. The school is not in the habit of handing out keys to outside contractors. Spoiler alert: I prayed over this situation as I desire to have offices with the flexibility to clean anytime over the weekend. A few days later, the school made an exception for me and gave me a set of keys! Lastly, this new client is a school for autistic children. I know autism and realize that these students will be on the floor a lot, touching things, and likely touching their faces. Thus, disinfecting of the classrooms and floors was vital. They already had a food & skin safe disinfectant and asked me my opinion for the floors. I researched it and immediately determined it was a bad choice. Why? The title of this episode is "Art Trumps Science". Let's talk science first. The pH was slightly alkaline at 9. The floors are VCT (vinyl composition tile). VCT is commonly used in schools and supermarkets. They are also waxed & buffed on a regular basis to keep a beautiful finish and to protect the tile. My friend James Hardy did the job, so we conferred with him and he agreed. This ph 9 disinfectant had just enough alkalinity to eat away at the wax finish, which would dull it and cause James to come back sooner. Therefore, their disinfectant was a wonderful choice for the refrigerators, microwaves, table tops, door knobs, and light switches, but NOT the floors. I connected with my good friend Mark Lineberry at Universal Janitorial and he recommended the perfect solution. It's called MatPro. The school purchased it and now uses my recommendations for disinfecting and protecting their students and staff. This raised my expertise and trust with the school big time. See! Understanding science is vital. It sets you apart from the basic cleaning service!

Another lead from last week was Mike Thompson of Envoy Mortgage from my MCBA group. Mike is a mortgage advisor. What is that? It means he focuses on what's best for his clients. He coaches and consults them, looking at their lending scenario from a holistic approach. Of course he sells mortgage products too. He's a Go-Giver and his clients ask him to sell to them as a result of his giving approach. Anyway, Mike got back to my estimate and accepted a biweekly option. There's new client #2 for the week!

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This episode is completely my son's idea. Kenny jammed his finger a couple months ago. I noticed that he was dragging his feet with household chores because his finger hurt. He wasn't shooting the basketball well and losing in PIG because his finger was hurt. It seemed like everything Kenny did that first week, he was looking for empathy and wanting everyone to see him suffering. It also gave him a built in excuse why he wasn't performing in multiple tasks.

Was his finger hurt? Yes, it was. Was Kenny capable of more than he was showing? Yes, he was. I identified the mindset as "Loser's Limp". Zig Ziglar coined this phrase in his book "See You at the Top". Here's how I relate the concept from reading Zig's book. It's 4th and goal in overtime with 3 seconds on the clock. It's the last play of the game. The quarterback takes the snap and has a wide open receiver in the endzone. The receiver can squeeze the ball into his chest for the victory. He drops it as he falls to the ground. The game is over. The other team is celebrating. When the receiver gets up, he could say, "My bad." and take ownership, get better from it, and perform next time. However, he does something different. He gets up with a limp and hobbles off the field. The supposed injury masks his mistake. His teammates and fans show empathy. "He was hurt and couldn't make the catch." They validate his limp. They validate his excuse. They validate his losing mindset. Another example in the same sport is when the referee makes a bad call and that's why the other team won. Zig's example in the book is more about business. "I'm not a born salesperson or a born doctor, lawyer, artist, architect, etc." These people, like the football athlete, use this as an excuse whey they can't succeed. Zig also says."If you think you can or can't, you're right." The takeaway here is simple. You must decide to win or succeed. It's a mindset, not an outcome!

I explained this to Kenny. He didn't like it, but he agreed. Last week, Kenny and I were outside reading by the campfire and he stepped on a sharp twig. We literally had to cut skin away deep into his heel. It hurt. The next day, I watched him mow the lawn. He bandaged it up and completed the job in 1 hour! This is a big deal if you listened to the last podcast on Optimizing is More Mental than Physical. After he was done, he said this to me. "Dad, I found my Winner's Stride." I asked him what he meant and he shared. "I realized that I had the Loser's Limp and it was holding me back. I decided to think differently and stop looking for excuses for why I was losing. Instead, I starting finding ways to win."

If Zig were alive and heard this podcast, he would smile as his teaching made it's way into my son. But what about you? Have you ever been guilty of the "Loser's Limp" in your life? Have you ever used a disability, lack of opportunity, health or money challenges, mistreatment from others, injury, or 'not born with it' as an excuse for why you didn't succeed? I challenge you today. Turn that disability, lack, challenge, mistreatment into the reason why you succeed. That's how you create a platform to help others by sharing your testimony. Kenny called it the 'Winner's Stride'. I'm a proud papa.

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As we emerge out of the pandemic, people are wanting their homes and offices cleaned again. This week alone, I got 5 opportunities to quote! Before I share the 5 leads, I want to explain a principle. Are you familiar with the lotto machine?

The Power Ball Lotto Machine has 69 white ping pong balls that bounce around off each other and the machine walls until 5 are selected. There's a second machine with 26 red balls, where 1 is selected to go with the 5 white ones. I want you to think about your marketing machine like this lotto machine. Every time you make a new connection and build up the know, like, and trust factor in that relationship, you enter a new white ball into your machine. If you only have 1 ball in there, you will get a lead eventually, but you will have to wait. What if there was only one white ball in the lotto machine? Well, you'd have a 100% of winning and therefore the Lotto would not allow that game to run. The 'house' would lose every time. One white ball is a losing game. What about adding a second white ball? Well, if the Lotto game was drawing one ball as the winner, you'd have 50% odds like a coin flip. The house would lose here too, so they would only run this game if the payout was small. As you add more balls from 1 to the full 69, the odds of winning reduce dramatically. Therefore, the payout increases as the odds decrease. Check this out, the odds of winning Powerball are 1 in 292,201,338! With odds this low, the house knows they can create HUGE payouts to entice more players to play with the higher payout stakes. And the house knows that they will make money. They will have payouts to winners of $150M, $300M, $500M, or 63% in total payouts (according to a CNN Money article from 2017). In other words, the 'House' or state governments that run the Lotto count the 63% in winner payouts as an expense. There is still 37% leftover that pays the overhead and variable costs to run the Lotto. The profits remaining according to the article can be upwards of $16B annually for states. It's a profitable business for sure.

Here's the concept I want to draw from this. The more balls in the machine, the lower the odds and higher the payout. Treat your solo cleaning business like a Lotto Machine. Put yourself into position as often as possible to create new connections for future business. Nurture those relationships by serving them. Build your Know, Like, and Trust factor over time. This will add tons of white ping pong balls into your marketing machine. They will bounce around and leads will start coming more and more frequently. As you get more leads (due to more connections and ping pong balls), the demand for your service goes up... and so do your prices or payout!

If you're been following this podcast, you've listened as I've built my new cleaning network in the Philly Area. I've made many connections and I've served them. In early 2020, I had a handful of ping pong balls in my marketing machine that generated a few leads. I invested time during COVID to educate and serve. This added a ton of white balls. Now, I'm seeing the fruit. This week 5 white balls were drawn from my machine:

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My son was getting frustrated with cutting the grass. We have an acre and he'd take 2 days to complete it. His total time was 2 hr 45 min (30 min prep, filling up grass, picking up large sticks, cleaning up yard toys and moving furniture) and 2 hr 15 min to mow over 2 days. He wanted a riding mower because it was taking too long.

I have done this to solo cleaners for a long time and knew it was time to prove a point to my teenage son. I told Kenny. "You're off duty this week. I'll cut the grass and will have it done in an hour. I had Kenny do the pick up and prep, so I could simply grab the push mower and cut grass. I had no system as this was literally my first time cutting the grass at our home and it took me 1 hour and 15 minutes. Kenny was stunned and mad! His upper limit was blown. Prior to watching me cut the grass, he was like the Roger Bannister haters. Do you know that story? People thought it was impossible to complete a mile in under 4 minutes. The best in the scientific and medical field even proved that it was physically impossible. Then Roger broke the 4 minutes mile in 1954 and hundreds have done it since!

Kenny's belief system changed when he saw me do it in 75 minutes compared to his 120. "I heard you say you could do it faster, but I had to see it to believe it." Kenny said. This gave him a new target. Realize that we are wired to compete. Once I showed Kenny that the grass could be cut in 75 minutes, do you know what that sucker did?! He duplicated me on the first try. This happened two months ago. Kenny gets the yard done in less than an hour every time now. He has optimized it better than I did. My son needed a new number to shoot for and beat. It's like the Charles Schwab story in "How to Win Friends and Influence People". The day and night crews in a manufacturing facility were underproducing. Charles didn't yell at them. He simply wrote a number on the floor in the morning for how many units the night crew turned out. The morning crew surpassed that number, erased the night crew's number, and replaced it with their own. This friendly spirit of competition built unprecedented levels of production for Schwab.

Take this mindset into house cleaning. We need to train our clients to do the pick up themselves (pick up toys, clear counters). They do the work of Kenny. Then I come in to do the cleaning in a system that can be efficient. Imagine if you're a house cleaner with times like Kenny. Your average house is 4 hours. If I taught you how to shave an hour off each house, do you know how much time that can save you at 10 houses per week? 520 hours per year. If we fill that time with new biweekly houses at $150/visit, that's an extra $26,000 in revenue per year! Optimization is the addition of little numbers equaling a big one! Once he had a challenge, he worked against the clock to win. This is how optimizing happens!

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This was a breakthrough week for the Big Picture of what I'm doing. I have business SMART goals that I set for my solo cleaning business on 1/1/20. I share this mindset in my goal-setting series (What is Your Why, Why Set Goals, Make Your Goals SMART, The Accountability Roadmap, and Kill Parkinson). The lessons and reminders from this week in business forced my hand to create a 6th installment to this series.

As many of my podcast listeners know, I have other streams of income. I run the SMART Cleaning Tribe for team cleaners. I host this podcast and the connected Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership for my students to learn my ISO Model to hit their goals. I am also at the beginner stage to consulting large cleaning companies with employees that would like to scale with optimized solo cleaners or Solo Teams. I'm also a published author of an interactive book for fathers to read to their kids called "Arctic Land". In past years, I have struggled with holding it all together and being productive with multiple irons in the fire. This year is different. I have figured out a way to prioritize and follow through. I call it reverse engineering your dreams and I hope this podcast will help you find a similar system that works for you!

I knew (prior to COVID) that this year needed to be our breakthrough year. We needed to build a new solo cleaning business to become an optimized part-time 6-figure income. There were multiple reasons for this:

1. To teach our kids the "family trade" by working with dad, earning income, saving, giving, spending, and investing.
2. To show YOU (the listeners) that my ISO Model works by building and optimizing a second solo cleaning business to the same level as my first in a fraction of the time.
3. To earn a main income source in the schedule I was willing to clean that would provide everything our family needed too thrive in 2020 & beyond, not relying on any online income.

Thus, I set the SMART goals on 1/1/20 to add $10,000 of new annual & recurring cleaning revenue every 60 days. This seemed like a tall order, but I believed it was A-chievable (the "A" in SMART Goal). I added 3 new houses in January & February to hit my first SMART goal for 2/29/20. March and April were very difficult with COVID-19, but I plugged away at my #1 goal for 2020 and upgraded a veterinary hospital by doubling the monthly service fee to hit my 4/30/20 SMART goal. We added 2 offices and a house to not only hit our 6/30/20 SMART goal, but we doubled the goal! The year is halfway over and we've hit 3 out of 3 goals. We have accomplished this through COVID, the loss of my Nana, near loss of my mom from COVID, and the emotional toll of helping my autistic uncle. How is this possible? We've been focused and having a #1 priority all year has allowed me to tend to other things. I have NOT been distracted. This level of FOCUS is necessary. And FOCUS stands for Follow One Course Until Success.

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Chest freezers are super-hard to get right now with the COVID pandemic. They are back ordered by manufacturers and the used market is dry. So when Teresa came across one on Facebook Marketplace, she jumped at the opportunity as she really wants one. It was a great deal and the seller was going above and beyond to save it for us. He assured me that it worked and I trusted him. He's a business person and had a solid story for why he was selling it. I'm usually a very good judge of trust.

We paid him $400 cash, no haggling. We got it home and I thoroughly disinfected it for over an hour. It was a lot of work and ended up costing me a full work day. But my wife was happy and that has a great value. I plugged it in overnight to make sure it worked. In the morning, the alarm sounded as it reached 26 degrees. The temperature never dropped below that. In fact, I lost more time throughout the week fiddling with it. Eventually, I spoke to an appliance repairman who diagnosed it over the phone. "It's leaking Freon and is junk." He went on to explain that it would cost way too much to repair and we could just wait to buy a new unit for $1,000 - $1,200. Darn! Teresa and I were upset that we had no freezer, lost $400, and had to pay to recycle our cold closet! Plus, the seller was not responding to us at all! I was duped!

Let's look at this story from an opportunity cost standpoint:

• The freezer cost $400 used. It was available immediately.We had no idea if it worked. There was no guarantee and no refund.
• It consumed a total of 1.5 work days in total to obtain this freezer, set it up, clean it, diagnose it, and recycle it. If I were to just clean at my current average rate of $55/hour, I could have earned $660. If I used my consulting rates, it would be well over $1,000. Plus, it costs $75 to recycle.
• The drive also caused wear-and-tear on our family van and cost another $10 in gas. We drove 38 miles total. The IRS currently gives $0.575/mile to cover all vehicle expenses. This amounts to $22.
• A brand new freezer would cost $1,000 - $1,200. It is not available for 3 months, but is delivered to our door with a 1-year warranty.

The analysis is simple. I chose to act like a poor man with Poor Man Mindset (as explained in Rich Dad Poor Dad). I only considered the $400 cost and availability. I did not account for inconvenience, lost work hours, and most of all... RISK of it being junk! My total cost from this Poor Man example is $1,157! I literally spent enough in actually cash and opportunity cost to buy a brand new unit and I didn't even get a freezer out of it! This makes me sick to see the numbers like this.

If I had thought like a Rich Man, I would have said NO to any used, risky option to save me money as I would have known that the cost would have been more. It's the Bill Gates $100 bill story that I've told on this podcast. If I was thinking like a Rich Man, I would have told my wife to buy a new freezer and get the one that she wants for a decent price. Then have it delivered, setup, and get the warranty WHILE I worked in our family business on the 20% of work items that earns me 80% of my profits. If I were thinking like a Rich Man, these decisions would have earned me $2,000+ while my wife spent $1,200 on a freezer. I would have been $800 ahead instead of $1,157 behind. In this example, the Poor Man to Rich Man swing is $1,957! Imagine how big this opportunity cost gets when you look at big items and lost time in weeks or months!

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We watched "Hamilton" as a family and loved it! Lin-Manual Miranda is genius and so talented. We can't stop singing the songs and I keep finding myself singing, "You'll be back" or "I am Alexander Hamilton". There was an incredible lesson in leadership that was introduced in the earliest scenes of the play and played out in the Election of 1800. Aaron Burr was portrayed as an excellent politician, but held no definite position. In the play, here's Burr's advice to Hamilton in the opening. "Talk less. Smile more. Don't let them know what you're against of what you're for." Hamilton's response was, "you can't be serious." Burr simply stated as a politician would. "You wanna get ahead? Fools who run their mouth off wind up dead." Burr followed his own advice and climbed the political ranks.

Hamilton did not listen and held a position and made it known. He didn't care who he offended because the ones that agreed, followed him. He was a leader. Burr was a politician. In the Election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were deadlocked until they asked for Alexander Hamilton's endorsement. Hamilton hated Jefferson, yet he chose him. Here's his words in the play. "I have never agreed with Jefferson once. We have fought on like seventy-five different fronts. But when all is said and all is done, Jefferson has beliefs, Burr has none." Jefferson became the third president and the wound Hamilton inflicted on Burr's pride ultimately caused the duel that killed him. 216 years after the famous duel between the leader and the politician, Burr is vilified and Hamilton has a Broadway show honoring his life and accomplishments. Leaders stand for something and their mark is remembered. It's the difference between the lighthouse and the bouy. Burr is a buoy, rising and falling with the tides of life and popular opinion. Hamilton was the lighthouse, a rock-solid structure leading others to freedom.

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In the first year of my cleaning business, we were struggling big time! Every house was a chore and every dollar was spent before I even earned it. I'll never forget the house at Lake George. It taught me so much.

• Keep your dream big and keep it alive. Every struggle seems worth it when your dream is big. Every nasty house you clean after Lake George is worth it. A leader in the Amway business named Larry Winters said this. "If your dream is big enough, the facts don't count."
• Not everyone is trustworthy, no matter what they look like. Michael was an attorney from NYC with a lot of money. He had prestige, a beautiful house, but he didn't pay me for 3 months after constant pestering. He didn't think highly of me as I was just some lowly house cleaner. Michael was creating negative ripples.

This happened in 2006. We had $170,000 in debt and earned less than $20,000 that year. My wife was home with our first son and we lived in a rented house in an unsafe part of town. That lake house built a dream for me and sustained me through some difficult years. As I record this podcast, we are literally paying off the final debt payment and will be 100% debt-free for the first time in our adult lives. We still live in a rented house, but it's safe. We live in a 2,300 square foot farm house on 2 acres with a large creek in the back. We love it. We are beginning the wealth building process and who knows... maybe we'll have our own lake house in a few years.

What is your Lake George house that built your dream for a prosperous future? Keep this story in mind as you work through your struggles. No matter how hard it gets... Remember Lake George and it will get you through it.

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Six months ago, I met Michelle at a chamber luncheon and handed her my business card. After the luncheon, I sent a personal video message through VidYard as a follow-up to our meeting. She watched the video and replied back with gratitude. Then she told me she would keep my information on file. Then Corona hit and real estate was crushed, so I wasn't expecting anything.

I received a phone call from Lon this week, a local realtor. He wanted an estimate for a sale-ready presentation cleaning for an estate scenario prior to showings as the real estate market opens more. As we talked, Lon mentioned his colleague Michelle and that I was "highly recommended". I NEVER cleaned for this real estate firm or Michelle, yet she highly recommended me. That's the power of making a strong professional impression. My initial handshake and conversation wasn't special, but going the extra mile with a personalized video made all the difference. I booked the job with Lon for $450 and I never even met him.

If you're paying attention to this story as I paid attention to details of my conversation with Michelle (to send her a personalized video), you can take your networking to the next level. Every conversation is a seed. There's another takeaway solo cleaners. This job was a 1-time cleaning for $450. I averaged over $60 per hour and I'm just getting started in my new solo cleaning business as a Stabilizer. I used to earn over $100 per hour as an Optimizer in my 1st business. I'll get back to that level, but the point is that 1-time jobs are very profitable. They also lead to other profitable 1-time jobs and recurring jobs. I build my 1st business on real estate 1-time jobs that lead to recurring. Lastly, these 1-time opportunities have helped buffer our income during COVID-19.

I followed up with Drew from Town Supply. He went with another cleaning company. If you remember from "Don't Be a Hoarder", Doug's wife said this to him. "This guy knows a lot about cleaning! Can we get him to clean our new office?!" I thought this job was a definite, but it just goes to show - "Blueberry Pie". I wished him well and kept him on my mailing list. Then something interesting happened. Drew considers me the cleaning & disinfecting expert, but he hired another company. He emailed me asking for some disinfecting recommendations. I shared what I'm using and how to get it. Drew ordered it. How many contractors would have said, "you didn't hire me, ask your new service"? That's not going the extra mile and creating positive ripples in your community. I have shared many times before in this podcast that I consider myself an educator first, then a cleaner. In this case, I was able to serve through education.

Mike from my MCBA called me this week to set up a cleaning estimate for his house. He's been reading my weekly educational emails, keeping me "Top of Mind". We scheduled an estimate in 2 weeks. The veterinary hospital that I mapped out a few weeks ago gave me the green light on a new cleaning service. The scope and service cost nearly doubled! This is huge. Since the construction is not done yet, they wanted to phase the increased scope. I developed a 3-month plan and got it approved.

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I used to get nasty poison ivy as a kid. It would bubble up and itch like crazy. The worst case I ever got was on my face. My eyes were puffed nearly shut in the heat and humidity of July. It was torture. Thankfully, the doctor gave me a steroid to help heal it. You get the point. Now my son gets it bad. Last summer, he attended a survival action camp for Royal Rangers and in that camp learned something amazing. Jewelweed is a natural remedy for the poison ivy infection. The best part is that God placed the Jewelweed next to the Poison Ivy! The cure was with the poison. This is amazing and frustrating at the same time, as I never knew this and had to endure harsh Poison Ivy every summer.

Napoleon Hill says this in "Think and Grow Rich". "Every adversity has with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." The Poison Ivy is the adversity and the Jewelweed is the seed of an equal of greater benefit. COVID-19 has been the most recent and impactful adversity. What seeds have you discovered of equal of greater benefit? I've shared mine several times. I dug into the science on how to kill Coronavirus and in that research, I built my "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting" presentation to serve my community. This has already lead to cleaning business growth and actual dollars, many of which are recurring profits!

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In past episodes during COVID-19, I have shared at nauseum how I've educated my local community on the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". I have shared it in every group that would allow with several others upcoming! In my latest edition to my BIB networking group, I blazed through the 9 mistakes in 5 minutes. Since we were all on Zoom, some members had spouses in the background listening. I just wanted to get this information out there. My friend Bill Downs called me after the meeting. "Ken, my wife was listening to the call and said that we need to have Ken over here!" I scheduled the estimate, completed it the following day, and sent the proposal email by Saturday morning!

While vacuuming Monique's house, I discovered that I sucked up a jigsaw piece into my vacuum. This is a nasty thing to look for, but I know that Monique loves her puzzles and I know how I'd feel if I finished the whole thing except for 1 piece. I told her what happened and asked her how important her puzzle piece was. She felt bad to make me search for it inside my dirty vacuum bag. I could tell it was important, so I dug through my nasty bag and found the piece, cleaned it off, and returned it. This was a simple act of service, but it goes a long way toward trust building and allowing me to optimize. Think of the missing piece of the puzzle. This is what it looks like to go the extra mile is. It's the missing piece that most companies ignore. I choose to add this piece over and over and over again. This simple core value has helped me thrive in business.

Let's wrap this up on a fun story. As I've already shared, I did a 1-hour presentation to my chamber on the 9 mistakes. This week, I took a few hours and followed up with all 30 participants from that call through email and VidYard. Several personally thanked me. Some joined my weekly cleaning tips newsletter. One of the 30 names was familiar. It took me a moment to connect the dots. 'Ah'! Last summer, I did my "New to Harleysville Tour" where I solicited 25 offices for cleaning. This tactic does work, but the conversion is very low. I did add a biweekly office cleaning, Gehman Design Remodeling, but that was it. One of my visits was a newer accounting firm with the perfect profile small office for me to clean. I really wanted it. I did all that I could to be a Go-Giver and offer my professional advice on helping them make a better first impression. They were grateful, but it didn't go anywhere. Fast forward 10 months. The decision maker for this office was on my chamber call. They have yet to reach back out to me, but I have noticed they open my weekly emails multiple times. I believe this is a future client. My name is top of mind and their level of trust in my company is increasing.

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I am excited to introduce my friend and YouTube superstar, Cassandra Aarssen to Solo Cleaning School. I invited her to be an expert guest in the SMART Cleaning Tribe that I lead for team cleaning companies needing accountability around goals. Cassandra was a busy mom of two small kids when she started her home organizing business. At the time, she was also running a daycare with 9 children for extra money. She saw home organizing as a way to make extra money and possibly get out of the daycare business. It did WAY more than that! Her husband recommended that she record a video with her phone and upload to YouTube. Cassandra has continued this discipline for over 7 years and 750 videos! In this interview, she shares the Clutterbug story. You may be thinking... 'Ken, she isn't a solo cleaner. Why should I care?' For one, she was a solo operator of her home service business like you and I. Secondly, she turned her local brand into a global one that now earns her hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Cassandra had some real power quotes in the interview that I wanted to make sure I took note of!

"I realized you can make something one time and sell it over and over and over again with a book or a concept or a video or a cleaning checklist or an e-book. That's when my eyes really opened up to the magic of the internet and the magic of working smarter, not harder!"

"My advice is to start with one platform and when you can master it, when it seems easy, then add another one."

"It's not about having something perfect. It's about just being consistent."

"You're not going to learn from reading and researching and planning. You're going to learn from doing."

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In my last solo cleaning business update, I shared how sharing my knowledge directly lead to my local pharmacy boosting a video I made leading to over 4,500 views! Collaboration is so vital. It's what networking done right really is. Like-minded local business owners sharing with each other for the greater good of the community. Life also gets in the way. I've shared how losing my Nana caused me to slow down work to attend to family matters. The last few weeks have been difficult as I'm the family point of contact for my autistic uncle. I had at least 2 full days of phone calls, emails, and updates to my family members and his team to take care of. I only share this to be real. I had less time and had to prioritize this week and I prioritized collaboration! Here are some examples of actions I took this week:

• Collaboration set up with IV Chamber, Jackie Silveri of EDS on how we complement each other as partners / collaborators in our MCBA networking group.
• Did 2 interviews with Shelby Miller and Trisha Lutteroty from Keller Williams with good questions and comments
• Taught my chamber how to protect against corona and disinfect properly with 30 attendees. I will email each back personally with a video message. One of the attendees is Tom Merrick, owner of Tom's Help Desk and President of the Skippack Business Owner's Association. He wants me to come speak for their group in June in the same format as today's talk, only shorter in content. You just put yourself out there
• I went back and forth with my veterinary hospital client to get the map correct (the one I made in Boost My Post). The doctors are talking and collaborating with me to design the best strategy for them. Their goal is to have their staff clean & disinfect daily, have my company work in tandom with one of their employees to deep clean, disinfect, and presentation clean their hospital. They LOVED the map and were so thankful to have a plan forming up. I was given the green light to increase my monthly service and wrapped up the week with a beautiful powerpoint with 5 options to expand my cleaning service.
• Brad Imming of SEP Pathfinders helped me set up Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics so I can start tracking visitors to my website. I just need to determine my goal for the site, so Brad can help me design and optimize the funnel to capture more newsletter subscribers, YouTube subscribers, clients.
• Got my first call from the Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Concierge that Mary Ann Alig added me to. It got us a 1-time move out clean.This was a nice $250 1-time job. I took before & after pics and had the client pay online.
• Went through my CC emails and collected all prospects and new friends and added them to my newsletter
• Created the 9 videos under 2 min each, uploaded them to YouTube, and scheduled them into MailChimp to go out twice per week throughout May. I'll be updating Google My Business with each release.

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The spider monkey is extremely hard to catch due to its speed and agility. However, you can trap the monkey with a box and a fruit. That's all it takes. Place a piece of delicious fruit inside of a box designed to fit the monkey's arm. Once he grabs the fruit, he cannot let go, even though his clenched fist will not fit through the hole. The monkey is snared by its small thinking and desire for the immediate gratification of the delicious fruit. Ultimately, this is the undoing of the spider monkey.

Teresa and I enjoyed a wonderful beach day in Ocean City, NJ. While eating lunch on the beach, the conversation between the nearby lifeguard and beach patrol guy caught my attention. I was not being nosy, just curious as I like to hear how people think. The lifeguard was a talker, barely giving time to his friend. That's a huge lesson there as this podcast rolls on. He shared how he's been with the city for years as a guard and even served the city council for a term. He was a giving, intelligent, and upbeat guy. But he was blind to his overtalking and small thinking. He mentioned how he'd been passed over for a promotion and possibly rubbed others the wrong way. He could not understand why. I knew from this short conversation. His desire was to get ahead, but he had to play the game as good as he knew how. Then he mentioned that his life has been changed as a new dad with a baby daughter. My heart went out to him. He's about 30-years-old, in great physical shape, lives on the beach, and has an incredible life-saving skillset. But he's broke and stuck with his arm stuck in the spider monkey box.

As I shared with Teresa privately, this lifeguard has incredible value and worth on the open market verses being trapped in a corporate structure or job. He just doesn't know it. He has benefits and security and again, his arm in the spider box. I said to Teresa... "Imagine if this guy took his skillset, learned some people skills, and taught parents like us how to keep our kids safe at the beach and how to teach our kids life skills that could one day save their life. I'd pay big time for that. He could make 3 times his current income if he was willing to accept a different way of earning income."

This is what holds many from starting their solo cleaning business. They have their arm stuck in the spider monkey box with fear, a false sense of security, and small thinking. Take a chance!

I promoted 3 books that can all be found on my Resources page for recommended reading - "Mindset", "The Magic of Thinking Big", and "The Art of Dealing with People".

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In this podcast, I share an incredible case study from my friend Hugh Gbewonyo from Foot Solutions in Norristown, PA. Before I go into Hugh's case study, it's important to understand his industry and how he chose to niche. The shoe industry has been growing year-after-year from the 1-to-1 shoe salesman model to the box store. My dad was a shoe salesman in small private owned mall store who knew shoes, was great with people, and took the time with each. I sold shoes years later in a box store where I was trained to help as many as I could and how to properly greet and "sell" them. This is the retail model that took over every industry for the past 40 years. Hugh didn't want that kind of shoe store. He wanted to set himself apart and really help people with every day life by becoming a certified pedorthist. Although he's not a medical doctor for feet, he can analyze feet & gait to recommend custom shoes for people. Thus, his shoe store is a sub-niche from shoe stores.

Prior to COVID-19, Hugh operated like any retail store with open hours and as many as 8 potential customers in his store at a time. Hugh could never quite get to everyone with the average client visiting his store for 15 minutes. His business has done well. But COVID forced Hugh to make a decision. He chose to stay open while other custom shoe stores closed (by choice as they were essential). Hugh ensured each customer's safety with a cleaning and disinfection protocol. Plus, he switched to "Hours By Appointment Only" model out of necessity. This gave his control over the cleanliness between clients and his own daily schedule.

Hugh didn't anticipate what would happen. He was able to get to every customer like the old time shoe stores. He served them and they stayed in his store for an increase from 15 minutes in the old model to over 35 minutes. He felt better as no one slipped between the cracks and he generated more good will and recommendations with the change. By the way, the change also increased his sales per client by 30%! Of course, I asked Hugh about his total sales as he would obviously have less opportunity to sell. Hugh said he is on track to exceed last June's sales by 6% with his new model. Incredible. Not only can he serve more, feel better, have more control over his day, limit the lookers through a prequalification system, but he is making more money! The results speak for their self. Hugh will stick to this model as he has unlocked the Scarcity Principle for his business. He has set himself apart from those that sell the same service. Plus, he offers a free $100 value Gait & Foot Analysis to top it off.

I told Hugh the Jackknives story from Russell Conwell's "Acres of Diamonds". He has already increased his sales per client by 30% through the "By Appointment Only" model. Imagine what could happen if he offered high profit items that every client wanted as well in the front of his store? He could find out what his clients want and start to offer them. He could optimize his sales per client metric to increase his revenues or quite possibly, have more time at home with his family. That's what optimizing and my ISO Model affords you.

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While on a TLF mastermind call where Bee Evans was sorting out her various business projects, Vincent said something profound because Bee had a lot going on. "It's not the overwhelm that stops people, it's the work". Bee is a super hard worker and comes from an oil & gas family in Colorado. She knows work ethic. But she is torn as she feels called to continue her family business while starting various side businesses in professional corporate coaching, winning a spot on the Denver Broncos cheerleading roster, and being a wife and mom. She's got a lot going on to say the least! Each venture requires hard work and dedication and each has a huge payoff toward her family's goals and more specifically, her desire to help women in a new platform she's creating called "Tear Out the Tags".

Once Vincent made that statement, it connected with me big time as a solo cleaner as every aspect of the business falls on me. Not to mention, I'm a podcaster, run a few membership groups, and have a large family. I'm not afraid of work. In fact, I love it and thrive on being productive! Overwhelm can totally stop us from the work. This is why I need breaks from work to think, go on walks with my wife, play with my boys, take mid-day dates with my daughter. It centers me. This is also why I need the TLF mastermind and the community it provides.

Going back to Bee and the rest of the mastermind call. It's the not knowing what to do next because her overwhelm bucket was full. It caused her to stop moving forward. Bee made some tough decisions once we helped her gain clarity. She is getting traction and the hard work will actually take her somewhere. This is what we need to do as solo cleaners. We wear so many hats and we need to keep it simple. Lower your overwhelm with a dream, goals, and work! Get small baby steps and small wins. This gives a sense of accomplishment and lowers the overwhelm, one win at a time.

Do you relate with this? Are you a hard worker, but the overwhelm of life, family, and all aspects of running a solo cleaning business are slowing you down?! That needs to end if you said Yes! You need to take a break to think. You need a community and a plan of which work to do. You need the ISO Model to optimize your business to get your life back. If this message connects with you, go to www.solocleaningschool.com and sign up for the Premium Membership where you can access the ISO Model Training which gives you my proven system to optimize your business. You also access the community of other solo cleaners to ask questions and can participate in live Q&A's from me as questions arise in our school. I hope to see you there!

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In my last cleaning business update, I did not hoard my knowledge and it lead to opportunities to help my community. Since we're in the middle of a global pandemic, I'm doing whatever I can to serve my community in my expertise of cleaning. In part, it's actual cleaning and in part, knowledge. In this week's update, let's continue the theme of serving.

I served my clients in a way I've personally never done, but it made a HUGE difference! A veterinary hospital I've cleaned for nearly 2 years is close to wrapping up a 4,000 square foot expansion. We've known that the cleaning scope would expand, but the goal was never to maximize what we could make. It's always to maximize the experience and goals of my client. I already shared that I met with the owner a month ago to talk about the cleaning. They desired to create a cleaning plan to incorporate daily cleaning by staff, weekly cleaning by a staff member for extra money, and weekly deep & presentation cleaning services from my company. I asked if there was a map of the new building. She said that one of the staff was making one. Instead, I volunteered. "What if I create a full map of this hospital, make my recommendation on the various cleaning items, and color code it!? We can use this as a working collaboration tool until we have the options that you'd like me to price." She was so pleased with this. I left and set this map as my next task. I took a video walking through the new hospital and used it create my map. It was beautiful and took me a full day at home to do. To the outside world, it seems like I wasted a full day. But I know this. By taking this consulting role with the vet to help them achieve their cleanliness goals, we will be rewarded an increase in services of at least $5,000/year! That's called an investment, not a waste!

Another way I served my clients was leaving Google reviews. I've personally worked with or have enough 1-to-1 experience with members in my BIB networking group that I went on their Google profiles and left 5-star reviews to help boost their views. This is a totally selfless and honest act. I asked for nothing in return.

I also continued to help my community. My chamber invited me to host a second virtual Zoom workshop with everyone working from home. My friend Tom asked me about masks and directional filtering. It was a great one, so I did follow up research and got back to him later in the day. He responded with this. "I consider you my cleaning & disinfectant expert." I checked in my friend Dr. Mak from the Skippack pharmacy to see if he had any questions. He said a few of his customers had follow questions to the videos I made for them. So I checked out the pharmacy page, found my videos, comments, and answered the questions. Before leaving the page, I noticed something startling. One of the my videos had 4,500 views! I dug in more and realized how. Dr. Mak BOOSTED MY POST on Facebook. I was so honored that he would ask me to help his clients and then he invested into his business and mine through a boost. This lead to Facebook page likes, which I personally friended and thanked (which lead to new client Monique), and it lead to 5 newsletter signups!

That's what can happen if you're a Go-Giver. You can eat your seed or plant it. If you plant it, you have a great chance to see that seed turn into a tree producing fruit with thousands of new seeds. I chose to sow my seed. I hope you do too!

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So many companies are ultra competitive, trying to dominate their local area. They hang onto proprietary information and get patents to own their knowledge. This is great and definitely needed so others don't steal your inventions and creative processes. But is it always good to keep your specialized knowledge close to the vest? I believe we are blessed with the ability to learn and comprehend and obligated to give back to help others. I'll even go so far to say that hoarding your knowledge in hopes of retaining your competitive advantage is selfish and unhealthy. My hope is that this episode opens your eyes that sharing your knowledge actually endears you to your target client and will not only increase your business, but serve your community.

During the peak of COVID-19, I was home a lot more than usual and had extra time on my hands. I knew that I needed to dig into the CDC's cleaning & disinfecting recommendations. This lead me into a journey in learning, where I became an expert in disinfecting properly. My next goal was to share this knowledge with my community to empower others to be safe during a difficult time.

• Carfagno Cleaning Facebook Page - I wrote a large summary of two weeks of research on disinfecting, wrote out a 5-episode FB Live series with challenges to share on my business page and mom's groups. I created an intro video on my Carfagno Cleaning FB page and shared it to my personal page and Teresa shared it to the locals mom's group. By the time of my first FB Live episode, the intro had 700 views and 8 shares. The content focused on "90% of people are disinfecting incorrectly" and I would teach how to fix the 9 mistakes. The first Live had 5 viewers and a few comments. This Facebook Live series turned into the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting".
• MCBA - Our weekly business-owner's networking group had to go virtual and many were still trying to figure out how to keep their employees safe. I presented a brief summary of my 9 mistakes to equip others. Tom McKee from Edward Jones texted me afterward. This is the same Tom that I met through LinkedIn ("Because You're a Business Person That Cleans"), who introduced me to Marcy (his OM) at Edward Jones for an office cleaning estimate. Again, seeds! Tom loved the tips and was interested in having me teach the Greater Montco Chamber this content. That is in the works. I was not afraid to open my mouth and help with my knowledge.
• Chamber of Commerce - I joined the Indian Valley Chamber in October as the only cleaner inside of 300 members. I met with Ken Byler ("Get a Name for Doing") a few weeks later. He helped me a ton and then came onto a SMART Cleaning Tribe call as an expert. He was impressed at my facilitating skills and proposed to our chamber president that I co-lead a Zoom call for the chamber. I was honored. The call went great. We had 25 members on the call, running companies from 5 to 100+ employees. I was able to promote my business! Afterward, I connected with 5 members that engaged on the call and sent them VidYard messages as thank you's. The chamber would like me to facilitate a webinar on my "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting" next!

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Have you ever had a dream that kept you up at night? I have. In March 2010, I was making up creative adventure stories with my 5-year-old son Kenny at bedtime where he was the main character in the stories. We were connecting so much as father & son, that my wife encouraged me to record them. I listened. By the end of the summer of 2010, I had a complete 10-book adventure, fantasy series filling up 22 hours of mp3. As I searched for the next step, a deep desire welled inside of me to not only convert the stories into a book for my son but to get them published. 'What if these stories could help other families?' This thought and desire was confirmed when I was given a bible verse as a mission statement - Luke 1:17 - He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."I quickly realized that I needed more resources to complete this dream. We were in a lot of debt at the time and I was cleaning houses 5-6 days per week, thus I lacked time and money. I also lacked the resource of knowledge on how to write a book and get it published. It's amazing how a powerful dream can get you to make changes in your life that you didn't think possible. There were 3 major changes we made:

1. MONEY - Teresa and I dug into Dave Ramsey's strategy to eliminate debt to free up money. We used this system to pay off $170,000 in debt in just over a decade. During the writing of the book, we cleared at least a third.
2. KNOWLEDGE - I dug into the craft of writing to produce the best resource I could for other families. I learned the art & craft of professional writing through critique groups, mentors that were published authors, joining SCBWI, attending conferences & workshops, and studying the successful books in my genre (children's adventure/fantasy). During 2011-2012, I read and studied over 120 of these similar books. I was able to get audio versions of many and listen while I was cleaning. For example, I listened to the entire Harry Potter series in 1 month. My writing improved dramatically during this time as I developed my voice. The connections I made in the author's world lead me to my book editors, mentors, and ultimately my publisher. After 5 1/2 years of hard work that I loved, Arctic Land published on 12/15/15. I would like to give a huge thank you to four men who helped me through this process:
   • Christopher Maselli (Author of over 40 children's books and writing coach at Writing Momentum) - Thank you Chris for replying to my email that lead to a friendship over the 5 years I wrote my book. You became my #1 writing mentor and encourager!
   • Darren Shearer (Founder of High Bridge Books and host of the Theology of Business Podcast) - Thank you for taking a chance on an unpublished author with no representation by an agent. You also became a friend and mentor to me on this journey, helping to bring my creation to life!
   • Billy Altman (Missionary at the Altman Crew with FamilyLife/CRU) - Thank you for being my friend and spiritual mentor/accountability partner for many years. Thank you for introducing me to Darren and for doing the graphic design work on the Arctic Land GAD Logbook & SMARTMaps!

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I host an accountability & mastermind call every Monday for the SMART Cleaning Tribe. We are a family of cleaning service owners with teams (that used to be solo). I'm the architect of this group of amazing people, always looking for the 1% that desires to set monthly SMART goals and be held accountable to their achievement. Check out the episode "The Accountability Roadmap" to learn more about the 1% club.

We had an interesting discussion this past week on the topic of client scope creep. This is when your original housecleaning scope of work increases with the changing dynamics of the family or home. We went around the group sharing how we each deal with this. Toward the end of this discussion, one of our members hit a home run. Kate Sloan is the owner of Chicka Chicka Broom, which services Montgtomery, MN. She said. "I train my clients." Obviously, I could not let that slip through the cracks and asked her to explain. Kate contrasted the typical house cleaner to the perceived in-home experts such as electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and HVAC technicians. "Why are they viewed as experts and get expert-level prices and many devalue cleaners wanting to pay the minimum?"

The answer is simple. Most clients are moms with cleaning experience. They can clean, therefore they don't see our craft as a specialty. Plumbers and electricians do work that the mom cannot do, therefore they are experts and can charge expert prices. One of the best ways to level-up as a cleaner to an expert or specialist is to acquire specialized knowledge. One example is taught in my "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". If 90% of our clients are disinfecting incorrectly and we know how to do it right to protect their families, our value increases. This is the process to becoming the expert and separating from the typical cleaner.

One further point on mastery comes from Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" book. He claims that it takes 10,000 hours to acquire expert status at any task. If you clean 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year, you can achieve mastery in 5 years! Many of us have achieved this. Not many moms have, no matter how long they've been cleaning. What if they clean 2 hours per day and 6 days per week? It would take over 16 years to reach mastery. Some moms have achieved this and most have not.

Make sure to study this episode as it holds a vital key in pricing to start earning you top income as a solo cleaner.

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I've been reading a morning devotional called "Daily Readings from It's Your Time" by Pastor Joel Osteen. On page 131, I read "Be a Bounce-Back Person" in amazement. Do you know that the little palm tree can endure the worst of hurricanes, when all other trees are thrown over? I didn't! The palm tree is uniquely designed by God to bend, but not break. Then, the palm tree grows after the storm because the root system is strengthened by the bending of the tree. It's absolutely inspiring and incredible! In this episode, I encourage you to be like the palm tree. Bend and do not break. Then use the storm to grow from!

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Right in the middle of the hardest emotional week of my life, I took my oldest son Kenny on day trip to Jack Frost & Big Boulder Ski Resort in the Pocono Mountains. There are two monster lessons I learned this day and wanted to share them both.

The first lesson is in the power of laughter that I shared in the Funny Papers. My Nana passed on February 22nd. The funeral was March 2nd. Our ski trip was already scheduled for February 25th. Teresa and I thought it would be good for me and Kenny to get away for the day. It was exactly what the doctor ordered. The fresh air and quiet time with the Lord. The time of refreshment and connection with my son. This was helping me through the worst grief of my life. Then I experienced the gift of laughter and it washed away so many tears. It's like King Solomon wrote:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 - There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

King Solomon is known as the wealthiest and wisest man in history. Rulers of his day would visit him from afar, lavish him with gifts, just to hear him speak. I have read these verses hundreds of times and always wondered why Solomon ordered life events and seasons the way he did. The belly laugh I experienced was the polar opposite emotion of utter grief. It recentered me and brought me tremendous healing. That's why Solomon in verse 4 says, "a time to weep and a time to laugh".

The second lesson was for my son as we rode the ski lifts. It was a dreary February day. The temperature was above freezing, but it rained on and off. Therefore, both mountains were empty. It was awesome. Kenny and I would take a few runs next to the ski lift. Then we'd see our tracks from the lift untouched, except by each other. That's how empty the mountain was. While we got on a lift, I asked the attendant. "Slow night. Not many here, huh?" He replied. "Yeah, you're lucky. There's only 26 skiiers here."

Kenny and I talked numbers during that chairlift ride up. We figured (as a guess) that the average skiier brings in $100 in revenue to the mountain per day. Some rent, some eat, all buy lift passes. Then we ventured a guess that the mountain operates at a cost of $5,000 per day just to be open for skiing. This includes the mountain, snow making & grooming, staff, medical, food, etc. Kenny did some quick math and realized that the resort needs 50 skiiers per day just to break even. Big Boulder had 26 that night and were losing money!

It's a great way to understand fixed operating expenses. So many businesses out there have large overhead or fixed expenses. The ski resort needs 51 skiiers per night to make any money. The grocery store probably needs that many as well. We have an awesome business! A solo cleaning business's operating expenses are so low that we can earn a profit with 1 client per week and in some cases, 1 cleint per month! You can't beat that. Here's the significance. In my first solo cleaning business, I was able to optimize to a profit margin of 85%. I kept $85 of every $100 I made. Big Boulder probably keeps $5 if they're lucky. Kenny understood this lesson and I hope you do to.

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The week of February 17th, 2020 started out with a little tension. My Nana was admitted into the hospital with pneumonia. She fought this 2 years prior and beat it, so it was a little tense but I felt good about her health. I captured my business week in "Top of Mind". Typically, I would cover the next week in business and share a lesson. However, I had a month that felt like 1 long week. It was all a blur.

On February 22nd, 2020, my Nana, Gabriella Carfagno went home to be with the Lord. I've never experienced loss like this in my life. I've shared on recent episodes about my mom and her battle with COVID-19. My Nana was my second mom. My dad would pick me up on weekends and take me to his parent's house in Plymouth Meeting, PA. I would stay there and spend the majority of time with my Nana & Pop-Pop. They raised me half of the week, while my mom did the other. As much as I love my dad, I always say that Nana & Pop were my parents. They taught me by example a lasting & enduring marriage. That's why the GE culture that I talk about in "Top of Mind" rubbed me the wrong way. Nana & Pop-Pop were my rocks growing up. Nana loved on me as her own son, tirelessly serving all of my needs. Pop-Pop was the man I sought approval and affirmation. They are a huge reason we left NY to come back home to the Philly Area in 2018. They were over 80 at that point and we didn't know how much longer we had. We wanted to spend Sunday dinners with them verses quarterly trips from NY. Anyway, the week Nana was in the hospital was a roller coaster. She was okay, then on a ventilator and fighting for her life, then okay and I was making plans with case management for her to go home. Then she was on life support and gone. I was there by her side the whole week. This would not have been possible if I was still in NY. Since this is a podcast to help others, I'm trying to speak outwardly verses inwardly as I have been in a lot of pain over her loss.

So let me give you all a kick in the butt. Are you stuck in a job you hate? Do you have loved ones at distance that you don't see enough? Do you talk all the time about making a change, yet remain in your comfortable life? What are you waiting for!? I was there in the summer of 2017. We were living in NY for 15 years and desperately wanting to come home. We were comfortable in our life, friends, church, and super-optimized solo cleaning business. I'm so thankful that we made the move, otherwise I would have missed those precious final moments with my Nana and the ability to keep my Pop company and love on him as he suffered the loss of his wife of 63 1/2 years. I'm thankful to my dear friends Vincent Pugliese, Billy Altman, and Ed Weidman for encouraging me to follow our dream. I'm thankful for Ian Traynor for trusting in me and the solo cleaning business I built as he made the sale & transition so simple for me to leave. We are humbled and so grateful. I miss you Nana!

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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Had a great mastermind on Monday morning on how to accelerate my goals. I described the scenario with new client Kim on the call. They gave me ideas such as reaching out to the builder and offering to clean the model home for free (count as advertising expense) and get my pdf/brochures into new homes, serving the neighborhood, giving Asher's or Penn State related thank you gifts to Kim, finding out if there is a closed group on FB for the neighborhood as I can do a FB Live, brochures/door hangers to 10 houses around Kim's, $50 credit to Kim, PDF on my biz for Kim to forward with promotion and helpful info on insurance, article on "How to Break Up with Your House Cleaner" and "How to Choose Your Next House Cleaner". I can also offer to review the builder and mention them on my show. These tips will help me farm a perfect neighborhood to get the 14 houses I need to hit my goal.

• Followed up with Sammy's and Asher's with GIVES. For Sammy's, I told them that I'm still promoting them and send a helpful article. For Asher's, I asked how I could partner to buy personalized chocolate gifts to my clients. In both cases, I didn't ask for anything in return. We shall see if either respond with an update on the cleaning proposals.
• 12 connects/follow ups for GMB reviews - I got 4 reviews! The ones from Pang and especially Dave are WHY I do this business. Read those reviews and reference, It Was hard to Leave.
• 1-to-1 with Lauren Allegrezza, marketing to mission, she helps service based small business owners customize a marketing plan that is tracked, analyzed, and optimized to achieve their business objectives. this conversation led to the title of this week's message. I asked Lauren what caused her to move from the political world to marketing that's a big shift. She asked me the same question, engineering to cleaning. I have answered this question on the introduction and other episodes but Lawrence question knowing that she's in marketing got me to answer differently. I told her that we just bought a Honda Pilot for my business vehicle and I love it! And I told her that since the Honda Pilot what's the car we wanted if he came top-of-mind because we were researching them looking them up on the marketplace etc. I started noticing pilots everywhere I drove. sure, they are common vehiclesbut I started seeing him everywhere because they were top of mind. I related this analogy to my experience at General electric as an engineer once the vice president said I live in the city my wife lives in a different city, I became aware of marriages around me. They were top of mind and for the first time I started paying attention to my co-workers, managers, executives and I didn't like what I saw. Granted there were several good marriages but the majority were not. I saw a lot of flirting on the job, divorce, cheating, excetera it worked long hours didn't have lot of time for their family. Just like the pilot, marriages became top of mind because there's important to me and I fell out of love with GE. this is exactly what Lauren does her business as a marketing consultant, she works with individual clients to keep their business and message top-of-mind to their potential clients. and it really does work and I urge you to use it in your cleaning business. Are you writing at least a once-a-month newsletter two people that would be interested in buying your service is down the road? are you posting on social media with helpful tips and successes from your business? These people that's see you consistently will become top of mind and when they're ready oh, they will think of you first.

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We are not out of the woods yet. Many are still under stay-at-home orders, while less-affected areas are returning to work. Wherever you are, my Believers in Business Networking Group can help. A few weeks ago, we put out a document with tips from each member's expertise and personal experience to help survive & thrive through this crisis. I think you'll find these tips useful for your business and family. My own contribution was my tips on the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting"

Evan Gehman (Gehman Construction) - Tips on overall personal & business health

• Emotional / Family – Focus on what matters most. Cut distractions of sports, TV, busyness. Invest your time with your family & community, go on walks and/or bike rides, and visit neighbors along the way (from a distance).
• Spiritual – Reflection and remembrance of God’s faithfulness in past times of difficulty and crisis in the Bible and especially in our own family – More prayer time with the LORD and family – More time to worship together as a family
• Business – Checking with clients to see how they are doing – continuing to care for those relationships – Great opportunity to share the reason for the hope that we have – see if there is a need that can be met - look for new creative ways to adjust business – visioning and have a plan to be ready to go when restrictions are relaxed – Ways to reassure clients of precautions you take for their safety

Mary Ann Alig (Fox & Roach Realtors) - More tips on overall personal health

• Mental - Learn a new language Duolingo.com is free, I'm trying to learn Italian.
• Physical - Be active. I can't get to my gym, set up a small workout space in the attic. Also, beachbodyondemand.com has a 3-month membership for $39, but you can get a free 14 day trial under that program. They offer lots of workout videos.
• Spiritual - Daily email from Rick Warren, which is very inspirational.

Lauren Allegrezza (Marketing to Mission) - Tips on marketing for your business health during this time to help later

• Set up your Google My Business profile. If it's already set up, use this time to ask customers for reviews (& also go and leave reviews for your favorite local & small businesses). If anyone in the group needs help with this, I am more than happy to help for free.
• Make content to use later. Write a blog post of your best tips for your industry. Record a few short videos. Write posts for social media that you can publish later.
• Learn. There are so many resources out there to help us grow. Many of them are now free. MOZ is now offering most of its courses for free (for example, courses about SEO). Personally, I'm trying to take advantage of resources to grow my skills so that I can serve my clients better.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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"It Just Got Real" was a very tough episode to release. I shared how my own mom was in the hospital being treated for various life-threatening after effects of COVID-19. Our whole family came together over the past 2 weeks to really show our strength, unity, and love for our mom. In that episode, I was very honest about how the pandemic had only affected us financially until my mom was in the hospital. It just got real and suddenly, I didn't care about money too much.

My mom was discharged with oxygen and prescriptions to heal at home a few days ago. It was a miracle and just in time for Mother's Day. In honor of my mom, I am using this episode to tell her story and impact on my life.

I love you Mom!

Your adoring son,

Kenny III

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For the past several episodes, I have focused in on the current crisis of COVID-19 in hopes of helping you through it. It's May and spring is in the air. States are beginning their reacclamation to the world. I felt it was time to catch you up on my own solo cleaning business and get back to the show format that I began. Before I go backward, let me share an awesome story. In "Local Heroes", Ellen Johnston of Above & Beyond Housekeeping in Reading, PA was ecstatic as her company's video clip on the news of passing out free sanitizer to her community was picked up in a video by musical superstar Alicia Keys. Ellen's very own Cary Extraordinary (my nickname) is featured at the 53-sec mark in Alicia's new song "Good Job" music video! So cool!

Let's go back in time as I would like to catch you up on my own solo cleaning company before COVID-19. My aim is to show you how this crisis affected me personally and then tease out lessons from each episode to help you with your solo cleaning business going forward. The last Carfagno Cleaning update was "Know Your Numbers", where I explained the mindset behind a $50 client referral. If you missed that episode, check it out!

I was tracking the leads from my housecleaning client Erika. She posted a testimonial in our local mom's group. This kindness generated eight leads and one hired me! Here's the mindset, so you can follow along. I built a strong cleaning profile on FB. My wife joined the FB mom's group and participated in the group. She saw a mom's post who was searching for a cleaner and private messaged Erika. Erika called me and we set up an estimate, followed by a proposal, and I was hired! I worked with excellence to impress my new client, which I did for 2 months. Erika wrote a follow up post on the mom's group that she asked for a cleaning recommendation a few months ago and found a great one. This post generated 8 leads. Kim contacted me and ultimately hired me. I paid Erika a $50 referral credit as a thank you. I now needed to impress Kim to repeat the cycle of excellence, trust, and more referrals.

I did exactly that. In my first visit, I did part 1 of an initial deep cleaning of Kim's house. It looked awesome and Kim noticed right away. She was so happy with the master bathroom especially. While I was there, we had a conversation that lead to two breakthroughs:

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I've watched the devastation that cleaning companies face due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I've listened to all sides of the quarantine argument and I'll tell you this... when Corona hits your loved ones and you get a gut punch, your perspective changes. It's one thing to feel the pain of the financial strain and only hear of the health strain many face from Corona. It's an entirely different thing to feel the pain of a loved one fighting for their life in the hospital with the disease. That was me this week. And it's my mom. Not to mention, my step dad and 2 of my sisters have tested positive and been through torture. I am not advocating that we keep our country in lock down forever, but I am so much more empathetic to those that have dealt with this virus on a human level and understand what they've been going through. Please take a moment and be thankful that you're only problem is financial compared to what others are dealing with.

At the end of this episode, I shared a great quote from my Grandma Shellie (from You Eat With Your Eyes). When I asked her if she was staying safe, her answer rocked me.

"Kenny, I don't practice social distancing. I practice physical distancing. We need to stay connected socially. That's the way I'm built."

I think we all need a little dose of that!

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Letra was working for a large national cleaning service when her boss recognized an entrepreneur's heart inside of her. Instead of offering a promotion, Letra was offered mentorship and the opportunity to go solo. This is unheard of. Businesses don't launch other businesses unless they are franchises or financially incentivized. That's why Letra thought she was being punked.

Check out this solo cleaning story and the plan she formed recently in her marketing with a little help from yours truly. Plus, be sure to listen for these quotes during the interview!

***"If I wanted to get to the next level, I had to get out of my comfort zone."

"You can't grow without taking risks."If you're in the Houston, TX Area, make sure to check out Letra's company, *Ms. Moody's Cleaning Service!

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Ellen Johnston (Above & Beyond Housekeeping Services / Wyomissing, PA) - 69 News in Reading, PA on 4/24/20 headlined "Housekeeping company gives out free hand sanitizer"

"I was in the disinfectant aisle, just because I wanted to see it, and there was an older couple, say in their 80s. There was no disinfectant of any kind," recalled Ellen Johnston. She overheard the wife ask her husband a question we all have probably asked over the past couple weeks. "It was so sad," Johnston shared. "She said, 'What are we gonna do?' and he said, 'I guess we will just have to drive around and look at other places.'" So Johnston and her staff decided to create a temporary place to give out much-needed refills of hand sanitizer, even the though the company is struggling. "We are down about 95% among our clients," Johnston said. "We are trying to spread the work that we have among our employees to keep them working," Johnston said.

In a grocery store aisle or anywhere else for that matter, nobody should have to do without. "Everybody has to dig deep and see how they can help their community," Johnston said.

Mary Connolly (Maid IV Service / Countryside, IL) - I have been offering disinfectant to police stations, fire station, gas stations, and general public as much as possible, I have hosted my first give away and will continue to host them for the duration of lock down in my city.

Mark Lineberry (Universal Janitorial Services / Fairfax,VA) - We're donating 10% of all revenue in April, including from the EIDL, to support two local area food banks. Plus we are donating $100 for every new contract signed in April. We anticipate a donation of $10,000 in total. In fact, Round 1 out. $2021.55 each to the Capital Area Food Bank and Britepaths (formerly called our Daily Bread). Second round will likely go out May 1 and will be more than this payment, thanks to the EIDL advance.

Michelle Allegrezza (Sparkling Homes Cleaning Service / Albertville, MN) - Outside of running her cleaning company, Michelle is a trained EMS and runs a side company in the medical field. She says, "My boyfirend Jake Shoulak (Shoo-lack) and I are making 3D masks made with antimicrobial filament and comes with surgical grade filters. We have gotten a ton of donations and currently have six 3D printers running 24 hours a day to keep up with demand! Check out Jake's site if you'd like to order masks.

Hannah Brees (Shine & Sparkle / Dallas, OR) - At Shine & Sparkle we have been offering free grocery deliveries, free meals to kids in need delivered to their door step, hand written encouragement cards to our clients, and for every $100 gift card purchased for a healthcare worker we are donating $25! We’ve raised about $1500 so far, plus our donation!

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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Your kids are home and they are driving you crazy! We've been homeschooling for 10 years and wanted to impart some wisdom on how you could spark their passions with a little curiosity! There is a lot of busy work given to your kids by their schools. They want to maintain control of what they learn and how. That's fine. Here's what I recommend. Put away the devices and turn off the TV. That's when you can make curiosity the curriculum.

• Challenge 1: Tell your kids to go outside and find something interesting. Don't come back until they do. Have them show & tell what they found. Maybe it's a quartz rock or a lizard or turtle or fossil or plant or flower or bug! Encourage them to learn more about the thing they found. This may lead to books or YouTube together.
• Challenge 2: Give your kids some wood pieces and nails or a hot glue gun and popsicle sticks and have them build something. Let them ask what they can build next. You can help them find a project online.
• Challenge 3: Give them old electronics that they can take apart and let them! My son turned this into a computer repair business at 13 years old.
• Challenge 4: Give them access to baking or sowing and let them figure it out with your guidance and using their device as a resource.

In each of these challenges, guide your kids to pursue their curiosity to knowledge, from knowledge to experiments, from experiments to excitement.

What if you could uncover a passion in your kids and fan the flame into something more exciting?

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I learned work ethic by working and humility by being humbled. Here's what I mean. I watched my mom and day each work very hard toward their goals, but I truly learned work ethic when I had to do house cleaning chores every week. Over time, I even learned to like it and appreciate it. I was paid for my work and always had money in my savings account. It felt good and I could buy things that I wanted. I also learned humility as cleaning toilets and taking out trash is not glamorous and can be quite nasty. I learned that excellence in my work at every level strengthened my character. I have my parents to thank for that!

In this episode, I teach you how to get your kids involved and learning work ethic and humility through house cleaning chores. As a professional cleaner for 15 years, I'll share our family's strategy & schedule. First, we teach them how to clean and disinfect. Then we break up the house like a professional house cleaner does and assign chores to each kid based on ability. We use a biweekly cleaning schedule except for the recycling & trash (daily) and bathrooms (weekly).

• 6 year old - recycling, helping with glass cleaning and dusting, folding & putting away own laundry, biweekly bathroom
• 9 year old - trash, vacuum & mop stairs and upstairs
• 12 year old - dust, vacuum & mop downstairs
• 15 year old - bathrooms & kitchen

This is an awesome model to teach hard work done right equals money and money equals rewards. It worked for my mom and it is working for our kids. Lastly, I think many of you will appreciate my closing P.S. in this episode.

"Let's get your kids to clean... so you don't have to!"

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Let's start with a great resource. What is the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) current understanding about transmission from their website?

• Spread from person to person within 6 feet via respiratory droplets
• Transmission via contaminated surfaces has NOT been documented
• Infected, but non-symptomatic people play a huge role in transmission
• Transmission through droplets much more common than fomites (objects or materials which are likely to carry infection, such as clothes, utensils, and furniture.)
• "Current evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 may remain viable for hours to days on surfaces made from a variety of materials."
• "Cleaning of visibly dirty surfaces followed by disinfection is a best practice measure for prevention of COVID-19 and other viral respiratory illnesses in households and community settings."
• Personal hygiene, precaution, and protection is the #1 way to protect yourself. Wear a filtering mask, protective nitrile, latex, or vinyl gloves. Keep your distance of 6 feet. Wash your hands frequently, especially after removing gloves or potential exposure for 20 seconds with soap & water. I'll talk more on PPE in the 3rd episode.

Now that we understand what the CDC recommends and the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting", let's shift gears to safely bringing groceries, mail, and packages into your home. The best science we have so far is that the Coronavirus can survive on varying surfaces for varying lengths of time. Below is a overview of the surfaces from these National Institutes of Health and WebMD articles.

• Copper (pennies) - 4 hours
• Aluminum - 8 hours
• Textiles (rags, towels, clothing) - 12-24 hours
• Cardboard - 24 hours
• Plastics / Counters / Metals (cans, stainless) - 2-3 days
• Wood - 4 days
• Glass / Ceramics / Paper - Hard to determine - up to 5 days

Let's pull it all together. When it comes to disinfecting our groceries, we choose a disinfectant that is food safe. Therefore, our family uses isopropyl alcohol 70%. It kills the corona virus in 60 seconds fully wet and disinfects other pathogens in 5 minutes. We do 5 minutes to be safe. You can use also use grain alcohol (ethanol 95%) which is also food safe. If you do not have alcohol, use what you have that is food safe, which is clearly on the back label. If you only have chemical disinfectants, make sure to fully disinfect and then fully rinse each item under water with soap and water. The last resort would be to skip the disinfection and either wash everything with soap and water or allow your groceries to sit in your trunk for up to 5 days so they are safe.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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Over my 15 years of professional cleaning for home & small business owners, I have seen that 90% of people DO NOT disinfect correctly. They fall prey to one of the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". This episode summarizes these 9 mistakes. 

#1 Mistake! Not fully cleaning surface first!

#2 Mistake! Not selecting a registered disinfectant!

#3 Mistake! Not selecting the right disinfectant for the right pathogen!

#4 Mistake! Not following the directions on the label! Dilute correctly and wet surface long enough!

#5 Mistake! Not using chemical correctly. Bleach MUST be remade every day!

#6 Mistake! Cross contamination from rag or not wearing gloves!

#7 Mistake! Wrong pH for surface and damaging it!  

#8 Mistake! Never mix chemicals. It could kill you!

#9 Mistake! Not fully cleaning surface after disinfecting!

I created a 5-part free video course "How to Disinfect Properly" for my cleaning clients & local community to help them during this COVID-19 crisis. If you would like to get more details into each of these 9 mistakes, click here to access your FREE course!

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This episode is for my US-based solo cleaners only. President Trump signed the CARES Act into law on Friday, March 27th. In this 900 page, $2 trillion bill, congress has earmarked $350 billion in personal stimulus to American families and $350 billion to the Small Business Administration (SBA) to disperse to small businesses across the fruited plain. The personal stimulus is automatic and requires no action. If the Treasury already has your bank's direct deposit on file, you'll receive your money in April 2020. Otherwise, it may take a few months. If you're like me, you just assumed you didn't qualify for any of the other $350 billion. Well, you're wrong. This episode covers the 4 main portions of the CARES Act that the self-employed can take advantage of. Some of the money is first-come, first-serve, so get applying!

Before I begin, let's give credit to my source. Denai Wolfe of The Chic CFO has been helping so many people figure this law out since our president signed it. Denai does daily FB Lives in her Profit Factor group and I've had the honor of two expert calls on Zoom with her on the SMART Cleaning Tribe membership that I run and the Total Life Freedom Community that my friend Vincent runs. This episode is a culmination of my knowledge and applying to us... the Solo Cleaning Owners! Make sure to check out this FREE RESOURCE from Denai as well!

There are 4 parts of this law that pertains to us, the self-employed solo cleaners. The EIDL is a given. Go apply ASAP!!! You could get up to $10,000. The FMLA, UC, and PPP are the others and you would have to select one! In this episode, I describe how to calculate your average monthly payroll and go through examples of each of these options. I also give an example of a sole proprietor solo cleaner earning $2,000 per month in payroll and how to decide which option to take. I'll share basics here, so make sure to listen to the full episode for more details.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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We are in a challenging time as we navigate the devastating effects of the Coronavirus. We need to be wise, use caution, and protect ourselves and families. But we also need to control our emotions and try to view things optimistically. A great example emerged a few weeks before the corona outbreak with my daughter. She was struggling as a pre-teen and allowing a small irritant to throw off her whole day. I told her the beautiful story of the oyster and the pearl. First, an irritant enters the oyster. It usually opens it's shell to eat and stays closed to not be eaten. Sometimes sand or small organisms enter. The oyster feels threatened and secretes a substance called Meka (or mother of pearl) to fight the intruder. This is the same substance that the mantle or inside of the shell is made of. The oyster also secretes a protein to act as glue to continue covering this intruder layer after layer. In the end is a pearl. To the oyster, it just transformed something irritating into something that is safe. To mankind, the pearl is of significant value. One such pearl from the Australian South Seas was recently sold for $1.5M. I shifted gears with my daughter and told her to be like the oyster. Turn your irritants into something beautiful. I now say the same to everyone reading this or listening to my podcast. 

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I begin this episode with a real estate investing story from my brilliant cousin Seth. He is not a big time cash buyer in the real estate world. Every time he tries to compete on their level and get to the houses at the pre-foreclosure or auction stage, he is beaten because he cannot compete with cash. Seth had to find another way. Make sure to listen to this podcast to see the shear brilliance of Seth's advantage and how he is buying properties in his area.

From this story, I pivot to solo cleaning company owners and the hidden advantage they have and how they could find opportunities right now in the middle of this COVID-19 storm. There are three main ideas I share:

1. Commercial cleaning is not affected because buildings are empty and they need to be deep cleaned and disinfected. Residential is down big time. Go and find empty buildings to clean for income now. Not only will you earn money now and help protect your community, but they will remember you and possibly hire you for recurring services later on. Adding commercial clients will offer more long-term stability to your solo cleaning business.
2. Study the science of disinfecting or pay attention to the upcoming podcasts on the Solo Cleaning School. Once you are confident, educate your community for free. Share this information with your target client groups. You will help them now and who do you think they'll call for house cleaning after this is all over?!
3. Use this time to fix or establish your business systems and finances to prepare for the coming growth from your first two ideas.

This is an huge opportunity to get ahead, while so many are panicking.

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This week started amazing. Lead #2 Kim (from Erika's recommendation) hired me for cleaning. The story of the hire is worth sharing. They were weary of keeping their old cleaner as they were uninsured and minor property damage occurred. I educated Kim on the risk of hiring uninsured cleaners. This lead to a great in-person discussion and estimate. I sent the proposal directly after and they hesitantly agreed. The hesitancy came from her husband that I didn't speak to. He was strictly comparing prices and said I was higher. I pushed back and recommended that they don't allow the current cleaner to come back into their house without proof of insurance. Kim took the advice and her cleaner gave an excuse. They hired me right away.

The main topic of this episode is to know your numbers. When I used to buy leads through HomeAdvisor, I paid $20-$40 per lead. In this case, I paid Erika $50 for Kim's referral (only after they booked). This is a far better investment. Paying per lead depends on your trust and closing rate.

HomeAdvisor Example: 1 lead costs $30, 10 leads for $300. I closed 20% on average. A closed biweekly house cleaning client was worth at least $3,000 per year in revenue. Thus, 2 closed leads at $300 cost created $6,000 in new revenue. This equals $150 per new client or 5% marketing.

Paying for Referrals: Paying per client from a referral has built in trust and you close many more, but only pay on the ones that hire you. When I paid Erika $50 for a new client, I gained $3000 in new revenue for $50. This equals $50 per new client or 1.7% marketing.

As you can see, it's way more cost effective to pay for new clients verses paying for leads or ads. A few other significant updates happened this week. I had a 20 minute call with Lead #3 Monique (from Erika) and an in-home estimate that went very well. She has had issues with other cleaning services ranging from no-shows to poor quality and wanted a change. Speaking of paying for clients, this could be the second $50 I pay to Erika! I also wrote my monthly cleaning newsletter called "Dirt + Disorder = Overwhelm + Anxiety" after adding my entire Tuesday local networking group of 27 members. My newsletter went out to 77 people local to me. My hope is to have over 100 subscribers on this email list by the next newsletter. I also repurposed this content to Facebook (personal & business), LinkedIn (personal & business), Google My Business, and my website. Lastly, I completed the proposal for Asher's Chocolates and referred my friend, James Hardy, for floor & carpet cleaning.

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Perfectionism is a big problem in the cleaning industry. It took me over 15 minutes to say it in the podcast. It's really not that complex. Perfection is working hard to make YOU as happy as possible and you may never get there. Excellence is working hard to make THE CUSTOMER as happy as possible and you absolutely can get there. =

How do you know if you've made them as happy as possible? You ask them how you've done. I consult with cleaning company owners all over the country and so many struggle with perfectionism. It cost them time, which equals money and profit. I believe that Perfectionism and Excellence are on opposite sides of the same spectrum. You've got to work to the best that you can. but doing it with excellence is different than doing it with perfection. Your customer will feel the difference and so will your bank account!

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I alluded to this story in "There is a Huge Difference". If you'd like to hear this full story, listen to the episode. The quick version is this. I was working from home and noticed a car in our driveway. They were upset and waiting for something. After a half hour, I knew action needed to happen. But what would I do? I chose to assume the best in this person and it paid off big time. The stranded motorist was the owner of a local chocolate factory. Six months later, they remembered me when they needed cleaning. This week, I was able to get the estimate done for Asher's Chocolate. It was a blast! The best part was meeting the 4th, 5th, and 6th generation owners. Great people. Great culture.

There were several other interesting things that happened this week. Lead #3 Monique from Erika's recommendation on Facebook reached back out to me. We set up a phone call to discuss cleaning. I completed and closed my books for 2019 using Quickbooks! This was a huge burden lifted. I sent the packet to my CPA! I also had to file W2's, pay sales tax, and payroll. I mention this in the episode. We are a S-Corporation, which provides incredible tax benefits. If you're just starting out, I recommend a DBA. It's simple and very inexpensive. As your business grows, you may want to consider the entity upgrade.

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The week started with a text referral. I had no idea who the client was until talking to her and connecting the dots to Erika lead #5. Here's the text. "Hello Ken, my daughter got your info from FB about cleaning. Can you send me information about your services?" I could have easily called her, but I used what I learned from "70% Happens Before the Phone Call", asked for her name, and then sent her my website to learn more about our company. She responded with her name, Diane, and thanked me. By the end of the day, she had done her research and wanted to talk, so I scheduled a phone call. The phone call lead to an in-person estimate and emailed proposal by the end of the week.

After the estimate, I had a realization. This customer house was 1 mile from my own house and my new house cleaning clients have been forming up in local neighborhoods. As I grow, my total drive time will be less than 15 minutes between any two houses, allowing me to optimize. I did NOT do this well in my last business in New York. I had clients in 4 counties that I did my best to play calendar Tetris to optimize. What's the difference? I did NOT target market last time. I used HomeAdvisor and real estate referrals for my entire area to identify the right clients within that geography. This time around, I am niched to local Harleysville moms. Thus, I am getting hired my local Harleysville moms.

I had an opportunity to test my character and excellence this week. I completed the vacuuming of my weekly 5,000 square foot office client, wrapped up the cord, and put away the gear. Then I discovered a tiny office that I forgot to vacuum. What would I do? Would I skip it and say, "I'll get it next week. No one will notice." Or, do I suck it up and suck it up? The answer was clear. Character is who you are when no one is looking. I vacuumed the room and left for the next building. It's similar to "You're A Cleaning Guy" when I went to pick up the tissue.

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In Marcus Sheridan's "They Ask You Answer", the author makes a powerful statement. "On average, 70% of the buying decision is made before the prospect talks to the company." This is amazing news.

I have a solo cleaning marketing system with 5 key steps: "Profile to Win", "Creative Marketing", "Using the Phone as a Filter", "Art of the Estimate", and "7 Strategies to Close the Sale". As a system, these lessons help to activate your sales funnel to filter the wrong clients out and the right, high paying clients in. Without realizing it, I have been incorporating Marcus's 70% Rule for years. This book and this one statement from Marcus makes me realize to a much deeper level that my "winning" system of 5 steps is 70% "Profile to Win" & "Creative Marketing" and 30% from the other three. I had no idea how vital the first two were. I knew they were important, but not this much!

If you want to access my system, it's available through our premium membership.

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This week started off great! I got the email back from Doug Floro that they are ready to start me this week. Yay! I've added my 3rd new house cleaning client. Another email came in early in the week from Scott from Asher's Chocolate. They were looking to get a window cleaning estimate. I connected with Scott, he wanted to get quotes on office deep cleaning, floor cleaning, and window cleaning. At the end of the conversation, he said something about his owner recommending to call me and something about being stuck in my driveway. Oh, there is a great story here that I touch on in the podcast but I'll reserve the full story for a later episode.

Just when I thought the week couldn't start off better, I got a message from Erika (my first new house cleaning client). She recommended my company on the Facebook local mom's group. Obviously, I couldn't see it so I waited for my wife to tell me about it. Over the course of the week, 6 moms connected with either my wife, me, or my Facebook business page. I made sure to chase every lead like I taught early in this podcast.

• Lead 1: Krista is Erika's friend, who she referred directly through text. I answered all of her questions over the phone and thanked her for her interest. They may hire me down the road as I gave them enough information to start the budgeting process for cleaning.
• Lead 2: Kim saw Erika's post on the mom's group. She has an uninsured cleaner now, but had some damages that will not get resolved. We had a 15 minute phone call for me to answer her questions, especially about insurance.
• Lead 3: Monique saw Erika's post liked my Facebook page. I friended her and messaged her personally to thank her for liking my page. I also asked if she had any cleaning related questions. She wrote back later in the week. I added her to my newsletter and scheduled a phone call.
• Lead 4: Stacey also saw Erika's post and liked my cleaning page. She never responded to my friend request or personal message.
• Lead 5: Lindsay saw Erika's post and reached out to Teresa through Facebook private messenger. Teresa thanked her and forwarded my phone number so she could call me.
• Lead 6: Shahrzad also saw Erika's post and reached out to Teresa on Facebook. It was hard to connect, but we'll try again next week.

It was a great start to the week. Let's switch gears to the title of this episode. We did speed networking this week at our MCBA group. The goal was to score a "date" by getting a good referral from each member. I chose to use my time to learn about the members by asking each one the question Why? It lead to interesting conversation and I learned more about the others. At the end of the experience, the moderator asked what we learned about other members and my name came up twice.

Marsha said. "Do you know that Ken is a consultant to other cleaning businesses and has a podcast!?"

Susan Sloane of Real Health Quotes said. "I learned that there is a huge difference between a regular cleaner and a presentation cleaner."

This was awesome. Susan goes above and beyond to serve her clients with high touch medical insurance service. She knows what it means to be excellent in your work, so when she heard me explain what I do as a presentation cleaner, it clicked. Susan realized that most cleaners can clean well, most are detailed, but few understand the art of presentation. That's where I shine and she recognized that in our speed networking. Thank you Susan for that massive plug at the MCBA!

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I had so many quality influences growing up, but not many in the entrepreneurial path until my mom remarried Paul Tibbitts when I was 10 years old. Paul grew up with entrepreneur parents who owned multiple businesses, held real estate, owned an airplane, and understood excellence in all they put their hands to. I didn't understand this until later in life and this episode shares my journey.

Monty & Shellie Tibbitts were wonderful to me as a step-grandson. I watched them and always wondered HOW they had so many people working for them, how they had two new Jags in the driveway, how they had a beautiful main house and beach house, how they could afford their own private airplane, boat, and wave-runners. I wondered WHY they entertained so extravagantly, inviting family and business associates to their homes & boat. I wondered why they were members of private golf clubs and yacht clubs. To be honest, I never connected my wonderings of HOW to WHY. It never struck me that they purposely lived their lives with their family and people of influence to better their life and the lives around them. I never understood the extraordinary efforts they took in presenting their home for parties with classical music in the background, jumbo shrimp bowls, perfectly matched table decor, a clean home, fine clothing & jewelry, and even a live-in cook to care for the family & guests. If I was wiser as a kid, I would have noticed that the way they lived their lives is the reason why they had what they had. Instead, I viewed their life through the wrong lens thinking they were "Rich People" who were flaunting. That mindset wasn't often, but I'd be lying if I didn't think it. The truth was this. They weren't flaunting anything. They just understood something about relationships and excellence that I did not. Plus, their character and the way they treated me was always first class. That's why I was so saddened when Pop-Pop Monty passed away last year.

Over Thanksgiving, we finally fulfilled a promise to visit Grandma Shellie for brunch. When we arrived, I was brought back to childhood with the smells, sounds, and appearance of excellence all around me. It was something to behold. This time it clicked. I am a Presentation Cleaning Specialist with over a decade of training by realtors & stagers how to prepare a house for sale. I've used this in real estate cleaning, office, and recurring house cleaning to great advantage. Therefore, I asked Grandma Shellie.

"Why do you go through such effort to make everything look so good even when it's just your family coming over?"

Grandma Shellie replied. "Kenny, you eat with your eyes before before you eat with your Mouth".

That was all I needed to hear. I understood everything I ever witnessed as a kid. I understood that every wonder I had aligned. You must be congruent. If the way your live your life at home and with guests is exquisite and excellent, your business products & services must also be excellent. Monty & Shellie knew that they were public servants as business owners and therefore they wanted the community to know that they cared so much that even the finest details were covered in excellence. This is why they were so richly blessed with growing companies and employees that loved them.

The proof of their lifetime commitment was during Monty's Memorial Service when so many shared their memories. I was so impressed with a life well lived. Honestly, I am not sure that I can attain the level they ascended, but I can start now and so can you. Be excellent.

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In 15 years of solo cleaning, over 75 families have hired me to clean for them. However, I sold my business with 17. What happened to the others? It's simple. This is a seasonal service for some and a lifetime for others. I never tried to figure that out. I just served. I have lots of experience getting "let go", "moved on", "fired", etc. Some let me know face-to-face with a month's notice. Some stopped immediately through email, phone, or text. Others just disappeared (literally a UFO got 'em)! There was only one time that I fired myself. For the sake of privacy, we'll call this customer "Bob".

Bob worked from home as a consultant and his family lived in a beautiful 4,000+ square foot home in a new development. They had a son 1-year older than my son, Kenny. Bob and I had awesome conversations and many were from opposing viewpoints. Some were political and some were religious. We had a mutual respect for each other and our beliefs. The cleaning itself was tough. The master shower had two glass doors, the kitchen island was 15 feet long, and the oven was HUGE! The knobs on the range top would turn to the 'On' position on a hairpin trigger, so I always had to check to the level of OCD to make sure the gas was off. On November 2, 2016, I cleaned and didn't do a good job inspecting!

When I got home, there was a text from Bob's wife. She is stressed out as the gas was left on for at least 6 hours after I left and she had to call to get help to make sure it was safe. Thankfully, everything was okay. But the family was in shock and I was feeling a level of guilt I've never felt in all my years in this business. Cleaners I urge you to check the oven knobs every time you leave!

You'll have to listen to the episode, but here's what happened. I fired myself. When Bob and his wife talked over what they should do, he came to me and just wanted to have another civil conversation. I had prayed and thought about it for a whole day and literally told Bob. "I am SO sorry. This is literally a irreconcilable offense. I put myself in your place with your wife and son as my own. If a cleaner had done that in my home, I would lose all trust and fire them immediately. I think you should do the same. I don't want to lose your business, but I want to do the right thing." Bob was amazed. "Ken, I respect you for your response and care of my family." Ultimately, they did let me go and they should have. I talk about building trust. In this case, I lost all of my trust in the turning of one oven gas knob. I knew it would be harder to go from a 1 Trust Factor to the 10 I had before THAN getting a new client at 6 and getting to 10.

After the smoke cleared, I remained friends with Bob. We still connect to this day and he left a glowing review of my cleaning service on Google.

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I break down the numbers in this episode. If you remember, I was at a low point in "Broken Record", making the connection between average SMART goals and average results. I wanted 2020 to connect great SMART goals to great results. Therefore, I had to make a critical change. For the previous 10 years, I've been creating ACTIVITY & OPTIMIZATION SMART goals on my main business and GROWTH SMART goals on my side passion project. This wasn't fruitless as I optimized my solo cleaning business big time, sold it, and we got debt free. However, I left a lot on the table. What could have happened to both my main cleaning business and side business if I reversed the way I set up goals? That's what 2020 would be.

Carfagno Cleaning - Add 15 houses and 2 offices (to increase my cleaning revenue by $10,000 every 60 days) by 12/31/20. This is a growth goal and forces me to focus on achieving it.

SMART Cleaning Biz - To produce twice weekly Solo Cleaning School podcasts, send a monthly newsletter (and repurpose), run the Solo Cleaning School & provide the training they need, and run the SMART Cleaning Tribe & provide the resources they need by 12/31/20. There is nothing here about growth. It's more about maintaining.

Let's examine. I know how to earn over $100 per hour cleaning and could fill up the available days. My earning power is NOT as high in my side business yet. However, I was investing more time and energy for the past decade into the side. Why? It was emotional. It was preference. I didn't want to clean. 2020 is going to be different.

The next step was to determine how many leads I would need to get each month in order to hit my growth goal. Let's keep this simple. We've been in PA for less than 2 years and I've passively received 9 house cleaning warm leads (referrals) and 40 office cleaning cool leads (self-generated). I've closed on 4 houses and 3 offices, which translates to a 1/13 office cleaning closing rate and a 1/2 -1/3 house cleaning closing rate. I've already shown that I needed to invest into my most profitable business. That's my main cleaning business. Within my cleaning business, house cleaning through warm referrals is very effective. Thus, I determined that I would need to generate 30-45 warm house cleaning and 25 cool office cleaning leads or 5 warm office cleaning leads. When I break that down monthly, I need to generated 3-4 house leads per month and an office lead every couple months. Therefore, I would focus my marketing on acquiring house cleaning leads and continue local networking and some LinkedIn to get the necessary offices. If I do this action plan, I will hit my growth SMART goal for Carfagno Cleaning. Seeing this on paper energized me big time! I went from depressed with 10 notebooks to fired up with a plan!

If you'd like to learn more about SMART goals, check out my 5-part podcast series.

1. What is Your Why
2. Why Set Goals
3. Make Your Goals SMART
4. The Accountability Roadmap
5. Kill Parkinson

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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In my last two Carfagno Cleaning updates, I shared the story of Doug Floro and how a seed turned into an opportunity. I started this week by completing his house cleaning proposal with 6 options and hit send! Like I always say, you never know! Right after the proposal, I wrote, published, and repurposed (to social media) a new cleaning newsletter.

I also sent out my monthly invoices and something amazing happened. One of my office clients asked if I would be willing to bill ahead for 6 months instead of one. That was an easy answer... "YES!" I read three things into this request:

• They are very satisfied with my service to book me for 6 months.
• 6-month billing protects them against a price increase and locks me in for 6 months at a time.
• Their company is so financially responsible, they are paying 6 months in advance. This is the type of company that is mega stable and a wonderful client to have!

Now, let's get to the meat of this week's episode. In 18 Gutter Balls, I shared the story of my infamous bowling game of 12 when I was 12. My 83-year-old Pop-Pop still heckles me about that day! The final question I posed was this. "Have you learned yet?" I was doing the same thing, over-and-over again, and expecting a different result. This is the definition of insanity by the late, great Albert Einstein. I was guilty of it that day with my engraved bowling ball and now I get to answer the question.

I shared a detailed account of how to wrap up your year in review. It's called Think Week. I have followed this process every year and even published the podcast episode ahead of my 2019 version. Let me get real and transparent. "I haven't learned yet, Pop-Pop." I started to do Think Week by reflecting of my 2019 goals and comparing them to what I accomplished. I achieved about 67%. Not bad. But I dug deeper and saw something that demanded explanation. So I pulled out my 2018 notebook for Think Week and saw the same pattern. To make matters worse, I pulled out every year back to 2012. This revealed that I have been a broken record.

I've been doing the same thing over and over and over, expecting my end-of-year results to change. But at the end of each year, I threw a 6 instead of a strike (using the bowling analogy). Some years, I did throw a gutter ball. Here's what I realized. I am a dreamer, an optimist. I love working on my passion projects and I've always had one. Early on, it was an Amway business with Teresa. Then it was writing a novel for dads to read to their kids, followed by coaching & consulting cleaning company owners. The mistake I repeated was setting my SMART goals to grow my passionate side-hustle, while setting the mark for my main business for "just enough". Whether I was an engineer or a solo cleaning owner, I have not set SMART growth goals to raise our level of income past 'just making it' to 'prospering'. I chose to set my SMART growth goals on my side-hustle, that I WANTED to do, yet had no proof of concept! My optimism kicked in as well because I made many assumptions that weren't realistic or attainable. So I'd complete a year with the same main business income and a side income that barely increased. But I was happy and rationalized that I did good because I loved doing it.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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The week started off great. In my last podcast update on my own solo cleaning business, I shared the story of Doug sliding another cleaning business's card across his desk and asking me what I thought of her. I spoke highly of her, even after he told me that he used her company for his own house. Well, I got an email from Doug on Monday asking if I would be willing to do a cleaning estimate for his house. I was amazed, scheduled an appointment, and completed it by the end of the week. It just goes to show that you never go wrong by sowing good seeds about others.

I share the full story in the episode, but I was torched on my mastermind call this week. The guys weren't impressed with my goals and how I was approaching the next 12 months. I tried defending myself, but they called me on it. Overall, it was a great call and I was challenged to do what I preach and get an accountability partner (see the Accountability Roadmap). John VanderMuelen. John is a good friend and MASTER of selling on Amazon. He runs a group holding other Amazon Sellers accountable and trains them.

I set up electronic payments for the first time after 15 years of running a cleaning business. I did my research and for now, chose Stripe. It's about 3% cost but it's easier for my new house cleaning clients and possibly an office or two. This gives me a new option for collecting money and not waiting or worrying about checks and bank deposits. It's streamlined.

This next meeting with my realtor friend, Denise Simone, is where the title for today's episode came from. Denise has a passion for the elderly and helping them downsize to fully enjoy the twilight of their lives. She told me a beautiful story of a former client. Betty is a widow that Denise helped downsize through crazy issues with mold, a broken septic, obtaining permits, and just 45 years of a lived-in home. Denise was her hero and did work way beyond real estate to help her client and friend to a better life. She even helped her clean the house a bit. Denise had a great line. "An old unkept house is like a broken down car." This was in reply to houses over time with neglect fall into disrepair. I shared an analogy about the brain and personal development. Our brains, businesses, and relationships don't stay the same. They also fall into disrepair with neglect. I was so impressed with Denise and was grateful for the time and for allowing me to share her story of Betty!

Previous Show Mentioned: "Blueberry Pie"

TLF Mastermind friends I mention: Andy Storch, Gustavo Fernandez, Jon Appino, John VanderMuelen,

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Listen to this episode to hear the backstory and how our game of Giant Jenga went. I want to share the vital part and message in the show notes. We were at the critical point where there were no more potential blocks to pull. My daughter was faced with a critical decision. Does she go for the best option and face a 99% chance of failure? Or does she CREATE a new option?

I've literally never seen anyone do this in Jenga. Christianna lifted up the top half of the building and rotated it 90 degrees so that it fit together like Tetris. This created a loose block that she slid out and sat down to escape losing. My mouth dropped in awe as my initial reaction was, 'That is literally the most creative solution I've ever seen in Jenga'. We did wonder as a family if the move was legal, but we played on. Ultimately, Christianna did not lose.

I posted the video clip on Facebook with a question and the video? "I need a Jenga ruling! This is a the most creative solution I've ever seen in this game. But... is it legal?!" I got a lot of comments, but two back-to-back contrasting views really stood out. I won't mention names. One said, "If you're not going to play by the rules, don't play the game." The other said that she loved the out of the box creative thinking and that she will go far in life. I was so thrilled to see these two comments as they show the stark differences between the employee and entrepreneur's mindset.

Employees are trained to always follow the rules and stay inside the box. I mean no disrespect to the first commentor or to employees in general. I was an employee for over a decade and have great memories. I'm just stating that employees have been trained to be excellent direction followers. The better they follow directions, the better they do on the test and in the job. Now granted, those that are in leadership do think bigger. However, there is always someone giving them instructions.

In stark contrast, entrepreneurs are always stretching and redefining the new box. In fact, great entrepreneurs just say, "What box?" They are creative, curious, and think critically to solve difficult problems. It's what our awesome nation was built on! After reading this comment, I was so excited about my daughter's future as we train our kids in entrepreneur thinking! Way to go Christianna! I'm so proud of you!

If you like or identify with this level of thinking, check out the work of Seth Godin as it inspired so much of what I wrote and talked about here!

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Let's face it. You're going to mess up your communication as a business owner. You will say one thing and mean another. Or, you will think one thing and not fully communicate it. That was the case for me last week with a new client, Ellie. I was under the assumption she understood my 3-part cleaning plan because I had explained it in person. But I never wrote it out and therefore, the plan never existed. I executed the plan of part 2 and followed up with Ellie afterward to get cleaning feedback. She was very pleased with the master bathroom and other rooms I detail deep cleaned. However, she was unhappy that I "skipped" the guest bathroom when she had guests coming over in a few days. I'll let the podcast audio share the full detail of this story, but I will say that apologizing is an action verb! It's one thing to say, "I'm sorry." It's another thing to show it. I knew the right thing to do and I fixed it by going back and cleaning Ellie's bathroom for free and apologizing in person. She was so happy and it raised my trust factor big time.

This week I also met with Doug Floro of My Father's Business Wealth Management. He is the leader of the Believer's in Business Networking Group that I attend twice per month. Anyway, we wanted to do a 1-to-1, so we could get to know each other better as I'm still a new member. The meeting was in his beautiful office and we definitely had a fantastic conversation. At the end, Doug did something unexpected. He slid a business card of another cleaning company across his desk and asked, "Ken, do you know this person?" I recognized the name and company. Although I didn't know much, I did know that she was part of a larger franchise and had recently upgraded her office as her business was growing well. My answer to this question would be a seed and I knew it. Would I say that she was an average company and that I'm way better, in hopes that he would hire me to clean his office? Or would I say share what I knew and find a way to edify her? If you know me at all, I don't even think like the first option. I edified her success and then asked why. Doug told me that she was his cleaner for their home. There wasn't anything else to say. I just said, "That's great! I hope she keeps doing a great job." It was a great meeting, for sure!

I also worked hard on my proposal for Sammy's Bullfrog Cafe with my recommendations for daily, weekly, biweekly, and monthly presentation cleaning. Then I introduced Jim Hardy to the owners for a potential package deal to get all the cleaning done. I heard back from Kayla the next day and she was very grateful for the introduction to Jim and she was going to read the proposal and thanked me again. To wrap up the week. I attended a play that my kids were in at church. There was a couple behind me that I didn't recognize, so I introduced myself. He wanted my cleaning card and, OF COURSE, I had one. That's a huge tip! It turns out that the husband is the CEO of a local charity. We're going to get together for breakfast soon. You just never know!

Past Show Mention - "My Name is Kevin LaCombe"

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January 2008 was a very busy time in my cleaning business as I was cleaning all the time, managing employees, and trying to spend time with my wife, 3 year-old-son Kenny, and newborn daughter Christianna. By late 2008, I changed my cleaning model to solo cleaning and never went back. I cleaned for years alone and got quite used to the lifestyle of listening to audio books, podcasts, music, and talk radio while I cleaned, then came home to play with my kids.

Never in a million years could I have ever imagined that one day I'd have those two little kids working alongside me in the family business. My mind was blown when Kenny (15) and Christianna (12) cleaned a few offices with me Thursday night. I'm not sure why adding Christianna gave me the wake up call as Kenny has been cleaning offices with me for 3 years. Maybe it's because I wasn't cleaning when Kenny was born, but I was in full swing during Christianna's birth. Maybe it's because she's a Daddy's girl. I don't know. I can say this. We teach our children how to think like an entrepreneur and help them start businesses. We believe in developing a great work ethic in ourselves and kids. Our family cleaning business is an excellent resource to give real-life experience to our kids in both of those goals.

In the Pros of Solo Cleaning, I forgot to add this pro. You own a family business and cleaning is a worthy trade to teach your kids. There are no guarantees in the workplace with college degrees. The trades are dying as young people want to pursue the glamorous digital marketplace. This is a tremendous opportunity for us. I encourage each of you to think long-term about your cleaning business. If you are in the "February of Cleaning" and you Don't Want to Do This Anymore, listen to this podcast episode to inspire you to push through!

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Everything is NOT all flowers and sunshine in a solo cleaning business. I have shared solid mindset to grow and so many pros to this amazing business as I've grown my own solo business a second time. But it's not always great. There are Cons of Solo Cleaning. In this episode, I wanted to be REAL and share when I reached my "February of Cleaning" and wanted to quit! Essesntially, I had a pity party and needed the encouragement of my wife to get me through.

I shared the story of Ian Traynor of Albany Pure Cleaning. He was so excited to start his new solo cleaning business. It was summer time, warm, sunny, and didn't get dark until 9 pm. I warned him about February, saying "Ian, February is coming. I know you're excited now but a time is coming when you will question everything. You'll be leaving the house in the dark and cold and snow of Upstate New York and coming back home to the dark and cold and ice. Your supplies will be frozen as well as your car every morning.You'll wonder why you're doing this. But remember that spring and summer are coming again." I meant this in a literal and metaphorical sense. Spring and summer are literally more fun and tolerable for cleaning. However, in a metaphorical sense, Ian's business will go through seasons. The first season is shiny and new, which leads to the emotion of excitement. The last season is optimizing and great profit and great mindset, leading to the emotion of excitement. But the middle season, the "February of Cleaning", will be old and boring and cold, leading to the natural emotions of depression and frustration.

You'll have to listen to my account on this podcast, but I share what I was feeling after cleaning Erika's house for the second time. I worked so hard to get two new clients and I was excited to start rebuilding my company. Then, I started the actual cleaning and realized it was going to be hard work. I realized that I needed to get my mind back into "Cleaning Mode". That's why podcasts like this can be so beneficial. I had my pity party as I was tired after cleaning two houses. That's when my wife stepped in and encouraged me. I told Teresa. "I don't want to do this anymore." I was questioning my career and if I would have to clean solo the rest of my life. Then I talked to Rachel Hicks of Slightly OCD Cleaning while doing an office later that night and came up with a plan that excited me again. I have fully trained Ian, who was an entrepreneur looking for an opportunity. She reminded me that I trained her to double her hourly rate as a cleaning owner. That's what I'm great at and what I love doing. Rachel helped me to dig out of my season of pity and also encouraged me. I started to see and visualize the spring and it excited me again.

Once I got my mind straight, I noticed an email in my box. Kayla from Sammy's Bullfrog Cafe asked if I could come in to meet with Sammy to discuss cleaning. I set up the estimate and met with Sammy while the restaurant was closed. It was very productive and I sent a proposal out a few days later to serve Sammy. I offered a comprehensive plan to cleaning the cafe with their existing staff, an outsourced cleaning service (me), and carpet & floor company (my friend Jim). They were thankful and we'll see, maybe they'll be a new client!

We are all going to face our "February of Cleaning". The strong ones will endure through determination and disciplined thought. It's totally amazing how our emotions follow our thoughts.

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I'm calling an audible to my original plan. We started this now 5-part series with Goal Setting I "What is Your Why" and talked about the most important aspect of goal-setting. It's your reason for getting up and doing what you do. The "5 Why's" exercise is an effective way to peel back the layers of your reasons to get to the core of what makes you tick. We are not robots, but emotional creatures. Mike Michalowicz, in his epic book "Profit First", shares why rational accounting doesn't work. He uses an example of plate sizes. Do you know that the average size has grown from 9" to 13" in diameter. That's DOUBLE! Over the same time period, the average American male's weight increased from 160 lbs to 190 lbs! Why? Mike goes to say that humans consume everything they are given. It's human behavior. They also use every available amount of time to finish a project and every dollar to fill their budgets. This is why Americans don't have 'extra' savings on hand or 'spare' time or 'uneaten' calories. There is a name for this. It's called Parkinson's Law.

Parkinson's Law states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." We have to fight against this human behavior to win and learn how to Kill Parkinson!

Our SMART goals are subject to Parkinson's Law too. If you set a SMART goal with a 'T' of 3 months, you will either miss the goal or make it just in time even if you could have done it faster. This is human behavior. I want to encourage you to set goals so that you can complete them in the beginning and get the wins. However, you need to get more aggressive as you progress. I'm going to use this example. I interviewed my friend Courtney Wisely of Rescue My Maid Service on a FB Live to help her set a SMART goal. She wanted to complete a technology course for cleaning service owners to help them be more productive and automated. I asked her if she could get it done by December (12 months away). Her answer was "Heck, yeah!" Then I asked if she could have it done this month. She said, "Heck, no!" I asked about June, which was 6 months away. "Um... yes." She wasn't as confident, but knew she could. Then I said April or 4 months away. She was very uncomfortable, but believed it was possible. I encouraged her to set her SMART goal for April. Here's the psychology behind this and it looks at the 'A' in SMART or 'Attainable'. I pressed Courtney and discovered she could achieve this massive goal in 4 months. However if she set the goal like most people for 12 months, Parkinson's Law would kick in and she'd allow the work to expand to fit the time. That would waste 8 months of potential goals or create a huge Opportunity Cost. Courtney won't do this. She will set the goal for 4 months and kill it this year. Just keep in mind that Courtney is a hyper-focused goal-achiever. We're not all there. So start where you are. The 'A' in the SMART goal has to be defined by YOU depending on where you are in your goal-setting journey. What's barely attainable now will be a joke in a year, so you cannot continue to set the same goals.

The reason I added a 5th part to this Goal-Setting series was to show that human behavior drives your completion of goals. You need to have an emotional 'Why' which determines the 'R' in your SMART goal. You need behavioral 'A' in your SMART goal to kill Parkinson. And you need an accountability partner to ride with you along the journey to point out when you are veering off the path or taking too long to get something done. Face it. Goal-setting is 80% emotional and 20% rational.

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My Pop-Pop has been the man I've wanted to perform for my whole life. My father and I are both named after him. My son is named after him. For most of my life, Pop-Pop has been an encourager... except for this one time!

When I was 12-years-old, I was competing in a Saturday morning bowling league where I was one of the best in my league for my age. I carried an average around 135. But on one occasion, I defied all sense and threw a low-game of 12. There are only 10 frames in a game of bowling and if you don't mark in the 10th, you only get 20 throws of the ball down the lane. In this game, I threw 18 / 20 gutter balls. My score was embarrassment enough. But not on this day, nor the 30 years since.

My Pop-Pop watched every throw. He could see what I was doing wrong and had the answer. He was in the right perspective to help me make the adjustments, but I was too dang stubborn to accept his help. So what did he do?

He heckled me like the Volkswagon guy in Happy Gilmore. I'll let you listen to the episode to get the gist of it

My Pop-Pop reminds me over and over again about this epic failure of a bowling game. I reply. "Pop, that was 30 years ago!" His response is powerful. "Have you learned yet?" What about you? Are you throwing gutter balls over and over again? Do you have a mentor or coach that sees a broader perspective of your game, but you are too stubborn? Get over yourself and adjust! Change your approach and increase your score.

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Dionne was a struggling single mom. She was willing to do anything to make it, including moving to a different state and trying out a crazy business... cleaning houses. If you're a mom listening to Dionne's interview, I fully believe you will be encouraged to know it's not easy but you can do it!

Dionne shares how surprised and honored she was when I invited her to join the Solo Cleaning School as a founding member. The idea of paying for a membership forced her to take personal leadership for her future and she dropped this insane metaphor -

"Don't worry about how much the shovel is going to cost if you have a gold mine."

It's a great message as cost and investment have completely different meanings. Cost implies consumption. You buy and use it up and it's gone. On the other hand, investment implies growth. You buy and use it to get more of what you need. Dionne illustrates this perfectly as to why she decided to join our School!

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Carfagno Cleaning is a corporation with various divisions. We have a this podcast and the Solo Cleaning School. I serve team cleaners in the SMART Cleaning Tribe. This all falls under my 'consulting' division. My main division is my own solo cleaning business that I am rebuilding in the Philly suburbs after sellling my first one to Ian Traynor of Albany Pure Cleaning. I hope you've been enjoying this podcast and the journey I've taken you on.

This week was a short one as Thanksgiving cut off 2 days and my family was traveling to New Jersey for a long weekend. I started the week with a meeting with Ken Byler of Higher Ground Consulting. I met him and really connected at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon a few weeks ago. This was a fun meeting. I am used to asking questions and listening, but I met with a greater master than I. Ken skillfully got me to talk the whole time and then asked how he could help me. I literally ran out of time to help him. You got me, Ken! Anyway, here's the answer I gave him. "How do I best use or network in the chamber?" Ken's answer floored me. He said this. "Find out the available Chamber committees and see where you can help. They meet once per month for an hour. Pour into it and show your value. This builds relationships with chamber members and raises your level of trust. From here you will Get a name for doing and contributing. Others in the chamber will want to connect 1-to-1. Set the meetings and connect more. This will lead to lasting relationships, leads, and it helps the community through your chamber leadership efforts." This was a drop the mic answer.

Outside of cleaning the usual 2 offices, playing a Thanksgiving flag football game that ended in an emergency room visit, and going to NJ for excellent family time, there was one other thing I did this week. It took me all week! I worked on the 3 proposals for Gary Volpe. This is a huge opportunity. One is for his main offices & showroom, another for the chamber offices inside of his building, and the third for his old building. This was a job much larger than I usually do, so I had to connect with a janitorial business owner for his opinion and he helped quite a bit. Gary's building is 13,000 sqft of office and showroom space. The other 25,000+ sqft is warehouse space. I estimate that I would be cleaning between 40-50% of the 13,000 sqft every week. I won't bore you with the math here, but I was able to scale his large business to a size that I am used to cleaning. This gave me a ballpark for where his building should price. Trust me, it took a long time to figure this out and hours of itemizing his large building. I was able to complete the 3 proposals and email them at 10pm on Tuesday. This barely met my promise to get it done by Tuesday. I was so happy to pour so much effort into giving well-thought out proposals and even more thrilled to be done!

I mentioned the power of the new Google My Business offering in my last update. I collected my first review this week. Yay! My goal is to get 20-25, so this is a great start! I just need to keep asking. And isn't that a great message for all business owners. Just keep asking.

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We're at part 4 of our goal-setting series. You should have a great handle on your Why, why you set goals, and how to create a SMART goal. These are all vital steps in getting traction and achieving. However, there is more to the equation. Let's talk about an accountability roadmap. Think about a huge map of the country. There's a car off on the side of the map. Where do you want to go? Well, that's a silly question. We first need to know where you are now on the map.

Step 1: Know Your Numbers! You have to know your business numbers, which includes your key performance indicators (KPIs) or scorecard, profit & loss, and where you want to go. This will help you assess exactly where you now compared to your goals and allow you to have the measurables to set solid SMART goals.

Step 2: Know Your WHY! Now that you're car is off the side and on the map in the location of where YOU are, you can pour the fuel into the vehicle and set the direction you would like to travel.

Step 3: Determine Your Route! You will need a series of milestones every 90 days in the form of SMART goals to create the dotted line on your map to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

Step 4: Put on Your Wheel! You need wheels to make your gassed-up car to roll to its destination. My friend Courtney Wisely of Rescue My Maid Service uses these 5 areas to measure the health of your cleaning company: Human Resources, Operations, Marketing, Administration, Finances. I added a 6th area and that is Goal Setting & Accountability. We can place these 6 criteria as 'spokes' on a wheel. Simply segment the spokes with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Then grade yourself on each to start your journey and connect the dots. You can see this exercise done on my FREE SMART Goals Masterclass. You will need to create a circle so your 'wheel' can get you to your destination.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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It was GO-TIME for Bridgett and I this week! We met on Monday at a coffee shop to connect and to prepare our double showcase presentation to our MCBA group. Once we made the connection that we were both in the same business, the "business of first impressions", our presentation was like riding a bike going downhill. We selected fellow member Vernessa Hopkins and discussed how we could help her in a way that was engaging to the meeting for 40 minutes. There would be NO call-to-action to the other members except for Vernessa to incorporate the recommendations we gave her. Bridgett and I had an opening, relevant stories, and the word congruency. We both agreed that the first impression that Vernessa's written content provided had to be congruent with the first impression that her office environment provided. This set the stage for each of us to share for 10 minutes on 3-5 recommendations Vernessa could incorporate to strengthen her first impressions. The double showcase was set and it went amazing! The others were fully engaged, leaning forward, nodding their heads, and asking great questions afterward. Vernessa was very thankful. Bridgett and I were the first to ever create a showcase 'alliance' to help another. And that's what the 'A' in MCBA stands for. Other members were talking at the end of the meeting and starting to form their own strategic alliances.

Gary Volpe couldn't make our showcase as he was taking care of his president's role in the Rotary. We met right after at his office for an estimate. I can't share details of individual estimates for privacy sake. I can say this. I was so impressed with the 15 foot high mural of the Volpe Family business through it's 50 years of operation. Gary took me on a tour of his 40,000 sqft office building and told me great stories and introduced me to associates. I wasn't expecting this, but we also went to his old building for a second estimate. This is where the title of this episode comes from. We walked into a bathroom. There was some toilet paper on the ground by the trash can. He saw me going to pick it up and he stopped me because he wanted his employees to 'see it' and do it. I said. "You knew I was going to pick it up, didn't you?" He responded. "Yep, you're a cleaning guy. I know you would." This was a great meeting and I am so grateful for Gary's time and friendship. It's amazing how this is working. I already set myself apart by being a business man who happens to clean (from Andrea Szlavic). I am an introvert who has read books to be better with people and not afraid to network and try new things. I go to new network groups on faith and knew no one. A month later, they all know me. I'm a giver in the group and now Gary is giving me a huge opportunity.

This week was a BIB group meeting as well. We meet for breakfast in a local diner, open in prayer, discuss an educational piece, do two short 5 minute mini showcases, and connect. The group is small, but I enjoy the fellowship and you never know what will come from it! During the 30-second commercials, I used my time to help another member (just like Bridgett and I did at MCBA) and it went over really well. Another member said to me afterward, "I really appreciate how you used your time to talk about someone else. I need to get you to my house for a cleaning estimate". Are you starting to see that people hire people that they know, like, and trust!?

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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Goal-setting is a science and an art. We covered some of the art and the emotion of why to set goals. Now it's time to dive into some science. The S.M.A.R.T. Framework is a methodology of setting goals that allows you to measure and track your progress. Without a system like this, your goals are likely just wishes. Check out my free "SMART Goals Masterclass" to get a great recap on the Why of goals and for an in-depth explanation of the SMART Framework.

In this episode, I want you to grasp that each letter in SMART has a greater purpose. However, I don't think the letters are in the right order. For the purpose of an acronym, SMART makes sense. The true order should be RASMT.

• R = Relevant - This is the most important letter in the goal. It must get you closer to your Why! It must be relevant to your BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)
• A = Attainable - The Slight Edge requires slight inputs. You need to get the ball rolling with small wins. Set your first goals small and always make sure they are realistic otherwise, you will not do them.
• SM = Specific & Measureable - This combo makes the goals easily tracked with numbers or scores. As they say, "What gets measured gets managed."
• T = Time bound -This ties it all together and makes it accountable by giving your trackable goal a deadline. Without a deadline, nothing happens.

SMART Examples:

• To grow my book club to 25 members. S, M, A - This is NOT relevant to your cleaning business and there is no deadline!
• To grow my book club to 25 members by 1/31/20. S, M, T - We added a deadline, but it's not feasible to add 25 members in a week. It's not attainable. And by the way, this isn't relevant at all to your cleaning business!
• To grow my cleaning business. A, R - Now we have a relevant goal, but it's too vague. It's not specific or measurable and there's no deadline. By the way, you could literally pick up the phone and call one prospect, get a no, and say you took action that "grew" your business.
• To grow my cleaning business by $1M by 1/31/20. S, M, R, T - This is the first goal that seems to have the whole package, except one thing. It's not attainable! Thus, it's not SMART and you won't get traction!
• To grow my cleaning business by 5 new biweekly clients. S, m, A, R - This goal is relevant and specific. It's also attainable. But, there is no deadline and it's not fully measurable. It's not productive to keep a scorecard and only measure the results. Adding 5 new clients is a result. You need to understand the entire process from the initial marketing to the first message to the estimate and sales. Do you know the level of marketing activity to achieve "5 new biweekly clients"? Once you do, swap in the actions and your goal will go from 'm' to 'M'. If you control the actions, you can control the outcome!
• To create 25 cleaning leads (for 5 new biweekly clients) by 3/31/20. S, M, A, R, T - Bingo! We finally have a goal that is SMART. Do you understand why? Read these notes and listen to this episode until you do!

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In my last solo cleaning business update, I was thrilled to report two successful house cleaning estimates. I had cleaned for Ellie last week and verbally, she agreed to a recurring service starting in December. The other estimate was with Erika, whom my wife connected with through the local Facebook mom's group. I felt great about the estimate and expected a second yes, but heard nothing all weekend. Of course, doubts trickle in and you wonder if she changed her mind. Here's what I did. I texted Erika on Monday morning and said this. "How was your weekend? I just wanted to check in..." I didn't even mention cleaning and she replied with "I'm so sorry, so much going on. I meant to call you. When can we get on your schedule?" I was able to schedule her family on biweekly Thursdays along with Ellie. There's a lesson here. I could have been more direct and said. "Hi Erika, were you interested in cleaning services?" I could have been less direct. "Erika, did you have any other questions about my cleaning options?" I'm sure many of you would do this and I'm NOT saying it's wrong. I just had a gut feeling that Erika is a busy, working mom and my all-important cleaning proposal got looked at and forgotten in the chaos of her weekend. Therefore, I opted to be a human and ask how her weekend was. She may have responded with something short. "Fine." There is an emotional intelligence component required here. In my experience, this type of response shows disinterest or they just had a bad weekend. Either way, I'd give them time and follow up again in a week. Erika did not do that. She responded with enthusiasm. That's always a great sign. The result was expected. I asked about her weekend and she booked our cleaning service.

My networking meetings were lively as always. I shared last time that I was voluntold to do a 20-minute business showcase along with Bridgett. I had an idea that I wanted to pitch and it went great. What if we used our showcase time together to help another member AS we showcase what we each do in our businesses? Bridgett loved it and so did Vernessa, who was the member we were going to help. We had an educational piece during this meeting where we watched a TED talk and discussed how it related to us. I had a chance to wrap up with my comments and then casually mentioned that I was going to interview James Hardy from the group on a future podcast. Several members said. "You have a podcast!" "What is it called?" Before I could answer, Eva Finlan piped up and said. "Oh, it's a really good show!" I had promoted Eva on a prior episode and shared it to my Facebook friends. She was so grateful and listened. I told them the name of this show and a handful wrote it down. After the meeting, I set up a time to meet with Eva for a 1-to-1 to connect more. I also had a quick word with Gary Volpe about his office cleaning. He had tried to get me in there, but the timing wasn't right yet. I was grateful that he was considering me. As a quick note, I also attended my first Chamber of Commerce luncheon as a new member. It was an honor to speak in front of the members and all 3 of our county commissioners to introduce myself.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

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This is our second lesson on goal-setting. The first was "What is Your Why", where we saw the importance of finding what makes you tick and use that to keep you inspired. In this lesson, I want to prove to you why you need to set goals if you want to succeed. In fact, I'll let the well-known Harvard Business Review study tell you why!

• 83% of people do not set goals.
• 14% of people do set goals and succeed 10 times more than the 83% that do not set goals at all.
• 3% of people have goals and write them down. This group succeeds 3 times more than than the goal-setters that do not write them down and 30 times more than the non-goal-setters.

In a separate study of people that set goals and write them down, 40% do not go back and look at their goals!

This is a remarkable finding. Out of 100 people, only 3 write down their goals and less than 2 (on average) write them down and review them on a regular basis. Furthermore, it is my guess that 1 out of 100 write down their goals, review them on a regular basis, and are held accountable to someone they respect to complete them.

Which of these 100 people would you like to be? If the goal-setters succeed 10 times more than non-goal-setters and the goal writers succeed 30 times more, how much more successful are the 1% that go all-in?!

I want to be a 1%'er. How about you?

Reference: The verse I quoted from the bible is Habakkuk 2:2-3

Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.

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I started this week with a presentation cleaning assessment for Tom and Marci at Edward Jones. As you may remember, this lead came through connecting with new friends's friends on LinkedIn (2nd Connections). I was able to point out several cleaning & presentation changes that could "present" their office better on first impressions to their target client. They were grateful for the time and free consulting I suggested. Plus, it was really great to meet my new LinkedIn friend Tom McKee in person! I promised to email the proposal by Wednesday and delivered. I was very pleased with myself because I was able to cut my office cleaning proposal time by 2 hours with a better template. This will save me time in the future!

At MCBA, I shared my Edward Jones story to show what I do. It connected with the group. I also voluntold that it was my turn to do a 20-minute showcase at an upcoming meeting. This opportunity gave me an idea. What if I could use my time to help another member and let everyone know what I do? I talked to another member, Vernessa Hopkins of H3 Business Services, who also rents the meeting space to our group. She was totally game! We chatted for a few minutes and she told me her ideal client and gave me permission to walk around to do my presentation cleaning assessment. After the meeting, I chatted with member Gary Volpe of Volpe Enterprises. He said. "Your name came up yesterday. We've had our cleaner for a couple years and their quality has been declining. We're not ready to switch, but I wanted to talk to you." I offered to do a free presentation on assessment to give my impression of the condition and what the current cleaner should change. Gary was very kind to think of me when cleaning came up at his company. I look forward to setting up an estimate. He said one other thing that really made me feel special. "I had a good feeling about you when I first met. You can just tell about people. Then, I met your wife and I got a better feeling." My takeaway is this. I am networking to establish myself in the community, build relationships, and grow our business. It's so cool that I could introduce Teresa to a friend, successful businessman, and potential future client.

1-on-1 meetings are very productive. I have tried to meet with other members of my 2 networking groups at least once per week and certainly 2 per month. I met with James Hardy (a fellow MCBA member) for breakfast and had a fabulous conversation about how each of us are in the business of first impressions. James owns the Carpet Guys and has been in restoration carpet cleaning for over 20 years. He shared some stories of how vital trust and excellence are in his company. One story in particular, James shared how his company maintained a consistency and excellence from the first phone call to the estimate, clean uniforms and work truck, to the initial cleaning excellence of his equipment and the work he did. I was SO impressed with his mindset for excellence that I asked if I could interview him for my podcast at some point and call the show "Presentation is Everything". He thought it would be a great idea to get the word out on what he does and help others. I also did a 1-on-1 Mary Ann Alig of Fox Roach Realtors. She's a fellow member in my BIB meeting. I really liked the niche she serves of first-time home buyers and how she educates them fully. She also goes to church with James Hardy and they didn't know each other.

Check out the rest of this episode blog at the Solo Cleaning School

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We are starting 2020 with a 4-part podcast series on Goal Setting. Recently, I was asked by Courtney Wisely of Rescue My Maid Service to be an expert on this topic. I did a live training through Zoom to 8 growing cleaning business owners in St. Louis to identify what topics connected the most. Then I refined my presentation to record a 60-minute masterclass on Goals & Accountability for Courtney's Maidivation subscription boxes. Since this content has been received so well by cleaning companies with large teams and growing businesses, I knew it would connect with my solo cleaning family! Surely, you can go to my website and watch my free 60-min masterclass or just listen to all 4 parts of this podcast series.

Why does the Why matter so much? Let's just say it this way. Simon Sinek has built an entire company, platform, and brand on helping people and companies figure out their why. In his book, "Start With Why", Simon shares the concept of the Golden Circle where the WHY is in the center and the How and What flows outward from it. His experience with thousands of individuals and companies show that those that truly start with why, achieve the most success and significance. The ones that just go for the details, tend to lose their way. Without the Why, the How and the What doesn't matter.

I learned a great exercise in San Diego at Social Media Marketing World. It's called the "5 Why's". In this exercise, you peel back the onion until you get to the real & true heart of your why. This is the vulnerable and most cherished part of you. It will create the fuel of inspiration verses the outside need for motivation, which is more of an air pump. This concept really connected with Courtney's Rescue Retreat attendees. In fact, let me share an example from the retreat.

1. "Why are you here at this retreat?" RESPONSE: "To get my systems in place."
2. "Why?" RESPONSE: "To be able to automate my business and get to go back to Mexico for 4 months of the year.
3. "Why? RESPONSE: "Well, really to have my business fully run so I can go back to Mexico and start a family?"
4. "Why?" RESPONSE: "My 1st marriage didn't work and I want to start again and be a mom."
5. "Why?" RESPONSE: "I've always wanted to be a mom and raise a family and travel."

As you can see, the responses got deeper and more personal. This woman wants her cleaning business to provide the income and time freedom so she can live her Why. By the time you get 5 Why's deep, you should have something that is highly emotional to the person and is highly likely to light their own pilot light for inspiration verses outside motivation. The light of inspiration will never go out.

Go to my Resources page to see my recommended book list including "Start With Why" by Simon Sinek. I also referenced my good friend Josh Melton of Athens Cleaning Company in Athens, GA in the Funny Papers. He co-owns this commercial cleaning company and helps other commercial cleaners nationwide get to the 6-figure income mark.

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This is the last business update on my new solo cleaning business for 2019. What a way to go out! Andrea Szlavik of A2Z Realtor Pa assures Ken that he is not a cleaner who happens to do business. He is a business person that happens to clean. This is a big difference. Let's dive into this week in my business!

We had a business showcase presentation from Laney Landis this week at MCBA. She is the 5th generation owner (over 200 years in the family) of Old Village Paint. I was mesmerized at the history of this American Pre-Civil War paint company. I happened to record this meeting as I wanted to learn each member's business better. This was very fortuitous as Laney was sad she didn't have a recording of her showcase on her family company. Afterward, I told her of my bootleg recording and sold it on the black market for a can of paint. Just kidding. I sent it to her after the meeting and she was so pleased and thankful. As I've shared many times, always look to sow good seeds.

I also connected with a few other members after this meeting. James wanted to set up a 1-to-1 breakfast meeting to get to know each other's stories better. Charley wanted me to start sending me cleaning referrals. Paul wanted to connect. I am becoming a trusted face & member and others recognize that and want to get to know me better to refer me.

I met Andrea Szlavic on NextDoor last week and she added me to her realtor preferred vendor list. I was very thankful and asked if she would like to grab a coffee and connect. She opted for breakfast at a brand new local spot called Sammy's Bullfrog Cafe in Harleysville, It was a productive meeting where we shared our business stories with each other while enjoying the new flavor in town. We discovered a common connection as well. I had attended the Growth Now Movement LIVE! Conference in Reading, PA with Justin Schenck. While at this conference, I met another Keller Williams realtor at the same office as Andrea. It's a small world, after all. At the end of the meeting, I asked her this question. "Why did you add me to your preferred vendor list without meeting me or seeing my work quality first?" Her answer floored me and became the title to this episode.

"Because you set yourself apart by reaching out to me first on NextDoor. That told me that you were a business person that did cleaning verses a cleaning person that tried to do business. Most cleaners don't take that initiative."

As we parted, she assured me that she would get me out to her team's office in the spring for a real estate cleaning presentation. Then instead of getting in my car, I went back into the cafe and asked to speak to the owner. They were hesitant as they assumed I wanted to complain. Then I told them that I enjoyed the experience and would like to leave the cafe a 5-star review on Google. The hostess introduced me to my breakfast waitress, who was also part owner in the brand new cafe! She was very grateful and told me where to leave these reviews and asked for my cleaning business card. I left one on the cafe's bulletin board and went home.

Once I got home, I followed up by giving 5-star reviews on Google, NextDoor, and Facebook for Andrea and the Bullfrog Cafe. Andrea and Kayla (my breakfast waitress) were so thankful. Again, these are good seeds!

Check out the rest of this blog on my websiteto see how I got my first office cleaning lead from LinkedIn.

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John Maxwell is internationally acclaimed and sought after for his gifting in the instruction of leadership development. He has spawned thousands of leaders through his system. I may never physically meet him in person, but his books and talks have mentored me for over a decade. There is one specific annual exercise that I would like to wrap up 2019 and I hope you'll join me. Check out John's blog article first!

Here's what John is doing right now and I'll quote him directly from the blog.

"I steal off to my study while everyone else is watching television or napping. There on my desk waiting for me is my appointment calendar from the preceding year and a yellow legal pad. Starting that afternoon and continuing that week up until New Year’s Eve, I spend time reviewing my calendar. I review every appointment, meeting, commitment, and activity—hour by hour—from the previous 359 days. And I evaluate each of them.
Right now, I’m in the midst of this process.

1. I’m looking carefully at my speaking engagements and considering what I should do more of, what I should do less of, and what I should eliminate altogether.
2. I’m looking at the growth opportunities I pursued and judging which gave a high return and which didn’t.
3. I’m looking at all the meetings and appointments I had, to determine which ones I should do more of and which I should eliminate.
4. This week, I’ll also consider how much time I spent doing things that I should have delegated to someone else. (I’ll also look at what I delegated and reconsider whether I should pick anything back up or delegate it to someone different.).
5. I’ll evaluate whether I spent enough time with my family.
6. I’ll also make a list of all the things Margaret and I did together this year, and take her out to dinner one night so we can reminisce and enjoy them once again.

With this annual process, I try to account for every waking hour I had the previous year. What’s the value of that? It helps me to develop strategies for the coming year. Because I do this every year (and have for decades), I’m continually becoming more focused, strategic, and effective. Even if I have a difficult time or relatively unproductive year compared to what I desired, it’s never a loss, because I learn from it and improve upon it in the coming year."

Most people allow their lives to simply happen to them. They float along. They wait. They react. And by the time a large portion of their life is behind them, they realize they should have been more proactive and strategic. My yearly process is just one method that I use to be strategic and intentional.
I’ve found that this is a perfect time of year for reflecting and setting goals."

Here's John's advice for us for 2020 -

"Start by sitting down with your calendar for 2019, along with any to-do lists or journals from the past 12 months. Make note of each event, appointment, and activity. Then evaluate every item on your list.

1. What did you enjoy?
2. What were some of your proudest moments?
3. What did you spend too much time on?
4. What didn’t get enough of your time?
5. In what areas were you especially effective?
6. Where did you fail?
7. What can you learn from your mistakes?

Check out my full blog post with my recommendation on how to apply Think Week to your life.

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This goes back to my introduction episode and going into more mindset on honoring what you currently do and have. Every seed sown comes up. The message here is simple for you to ponder during Christmastime... what are you sowing into the ground with your current job or business? What about your relationships? Every action you take will leave a ripple in the pond of your community. Which ripple are you making... one toward good will or bad? Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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I don't have any new clients yet, but you will absolutely start to see the seeds being planted and my expectation of future harvest. This episode starts with my meeting with Indian Valley Chamber President, Steven Hunsberger. Steven loved my approach to meeting the other members. Although I had no intention of joining the chamber right away, Steven uttered these words. "Ken, you'd be the only cleaner." My next words were, "Steve, can I have an application?"

I also attended my first Montgomery County Business Alliance (MCBA) meeting as a member. Gary Volpe of Volpe Enterprises was the man in the middle as he shared a current situation and asked the other members to help him group solve it. I felt like I was back in Gatlinburg at the Mastermind Retreat.

Prior to the meeting, I used the common area restroom outside of Vernessa's office and MCBA location. The restrooms were maintained, but not to my standards. After the meeting, I asked Vernessa about these common areas and she connected me with Sean from the grocery store that did that cleaning work. This was my first lead for the week. I went directly to the grocery and asked for Sean. He wasn't available, but I left my business card and said I was referred by Vernessa. This is exactly like "Building My New Cleaning Network II" and "I'm a friend of Eva Finlan and she told me I should connect with you."

I was also networking at home as well. This is a big part of my strategy - 50% in-person networking meetings and 50% social media / email marketing. It was my last week of my free LinkedIn Sales Navigator trial. Since my target for new small office clients are the office managers, I tried connecting with OMs directly by friending 100 through LinkedIn. This approach was a failure as very few responded. I'm not sure if it's because they don't use LinkedIn much or they don't know me! Either way, I needed a new approach, so I shifted to something new. Over the past month, I've met over 50 local business people in the various networking groups I've attended. I added as many as I could to LinkedIn. They are now 1st connections. I did a search of 2nd connections in Harleysville, Telford, Souderton, and Lansdale. These represent the 1st connections of the new friends I've just made locally. I used a simple script, "Good morning Bill, we're new in the Harleysville area and saw we have mutual connections. Thought I'd reach out and introduce myself." I am getting excellent response from this approach as they trust me more with the mutual connection. I immediately say, "Thank you for accepting my connection request, Bill." Some would respond and message me back. I would glance at their profile and ask a question about their work, which would hopefully initiate conversation and a new business relationship. This new approach lead to two new friends this week. One was an old high school friend that connected me with a lead for commercial post-construction cleaning. Of course, I chased this lead right away! This LinkedIn approach will change once I cancel my premium trial, but the concept is solid for growing my local network.

Check out my full blog on this episode to learn other strategies and lessons this week has taught me.

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After 20 years of working in the medical field, Ronita was offered an opportunity to work part time as a solo cleaner. The position was commission based, so she started earning part time close to her full time job income. This built her dream that she could leave corporate America to start her own solo cleaning business, Divine Commercial Cleaning Services. Within a few years, Ronita felt like she was back in corporate America because of the choices she made in her cleaning business. She took on a high paying client in another town which required daily driving 60 miles each way. In her own words, she could not grow any more due to three things:

1. "I'm a solo cleaner."
2. "I couldn't get out an advertise my work."
3. "I felt limited."

This was the point in her journey where I met Ronita and started coaching her through this difficult time. Her interview shares the rest of the story.

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This episode continues to follow Ken's path to building a brand new solo cleaning company. If you haven't heard the two introductory episodes, check out Building "My New Cleaning Network Iand II".

Teresa and I attended the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in early October 2019 in Gatlinburg, TN. We left our scarcity mindset in Tennessee, resolving to become the givers we have always wanted to be. We also renewed our commitment to build this new solo cleaning business and share our progress with the listeners of this show. I hope you like this new segment. I'll be updating you on my own business progress from week to week in hopes that you glean inspiration and encouragement to grow your own.

There is one comment from Vincent Pugliese that I really took to heart in TN. "*Come here with questions and be curious verses coming here with the answers. This leads to change and growth."

Also, the giving mindset that we left with was this. You give where you are. That's how you advance to the next level of giving. The Go-Giver tells that.*

When we returned, I had a new resolve to make this process fun. I got a few big things accomplished the week following Gatlinburg:

• Dropped off donuts to Dennis and Dexter
• Set up Google My Business like Christine Hughey of A Little Local Flavor taught me!
• Teresa started connecting on the local mom's FB group.
• Finished my cleaning website after not having a site for 14 years! I did it myself, but it helped that I already knew how to do it through Weebly from my other website.
• Did Sales Tax & Employee Withholding with the state and updated quickbooks.

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Many have asked me, "Ken, how did you sell you're solo cleaning business." They want to hear the steps and the numbers. In this episode, I share the emotional rollercoaster of selling our business. If you are a solo cleaner and you've considered selling, make sure to listen. It wasn't about the steps or the numbers. That was a necessary part, but it wasn't the main part. The main part was the heart. Truly, it was so difficult to leave my New York cleaning families.

Mentions:

• In the Handy Dan Funny Papers, I reference shopping at the discount racks and a former podcast episode, "The Jeans Don't Fit". I also would like to plug Dan LaVigne and his handyman services company, "Handy Dan", in Scotia, NY. Dan is a true craftsman and does it right with integrity.
• I mention the man that I sold my NY solo cleaning company. If you're in the Capital Region of New York and need a house or office cleaner, reach out to Ian Traynor of Albany Pure Cleaning. He is also a craftsman and truly takes care of his families as I taught him.
• Many have asked me about the mentorship program I have my boys in. It's amazing! Check out the Royal Rangers national website. They have an outpost finder to locate the closest church to you. If you'd like to attend as a guest, let me know and I'll be glad to call ahead and let them know you're coming.

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"You have to master your own lane." - Roland Downs
Roland knows that his wife Dina is extremely professional and understands the language of business. In his follow up with accounts that he's cleaned and helped grow, he gets feedback that the gym owner didn't think he was legit as a cleaner. Dina gave the image of a business person and secured the account. That'a Dina's lane. Roland knows he is the master of custodial arts (as he says in his Facebook intro) and he will be the best cleaner they ever had. This is how Roland uses his secret weapon.

However, as Roland states. "The problem is when either one of them tries to cross over. She tries to micromanage me or I try to micromanage her. That's when it falls apart. It just doesn't work." Our spouses have a significant role in our solo family cleaning business. Look at me. My wife started the company.

Roland dives into some cleaning science in this interview and gives us the takeaway that there are 3 parts to excellence in cleaning - 33% cleaning science, 33% right equipment, and 33% technician. Never overwork any one of these or you will LOSE time, quality, and in the case of the technician, you will injure and wear out the body. This is such a huge tip that it is worthy of it's own episode.

Finally, let's wrap this up with a Pro Tip from Roland on using Instagram. He records his cleaning excellence with before & after pics and live videos of him cleaning various areas of gyms. He starts to follow gyms (targeting) and posts these images and videos. The gyms that like his stuff multiple times, Roland will reach out to them in person, phone, or email. It's quite brilliant!

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This is the craziest time of the year for the solo cleaner as EVERYBODY wants their house cleaned after Thanksgiving and before Christmas! Please allow me to help you declutter your scattered brains with one of the best remedies... HUMOR! Do you remember the "Funny Papers" in the Sunday newspaper? I remember my grandfather reading his comics after church every Sunday. I didn't get it. I didn't think they were funny. But he would read & laugh as he sipped his coffee in his Sunday best. That's how I remember it.

I have decided to add an element of the Sunday "funnies" to many of my episodes and in this one, I am making the entire show to entertain you! That's it. Life is short. Laugh a little!

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Have you ever shopped at the discount racks? This episode is a companion to Blueberry Pie in helping you to understand pricing. Study this and apply it!

Teresa needed new jeans, so she went to Kohl's and shopped at the discount racks first because she didn't have much money to spend.. She's looking for a discount and she finds nothing that fits! Some are too short, too long, too tight, not for her body type. Teresa came back home after going to Kohl's and was frustrated. She thought, "Is something wrong with me, with my body? I wasted my time. I'm frustrated."

A little background... we've been cutting back, pinching pennies for many years as we've paid off debt. Teresa used to clip coupons and finding deals is her specialty. We still go to the thrift stores to find great deals on second hand clothes for our family. We're not ashamed at that one bit. However, she realized that in the case of jeans, she needed the right fit and the discount racks weren't going to work. She shifted her mindset to go out the second day to just find the jeans that fit. She went back to Kohl's, walking past the discount racks, then checked out another store until she finally found the jeans that fit and she bought 4 pairs!

"I knew that there wasn't something wrong with me. I knew that the jeans weren't right." A lot of moms feel the same with cleaning. They can't keep the house in order, clutter all over the place, not clean. They might hire someone and it doesn't work out. They hire another cleaning service and it doesn't work out. They try and try, not finding the right fit. They start to wonder, "Maybe it's me. Maybe it's my house? Maybe it's too messy and people don't want that?" It's not that at all. You just have to shop around at different stores with your eyes looking past the discount racks until you find the right pair of jeans. Solo Cleaning School, I want you to become the type of business that "fits" for your ideal client.

How do you learn how to fit your ideal client? You have to build a reputation of trust around you and your brand. Some moms are always going to shop the discount racks for cleaners and some will go to the grocery store for the generic $5 blueberry pie. Don't worry about them. They are not your ideal client. Just keep offering your $15 blueberry pie, build your trust, and keep saying "next" until enough right people try you on and realize that you're the perfect fit.

Resources:

1. "Go For No" by Richard Fenton
2. The Solo Cleaning School Premium Membership is where I take these podcasts to the next level and help my members advance through the ISO Model toward profitable solo cleaning businesses without stress or overwork.

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The first lesson of Blueberry Pie covers the 3 types of Buyers:

1. Those that want your product or service and value it enough to pay what it's worth.
2. Those that want your product or service and do not value it enough to pay what it's worth.
3. Those that don't want nor value your product or service.

The sooner you can learn to accept this and focus on finding Buyer #1's, the sooner you will hit your goals. Do you remember how my interview with Marcia Davidson went? I didn't answer her question about the ones that wouldn't pay her prices. They were Buyer #2's.

The second lesson of Blueberry Pie is the ability to separate the emotional from the logical.

Buyer #1 and #2 will NEVER buy your pie. When they say no, they are not saying no to YOU. They are saying no to your product or service. They are not offending you, judging you, or belittling you. They just don't want what you are offering. Once you accept that, you can gain the confidence to start saying "next". Beth Lane referenced that most solo cleaners (from her point of view) are introverts and empaths. This makes it extra hard for them to accept this second lesson.

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Two years ago, my friend in the cleaning coaching world, Debbie Sardone, referred Marcia Davidson to me. Marcia was not ready to scale her business and needed my help in making her solo company extremely profitable. Marcia struggled as a single mom for the entire time, trying to hold onto $15/hour temp jobs to pay the bills. She desperately wanted to grow her solo cleaning business, but circumstances held her back. In this interview, you will see how Marcia turned the corner this past summer and has a totally booked calendar.

The biggest takeaway from this episode is Marcia's mindset of always giving the best. The majority of her recent new client surge had experienced sub-standard cleaning. Then they gave Marcia a try and she gave them deep cleans every time. Marcia elevated her quality to stand out and as she says, "They got hooked."

Resources:

• Debbie Sardone is highly successful cleaning business owner and founder of the wildly popular Cleaning Business Fundamentals course, which gives cleaning service owners the blueprint, materials, and coaching to get over 7-figures If you're a solo cleaner that would like to transition to employees, I recommend a free consultation with Debbie.
• Homestars is the Canadian version of the US-based HomeAdvisor for lead generation.
• Business Calendar 2 is the automation tool we use to streamline our various Google calendars and task lists.

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On October 2, 2014, I sat in the back of the Rose Theatre in New York City for the Business Gets Personal Conference. Seth Godin stepped to the stage to do his opening keynote and shared the story of the 5th Annual Solvay Conference in October 1927. Physicists such as Marie Curie, Niels Bohr, Max Plank, and Albert Einstein attended and were relatively unknown. Of the 29 in attendance, 17 went on to later receive the Nobel Prize. Seth explained that it wasn't the conference that caused them to be world-changers. It was the simple fact that 29 of the brightest minds in the world were together in one room, making new lifelong connections that could spark something after the conference. Seth said "Make this your Solvay Conference". After hearing this, I texted my new friend and said, "I'm glad you interrupted us. Let's make this our Solvay."

At this time in my life, I was cleaning houses solo like a madman nearly every day of the week. I was tired and demotivated. I needed a change. I was working with my landlord and friend, Tom Cronin of Success Public Relations to scale my cleaning company so I could finally get out of the field and see my family more. He was so generous to offer his help and to allow me to leverage his network of small business owners in the Capital Region. However, I was still unsettled. Was this the right move? Circumstances aligned so that I could purchase a ticket for the Business Gets Personal Conference with Dave Ramsey, Seth Godin, and Gary Vaynerchuk. I needed answers and a change. I was there by the thinnest of threads. Before the event even started, Vincent Pugliese interrupted a conversation I was having with two friends. We hit it off immediately, exchanged numbers, and texted throughout the conference.

There wasn't anything about the conference itself that changed my life, but meeting Vincent did. This episode shares my side of the story from what Vincent shares in his Total Life Freedom Podcast episode, "Crossroads".

Have you ever come to a fork in the road and you chose the road less taken? I made that choice in late 2014 and it has made all the difference.

Book Recommendation: Get the free audio book download "Freelance to Freedom" by Vincent Pugliese.

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This episode highlights how important trust is to your clients. I connected in-person with each of my former NY house cleaning clients before selling my business. I am still amazed at their feedback and by far, the biggest take away was how critical the Trust Factor was in each of their decisions to hire & keep me for all of those years.

Shawn - We met while I was cleaning for Alicia from "Moms Helping Moms Helping Moms". She already knew my quality and trusted me. In my final year in NY, she reached out for me to clean her house and left a voice mail. I returned the message with some frequently asked questions and rough pricing. She called back and said these words. "The price doesn't bother me. I appreciate that you told me up front on the voice mail." This built up more trust. Then she uttered these words. "It's the trust factor, Ken. I know what I'll get with you. My friends trust you and I trust you. and I know you'll do a great job. So I don't mind paying more on price for that. The price isn't as important to me. What if I found a cheaper cleaner, but they didn't do a great job. That's a headache and time to me. I know what I'm getting with you."

Elaine - She knew her neighbors were paying $100 per visit for cleaning, yet she paid me $200. Yes, I was highly recommended by a friend and I did excellent work. This is indeed the same Elaine from the Saran Wrap Funny Papers in "Moms Helping Moms Helping Moms". Here's what Elaine told me as I was leaving NY. "Ken, we're both busy docs. We are in and out of the house. We leave the side door open so the dog walker can come and go for Katy. We have jewelry and checkbooks lying around. You are definitely an amazing cleaner, but it's the trust we have for you and the peace of mind you give us. That's why we pay $200."David & Filicia - This is a wonderful family and 11-year cleaning story built on trust. Trust is how I got the job and it's how I kept it. I've cleaned their main home, rentals, and lake home. They referred me to their dear friend Denise who hired me in 2009. That's how Ripples of Trust work. As I was leaving NY, they shared this incredible feedback. "There aren't many 'Kens' out there. Cleaning is like 10% the other 90% is all Trust Factor. It's our home and our stuff is out in the open." Dave went on to say. "Honestly, we didn't care if you missed some dusting or other details." This is exactly what Beth Lane said in her interview."If they like you and trust you, they'll overlook a cobweb."Lisa - She told me about her husband's trust issue with a man cleaner. "It was the consistency of knowing it would be me every time to build trust." She also agreed that trust and relationships were a huge component over the cleaning itself. The consistency of me every time was a piece of that. Oh, and Lisa told me how she got my name. "I put out a question to my neighborhood and someone recommended you." I have no idea who it was as I've never done work in that neighborhood.

If you can build a foundation of trust, you will never be looking for work. You can be an average cleaner with incredible Trust Factor and blow away the incredible cleaner with average Trust Factor EVERY time!

Book Recommendation: "Clockwork" by Mike Michalowicz.

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In this episode, Beth Lane of Lavender Fields Cleaning Service joined Solo Cleaning School. She has been working in this amazing profession for 21 years and has a world of experience that she graciously shares with us today. She uncovers several key points for new solo cleaning moms to use as they grow their business.

1. How Not to Run a Business - Beth shadowed a friend for 3 days and with her banking experience, knew one thing... how not to run a cleaning business. Beth took these lessons and began her own solo cleaning company.
2. Solo Cleaners are Introverts - Beth believes that the overwhelming number of solo cleaners are empaths and introverts, which means they are deep feelers, creative, detailed, and quiet. These traits lead solo cleaners to rely on other avenues to do the marketing for them verses talking to people directly. Beth also believes that these personality traits also cause solo cleaning moms to take things so personally.
3. Angie's List & HomeAdvisor - Both Beth and Ken share experiences using these online lead generator services and how their effectiveness has bottomed out over the last 3-5 years.
4. Questioning Your Prices - Facebook groups are a wonderful resource, but there are many "opinions" on there, especially on price. Ken describes his observations on prices. You really need specific counsel on price for your business verses general opinions. This is a fundamental reason why the Solo Cleaning School Premium Membership exists.
5. Trust Factor - Solo cleaning is not all mechanical. It's an emotional business that has it's foundation built on trust & integrity. Beth believes that the trust factor is the #1 reason why she has been able to add & retain great clients for many years. "If they like you and trust you, they'll overlook a cobweb. If they don't like (and trust) you, they're gonna be nit-picking every thing you do."