Keep It Clean! - A Pro Cleaning Industry Podcast

Joe Dobbins has been a carpet cleaner, restoration contractor, wholesale product and equipment supplier,   licensed building contractor, property insurance adjuster and an IICRC trainer and volunteer. That is enough to last most professionals a lifetime, but Joe keeps on going. 

He is a man of few words, but the words he uses should be heeded. Joe Dobbins is a tireless  human being. He is an advocate for "always doing the right thing" every time, all the time. Joe has been an inspiration to countless students he has trained over almost 30 years of training. 

Joe did not look to be in our industry at all, but when the Musical Education major from Jacksonville State University realized that a career as a  high school band director may have to take a back seat to another career in fast food management. Fast food management was a "pressure cooker" environment and took a toll on his health and he quickly pivoted to professional cleaning. 

He purchased an existing business and was able to grow it into on location services very quickly and realized while watching IICRC trainers teach at his supply facilities why he was not training those students himself. Fast forward 30 years later and Joe has fulfilled his dream of teaching.  He continues to teach today, but as a substitute teacher for elementary, middle school and high  school students and sometimes gets to be the band director!

Mark Saiger tells an amazing story of a carpet cleaning startup in a very rural area of the "North Country" in Northern Minnesota. His family was in the carpet cleaning business and Mark is 3rd generation cleaning, teaching the 4th and 5th generations to carry the torch forward.

Mark has an amazing ability to make everyone feel comfortable around him. That may come from his many years as a high school band director and musician. Teaching for over 25 years Mark developed strategies to help him direct others to do what needs to be done as a team. 

Mark Saiger is also a tireless volunteer in our industry constantly helping those who need assistance with technical issues or business related issues in the carpet cleaning world. Well known and well liked are the usual descriptions that one hears when asking about Mark Saiger. This podcast will show you some of the reasons that the cleaning industry talks about Mark that way.

Paul Pearce has been cleaning since the 1970's in the United Kingdom with great success. He has the proper attitude to understand customer service from a unique viewpoint. He has had actual royalty as his customer, but has not been phased as he treats all his customers like royalty!! 

Paul's startup story is quite fascinating. From a farming background, and a stint as an apprentice electrician, Paul literally drove himself into the carpet cleaning industry as a hired driver for a carpet cleaner. His vision of what was possible in the carpet cleaning industry led him to purchase the company he worked for and bring it to new levels of success. 

He also has volunteered at every level of the industry in multiple countries, which shows his dedication to our industry. He continues to volunteer today to make us all better at what we do. Give a listen to a great cleaner, trainer, volunteer and all around nice person!!

We coaxed Jeff Bishop out of retirement to give us some insight from his long service and unique perspective of the professional cleaning and restoration industry. From the 1950's to 2018, Jeff was a force in the carpet cleaning industry. He commanded attention in everything he was involved with, from his early days in cleaning to his military service during the Vietnam war, Jeff marched steadily forward through it all.

In our interview he gives insight into how he found his talent for writing during his military career and how that affected his management of Bishop's Clean Care's multiple locations in the Southeast. His technical training programs were one of the founding ideas behind the IICRC Standards development for multiple industry standards. 

His volunteer efforts during and after managing his cleaning empire brought about major changes in how industry training programs were built and sustained to this day. He has written volumes on how to clean flooring, especially carpets and wrote many of the beginning procedures for fire and water damage restoration.

This wide ranging interview allows Jeff to give us some sage advice and is part history lesson from someone that has quite frankly "seen it all". Listen in on Jeff to get some free info on how he managed his business from the ground up.

Keep It Clean! has Rob Hanks this week for a very entertaining story of an older brother convincing his two younger brothers to help him in his carpet cleaning business. They had little training and little support, but big dreams and a lot of drive. Those three brothers started one of the largest carpet and restoration supply businesses in North America.

Listen to how their partnership worked, how they planned and looked for, but also created opportunity after opportunity throughout their entire careers. Forty two years of hard work and dedication payed off with a sale to a larger firm and a well deserved retirement.

Rob's message of never giving up and finding ways to innovate and market to a wide audience is not lost today on successful people in the professional cleaning and restoration industry. 

Bob Merkt tells his story of his startup in the professional cleaning industry. And it is a doozy!! When a person finally comes to terms with how he will live his life and learns lessons along the way by just listening and doing what he has been trained and taught to do. 

Bob has a unique angle on being a product of the industry, absorbing lessons like a sponge and keeping himself focused on making his way in professional cleaning. He has a remarkable feel for human nature and inspires everyone around him. 

Along with his wife, Linda, Kettle Moraine Professional Cleaners, Inc. has a fabulous reputation for getting the job done because no one will ever out work him, however he has learned to delegate and not micro manage as the second generation begins to take over the company. 

BK Semandic came to the US from Serbia and decided to make a life here. He has an appreciation for the land of opportunity. And what an opportunity it has been! BK applies himself through the power of visualization and creating a future that is attainable. 

He tells his startup story from learning the language to understanding how the cleaning and restoration industry actually works. Along the way he breaks many of the traditional rules that we commonly associate with operating and managing a  cleaning and restoration company.

He inspires us with some powerful messages on how people should treat each other and how a responsible manager takes ownership of problems and create solutions to get things accomplished. This is a very inspirational story that needs to be heard!

Listen as Rick Love shares his inspirational journey through the cleaning and restoration industry. When asked why he chose this industry, Rick’s answer - “it chose me!” I think a lot of us can relate to this sentiment.

Rick was truly inspired to support his young and growing family and found this industry a sound way to accomplish that goal. Rick progressed through his career to work as a supplier, corporate restoration franchise employee, and large manufacturing (cleaning equipment) sales manager. All while staying connected to the industry that he feels so passionately about. 

Unbelievably, he returned to own his own restoration franchise after 20 plus years away from the day to day operations of a restoration business. His success in that second venture, and his operational and financial goal setting for that operation is what a lot of us dream of for our own businesses. 

Listen as Rick Love tells us exactly how he did it.

Ruth Travis explains her career in the professional cleaning and restoration industry. Fashion design was the early goal and realizing she could not be a part of the fashion industry in Chattanooga, TN, she opted for carpets and rugs.

First working for Fiber Seal in the 1980's, she found her calling with textiles you walk on and fell in love with rugs and their beauty and history. She has led several junkets over to the Middle East to rug shop and help other rug cleaners understand how these beautiful textiles are constructed.

Her world class knowledge of all things rug related helped her as an IICRC Rug Technician Instructor for many years. Her knowledge of color and fashion helped her become a Color Repair Instructor also for IICRC. 

Ruth takes great pride to be a volunteer with the IICRC, reaching the point of ChairPerson of the Board of Directors in her lengthly volunteer career with many different industry trade organizations as well as the IICRC.

In this episode I interview Larry Cooper, formerly of the Professional Cleaning Network and now producer of The Experience Convention and Trade Show. Larry has been a tireless volunteer in the cleaning and restoration industry, working with regional cleaning and restoration trade associations and the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) for over 35 years.

In the podcast Larry talks about the beginnings of his cleaning and restoration career, the challenges he faced and how he and his team overcame a multitude of obstacles. Larry talks about the importance of education and the value of relationships with customers and suppliers and how those connections helped him achieve millions of dollars in sales volume. He talks about the absolute necessity of business planning and how those planning sessions literally changed everything.

Listen as Larry explains how he and his wife Tryna built an extremely successful business and family life by taking advice from industry mentors and as they continue to have the family life today as their business has moved on to another role in the cleaning and restoration industry. Larry continues to bring people and ideas together to further his vision for how cleaning and restoration should be considered as essential now and into the future.