Latest / Cleaning Business Life / Ep. 222 | Company Culture That Keeps Great Employees: Leadership, Retention & Growth with Donny Minchillo

Transcript

Ep. 222 | Company Culture That Keeps Great Employees: Leadership, Retention & Growth with Donny Minchillo · Cleaning Business Life

• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back everyone.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is Shani Miller with Cleaning Business Life.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And today we are here with Donnie, who is the owner of Joy of Cleaning, and we're going to talk a little bit about company culture and a bunch of other things.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, Donnie, why don't you go ahead and tell the audience what you do, how you do it, why you do it, all that stuff.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll kind of go from there.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thanks for having me.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: First of all, I appreciate the invite.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_03: And hopefully the information we share here will be useful to your audience.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: So my name is Donnie Mikillo.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: I've owned Joy of Cleaning for about seven years.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: I did buy a book of business.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: That's how it started with a few different clients.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_03: And here we are today, fast forward six, a little over six years now.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: We have almost 30 employees.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: And we started out as just me and one cleaner back in the end of 2019.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So are you operating all in the same area, or do you have different locations, or is it just one location?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: How is that working out for you?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: So we are in the St.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: Pete.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people don't know St.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: Pete, but it's in the Tampa area.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: So we mainly cover St.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: Pete, but we also cover Tampa, which is across the bridge.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: So the whole Pinellas County, Hillsborough County, so the Tampa Bay area.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: One location.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when you first started to build your business, did you notice that company culture was missing?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is that something that you go, oh my God, did that we're missing this piece?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you just added it in.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Was it something that was already present with your one employee?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: How did that work out?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was definitely not present.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: And company culture was actually something that it took me quite a while for me to understand how important it is.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh being part of a mastermind CBF for quite some time, that did help me and a few other masterminds understand how important company culture was.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: And slowly I started to realize that being a leader is not just, you know, sharing with the team where we want to be, how we where we want to go, but also to share with the team that, okay, this is what we stand for.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: This is who we support.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: This is who we are as human beings, right?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: Because above all, we're not just a business, we are a business with people.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: So making sure that we're all, you know, moving in the right direction, acting in a specific way, communicating with specific words, you know, for me it was like it became clear as we started growing a little bit more.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, do you hire based on company on your bait on your company culture, or did you pull from other people's ideologies?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: How did you come up with the concept of company culture for your business?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's a great question.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: So we do, you know, think about company culture when we're hiring, but I truly believe that we can do better in that department when it comes to hiring.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: I think once we have everyone in the team, we have specific processes and systems in place to carry on the culture and to share with people what we stand for, right?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but hiring is, you know, our main focus is to hire good people, honest people, hardworking people, you know.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: And that is part of company culture, right?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: But I think above all is just having, you know, great people is uh has been the key.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: And of course, you know, taking care of the people that work for us.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I always say that the cleaning techs are like golden unicorns.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you can see the the different dynamics from from because I talk to a lot of people, I'm sure you do too, of the I, you know, that nobody wants to work versus I you I worship you.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's without this, without you, I couldn't do it.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I constantly am telling people without you guys, I could not do what I do.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And they some people grasp that concept and others don't.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it's an interesting dynamic for sure.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So you're you're hiring a little bit based on culture, but you're hiring mostly on personality, job skill, those types of things.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure you have a funnel for that.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I've spoken to some people and they hire, they have a company culture and they hire specifically for the company culture.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I was curious.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: We as as I said, I think we there's a lot of room uh for growth in debt department for us.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: But I think that um again, for me, good people, it's not that it's hard to find, it's just something that we focus on a lot, you know, like are they honest, clear background check, all that kind of stuff.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely having good people is so important, especially in this industry, because we are such a trust-based industry.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: What would be like a big red flag?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I know that you said you don't specifically hire based on company culture, but if what would be a big red flag for you if you were, if you were doing the interviews, I don't think you got you are, you probably have an operations manager that does it or HR person.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: What would be a red flag to one of them or to you if you came across somebody who just wasn't a good fit?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I don't do the hiring anymore.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_03: I do have uh somebody that does it the entire process from you know, we do group interviews and then we do a one-on-one, and then we decide if they're a good fit.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: We go through a training pro training process.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: And even then, it doesn't mean that they're actually hired after training, right?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: Because a lot of things can be discovered or you know, they can come up.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: As we're training them, as we see them on the field, as we see how they communicate, how they move, how they present themselves.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_03: But I think that uh, I mean, there's a few different things that are red flags.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: But I think for me, one of the biggest things is well, two, two, two main things.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_03: One of them just being on time.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_03: That is a big, big thing for me.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: And if they are late to an interview, most likely they're gonna be late uh to work.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: The other thing, and it it's not necessarily one more important than the other, but communication.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_03: If the person is not willing to communicate and let us know, even if they're going to be late, let us know in advance, right?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like communication is extremely, extremely important to me.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_03: And if they cannot send us a message or if they they cannot uh tell us really what's going on, and they hide things that we end up finding out later, which we've had in the past, right?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_03: Because once we do a background check, and there's multiple levels of background checks.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure a lot of your audience uh knows that, but some some may not.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_03: We do a pretty in-depth background check.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: And then if we find something that they didn't communicate with us up front, then it's a huge, huge red flag.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_03: And we'd rather for them to tell us up front, even if there's a minor issue, we might still consider hiring them.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um obviously if they stole something, if they've done something more serious, we don't, we definitely don't hire them.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: But if there was something minor, some sort of traffic violation or something like that, then you know, we find out later because we do ask, like specifically, do you have anything?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and then we find out, then it's a it's a huge red flag for me.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: You had mentioned that you um get all the way, you actually onboard them and then get them through training.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then even sometimes they don't make it through training.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: How much are you investing?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: You probably don't even um, because you're not doing the day-to-days, but how what what's the length of time?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not talk about numbers, the length of time of training that you were giving someone to give them the opportunity to make it through training.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is it five days?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is it seven days, 14 days?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: What is it?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's actually six days.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: So we do training for five days, and then on the sixth day is an actual test.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: So they go with the trainer on the sixth day and they do house one main house by themselves.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: If we have a second house, they'll do a second house as well.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: But essentially that is the test day for them.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: And then if we do choose to hire them, then we bring them back back in the office and then we say, Yep, everything went well.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: Here's you know what you can expect.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna start a week with just one house per day, which is kind of like a trial period to see how they do on their own.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: And then so instead of doing two weeks of training, we do one week of training, one day of them really going and doing a house by themselves, and then another week of them doing one house a day.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_03: If they do super well during training, then we might skip and give two houses per day on that first week of employment after training.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: That'll be good for them to know.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because everyone does it a little bit different, I have found.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: So some some people were like three weeks.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, wow, three weeks is a long time.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: Too much.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's expensive.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, super.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: So with that being said, when they're out in the field and they're in, do you I forgot to even ask, are you operating in solos?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Are you doing doubles, triples?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: Mostly solos.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Mostly solos.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: And again, it depends, right?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: If the if the cleaning is huge, Movemobile deep cleanings, if they're huge, then we do send them, you know, as teams, but the vast majority is all solos.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I like the solo method myself.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um because it's more profitable.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've run all three, but I I like the solo because then there's no insider, like who didn't do the bathroom, that type of stuff.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: No bickering, no boyfriends, no drama.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, I love this.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's but how are you uh create, how are you and your team creating culture out in the field for your cleaning tech since you are running solo?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Are you having like mass gatherings?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so we're pretty remote company, but we do gather everyone every month here.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: I'm actually in this classroom type of room in where our office is.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: And we run games, we run through training, we go over different things that's going on with the company.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_03: That's one thing that we do.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: We do have other things in place from a software perspective.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: We have this thing called called Joy Kudos, which is a budget that I allocate to give coins to everyone every month.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_03: And what they do is they just give each other coins for doing something, you know, something that they can appreciate, whether it is to share some sort of knowledge with them or if they work together and they work really well.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: So if they want to just thank somebody for something that they did, or just any really anything in general.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then those coins, after they accumulate some, they can exchange for a gift card for a day, pay time off, or whatever really what they want.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_03: If they want something like physical, they can also get like a gift card for Amazon or Target or whatever.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_03: Just a couple of ways.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: So what's the maximum?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm now I'm curious.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what's the maximum they could earn?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well, they can accumulate over time, right?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_03: So we give a certain number.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_03: So every month we have a budget.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's about, I could be wrong, but it's between like$25 and$50 per month that they all receive.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: And they they cannot give themselves coins, right?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: But they have to give another person.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: So every like we always see these things, these notifications, because we connect to Slack.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: And then it says, you know, Emily gave Nicole, you know, 50 coins or 100 coins, and they can accumulate to 3,000 coins, and then they can have a full day of pay time off eventually.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: So it could take a couple of months, two, three months to accumulate, but they can have a full day pay time off with those coins.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's were you the brainchild behind that, or did you get that from somebody else?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_03: I believe it's been a couple of years.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_03: I think I either came across an ad or we were looking for a way for us to appreciate each other.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: Because I I do believe strongly that like one, once we appreciate each other for the little things that they do, and if there is something, in this case, it's not physical, it is digital, but it is something more than just words, right?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_03: And they can really like, wow, okay, I received these coins from this person, not just words, that now I can exchange for something that's valuable to me, whether it is a gift card or a pay time off, like a full-day pay time off, like if it feels a little bit different.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_03: So I think we were looking for something, and then I came across this software, which now we built our own that can like we can give each other.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: And it's super simple to set up, and then it's been working out like really great.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_03: People really, really enjoy it.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: You had mentioned the name of it at the beginning of what you were starting to say.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: What what is the name of that software for the audience?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_03: So is it okay if I share my own, like what we have built?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_03: So what we built is called Joy AI.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_03: And there's a bunch of Yeah, it's there's quite a bit.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there's a lot of functionalities inside Joy AI, but that is just one of them, where they can appreciate another person just for like thanking them for something.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there it's I I can go over if you like, but yeah.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's awesome.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love it.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: I had no idea there was even software for that.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I I just can appreciate and see where this could go with that.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then what other things are you doing?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you have like certain rituals that you're doing?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously you're having acknowledgement done through Slack besides the meetings.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Are there any other like systems that help keep people connected to keep the company culture in place?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, I think one of the most important things as a leader, right?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: As the owner of the company, is the touch with the owner, the connection, the conversations.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_03: So for me, the technicians I don't have as much because I have somebody dedicated, you know, to take care of them.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_03: But a couple of things that I wanted to touch on.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe I'll touch on the field and what we have in place.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_03: But a few months back, we realized that okay, we're not really meeting one-on-one enough with the technicians because the bigger you are, the more technicians you have, it became a it becomes a little bit more time-consuming, a little bit more complicated to meet with them one-on-one.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: And we realized that older technicians, we were not meeting with them.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes we would go, other than the monthly meeting that we have, we would go six months before having a one-on-one with them.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_03: It's too long, right?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: So we decided, no, let's create an actual like calendar.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna meet with everyone.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: Like multiple, we meet with people multiple times a week to make sure that we meet with them regularly.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so actually, something here for everybody to really pay attention because employee turnover is a big deal, right, in the cleaning industry.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: Like huge.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: And we realized that when we looked at the data, we realized that technicians leave within the first three months.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: If they've been with you three to six months, they'll they tend to stay with you.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: So what we decided to do is why don't we meet with them more frequently in the first three to six months?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_03: And then we can space out a little bit more how often we meet with them one-on-one.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: But these meetings, these one-on-ones with them, it's just to check in on how they're doing, like at work, but also personally.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: Because again, we're still people, right?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like we still have their families, they're still dealing with stuff.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: And so we want to be here not just for work-related problems or or anything that they they have going on, but also personally, because I want to help people, right?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like I want to make sure they're doing well, because if they're doing well at home, they're gonna do well at work.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_03: And the other thing that, you know, touching back on that point about meeting one-on-one, the admin team.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like the admin team is extremely important.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: And again, we have a pretty remote team.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_03: I have one person here in the US, and I have four people, five people remotely now working in Brazil and India.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: And I meet with them pretty much every, every week, at least once, to check in on them, to talk about what are they working on, what do they need, how they're doing, you know, coming up with different ways for them, for them to make more money, having some sort of bonus structure that I recently realized how important it is for them to make more money if they exceed, you know, what they're supposed to do.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_03: So uh I believe, I mean, we don't know really what's going on in people's minds, right?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_03: Like completely, but but we can get some idea based on what they tell you, how they feel about the company, how they feel about the day-to-day, how they feel about the conversations that we have, how much they share with you as a business owner.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_03: And then once I realize, wow, they're really sharing personal stuff and they're they're asking for advice on a lot of different things.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, okay, I think I think I'm doing something right.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: So let me keep doing what I'm doing because I think it is working, and they feel trusted by me when we have these types of conversations.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting as our society bumps along with technology, how much of a lonely existence it can be.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: We have so many things that connect us, but yet a lot of us are still very lonely.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's an interesting observation.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I I love hearing this, and I would love to hear the result after you've just started this.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe in a year we can touch base and figure out how that went for you and if it was successful.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm very curious about more ways of connecting with team because they they do leave in the first three months.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I have a couple of them that have been with me nine, 10 years and went by super fast.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, you know, happy anniversary.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, already?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it does it goes by fast.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Angela Brown actually also does something very similar.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: She had when she was stuck before she retired, she had an extended team.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And on Mondays, they each got 15 minutes and what they could decide whether they needed to talk to her or not to need to talk to her.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I love your method more because it's more contact.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's more like, hey, how are you doing type of thing?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very curious to see how this turns out for you.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then it sounds like you're making the cleaners feel bigger than it's just them cleaning.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's you're part of a bigger entity that's moving things along.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's generating income and paychecks for for them and their families and stuff.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then as far as leadership and accountability, how do you balance the accountability with empathy?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because then that's that's a gray line.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes people and we see it on the we see it on Facebook, people overshare a lot.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, wow, I don't know, I don't know.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: So how how are you managing the mix of that?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Or how is your team, I should say.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: That's a great question.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: I think that we cannot forget this is still a business, right?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: And like we still have numbers, we still have goals that we want to achieve, and we still have things that we want to accomplish.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that uh the empathy is there.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, but if the company does well, we can pay more.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody wins when everybody is part of this team.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that um reminding them of where we are, where we've been, and where we're going, you know, it's extremely important because again, the the company is not just me, it's the entire team.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that having the empathy, having these one-on-ones, but also reminding them, okay, this is where we are, this is where we want to go, and this is what we're gonna get if we get there, right?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: This is how much we can improve and and then gain, make more money.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that that's uh something that I keep in mind every time that I talk to them.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: God What do you think could destroy company culture?
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: What is one improvement you could tell others on how to be successful for company culture for their own teams?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I yes, I definitely have one, and I think this is a big one.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_03: And we as a company, and I'll myself, I'll put this on me because again, you're the owner, right?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_03: You're the one that is guiding the leadership team, your admin team.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_03: And what we are we have been guilty of, and we're making improvements in the last several months, and we've had several conversations.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_03: I believe one of the biggest things that can really damage culture is a bad apple, right?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's always one that floats around.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_03: Always, right?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that like that one person can start sharing things, talking in a specific way, like that is something that we tend to not want to fire people.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: And we've been known internally, well, you guys, we you never we never fire people, right?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_03: Why why not?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: So we've been more intentional about being way more overstaffed because again, we need to be overstaffed in order to growth, to, to grow, right?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: So that's number one.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: But also the other benefit of being overstaffed is that we can get rid of the bottom 10, 20%.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_03: And like something that we've been looking at a lot more in in, if I may, just like a little plug here on Joy AI as well, is that now we're keeping track of metrics for each technician way, way, but way more, not way more better, way better because we know now how many compliments they got, all the positive things, how many compliments, how many like client requests we have, but also how many times did they call out, how many times were they late, how many damages did they have, right?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: And we have a dashboard where we can see over a period of time every single person.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_03: And I can have a complete snapshot of the entire team.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: So it's been better, clearer way for us to see who is performing and who's not performing and who's causing like problems for us that could be that bad Apple.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_03: And then whenever there is like even conversations with our admin team, when they show some sort of like little, let's call it attitude, you know, we keep track of that.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: We put it in our dashboard, and then we know that that happened.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: So whenever we have these 101s, we can just like print out a PDF and see, okay, this these are the metrics, these are the things that you did in last month or two months, and then let's talk about it.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: But a bad apple is it can really hurt your team.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: We've all had our fair share of them, and you just shake your head.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And those are usually emotional decisions, by the way, everyone.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Guilty as charged.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because you like in your mind, you're like, Yeah, I'm gonna help.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And they're not thinking you're gonna help them out.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: They're thinking, yay, I got a job.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: This will get me to the next phase.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: But you're like, dude, I helped you out, I helped you out, I helped you out.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: When in actuality, that was not a good decision.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: The decision was for you to hire a cleaning tech to do the end result, right?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I've done that.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and can I add one more thing to that?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: Because in the beginning, and it's been a few years, and I feel I'm super comfortable with firing people now.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: Because a few years back, I realized when you fire someone, at first you might think, oh my God, I'm gonna ruin ruin their lives, and you know, what are they gonna do?
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, whatever it may be.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: But then I shifted my thinking to clearly, this is not a best, like the best fit for them for what they're doing.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: So if they're not performing, if they're not doing the right things, it's because something's wrong.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: So they are better off doing something else.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: So let's let them go from this thing, right?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: From our company, let them go and let them find something that's better for them so they can be happier and perform better and make more money, whatever it may be.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_03: So I see as letting go people, giving them the opportunity to like find something that they truly enjoy.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: Because again, cleaning is not for everyone, but cleaning is.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: For a lot of people, right?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: So let's like focus on the for on the people that are cleaning is for them, and then let the other people go if cleaning is not for them.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: I concur a thousand percent.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: There there are gonna be good ones and there's gonna be bad ones.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be people who hang out forever.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: We all know that Debbie Sordone had like turn turnkey employees.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, she had like 20, 25 year employees.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, who are you doing that, right?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: Crazy.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was wild.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the at the time in the industry was unheard of.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what are you are you feeding them Wheaties?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing to keep them around?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Someday all those guys have aged out now, but she for a long time had like 20, 25 year, 30 year employees.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And what like I said, it was just absolutely unheard of.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: So as your company grew, what became harder about maintaining the culture?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do you still feel that it has to be managed or you've distributed it enough amongst your team that they can manage it?
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: How does that work out for you and your team?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_03: Interesting question.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_03: I think there are as you grow, some things get easier, some things get more complicated.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Very much so.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_03: Because you'll have more people that can manage more things for you as you hire more admin people, for example, right?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_03: That can take care of specific things versus you, you know, if you're starting out and maybe you have one or two people in your admin, you're still dealing with some things, whether it is hiring or payroll or whatever it may be.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_03: As you grow, you have people that can take care of some things for you.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_03: But at the same time, you're dealing with people.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_03: And like people can be complicated because everyone is different.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone has had their own life experience.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_03: So keeping company culture as you have more people, I think if you're not intentional about it and like really bring it up every time you have a monthly meeting, for example, because we have the meeting actually right here in this room, like playing games, finding out more about the per you know, the personal lives, and like if we don't, if we're not intentional about it, it can just and just like go haywire and just like they can just like not believe or not know how to talk to a client, how what words to use, what would what we really truly stand for.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: Do we help cancer patients?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_03: You know, like what are some of the things?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that uh being intentional and whenever you communicate, whether it is one-on-one or in the meetings, to always plug in like a little things here and there about what we stand for and what we believe to be the right thing to do.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_03: And like this is actually one of the things about our culture is that I don't care what the if we break something, whatever it is that we did wrong, we're gonna do the right thing.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_03: I don't care if we lose a client, if we lose money, like everyone, please know, like, okay, we do the right thing.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: We're not gonna cut corners, we're not gonna do any of that.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_03: So, like doing the right thing for me, it's it's a it's a big thing.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely there's integrity in that statement on so many levels.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, yes.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: There is a point, I guess, when you get to a certain size.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that company culture is easier to manage when you're smaller versus or versus when you're larger?
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how does that work out?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a small operator and you may have two helpers, do you think it was easier to manage the culture then versus 30 cleaning techs and office staff and all the stuff that goes along with it?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: I think it gets Yeah.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I think for me it was like like I said earlier, it's a journey, right?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_03: Because we as owners, as leaders, we evolve as the company grows.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: We become almost like a different, not a different person, but it's a different stage of being a business owner.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: So I think at first, as you're asking the question, I'm like, it's definitely easier when you're smaller because you are dealing with less people, but at the same time, you don't have the enough knowledge yet.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like you haven't gone through the things in order for you to hire, to talk, to have enough conversations with people to realize how important company culture is, right?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_03: Because especially if it is your first business.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_03: And for most of us in the cleaning industry, the cleaning is your first business.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_03: So in a way, it is easier when you're smaller.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_03: But at the same time, I think like if you're not super intentional about learning from the people that are bigger, that have gone through problems with company culture, right?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's, you know, it's gonna be difficult.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I think it's overall easier because of the amount of people that you, you know, we have in a team.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_03: But again, where you are in your entrepreneur journey, it can be a little more challenging just because you might not have enough experience to really share or how to focus, how to really guide everyone on like what do you stand for.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think that as entrepreneurs, because many of us are, and this is our first business that creates legacy and asset purchasing and passive income further down the road, that there is an opportunity for us as humans.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: So what you and you had just made a very valid statement.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: When you are first in operations, you are one person.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you're at your level, my level, we're an entirely different person.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then each time we scale, we kind of do a 180 each and every time.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: I um I often think of how much I've changed as a leader versus like when I was just in management in the restaurant industry or when I worked in the hotel industry versus what I am today.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting to see the growth pattern and what those life experience, those blunders.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm not, I'm not perfect.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I could walk on water, but I I've not been able to achieve that.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think that's a very valid statement for that.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Can free lunches?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people who, and I'm guilty of this myself, and you you probably maybe did it in the beginning, and maybe you don't do it, or maybe you never did it.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Did you ever provide company culture by buying lunches when you were out in the field with them or not out in the field with them?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Did you do those types of things as well?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know you have the monthly meetings, but is there I spoke to one business owner, they drive in Mercedes sprint bands in pods and they deliver the pods information to your team, is this really large area.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh my gosh, I don't know how how you manage 18 sprinter vans, but do you ever do anything like that?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_03: When when it was smaller, yes, with the technicians.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_03: I did go around and I check on everybody, you know, like how's everything?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_03: And I would bring them food or drinks or whatever.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's more about the admin team that talks to them, right?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: So like I do take my field manager to lunch every once in a while so I can have more of like a one-on-one.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_03: Not from like I'm buying you something for like, you know, like it's just for me to really connect at a deeper level versus being in the office.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_03: Let's go grab lunch, you know, and then like find out more how how she's doing, how's everything going, how's everything with the team?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_03: We talk business, of course, but like I want to connect with my admin team as well.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: I love, love, love that.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: And how are your managers responding?
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: I know that you had mentioned termination, and that's always a scary thing for a lot of people, especially if you don't do it the right way.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of things can happen.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um how are you, how are your managers responding when something goes wrong?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is there a change?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is just mostly for the audience.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of know how it works.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: But for the audience, can you tell them, like when there is a culture issue and you have the bad apple, what is the process for that?
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Is it three strikes you out?
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of companies do that.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Is it, you know, you try to retrain?
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: How many chances do you give someone before the bad apple finally leaves?
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: I guess.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_03: I think, well, I think it depends, right?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: Depending on what the offense is.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_03: Because if it is a serious offense, there is no strike two.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: It's a strike one and you're out.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Anything over a grand is like, well, you know.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_03: And and I think like anything we haven't, we I don't think we ever had anything with like stealing.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_03: But I think if somebody took something and there was proof that they did, we've been accused a couple of times in the last six, seven years of being in business a couple of times that they they accused us of stealing.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_03: But then we found out no, nothing happened.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_03: It was actually like someone else that was in the building, another contractor.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: But I think that uh we don't have a like strike three.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_03: I think it all depends on the situation.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_03: Like what I think what's important is for you to address if there is an issue, don't rub it under the rug, right?
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like address it, have the converse, the difficult conversation that needs to be had, find out what's going on.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes, again, we're dealing with people.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_03: Some people, and most of us, let me rephrase that.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes we go through difficult times in our own personal life.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: And the technicians are no different.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes they might be late, or there might be something that's happening, or they might be a little careless with a damage, like because of a serious situation.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: Whether it is, and in our case, someone that is her husband is going through cancer and like it's a pretty serious stage of cancer.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_03: And her, actually, we haven't had any major issues with her, actually.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_03: But if it is something that's serious, okay, have a little sympathy, right?
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_03: Like have a little understand, have the conversation.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_03: But I think so.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_03: For us, we don't have a specific strike three.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_03: For me, it's more about understanding where they are, what's really going on behind the whatever the the issue is that just happened, whether it is with the client or a cleaning that didn't go as well as we thought, or a bad Google review.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_03: So I think like again, back to the communication and back to like people having that one-on-one conversation is extremely, extremely important.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's just awesome sauce.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because you do, you're looking at a case-by-case basis versus three strikes, you're out and you're just, okay, I'm done.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think the management styles have changed so much in the last couple decades.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's uh it's amazing to me when I think back to how long I've been working and what I was treated and what I what we do now is entirely, entirely different.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that well, you probably do?
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's there's the whole like I'm always about if you have to terminate, you know, do it with dignity.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not about humiliating anyone.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I I've seen it.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've watched other people do it.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, hey, that probab that wasn't cool.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you why did you do that?
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: But it it's an interesting dynamic for sure.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have any questions for me on uh anything?
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: I always like to ask.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you had mentioned you wanted to share a little bit more about what you have going on.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: We can do that as well.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_03: No, I don't know if I have questions, uh, but I think that so a few things that I wanted to share.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_03: I actually, I saw I own a couple other companies.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_03: I come from a tech background, and I think that with in the world of AI, technology, you know, it's it's super important, right?
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_03: And and we're not, we don't want to re completely replace the human side of things because we still we're still humans.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_03: Our humans are buying our services.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_03: But and humans will always be around, I believe, and are needed in order to provide service to another human.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_03: But technology and AI are extremely important for us to implement in our business for multiple different reasons, right?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_03: For us to be more efficient, for us to make more money, for us to, you know, whatever it may be, make better decisions.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_03: So in the last few years, I've also been a little bit more involved in the acquisition world and understanding what it takes for you to have a more valuable company and technology, processes, systems, having the people and the owner itself not being so involved, depending, obviously, depending on the size of the company, not being so involved in the day-to-day, all of these things as you grow, like pay attention to these things, right?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_03: Because I don't know, everyone is different, but I think that we're all gonna get older.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_03: We're all gonna get to a point or like, okay, I've I've done enough.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I would like to like retire or do something else or go to the beach or move to Costa Rica.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that having your business always, in the case something happens, have it ready in the case that you have to sell your business.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_03: Because some things take time, right?
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_03: Implementing technology, implementing AI, they these things do take time.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_03: So I have been super focused on not just the processes and systems, but having technology in place that helps us be more efficient from an automation perspective, but making better decisions.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_03: Because again, AI can make decisions, but again, we're as the owners, as the leaders, we do have to make decisions on a lot of different aspects of the business.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: So make sure that you do utilize these things.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_03: And Joy AI, for me, the reason why I started this application is for us to be able to make better decisions.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_03: Like for the example that I gave in terms of our teams, right?
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_03: I was just so like tired of looking at so many different spreadsheets.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_03: There we had like over 30 or 40 different spreadsheets for all these different things, right?
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_03: From like scheduling to budget to like team management, all of it.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, there has to be a better way.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_03: And inventory, like how many, how much in products each technician is utilizing?
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_03: I have no idea.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_03: I know how much I spend on per month, and then maybe like how much each supplier.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_03: But then it was just like, no, I want to know like, is this person using my products for something else?
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_03: Are they taking some home?
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know, you know?
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_03: So I wanted to understand a little bit more.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_03: So we started this about a year ago, and then it's been very cool to see the evolution of being a way more organized business by being able to see things and make better decisions and like really understand what's going on behind the hood or under the hood.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_03: So again, a plug, but not a plug, but like build your own, you know, like build your own, like utilize technology.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_03: AI today, you can like build stuff so quickly, right?
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_03: That I truly believe that utilizing technology, utilizing AI is only going to benefit your business long term, especially if you're at a point where in the next five, 10, 15 years, you're thinking of selling your business.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_03: So use technology.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's awesome.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, what part of the acquisition process are you in?
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Are you buying businesses and selling them?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing with those?
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm always looking for I've bought smaller businesses that we ended up adding to our recurring clients, right?
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I just bought recurring clients.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm always Did you buy a list or an actual company?
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_03: It was just a list.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_03: What does that mean?
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that's for here.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm asking questions.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_03: My way to approach it, and again, businesses when they're so small, right?
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_03: They have, you know, I don't know, they're not a company because they don't have a system, they don't have a way to generate leads.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_03: So, like when people to approach you, and again, I've I've heard this story many, many times where somebody wants to buy a business, and I'm like, is it really a business or are you literally just buying a book of business?
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like you're just buying the client.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_03: So be careful with that.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_03: Because I've heard a lot of people paying a lot of money for something that was not worth it, and then all of a sudden, half of those clients ended up leaving because now it's a different process, the different companies, a different everything, right?
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, I think it's super important for people to pay attention to that.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_03: So, my approach to it is that I pay three months worth of revenue that these recurring clients bring in.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_03: That's my approach to it.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_03: Depending on it's a slightly different case by case, but for the most part, that's what I'm willing to pay.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_03: If it's not a company, yeah.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's as far what I've said, because I talk to a lot of people.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that that sounds about from what I've heard, so I was just curious.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: How many have you acquired?
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Is it been like four or five of them, or just when it it presents itself?
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_03: Whenever they present itself, but so far in the last, I would say three years, it's been about four of them that I've bought 25 clients here, you know, 15 clients there, or 30 clients here.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: Gotcha.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_03: And always whenever you yeah, and whenever just because when I first started Joy of Cleaning, I didn't start myself.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_03: It was actually maybe a uh I'll take a minute to share how we started.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_03: I I used to live in Costa Rica.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_03: I moved to St.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_03: Pete, and then when I came here, I hired a couple from Brazil.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_03: I'm originally from Brazil as well.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_03: So I hired a couple from Brazil.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_03: They started cleaning our house, and then one day they said, Oh, I'm sorry, we have bad news, but we have good news.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Okay, what's the bad news?
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_03: We're moving to Washington State.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Oh, wow, that's a far move.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Okay, what's the right?
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_03: What's the good news?
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, you already have someone else that can come and clean for you.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_03: You don't have to look for someone else.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_03: I said, okay.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_03: When I this I started this conversation with them because I was like, oh, maybe there's an opportunity here.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_03: I started asking them, how are you gonna get paid for these clients who've been working on getting these recurring clients for about three years?
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_03: And they had about 27 recurring clients at the time.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_03: So I asked them how, oh, once we move, this new person is gonna send us the money over, you know, over a period of time, blah, blah, blah.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Are you sure they're she's gonna send you the money?
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to say anything, but I don't know.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I I just decided to make him an offer to buy these 27 recurring clients.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_03: And what the main point that I'm trying to make here is that back then and to this day, just know that a percentage of the clientele, these clients that you buy will leave.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_03: So, whatever the deal that you make with them, just know that I would say up to 50%, but guarantee about 10 to 20% of whatever list you buy or the book of business that you buy, they will leave.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_03: Keep that in mind when you make an offer to buy these clients from other people that are moving back to Brazil or moving back somewhere or they're just tired of, you know, and they have 20 clients that they want to get rid of.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_03: Know that 10, 20% will leave, sometimes more.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's always a scary process to do the thing with like even when you're buying a whole business, a full-fledged, fully operational business, and people are making payments.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard nightmare stories about a lot of things, which I'm sure you have as well, where no payment comes through and you know, it just becomes and then they crash the business.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh my gosh, this is just awful to watch.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, I think that that is a good rule of thumb because people approach me a lot about this and that.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, you know, this is what I see.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: I usually refer them to people because I've I've only brokered a couple of deals myself with my own businesses.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've not done anyone else's.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: But it's always good to have a nice rule of thumb, especially for those listening here, going, maybe I'm gonna step out of this, maybe I'm not.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: What could I expect to get?
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that gives them a nice basis.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: Are there any other processes of acquisition that you're doing?
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: Are you doing like laundry mats or any other type of cleaning services?
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you just struck strict strictly for the residential cleaning?
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_03: Before I was looking at all any home service business, I was very active, actively looking for these businesses, and I found out uh that's not a good idea.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_03: So it some uh you can get close to the, you know, to the making an offer and then accepting it.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_03: But then I realized, okay, it is, it's not as complicated.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot involved, right?
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_03: Because a lot of these people have built this business these businesses all their entire lives.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_03: And then it's I think it's super important for you to understand the industry.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: If you are gonna be the one running the business, they'll just be careful.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I realize that it's better to just focus on one versus trying to be some, like trying to own all these different businesses in different industries.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_03: Because one, focus is important.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_03: If you're if you want to grow something, right, a business, focus is super important.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: So for me, I I choose to just like, okay, I want to stick with cleaning.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: But now with Joy AI being more of a software company, right?
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_03: So like I I welcome anybody that is home service because the software can help any type of business from cleaning to landscaping, pool cleaning, carpet cleaning, all of that.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_03: The software will help them be more efficient and operate in a better way.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, is this Joy AI, is it an app or is it a desktop type of I know you're saying AI, but just for the people who so if they were, is it on Apple, that could they just get it there?
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: Where do they find Joy AI at?
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so is automatejoy.ai, that's the website, but it's a web application, just like Zenmade, Jobber, all of it.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_03: You have a login, you log into the platform, and then you have all the different features, all the things for you to manage your, your, your business.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_03: From managing your team, managing inventory to creating content online to getting NPS score, tipping kudos to your team, right?
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_03: Incentivize more company culture.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: So tell the audience what the NPS score is for you.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_03: NPS score for me is, and we get a lot of them.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we get a lot of them.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I've been a little bit more active posting on my social media because it's just so cool.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_03: But it's a simple and quick way to get feedback from the client.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_03: And we make it super easy for them to give us feedback.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I just like I believe almost anyone, a cleaning gets done, we send them a text message, they click on a link and they tell us from one to 10, what is like, how did it go?
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_03: If it went well, leave us a comment.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot of times, I want to say maybe 20, 30% of all the text messages that go out, they leave us some sort of NPS score.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_03: Most of them being 10, a lot of them being nines.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_03: We get that five or sometimes like you know, a four here and there, but it's rare for us.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_03: I think we focus a lot on the quality and doing the right thing, right?
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_03: But uh the I really enjoy receiving and reading these comments because it's frictionless.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_03: And a Google review, it just takes a little bit more work, even though we focus so much on Google reviews.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_03: Again, like a little.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_03: If you're starting out, focus on your Google My Business, focus on getting Google reviews.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_03: I cannot stress this enough, it's extremely, extremely, extremely important.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_03: And if I can brag a little bit here, take a moment.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_03: We at Joy of Cleaning here in the St.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_03: Pete area.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_03: We have more Google reviews than any other company.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't matter if it's MollyMade, whatever it may be, nothing against MollyMade's, but we have put so much focus on Google reviews.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_03: We have now about 850 Google reviews for the amount of time.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_03: So reply to your Google reviews.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_03: Make sure that you include keywords on your reply.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_03: Make sure they include keywords on your profile, right?
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like all of these things are extremely, extremely important.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_03: And ask for them, right?
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_03: Ask for the book.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_03: If you don't ask, you don't get.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_03: So but going back to the NPS score, I really enjoyed them.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um and it's just a way to get feedback from the clients that is super easy to get from them.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: Anything else?
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_03: I think that covers it.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_03: And we can touch on uh what was it again that you mentioned maybe on another podcast?
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_03: We can definitely talk about it on a different time.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we can definitely think Donnie had been generous enough to offer uh in another group that I saw that I was I was cyber stalking as I was cruising through I call it cyber I'm constantly in either one group or another group or another group or whatever in my own group about and we can definitely do a whole episode on that.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you had utilized because I'm really big into trading bottering, and I was like, it caught my attention.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it would be a great way to have a podcast for just that topic of trading for advertisement.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now we I've traded for a lot of things over time.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've traded for radio space, newspaper ads, but you had an interesting concept uh with influencers, is my understanding.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now I skimmed, I didn't read the whole thing of what you were doing, but I thought it would be great to have a podcast.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: You have to come back on and talk all about that if you had time.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_03: And and just in a nutshell, if because people can do this on their own, right?
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_03: Essentially what we're doing is we're finding influencers, and this is very important, please pay attention.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_03: Find influencers where they're following all of their followers, or not all their followers, but a good percentage of their followers are actually local.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_03: Because I've had stories like, oh, I tried the influencer marketing thing, but it doesn't work.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_03: Well, did you check if the followers of these people are actually in the town that you provide the service?
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_03: Because if the followers are not there, they're never going to be your customer.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't matter how many how much they interact with that, with them, they're never going to be your customer because they live in California and you provide service here in Florida, right?
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_03: So finding the influencers where the following is local is extremely important.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_03: That's step one.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_03: And then you reach out to them, you explain what you do, and all you do is exchange service, a free cleaning.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_03: In our case, we exchange a free cleaning in exchange for a reel or a couple of stories.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_03: And then now it has evolved to an entire process where we ask for a few different things.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_03: Leave us a Google review, leave us a testimonial.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_03: And we've had this, we've been doing this for a little over four years, maybe five years now.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I've I've shared the numbers in a group.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you want me to share just to give an idea, but over the past four or five years, influence influencer clients, if clients that came from influencers have generated us close to a million dollars.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_03: And we've done under, I think,$70 or$80,000 in cleaning.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_03: So we've had more of it than a 10X, you know, on our free cleaning.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_03: Plus, what's happening is that again, like it's hard to compare with Google Ads because you're creating these relationships with these influencers, right?
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_03: Over time, as you work with them, they're so grateful to you that now, for example, if I need more people on my team and I'm hiring, I can ask them, hey, do you mind posting for me about hiring that we're we're hiring?
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_03: And they're like, absolutely, no problem at all.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_03: Can you post about this for me?
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_03: We're doing an event.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_03: Of course, no problem.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that there's a huge benefit to creating relationships with these influencers than just doing Google Ads.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not saying to completely stop, but it's definitely another tool in your toolbox to generate leads and having multiple ways, right?
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_03: Because when you rely only on Google Ads, it's just like you're on handcuffs and it's hard to just like if they increase, right?
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like there's nothing you can do if the if the cost per lead goes up.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's like I'm I just have to put more money because I need the leads.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_03: If you don't have any other way to generate leads, then you're stuck.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_03: So this is just another way.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_03: And I think for us, it has been a huge way to generate leads for us.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: We'll have to have you on and you can give step by step because I know now I'm gonna get messages like how did he do that?
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't, we'll get it all figured out.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I just want to thank you so much for coming on, and I really appreciate your time and putting in the effort for the audience.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you to have a great weekend.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: You take care.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.