Smart Cleaning School

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.

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!

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.

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!

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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.

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.

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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

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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