Smart Cleaning School

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!

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!

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 [email protected] 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.

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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