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The Art of Leadership: Adam Povlitz on Building a Thriving Business · Unstoppable Success Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight, influential leaders and their game-changing insights.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jacqueline Stuminger, CEO and founder of LeapToyour Success.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's LeapTearsuccess.com.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: We help entrepreneurs, leaders, and CEOs grow their business, become unstoppable high achievers in their careers and life, gaining that 1% edge.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: We believe every professional has the power within them to leap to their greatest success that not only will impact their life, but the lives of the people they touch.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: So stick around to the end of the show and we will share with you how you can be our next guest.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: So stick around for those 15 to 20 minutes and let's be unstoppable.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Hello everybody.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast, where we hear from influential leaders and their game-changing insights.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jacqueline Strauminger, your host, and today I want to welcome and our amazing guest, Adam Pavlitz.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: So a little background on Adam.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: He is the CEO and president of Anago Cleaning Systems, an internationally franchised commercial cleaning brand headquartered in South Florida.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: He joined Anago in September of 2009 and served as president since April of 2015.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: I love hearing stories of growth like that.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I can't wait to talk about that.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: He was appointed CEO in May of 2018.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: In January 2010, he was a director of human resources franchise development.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: And in September, he was named VP of Operations.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: So before joining Anago, uh he was employed by IBM Corporation as growth initiatives and events analyst.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: He has Adam holds an MBA from the University of Miami and a Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt from Nova Southeastern University.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: He is a certified franchise executive and a cleaning industry management standards certified expert.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't even know they had that.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: So Adam is also a thought leader on the Forbes Business Council and a regular contributor to Entrepreneur and Forbes Publications.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: That is a lot of awesomeness.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So um enough about me.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Enough about you.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: No, but honestly, a lot about you.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I am so so obviously welcome to the welcome to the podcast.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm so glad to have you here.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um so just even reading your your bio and you know there is some serious, amazing um leadership things that have happened in your career.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I'd love to hear you talk a little bit about your journey, you know, even from you know, being an employee at IBM to coming to Anigo and having this great rise.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, thank you.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the introduction.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: That that was I appreciate that.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um no, I so I started, yeah, when I was at IBM, I actually joined uh in the 2008.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then it was in uh toward the end of 2009 where where every I think everybody went through the you know the great recession there.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And um the IBM did a round of layoffs.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't laid off.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was on the team of analysts at that time.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we were we were we started, it was growth initiatives.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was focusing on, you know, okay, can we uh can we go into this new line of business?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can we take on this new project?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: What's the ROI on it?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then it quickly pivoted to basically they were giving me employee numbers, no names, um, and and doing it, I was doing analyses on who we were gonna let go of, who was gonna get the golden parachute, whose parachute wasn't gonna be so golden.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it and it left like you know, quite the pit in my stomach.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um and yeah, and it was um I think it was the end of 2008.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was down for the holidays.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was chatting with my dad.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he was the founder of of Anigo.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: He founded it in '89.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't get involved until 2009.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: I had no desire to get into the family business.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he but I was down for the holidays, and he goes, You gotta check this thing out.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think I got the tiger by the tail.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was about six months later, um, and you know, maybe seven months later that I joined.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he goes, Congratulations, you've left your highfalutin finance job.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And your first job at Anago is you're going to be a telemarketer by day and a franchisees assistant at night cleaning and daycare.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: And this was you know, pre-diaper genie.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sweet, sweet.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Pre-diaper genie days, right?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you go and you're emptying, you know, a 55-gallon drum of uh dirty diapers, and you know, you gotta hold your breath and tie it off as fast as you can.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um like where's that thousand pen?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, oh yeah.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then then um so from from 2009 for a couple of years, I was actually in a training program uh where basically I worked through every role in every uh oh look look who snuck in, my daughter.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Hi say hi.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well daddy's working, I love you.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Go.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: I told them, I was like, you can't come in.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on I'm gonna be on a podcast.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, yeah.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I have my kids are six my kids are six, three, and one, so I get you know about as much listening as you would expect.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, you know what?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's the best thing about it's the best thing about being and about being our own boss and being an entrepreneur and having your own business.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's but that's part of life.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Today was a remote day.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: But uh so so no, so I worked through all the roles.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: I did sales, I did uh customer service, and this was all in the the regional office, the regional South Florida office.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know it was even at the franchise or until another year later.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then when I became uh work started working at the franchise or I worked through all the roles there.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think my original title was like franchise developer or something kind of generic like that.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it basically just meant I was traveling the country, meeting with all our franchisees, and you know, I'm probably late 20s at this point, so I, you know, I don't know anything.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm just you know, I learned what I learned, but at the same time, you know, I you know, I'm I'm traveling the country and I had to take very quickly take a kind of a servant leadership approach of you know, here's what I know, you know, but how can we help you?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how can we help you grow your business?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: How can we help you, you know, be more profitable, whatever it may be?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I feel like that's sort of the mentality that that I've maintained as we've, you know, as I've moved up the ladder and as we've grown.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so, so when when I was appointed uh president in 2015, the former president, he was retiring, and um he got me he gets me a business card holder and it says P-U-D-S O-B-I-C.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, what what is what does that even mean?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, it stands for poor uh poor unfortunate dumb sob in charge.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's like what a way to wish me luck, you know?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, that's that is so I so your rise to to taking this over, so so back up a little bit.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: So your your dad started your family started this business.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then when did you franchise?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: So um he started it in '89.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: The we were actually so I'll get into this in a second, but we're actually a little bit unique because when you say franchise, most people think of a two-tier franchise.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, Subway and then like the corporate office and the people who own the restaurants.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Ours is a three-tier model, so it's a little a little different, and it's pretty it's common in our industry, not common in franchising, I would say.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh different from like an area developer model for for those familiar with with franchising in general.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um but the so when when he so we founded it in '89, um, it was a conventional cleaning company.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't until 91 where they where it was just that office, it was one office, and they were selling the unit franchises and then selling the commercial cleaning to clients.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that was that was it for eight more years.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't until 1999 when the he, I guess he said, you know, I think we could do this.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think we could do this in other markets.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the first master franchise was sold, and so we opened uh Tampa, Florida.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, so now you know, fast forward, that's 1999.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: So what is it, 25 years of master franchising, and now we're at 48 master franchises across the US and Canada with 1800 unit franchises.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: And when you think about so the growth in there and the leadership you know, you you said you've got 50 employees where you are right now.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so a little bit about how you work with your employees from a leadership standpoint.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then also your because you're you're also your clients and your part of your team are your franchise people, you know, the master and the you know, unit.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like so how how do you work with those two?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Do you look at them as separate units?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, it's it's a lot to keep track of.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um step one, hire a really rock solid assistant because otherwise there's no but um yeah, no, I mean it is.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: It it's it's it's you have to look at um basically you're looking at everybody as your customer.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um yes, you have your your cleaning client that is the the final end customer.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: But if you think about how our model works, I'm I'm three layers away from the cleaning customer, right?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I the corporate office, we don't have any cleaning clients.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: We have the master franchise, they would manage uh a territory.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, maybe they they manage Vegas or Atlanta, uh it's but it's a greater metropolitan area, big territory.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's usually two, three, four, five million people in these territories.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then within that territory, the master franchise um sells unit franchisees.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: So these are folks looking to get into the cleaning business.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and the the they're they're simultaneously managing a sales team that's that's selling the commercial cleaning contracts, and then they kind of broker the two together.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: So um first, maybe let me just dissect the model a little second, then I'll circle back to your question.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: So kind of putting it in a simple way to think about the business model.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um when I say commercial cleaning, most people, most of your listeners are probably picturing, right, like the guy with the the mop in the bucket or a vacuum or emptying a garbage can or something like that.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's part of it.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, usually commercial cleaning is done at night.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: So when I say when when you think of when you picture commercial cleaning, you're actually thinking of what we would call our unit franchisee and their staff.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's they then they own a cleaning business, they hire a crew, they learn the chemicals, the equipment, keep the buildings clean.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the question is then how did they get those customers?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Who's invoicing those customers, who's doing all the marketing, who's doing the the you know the daytime job, right?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because all of a sudden cleaning becomes this very 24-7 industry.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so what our model does, it says, wait a minute, we could probably make this work by splitting the day and the night shift into two businesses.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So now you have your unit franchisee in you know your hypothetical Atlanta market.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and all he has to focus on is managing his team, keeping the buildings clean.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: The end.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: He has zero sales staff, zero accounting people, zero uh you know, folks that are customer service people, maybe he does some of the customer service himself or something like that, but very, very minimal.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then on the flip side, you have the master franchisee, and that's the daytime aspects of the industry, right?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So they're gonna have the usually that's like a mid-career executive, um, usually someone who's managed a team, a sales team, or a customer service team, and they're hiring the sales team.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're the ones with the website doing all the PPC and all the advertising and everything like that.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: They sit, they go out, sell the commercial cleaning contracts in the greater Atlanta area in that example.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then once they've sold it, they have unit franchisees that they've sold and say, okay, depending on where it's located, we're gonna broker it to this person or that person.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it creates this cool synergy because now that master franchise has zero cleaning people on staff.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like the white collar in the blue-collar industry while the franchisee has no sales people.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: So everyone's saving money by not having the you know the huge chunk of overhead for fully dedicated positions.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Master has no cleaning, unit has no sales, and it turned into kind of a into a win for everybody.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: So when you when you're when you talk about leading all of that, um it's a lot of, I mean, it really is.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's talking to very different audiences every single time.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um with with the master franchisees, right?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Again, these are these are business executives, these are my direct, there's almost like channel marketing, right?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's uh, you know, I I have to I have to make sure things are extremely vetted, extremely looked over, because if I pass it to them, it's it's only ultimately train the trainer because then they have to then train their unit franchisees and their staff on anything I show them.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we have to, we have to really, I mean, everything has to be extremely buttoned up to make sure your master franchisees are getting what they need.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then with the unit franchisee, right?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of these folks are coming into business, you know, for their first time ever.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's you know, I I think I want to say it's like uh 75% of our unit franchisees start with like a 30,000, you know, 20 to$30,000 level of business of cleaning revenue that they're looking for.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like a it's a side hustle.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really great side hustle, right?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's it's something you do after hours.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's usually it's you that's outside of typical business hours.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Most start as a side hustle.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, hey, I'm looking to make a couple extra bucks.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I heard about this whole cleaning franchise opportunity.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to make a, you know, buy a new car, a new house, uh, whatever, and I'm looking for a few bucks.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but at the same time, we just gave an award uh not that long ago to uh a lady and her team in the Philadelphia area.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: She's a unit franchisee.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Her business as a unit franchise is doing a million dollars, over a million dollars a year.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, it can start as a side hustle, but it also can scale to, you know, something pretty sizable um you know for the right person.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and so that part is really I I find that fascinating because somebody can start that as that side hustle, as you said, and then grow it.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: So they have this um it's an entrepreneurial aspect in that as that unit and creating that feeling of being an entrepreneur, you know, having that side business.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so where does she where can she go?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like, can she go?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Would you put her into something like could she potentially become a master?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: We've had, yeah, we've had several uh um let me think about this.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: The Orlando market were were former unit franchisees that became master franchisees.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um the the Cleveland market was they they were they they were outside of our our model, but they were they owned a cleaning business before they came to Anago and said, I want to become a master franchisee.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's very it's definitely possible.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um it is it really is like two different business uh strategies, though, right?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because someone um like as an example of I said Jacqueline, you know, you're a phenomenal cook, you should start a restaurant, and you go, Oh yeah, great, yeah.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and maybe you are, I don't know, maybe you make a really mean, you know, I don't know, chicken frotch, I don't, you know, whatever.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I can cook, but I would never want to open up a restaurant.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And and but so and exactly though, and the reason why is right, because being a good cook and managing a restaurant are like night and day.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's you know, you could you could be a phenomenal cook, but then it turns into okay, what do you know about like marketing, recruiting, turnover, spoilage, you know, inventory.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean it's very right, yeah.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's two sides of it.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: So there's the back end and then the front end.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: And those two, right?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: You could be a great cleaner, but do you do you want to run the business or would you rather be cleaning?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's not even being a cleaner, right?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know, uh, you know, you can get you can get your cleaning big business large enough where you're not personally cleaning either.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's are you a do you do you want to manage a team operationally, or are you someone who's better at maybe the sales and marketing side of things, which you know usually is two different, very, very different personalities when you're more customer service operational focused versus sales and marketing.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Very true, very true.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: So thinking about your your your your teams as you know, they're all there's different people that you have to um speak to.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: One thing that I think is always common in any company, whether you're at the top or no matter where you are, there is a level of values and a vision that you have as the head of this company.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: How do you share that with all these different layers in your company?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you you you talk a lot.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um the so so you know, I what I found is, and this is I I probably learned this the best during COVID.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when when all of that went down, we were, you know, the the world had no idea what was going on.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were all we were doing is we said, okay, we need to stay in front of everything we possibly can and share that with our with our franchisees.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think originally we were sharing it like we had twice-a week calls, we got we back down to once-a-week calls and then to every other week calls where the entire system was on, and it was here's what we know, here's where you can, you know, get PPP money, here's where you go to, you know, get your masks, here's where you go to get certain disinfectant chemicals that we need for our for our model.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, here's what's happening in the news.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just I mean, whatever.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Just communicate, communicate, communicate.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so coming out of COVID, we, you know, I think it was eye-opening, you know, because you go, okay, if we can communicate and and quite literally, like pivot our entire business model from a cleaning business of and of recurring things like schools and businesses that are now closed to now we're a disinfecting company.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we literally wrote and and and are one of the only certified disinfecting companies in the country now, uh, even though that means nothing, right?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're all back to being animals and not washing our hands and stuff, but about the time.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Although I would say if you're a certified disinfecting company, then you then that's like a huge like sales tool to call the cruise ships who end up with the neurovirus.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's definitely obviously there's certain I joke, right?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there's certain industries that, you know, at any time when you talk about uh schools with young kids, they're absolutely looking for it.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Any kind of medical hospital, doctor's offices, cruise ships, like you said, any of those things are still holding a much higher level of of need for disinfection than than pre-COVID.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it I mean, it was everybody.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was, you know, your your local pizza place was like, hey, we need to be disinfected.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: You're uh and so that we pivoted the business model, literally wrote wrote the book uh on how to do disinfect.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: And there's like, I mean, it's there's all these silly things like um when you're disinfecting, you know, when you if you wipe a surface, you know, you you can only wipe in one direction if you're disinfecting, otherwise you're just spreading the germs around.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's a certain amount of time a chemical has to stay on a surface.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that was sort of the one of the running jokes is that people that thought they were, you know, using Lysol wipes to disinfect their desk.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, no, you just have lemony fresh germs that never that you didn't actually kill on your desk.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I mean to so to pivot our entire model in a matter of months, uh, you know, it took it took constant.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: open communication over and over and over.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've we've kind of taken that and obviously it's not weekly calls anymore.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it's but but being out ahead of everything um you know regularly communicating our vision so we did right coming out of covet we we did we we were probably uh mid 60s maybe 66 68 million dollar in revenue brand um and i i put i sat with our leadership team and said i want to be a hundred million dollar brand and i want to do it in two years and we we put together like a five pronged plan um we we cast the vision out to the our master franchises and part of it was helping them we actually gave them like royalty rebates on uh when they were hiring some of their sales staff we did all that we did these really great partnerships with uh sales training organizations to really help push and grow and we able we were able to do it in 19 months um and so yeah and so so um stupid me you know i you know i don't know if it was the you know brains or or ego um but you know then then just a year ago at our conference i said and now i want to be a 300 million dollar brand and here's our vision and here's our plan and and so you know yeah we're the plan is triple revenue by by the end of 2028 um and it's and now it's beating the drum it's here here are the you know we've we've all sat together collaboratively to come up with what are the aspects of the plan and what we're going to implement what are we going to focus on um and when you have those it makes it very easy to say no to everything else um and and and then it's just laser focus on these are the areas that we're gonna be continually working on to to to grow revenue for the brand.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's I I love that.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: So talk to me a little bit about your leadership team that you entrust to help you grow.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah we have um it's and it's growing um I actually so so my leadership team prior to COVID was was relatively small.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think we had probably uh maybe five people now it's double that um partly partly I think we got we all got bit by the what was it in 20 I think it was 2021 where we all got bit by the what the great resignation where people were leaving our turnover was like nothing for years and it was it was a lot of the team um that you know had been there for 10 years 20 years I have a I have a lady who's retiring this year she's been with us 30 years.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it's you don't they don't make people like that anymore um but the the you know so up until then it was a small team and and we were I would say we were extremely reactive it was oh a franchisee you know that's kind of like the double edged sword of the servant leadership is oh what else do you need?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: What else do you need?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: What else do you need?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's waiting for them to to tell us what they need and then reacting rather than you know you know getting with everyone and then trying to create a proactive approach.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we get we get bit by this great resignation bug in 2021 a few people you know a few people left that were in key roles and um I go man I can't ever get get caught flat footed like that again.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I happen to be so I happen to be on the board at my church and I was talking to my pastor and they're growing extremely rapidly and I go now listen you know I'm cleaning toilets and you're saving souls so our missions are you know a little different but uh I go what I go you've hired all these people what have you done it it you know you've hired people and you're growing and and they're all been they've all been rock stars what did you do?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he told me there this book who W H O Who not World Health Organization um who by Jeff Smart um and stupid me I go great idea I put it on my Amazon wish list and then left it there and and finally I buy the book and and I'm going and I and I'm literally flipping through and like literally every page it was right when the phones came out with the thing where you could read text like the phone could could extract the text off a page and I'm flipping through this book and every page I'm like oh wow oh yeah oh yeah oh God this is great every page it gives you a complete guide on like how to build the job description how to interview what how to structure the interview what questions to ask what what you're really asking for sometimes when you're asking the question and it's and I and I literally took it and I made my own little cheat guide um and and I and I swear by it now.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I literally I require our staff when we're hiring now when they're hiring to use that guide um to to interview people because it it's a longer interview process but I feel like I feel like I'd rather spend the time up front to find the right person than bring somebody on just kind of based on you know a vibe or whatever that you get off the person and have it be a bad fit.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: So since reading that I've I've hired a chief strategy officer IT director chief operating officer uh vp of marketing uh we we hired the rest about four people of in market in the marketing department um and I'm hiring more IT people right now I mean um it and and so now I mean we have an executive team of uh it's about nine people and and I'm so I'm one of those anti-meeting people I I used to have like the weekly executive team meeting and then what I would find is that um you know usually usually I had chatted with those people throughout the week and knew everything they were working on and then half the stuff they were working on wasn't relevant to the other people on the team like maybe half of it was and half of it wasn't and so it just turned into this thing where we're sitting in a room for hour hour and a half going around the room of you know what's the updates and all that sort of stuff and and you're only really getting you know 10 minutes of value out of it as each member.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: So you're going like wait a minute this is a waste of time.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we so we do we're we're we're much more like cross-functional team structured so if if there's a you know a project in marketing that has to go on it's okay who does marketing need what constituent members of the executive board do they need to make this work make the you know get whatever they need so okay I need operations and finance and whomever great let's bring them all in together knock the meeting out and and get back to working on whatever we're working on.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's almost like a lot more um driven by what you're by development or project or um focus for the time.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: So you're getting together so people are working together versus oh just giving like oh here's your update like making it purposeful.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly exactly so now every meeting is if if if there's an the only update meeting so now I still do meetings with each each department and it depends on the position.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: My COO I meet with him every week um my my uh my marketing VP um marketing still reports up through me at this point I don't I don't have like a CMO so uh we meet twice a month um strategy it's a it's a monthly meeting and it's a lot you know it's a lot higher level conversation um and and so on.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just it depending on the role and then it then it ends up being you know more focused meetings with specific agendas and specific outcomes we're looking for.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you can kind of do we don't we're not technically doing um EOS the entrepreneur operating system we're not technically doing that but that's basically what we're doing where it's like are you on track we've set the plan are you on track are you off track if you're not on track how can I help you get back on track um and and you know I I'm it I'm I'm probably you know uh a micromanager by nature but this definitely deliberately forces me to step back allow the smart people in the room to do their thing and and then just you know ask my questions on a you know weekly biweekly or monthly basis.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know um I I love what you said about reading the book who and and that brings me to like think about you know one of the biggest things about leadership and and bringing the right people into a company is you know and I haven't read the book but it's but to me it's finding that achievement code and what are the values that you have and that you want your company to have and that people can bring that people can um you want to bring the people in to have those same not not literally the same cookie cutter but you the interview process does have to be longer and I love what you said where it's longer to interview them.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're asking different questions but you're bringing spending more time to bring in the right people than just it's not just a body because they have to be right it has to be the right fit.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I absolutely love that and I I'll share with you um and I I've probably shared this with people before so listeners I'm sorry to hear this again but I feel like I can't share it enough and that is having that having that question that you have as a company that really helps you know whether that person is the right fit is so tricky.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the one that I tend to like is what do you do with a cup right so right so I you come in to meet with me I offer you a glass of water or a cup of tea or something we go and get it and I give it to you the interview is over now what?
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: What do you do?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Do I leave right do I leave the cup on the table or do I say hey Adam thank you so much this is a great interview oh and where would you like me to put this cup or can you put me back to the conference room or the kitchen or whatever I got it from so I can put the cup back.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean if you're if you yeah if you're not asking I mean that's that's a culture question right there.
• 32:34
  unknown: Right.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's twofold for me a couple things.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: Number one is is a person comfortable asking a question.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, are they are they the person that's just going to leave paper around because I can't stand that me personally like I want people that are going to pitch in.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that person who's going to do ask what to do with the cup they're the kind that's gonna pitch in.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't anyway so I my my go-to question is how many golf balls fit in a 747 and and everyone's heard of that as one of those like Google you know used to ask that in the interview questions.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh okay so so apparently Google apparently Google used to ask these questions to the engineers as part of the interview process and they actually wanted a number um and and they would you know you'd just be on the spot trying to you know do some serious geometry right there.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: And what what I so I deliberately asked the question and then I say now here's what I'm after tell me what you your if your job was to fill the the 747 with golf balls how would you go you know I need to know what your logic is how what would you think about what would you ask if that was your job is to get that done.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh um and I like it because you know you you get some people that are just like well you know you know I would figure out the volume and do the math and and they just kind of leave it.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have people that are going like um do I okay am I flying this thing?
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Am I putting golf balls in the in the you know the pipe where the pilots sit?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Am I and I want to see because my job every day as a CEO is is I don't get I don't have you know oh every day we do X, Y, and Z.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Every day is new, every day is something different.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of the stuff forces me to think outside the box.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to see does someone stay kind of in the box and ask very basic questions or do they start thinking outside the box and going like well what about you know my I don't know is it is it a is it a commercial plane is or is it like a military hanger that it's me you know I I want people to just start getting getting you know get weird with your questions.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: I say there I literally I'm like there's no bad questions just go stream of consciousness um and I hope nobody interviewing for Anago is listening to this podcast right now.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: But I think but it that but it's it's true but it it's a great question.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean whether or not it I mean you could ask the question a thousand different ways like you know what you know you could say whether you're filling up a an airplane you could even use a um a boat kind of right like there's so many you know or is it a car?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: Is it you know how big of a car?
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: Is it a limo?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean like so many different ways you can think about that.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I I like that because it gets people it's a great question to get people to think even in general are they thinkers and are they thinkers and are they able to ask a question again I think those are all great things and I love how you have a question that that gets people thinking so that you can see how are they how will they be once they're here.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: Are they just are they wrote they're just gonna take they're just gonna be like okay this is how we push the button or are they gonna be like oh you know what maybe we should push it this way not this way right right I I just I've I've found that you know once you've I don't know the the I I feel like I feel like the people who um can can only like answer the question inside of you know I'm not gonna I I don't want to pick on someone and I but like I'm thinking like mentally like accounting okay accounting is a role where like you have to know the rules and and then you execute the rules and there are people who are who are very good at knowing and executing the rules and there are people that are not and you know we've all probably had known a good accountant and a bad accountant um but but that's extremely scientific whereas you know in someone in marketing in sales in in a senior leadership role it's a lot more art right and it's and it's there there what are the rules?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well we don't all know and they're sort of gray and fuzzy like okay you know don't you know there's well we know the laws you know and but then you know so don't kill somebody but like also get your job done right right you know what I mean so it's so it's how do you operate where the you know the all of a sudden the rules are a little bit more gray the the framework is fuzzier there's not just if A happens plus b then you get C.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's well you could add A, B, and a number seven and the number eight card from Uno that's green and and that's your answer.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's the best answer, great.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right now that's I like it's the outside the box thinking that I'm after.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah that's actually really I really like that.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we know that you want to get to 300 million by 2028.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: What are you what is your you know as a leader what is something that you want to improve and what are you working on as as a leader?
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um honestly I mean one of the big things I'm I'm continuing to work on is is backing away.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's the hardest thing to do when you're you know you're the one who's been in it uh you know as as literally as blood in the business um and and you know I'm I'm probably I've had people say you know I've never seen a CEO be as hands on as you and you go like thank you question mark um you know like I don't know if that's a compliment um but but it is it's learning you know it's learning your own limitations and saying okay I you know I've gotten to a point where this is you know this is as smart as I am individually and now I need sort of the hive mind of of the the senior leadership we have a franchise advisory committee um and bringing them in and saying okay you know again you know what where should we go where should we drive this here's what I see here's what I'm thinking I'm good at and how I can help but then again it's it's just bringing the bringing in people who are smarter smarter than you and then letting them work uh and getting the heck out of the way sometimes um that that's probably what I'm focusing on the most right now is is just is being CEO and getting out of their way.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: Getting out of the way well I absolutely love that absolutely love that so take note right that's a huge huge thing like getting out of people getting out of the way of the people that you bring on so I really I love that.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I have loved having you on as as a guest and great insight I mean seriously the the culture and working with different you know you said so many great things and it's like tea keeping your all the people that in your different areas they're all they all work together and they're all your customer which is really important and because it's how we treat people right we want to treat the people with with great with greatness and that's you do that with your customer.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really um great to hear.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: How can people get hold of you and connect with you?
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah um so everything is uh our our website is anagocleaning.com that's an a g o cleaning dot com where all our social media so you know Facebook Instagram uh linkedin twitter or x or whatever they call it now uh it's all it's all at it's all at anagocleaning yeah um and then I'm I'm very active on LinkedIn myself so if you just look up Adam Pavlitz uh and and shoot me a message I'll be sure to respond.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh fantastic so listeners please follow him connect with him go check out the company the system everything follow him follow him on all the socials um and I so appreciate you being a guest I am Jacqueline Strawinger the host of Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight and I thank everybody for listening and if you also have a great leadership story or a great leader and you'd like to be a guest please go to leaptoyoursuccess.com and click on podcast and apply to be a guest on our show so thank you so much I'm Jacqueline Strauminger and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight Influential Leaders and their game changing insights podcast.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: If you are a successful CEO entrepreneur or leader in your industry and you have insights you would like to share we want you to be a guest on this program.
• 41:24
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• 41:42
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• 41:55
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• 41:59
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• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: So please make sure you don't miss any episodes and go ahead and hit subscribe your thumbs up ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show and they mean so much to me and my team you want to know more about the podcast or about leapture success just go to the website leapture success.com or follow me Jacqueline Strominger on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram just plug in my name Jacqueline at J H C L Y N dot strominger at T-R-O-M-I-N-G-E-R and follow me on all the socials so thank you so much for listening and remember be on