Latest / Cleaning Business Life / CBL EP 162 V4: The Leader

Transcript

CBL EP 162 V4: The Leader · Cleaning Business Life

• 0:58
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome back to Clean Business Life.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm Shannon Miller with Clean Fruits University, and I'm here with my co-host Jamie Runco.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_03: We're continuing our series of the five phases of you as an entrepreneur.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: And today we're in phase four, the leader.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_03: The phase where you stop being valued for how hard you work and start being valued for your decisions, your standards, and your ability to lead without rescuing.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: This is the identity shift where you're learning to trust your system, build culture, and get it out of the way enough for your team to grow.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: Even when every nerve in your body wants to jump back in and fix it.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: So if you've been stuck in that uncomfortable in-between, not in the field anymore, but not fully confident in the leadership either, this episode is for you.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: Let's get to it.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: Good morning in progress.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_03: Good morning, Miss Jamie.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, hello.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning, everyone.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: Looks like we are getting ready to talk about we're still on our series of the five phases of you as an entrepreneur.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: So I'll give you the really quick framework in case you missed the other podcasts.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: This is phase four.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we're gonna talk about phase four, but let me tell you a little bit about the other three phases so you can go back and listen.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: Phase one is the doer, you are the business, everything depends on you, and burnout is normalized.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: Suck it up, buttercup, right?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we've all been there.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_03: That's exactly how it feels too, you guys.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: Suck it up, suck it up, suck it up.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_03: Phase two is the awakening.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: You start to notice what's not working mentally, financially, emotionally, even if you don't know how to fix it yet.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: That's a tough one, too.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: And then phase three is the builder, probably the longest piece out of the five phases because you're building things, you're trying things out, you're inventing the wheel, you're taking the wheel apart, you're inventing the wheel again, you're taking it apart, you're doing it at a time, and your crew's like, What is wrong with you?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: Why do you keep doing this stuff?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: So the builder, you're intentionally designed systems to stop so the business can stop living in your head.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: So you're trying to get it from your head on paper.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's when your first SOP appears, the shower gods always deliver.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: And phase four, what we're talking about today is the leader.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: You shift from doing the work to leading people, decisions, and outcomes.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then the last phase, which we'll talk about in the next podcast, will be the phase I can't even talk articulation, is the virtual price CEO, and you build assets, leverage long-term impact beyond the day-to-day.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_03: So that's your three-year, five-year, seven-year, ten-year, whatever plan you choose.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: And it shifts too, depending on where you are in your business.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: Today, as Jamie mentioned, we're going to talk about the leader.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: I'm super excited.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: So there's a lot to being the leader, and it's hard because you'll step in and then you'll step out, and then you'll step in and then you'll step out.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_03: And it's it's hard because it's it's tempting.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's tempting to step in.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'll just fix it.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'll just Yeah, because it's your baby.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is your baby.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's like nobody, you feel like nobody can do this as good as you.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: I hear it all the time.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: I'll never find anyone who can clean as good as me.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_03: Whoa, is me.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'm never, it's never gonna happen.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: That very well may be true.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: You need to knock your expectation down a little bit.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: I would say about 90%, you know, knock it down just so that you're not so micromanaging.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: That was very hard for me to do, like, because I I honestly, and I still feel that way.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody can clean as good as I can.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um certain people, some people work circles around me, but it's like, hey, slow down, you know.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: But this this leader, whenever you like you said, the five, the, the phases of this is true, it's exactly how it's what we're talking about.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: The builder, you've built it.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're kind of stepping like right now.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: I I've been stepping into this leadership role and and making a culture and alignment, and you're doing different things now.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're you're everybody's looking to you to steer the ship.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: And if you go down, the whole ship goes with you.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: That's why at this point the business stops needing your hands.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: You need to operate from above.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: Not that you're better than everybody else, because this is a psychological thing, too.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_03: When you start to transition from being the cleaner, from being everything to being the leader, there's a lot of anxiety, internal anxiety that you cause yourself because then you feel guilty, right?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_03: There's been many times when I transitioned out of the field into a leadership role.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_03: Uh they there was a lot of people who quipped like inappropriate things to me about how dare you, you think you're better than us now, you're making all this money now.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: When in reality, if they saw what all of the things cost, that's why the penny trick, if you guys don't know what the penny trick is, it's where you take a hundred pennies if you can get your hands on them now.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's kind of funny that we're saying that.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: And you're dividing what the the margin should be.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm not shy about it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's 55, 25, and 20.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: So 55 pennies would go for your labor, your payroll taxes, your workmen's comp, all that other stuff.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_03: And 25 pennies would go for your operations costs, and 20 if you're lucky if no one fucks it up for you.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_03: You get to keep the 20%, but then you're taxed on it.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: So exactly.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so it really, whenever it comes down to it, you're not getting that full 20%.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I have I kind of heard it.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: I heard little things whenever I was buying my house.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, after I've had to let people go and stuff, you know, about oh, you're paying, yeah, you're working to pay for her house.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Da da da.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard I've heard little stuff out in the back of my head, but that's they don't see what some people don't see what it's take to build this to get to where we're all at right now.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: And you would hope that they wouldn't be brave enough to say it to your face, but there are always they they weren't.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean this was all behind.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: I I just heard heard it in the background, little little birdies in the background.
• 7:40
  unknown: Right.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: So business owners can tend to feel disoriented, not because things are failing, but because the old role no longer fits, right?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's so true.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: Then you're starting to build systems where you know you put you implement the cancellation policy, and it it that's not even a cleaning tech thing.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: That's uh that's a customer thing, right?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, Mrs.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: Smith, and I always use Mrs.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: Smith because it's just easy and I can remember, you know, has canceled 14 times in the last year.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: You know, if you haven't already, Mrs.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: Smith, you probably should.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, unless she's going through like chemotherapy or something, then you decide if you're gonna hold on to her or not.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, that's not a good fit anymore.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: That doesn't fit your business model because if you're not getting paid on that win, the cleaning techs still need to be paid.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: And depending on what state you're in, you still might owe them pay.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_03: So just make sure that you're starting to watch some of these systems, right?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, there's a lot of times too when something goes wrong, or you know, Mary calls out sick and it's just going, I'll just go and do it.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_03: I'll put everything to the side, even though you have payroll meeting with two potential customers, you know, you have a customer complaint.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there's the laundry list of things you always have to do.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_03: You'll just drop what you're doing and you'll quickly put it.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_03: I'll run and get that.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: And run over here and go do it.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'll run over the to the office, I'll grab it for you and bring it to you.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: It is, it's very it's yeah, it requires a lot of identity shifts, uh, and it is, it feels like you're off balance a little.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I'm talking about?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: That feeling of just, am I doing this right?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: You feel a little and I I've gone through these mental things where it's like this just doesn't feel right, and I've I've come to learn that this is growth whenever it's feeling off, it's because we've never done this part before.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: We haven't been, and maybe we have a couple of times, but it's just like this does not feel right, it it just it's growth, and it's hard to now.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a little you gotta be a little comfortable with feeling like that because you you gotta get comfortable with the fact that it's going to feel uncomfortable, and that's part of growing, that's part of growing.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: It says phase four is requires one of the hardest identity ships in entrepreneurism, and there really is because you for a while you were out cleaning with your team, right?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: Or you were the team and then you had helpers, and then it becomes this whole transition of how do I get out.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_03: So you'll go in the field, you'll go out of the field.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_03: And and it's it all starts with that one state to claim I'm gonna take one day off to do office work.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then when you get there, you're like, what do I do with myself?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_03: I'm twiddling my thumbs.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_03: I guess I'll market it.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_03: And then market becomes like this huge grand experiment.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: You're like, I love marketing.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_03: This is so cool to see what A B testing is and to see if this ad works here better than this ad.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: Or if I change and tweak the the way of the, you know, the photograph or the Canva template that I'm using, does that does that get me more response?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: So it starts to become an experiment.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: So it is it's a shift.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think a lot of people talk about what that's like either.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: I think that we might be the mavericks on this one, but it really is a hard identity shift because you're trying to straddle the fence, is what my mom calls it.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: You're working on this side, then you're also working on this side, and eventually you'll work on the right side more than the left.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_03: And then after a while, you're like, I'm not going back out there.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: After a while, you're like, and it just starts going.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it just starts going.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and so you're no longer valued for what you do because you're not required to do anymore in that capacity.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_03: You're required to do the longer term vision, not just the immediately get me through my shift.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, you're you're your role now is starting to also become the it's the leadership role.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Your company, your your team is looking at you to be them.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: But be, you know, you're you're now in this phase also, I feel like you're you're putting together culture.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you're working on, and that's where we're at right now in my business.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: We're working on culture and structuring, I'm structuring more of the employee side of things.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: I've got the I got the client thing, you know, kind of pretty, pretty established, you know, as far as late fee, you know.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: This is also where I put in, I'm starting my to actually document stuff that is in my head and putting it outside of my head, which is so hard, you guys.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Putting it outside and onto something, and it's staying there.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like actually have a file for the ideals that I have, whether it's structured together perfectly or not, it is finally outside of my head, which it takes up so much space, and it's out.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, this is the part where I am starting to like the the the my employee handbook.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: It it's coming, it's all coming together.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: You guys know that I've been working on Connect Team, which is a total HR for us.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we can do, yeah.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: So this leadership thing is is part of it's part of where we're going.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's part of where how we want to structure ourselves.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: I think that you're valued more for your decisions 1000% versus what you can contribute when you're in the field with them.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: And and that's the whole epiphany of what's going on.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: And you hear me reference McDonald's, McDonald's, McDonald's.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: The more McDonald's you have, and I'm not saying go and eat at McDonald's because I think their food is, but they they are known for in the the for if you haven't heard me talk about it, the philosophy behind McDonald's is that every single person in McDonald's, which is becoming less and less because of AI and everything else, can work multiple positions.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: So every person in the house in the back of the house can work every position in the back of the house.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: And and now the case earlier, because I spoke to someone who works at McDonald's, they can also work the positions in the front of the house.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: So that way it's it's universal.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: So that way someone can come in and you know do their thing.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to step burger over and over, and it tastes the same no matter how many people go through the line.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: Consistency is cheap.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is an uncomfortable position to be in.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um but again, I guess maybe the the whole when you were structuring for your clients, that was you know, whenever we're putting in our 48 hours, 24 hours, whatever you guys use, cancellation fee we charge for the full can for the full price of things because you decided that you forgot, that felt uncomfortable at first.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's very uncomfortable.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you didn't want to be the bad guy that sticks it to them.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_03: But if in the reality, if you look at what that spot is worth, each spot on your schedule is worth so much money.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_03: And if you're not recovering that at the last minute, it's it's a deficit that you're trying the whole week to catch up.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_03: And then if you have eight or nine of them, it's a lot of money, right?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so the this it's the same thing, only except now we're taking it over to the leadership side, the the employee side, you as a person side.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: So basically, you're letting go of all the emotion that's attached to it.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: And that's hard because, as Jamie said, this is your baby, this is something you created at the ground level.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_03: More 99% of us have done it that way.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_03: We didn't buy into it.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_03: And if you did, that's totally okay too.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: But it really does, it's an emotional decision.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: So having it not be emotional, not personal, is probably the hardest transition when you go from from you to them.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: And then it's hard to like not say, okay, I'll just do it this once.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_03: Because I it uh after all I've 15 years I've been in this game, and it still is like it's a reaction, right?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'll just go over there and take care of it because Mrs.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: Smith is having a party.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: We'll make sure it happens for you, or whatever the case is.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: We need to build a system where we can make it to where we trust the system that we have made because it has gotten out of your head to something that is fallable.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody can follow along with it and use that and and trust that you did your job.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's what this is where you know you've done your job.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: You you know, yesterday I had Miriam go and do some QC checks.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, those were fine.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: Were they surprised?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I I it was it was like I remember I would do I would do them, but I have made a system to where I trust that the system that I have put down on paper and they follow it, it it it blows my mind.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: It just it'll blow yours too once you get there.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's especially if you can just sit back and think like you created this, you created this, and and people are following along, and everybody, not just you, but everybody's making money, and it's it's like it's going choo-choo, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, choo-choo.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: I think that rescuing looks helpful, but I also think it kind of curates more dependency because oh, Shannon will come in and fix this if this doesn't happen, or Jamie will come in and fix this if this doesn't, or Miriam, or whoever it is.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: So it really does look helpful in the moment, but it really does create long-term dependency, and that's not what you want.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: We got into this game, and you guys will hear me on my soapbox.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: Either to sell or gift to family, you're creating a legacy.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: As you know, and I've mentioned this multiple times, the cleaning industry is now hot.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody and their mothers in the cleaning industries, there's several different versions of how you can run your business, and there's a lot of people in it, right?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody wants a piece of the pie now.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: Before we weren't worthy, now we are, and it's it's interesting to kind of watch a low to go on.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Such a low startup, uh, and then but once you really I you know I see people doing it as a side thing.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're not even really that's not geared towards this.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think that we're geared towards actual.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: I let's do it.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Let's let's make this an actual company because there are companies out there.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: I see them, they have over hundred employees, you know, and and that didn't happen by accident.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: That happened by a lot of structure, a lot of what we're talking about here today.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: This is where we're like you said, we're walking into the leadership role.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: We are creating company culture.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: It is, it's still hard to not jump in and go to rescue because this is your baby, but I've gotten to the point where you know, for the past I don't however long we've been doing this for every Thursday.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: I have, I believe, eight or nine jobs on the schedule, and I turn my phone on to do not disturb the whole all the employees know and they know how to fix it themselves.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: If something were to happen, the only time that I would yeah, the only time that I would get a phone call is if my lead doesn't know what to do, and even then they respect and then like it's not the place isn't gonna catch on fire.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: So I I think it when you don't start to take an active role as leadership, it softens expectations to avoid discomfort and it makes it awkward.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_03: So the first time it happens, you step in and then Shannon saves it or Jamie saves it.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: The second time the expectation is that Shannon or Jamie are gonna save it again, and then the third time with this client, then you try to put someone in there who's fully competent, they go, Well, I want you to come clean, right?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_03: I want you to come do this because you do such an exceptional job.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_03: And you're like, sure, I'm happy to do that, but this is what the price is gonna be because this is how much it costs me to be out in the field, and then that usually that's the smack on the face a little bit, like, oh, so she's just really here fixing it.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_03: And then then that's the dividing line of trying to differentiate how you got yourself into the mess that you got yourself in.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Right, and if you're but if you're fixing it, your people are not learning.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: No, you're you're getting there there's something amiss in your your system, and you go back to the drawing board and say, okay, they didn't get this.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Let go back to the drawing board and reconstruct it.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: However, remember chat GPT is going to right now be your very good friend.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: And the way I I I'm like, you're a customer's.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is how I word it on on your customers, you're my customer relations employee, or or she's giving you a prompt.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: You're my you're my you are a world first class marketing manager.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: How do you handle this?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then it gives you not only it'll give help you with an answer, but it also gives you things that you wouldn't even think about.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh yeah, I should have asked about this boundary or something along those lines.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of emotion when you transition.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: So it really is the discomfort of doing too much versus the discomfort of watching others grow.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: And it's hard because you're like, so I hope they get it, right?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_03: You all you can do is throw it to the wind.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_03: I hope that they get it.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: And then Check in with them later that day and they're like they got it, and you're like, Oh, thank god, right?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's really like okay, okay, so it's making sense, right?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: Growth is really it's never tidy.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_03: Growth is a messy process, there's your emotional mess, and then there's the cleaning tech's emotional mess, there's your lead, there's the client client expectations usually are emotional mess, and leadership is really quiet.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: There's there's a shift that has to happen, and sometimes it's a forceful shift, sometimes it's a gentle nudge.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_03: As you get better in this role, it's just a small tweak because you can see it on the timeline.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: You'll be able to predict when the next blunder on your schedule is going to happen.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_03: I like I've mentioned before, when people came over to me when I had W-2s and they started to work for me, they're like, wow, this is the smoothest running cleaning company I've ever been in.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: It's because I spent a lot of time on the back end to make sure that it looked smooth.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_03: They didn't see all the chaos that went on in the background.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the hurtful, painful.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's very painful learning something that you know.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't, I never, I have never managed people, I've never been a manager.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um I never ran somebody's schedule and made everybody's schedule.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: I never did any of these things.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: This is I knew how to clean you guys.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I knew.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: All this stuff I've learned right alongside with whoever's out there, just like you, me.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: I I've just learned it as I went along.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: Not so much bootstrapping it, I won't say that, because I did hire Shannon to help get me where I needed to be a lot faster than bootstrapping it.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: And bootstrapping takes time and effort.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm too old for that.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm 49 this year, so woo-hoo.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I started this business what four years ago, and I just knew that I was just too old I to want to figure it all out on myself on my own, and I needed help because I I I knew I could do something, I knew there was something to this business, and and I wanted a piece of it.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like I and I still do.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: I love this business and I've loved what I've learned.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: I have changed so much from four years ago.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not the same person.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: We you know, you gotta make hard decisions too.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: We're making harder decisions.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes it's unpleasant, but it it has to be done.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_03: When leadership is actually working, you'll start to notice fewer urgent interruptions, clearer decision making, more consistent outcomes, and what is I'm gonna cheat and look space on your calendar that actually stays open.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: So that was that referral to I'm gonna take one day a week to work in the office.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_03: And then, you know, you have your cleaning text go, okay.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_03: Well, how is Mrs.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: Smith's house?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it's great.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna be fine on time, blah, blah, blah.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_03: And then, you know, it depending on what you're what size your operation, that's obviously for a smaller operation, not someone who has 27 cleaning texts or 100 cleaning techs.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_03: That type of communication doesn't happen, it's a different level.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_03: And then your business doesn't collapse when you step back.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_03: It actually studies because as Jamie's mentioned, it took a while to get there.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: We're here doing podcasts, she doesn't have any interruptions, but it took a while for her to set that up.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: There was a lot of back-end work that had to happen.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_03: Miriam and does all of these wonderful things.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: She's in charge of making smooth running running shifts now.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_03: And then that's how you know you're leading, you're not hovering because we it's it's hard as cleaning business owners not to hover and go, Well, did you make sure her pillows were the right way?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: What pillow?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: She didn't have any pillows on the bed.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_03: Then you show a picture.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: Well, she has 27 pillows.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, she took those off to wash them.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, thank God, right?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right, right.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that's another that's exactly it.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's another structure that we use.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Again, we use Jobber, so we know we know everything.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: Just recently, I got asked to do some inside windows at a commercial account that we're doing.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: I just did some price increases.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing price increasing on all of our commercial accounts.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: So in the notes, it says, Jamie, you know, raise the rates.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we have a documentation of that.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: I can even do documentation of when I talk to somebody in the you know, an employee, if I there needs to be a hard conversation.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: We I put that in the notes.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody else sees it.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'd only do just so that it's out of my head and onto something.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm into the place where I have to start printing, start printing it and making sure that we may like we read over it, people sign.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Not even if it's a write-up or nothing, just that because I've had it happen so many times now that I don't want to have this problem happen, which is like unemployment.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's fine, it's an insurance that we pay into, but I don't want to pay it all the time.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: The more that you get deemed, or people the higher you have to pay in.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: So this is something that I'm like, okay, I don't let's make sure that we're documenting and people are signing, even if it's not a write-up.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, sometimes you got to be very specific with unemployment development center, whatever they're called.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: E D D.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's different in every state.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: So it's on the unemployment.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, these are things that I've learned, and it's I just don't wanna have to.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's a structure, it's a something that that I'm building again.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're working this year in 2026.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: I am more focused on intentionally stepping away and building a good company culture for my employees, for them to stick around, for them.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: This that's where my focus is right now.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's the area, the leadership.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: That is where I'm at right now.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um it's cheaper to keep good employees longer than it is to constantly train because it eats up all of your training dollars and it becomes more expensive after a while, and you could bankrupt yourself.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_03: And and it really this phases a lot of trust.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_03: You know, there's trust on your systems, there's trust on your people, trust in your ability to lead without controlling, because that's the hardest part.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_03: Like I said, I referenced the pillows.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_03: Did you do all the pillows?
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the mic pulling up your parents.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I you know, I even had uh Chris one time, he he I like to help have him come with us on these big move out cleans, and he's my heavy lifter, you know.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just there's six people on these big this is a huge job, and I'm just and he took me outside.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: He goes, Hey, I'm gonna need you just to calm down.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: I love Chris, he's such a good guy.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: I got it, I got it, I got it.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like he almost wanted to take my face.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, just I want to need you to calm down, okay?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I you know, I was like, you know, you're right, like you're right.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: I I just you you want to micromanage, it's hard, it's hard, it's really hard, and and I love that somebody can take me and do that because that's hard to do to a boss, that's hard to like, and he didn't do it in front of everybody, he took me outside, you know.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was really I I and I respect that, I respect that even more.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that showed me though, like, am I doing that on you know, then as you're self-sabotaging, you're like, am I doing that all the time?
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: So and it also takes whenever you start structuring all of this leadership stuff, you're putting it in, it's taking the emotion of it.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely because it is a boundary that you have right there.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: Whenever I put the the the cancellation fee, everybody, all the clients know they uh cancellations has dropped enormously.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes they'll be like, uh, do whatever, uh you know, take the money, you know.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: I I messed up, sorry, blah blah blah blah.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: But it has taken the emotion out of it.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: It it's just they understand, I under that they understand what I'm saying, that there's a cancellation fee.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: So whenever it's the same thing with whenever you're running employees, uh, it's taking the emotional baggage out of your head, and that's the hardest part.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_03: It really you you don't have to disappear in this phase, but you do rise as a leader, and it and it's awkward and messy, but the bet you it and it takes practice, right?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_03: There's some days you're gonna be absolutely great at it, no one's gonna even know that you flinched and your eyes started twitching.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_03: Then there's gonna be other days where your your lead on the job takes you outside and says, Shh, what what is that um movie where the guy goes oomba, right?
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_03: Just calm down.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_03: So your presence becomes intentional instead of constant, so you can pick and choose, and that's what allows the business to move forward towards something bigger than just daily operations.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_03: And it really it's hard to be the leader, especially as women.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_03: We're not naturally inclined.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_03: We're we're usually the backup, right?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_03: We got the kids, kid pickup, soccer practice, football, doctor's appointments, dentist appointments, all of the support systems.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: And many of us, this is the first time we've become in the leadership role.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a struggle trying to figure out what do I do here?
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_03: How do I do this?
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_03: And and really the goal is to have smooth running shifts so that you can go, you know, to a convention or whatever retreat or whatever it is that you're choosing to do.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: No, and that's that's exactly also my focus, a lot of business.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm hoping to get into business trips and more learning to be better, a better leader.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's that is what my ultimate goal is, and to make a good company culture to where people want to work for this this company, to to more community.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: I like, yeah, yeah.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's but it it is, it's clear decision makings, consistent outcomes, yes, spaces on your calendar that actually stay opened.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: There's just when that starts happening, and and there's there's I'm not saying this happens all the time, but there because there's days whenever I still step in, but I really try to not, but whenever you have days that are open for you just to work on your business, uh, and in the background, your business is still running and you're making money.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: To me, just it always blows my mind.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, wow, this is crazy, this is this is cool, this is cool, but you gotta be the leader, you gotta make sure that it don't collapse whenever you you you step back and it just kind of steadies itself.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: There's good not that it there's not gonna be problems uh here and there, but I want I want my employees to be able to be able to go in and be like, okay, this happens, oh, right here.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: This is what we gotta do.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and not a phone call.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: We we have something structured a little bit for my commercial accounts because that's a lot of nighttime work.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: We are not we don't run from about 12 a 12 12 in the morning, midnight, to about 7 a.m.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: That we're we're that's the only time that we're really closed.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to phone call at 11 o'clock at night.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I you know, I we've we've structured stuff in place to, you know, it's in there, it's it might be messy, but I have a lead for our nighttime cruise.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: That that's basically their employees, and they handle all the nighttime stuff.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it's my business.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's so crazy to me.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's so crazy, and I don't get those phone calls at night.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that part is structured pretty pretty good.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: But this uh daytime stuff, we're still I'm still working on building, like I said, uh my whole focus on 2026, and you guys can watch it, document it is to structure my employees to for the company culture, getting that employee handbook finally out of out of my head.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much to it because it's not everyone is the same, not every business is the same, right?
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: So making sure that that is out of my head and over to them, and it's something fallible, like they can follow it easily, you know what?
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it don't it it's not just not making sense.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what what do you want us to do?
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_03: I'm guilty of that, where they're like, well, so I'm reading this right here, what does that mean?
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_03: And basically it's because it didn't correlate from my brain to my speech.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_03: So what I printed was something that I thought made sense when in reality, if I had actually proofread it before I released it, I would have realized that it made absolutely no sense.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_03: But at the time it did.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: So that is what was I thinking at this moment?
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_03: But this concludes episode four.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_03: If you're looking for more in-depth, I've actually I had I believe I have four books on Amazon.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_03: You can just search my name, Shannon Leanne Miller.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_03: And if you're interested in one of those digital products, by all means.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_03: And we are still looking for a few more scholarships.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_03: If that is something that you are interested in sponsoring the show, we have several packages this year in 2026.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_03: So, and there's a hundred, there's gonna be 104 episodes.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_03: So private message me or Jamie, and we can talk about what works for you and what works for us.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, amen.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_03: All right, we'll see you guys next time.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_03: Take care.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_03: All right, that wraps up phase four, the leader in our five-phase entrepreneur series.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_03: If this episode hit you, here's your takeaway: leadership is quiet.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_03: And the moment you stop rescuing, you start building a business that you can actually run without your constant presence.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_03: If you want to go deeper, you can find my books on Amazon.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_03: Just search my full name, Shannon Lee Ann Miller, and you're ready for systems, pricings, and boundaries that actually hold up in real life.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_03: Head on over to Clean Freaks University for all of the latest courses.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_03: And we're also looking for a few more sponsorships for the show this year.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_03: We're producing 104 episodes in 2026, and we have sponsorship packages available for every budget.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_03: Message me or Jamie if you want the details, and we'll find a fit.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for hanging out with us.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see you in the next episode for phase five, the visionary articulation CEO phase.