Smart Cleaning School

 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 

 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. 

 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. 

 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. 

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. 

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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! 

 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. 

 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! 

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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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