Smart Cleaning School

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. 

 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.

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?

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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