Episode 79: Why Your Cleaning Business Matters

Episode 79: Why Your Cleaning Business Matters

Brandon Schoen:
Human beings just want to be part of something bigger than themselves. And that goes for your teams, your employees as well. And so when you can do that and you can share, Hey, this is where we're going, guys. And it's not just about making money, right? It's about showing people the potential, showing here's where we're going. Here's where you can grow into there's room to grow there's new positions we can hire you into, but people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. So this is that empowerment we're talking about, not just giving someone a job to do, but in our case, we're creating professional cleaners, the best cleaners that get to work for the best cleaning company on the planet and empowering them with something that seems so simple, but it's really giving them something to look forward to every day, to grow into, to be part of something bigger than themselves. So that's huge.

Brandon Condrey:
So one of the other things you're doing, that's been the same vein is you're creating a positive environment. So that's a positive environment for your employees, for you to exist In you're at the helm there.

Announcer:
Grow your cleaning business, make more money, have more time. This is the Profit Cleaners podcast with your host Brandon Condrey and Brandon Schoen.

Brandon Schoen:
Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Profit Cleaners. The only place where you can learn from the top 1% of cleaning business owners from around the world to take it to the next level and win welcome guys to the show today, I am Brandon Schoen, your host. I am joined by my cohost Brandon Condrey, Brandon Condrey and you got the Brandon's in the house. That's right. People. We are here again, and we're so excited to be just sharing value with you guys, sharing the journey of owning a business together, whether you want a cleaning business, a service business, or you're just getting started or happy to be here,

guys. And we're so grateful for you guys showing up because we all learn from each other and we all win together. The more we more we learn, the more you earn, I think that's a quote from Warren buffet, but I like that Definitely from Warren Buffett, not anybody else. Yep. So guys, today, before we get into the housekeeping,

which I'll let Brandon do that today because we are a housecleaning podcast after all, but we just wanted to share with you guys while we're going to talk about on today's show, which is going to be the power of one business and how I can make all the difference and why your cleaning business matters. I think a lot of times we get discouraged as entrepreneurs,

sometimes businesses, heart, it's a battlefield out there. And just wanted to encourage you guys today on today's episode and get you excited about keeping on keeping on and keep going. And it's a pep talk. Yeah, just some good reasons to keep going and get excited about continuing to win, continuing to get up and you just persevere and persist and get through growing your business day after day,

because there's a long-term vision here that we're all trying to achieve. And there's some greatness on the other side of that. So let's talk a little bit more about that, but Brandon let's tell people some housekeeping because I think we got some of that do real quick. Yeah. So as always leave a review for the podcast. If you haven't done that yet,

Maybe you're a new listener. Maybe you found us last week and you're super excited about it. And you keep getting value out of these episodes. You've gone back and listened to all of our old ones, leave a review, share it to someone that you think might benefit from it. They didn't have to be a cleaning company owner. We talk about a lot of mindset,

things for business owners in general, and then subscribe. Obviously that's the way you get informed. We try to put these out every week and by and large, we're pretty good at that. But every now and then we miss one, but we try. So Keep it up. Yes, absolutely. So yeah, just like we're providing value actually just recently this week,

Brandon, you shared a really cool email that came in. I mean, you guys are emailing us all the time, sharing your stories, sharing like how this show is helping you. And it's like super impactful. It's really cool to hear how you're growing and how just this knowledge and information. This is just banter sometimes between Brandon and I feeling like this is what was happening in our business because we're just growing our business alongside with you guys.

But it is really cool to hear that we're actually helping you guys and helping change your life. Hopefully, hopefully giving you new inspiration again, as Brandon said, if we've shared in any value, anything that's helped you in your life made you laugh, made you cry and made you get better in any way. Please help us out, share the show,

leave a review, all that good stuff, pay it forward. But yeah, so let's get back into the show. So I think this came up recently, I was watching a show with my wife on HGTV and just sparked this idea of the power of one business and how one business in your community. You might be that one business, even in your town,

but think for a sec how one business can make all the difference. And so sometimes as entrepreneurs, I know, I feel like there's sometimes too, you're just like ask yourself, is it really worth it? Am I actually doing anything of value? Am I actually serving people? I'm actually a leader. And I just want to encourage you guys. If you are in business,

if you are starting a business, if you were any of the above, I needed to below whatever it is, you are making a difference and just step back for a second and realize the amazing impact that you're creating in your communities, people around you and your families that are counting on you. You definitely have a huge responsibility and what's the quote we should share with them.

Brandon, from Spider-Man With great power comes great responsibility. That's right. So you guys have an amazing amount of responsibility and this power that comes with owning a business. I mean, we've spoken about it in that book, relentless, but like as cleaners, you have the keys to all these houses, to all these buildings. And it's a great powerful position,

but it comes with a lot of responsibility and truly people are trusting you to come in their houses. If you're doing residential cleaning, they're trusting you with their whole livelihood, their house, their family, everything. So you can give them their time back. You can give them this great gift. So I think that's really cool, but we just had a list of some really cool things.

We maybe we could read off Brandon, just of what are some things that we're doing to positively impact as owners of businesses, as entrepreneurs, as leaders, building generational wealth like real wealth, what are some examples of some additional impact or value we're creating here? Sure. So you, you, the business owner, you're the one listening to this. You're providing great jobs that supports families and empowers people.

So that's empowering your family and supporting your family, but it's also your employees you're supporting and empowering them by paying a living wage. And you just being a good business owner in general, which is hard to do. There's a lot of super shitty businesses and we hear stories about it all the time. So that's a big part of it is that you are not that person,

you are much better as an entrepreneur than owning a drive-thru taco place or something. Yeah. And not just you're providing jobs, but you guys are providing good jobs. I mean, we're changing people's lives and a lot of ways that you don't always, it's not always tangible to see that or understand that, but it truly is. It's not just your life or your family's life,

but these people that you and your company that are working with you, you're changing their lives too. And they're able to now have a more sustainable jobs, something they can look forward to something that empowers them and gives back to their family. So there's so many kind of trickle down benefits of providing jobs like that. And it's Yeah, It's super, So it's been fun.

We're approaching our fifth anniversary, right. Of running Sandia Green Clean. And over the five years, we've seen a bunch of changes with our employees. People have bought houses, they have divorced abusive spouses. That's happened a couple of times and you see a lot of better cars coming to work in the morning. And all of those things are what you are empowering them to be able to do.

So if you're brand new and you're not seeing those changes just yet, some of those things take time. So keep your eye on the ball. Yeah. And on that note, getting ready to share more in detail with our teams here in coming up in April, just more of the vision of our company. We talked a little bit more about that in our last podcast,

from our big annual meeting. But really when you guys are able to share that vision, like human beings just want to be part of something bigger than themselves. And that goes for your teams, your employees as well. And so when you can do that and you can share, Hey, this is where we're going guys. And it's not just about making money,

right? It's about showing people the potential and showing here's where we're going. Here's where you can grow into there's room to grow. There's going to be positions. We can hire you into, but people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. So this is that empowerment we're talking about, not just giving someone a job to do, but in our case,

we're creating professional cleaners, the best cleaners that get to work for the best cleaning company on the planet and empowering them with something that seems so simple, but it's really giving them something to look forward to every day, to grow into, to be part of something bigger than themselves. So that's huge. And that's a huge one. So one of the other things you're doing,

that's been the same vein is you're creating a positive environment. So that's a positive environment for your employees, for you to exist in you're at the helm there. So one of my big things, this is so small, but one of my big things is I hate fluorescent lighting. I hate fluorescent lighting so bad. It makes me feel like working in a call center or something it's just terrible.

So one of the things we did early on was just swap out all the lighting for something a little bit more warm and yellow, old incandescent style lighting. That that's what we enjoy. But there's a lot more to that. Like our EOS consultant that we deal with for our meetings. He said, this thing that stuck with me, which was people don't quit jobs.

They quit managers. So you're creating this positive environment. You're empowering. You are the, when you first start, but when you hire some managers, when you elevate people to do that, it's up to them to how are they going to interact with those people? And I remember when we started getting team leads, we used to have meetings with the team leaders and somebody was complaining that this was a really hard job.

And they were thinking about quitting and someone else chimed in like, are you even saying, this company is great. It was like, no, one's yelling at you. No, one's not paying you overtime. Like these are things that happen a lot in the service industry. And just by creating that positive environment, that'll pay dividends over time. It's a hard thing to quantify,

but it does work. Yeah. I remember too, from the beginning, like Corby, our mentor in Denver, just talking about creating this. It was, it's like almost like a sanctuary. When the employees come to the office, they forget everything going on at their home and their home life. Any distractions, any challenges, and they're there to work,

but they're having fun. It's a positive place to be. They're learning, they're growing, they're contributing and being part of that team CEOs Think differently as a small business owner, you have to stop thinking like one, We're launching the Profit Cleaners book club to help transform the mindsets of cleaning business owners everywhere. Together. We'll read some of the most important business and mindset books so that you can become the leader.

Your business needs learn more about the Profit Cleaners book club today, by going to Profit Cleaners dot com slash book club, that's Profit Cleaners dot com slash book. And going back to what you said, Brandon, there's a book we're going through in this month's book club for extreme ownership, but there are no bad teams, only bad leaders. So like you said,

people don't quit. They quit the managers, but it's because maybe there's bad leadership in the company. But that's part of what you're creating is you're serving your teams. You're serving your employees or customers. That's what a leader does. And they create that positive impact, that positive environment. And that's going on to the next one, which is creating that impact.

This is going all the way back. If you guys go back and listen to our very, very first few podcasts, I think it was episode three. We talked about impact over income. And like, what are you doing to be not just transactional in your business, but actually go above and beyond and go deeper to be contributing and like pouring back into your community,

whether that's a give back. Cause we're we do cancer cleans and things like that. But just like that impact alone has been monumental in our business and not just getting more of the same like-minded customers that love to have their money go further. But you're also, again, making a huge impact, helping people, serving people at the next level, which is,

I think what business is all about. So yeah, that's really huge. What else can we tell them? Brandon Providing a solution to a problem that sounds so simple, but it's nice to be able to solve someone's problem. They call you up and say, Hey, I've got an issue with XYZ. Can you help me? Yep. I can.

Here's how I do it. Here's how about I help you? It's going to blow you away. That's a good feeling in the end of the day. And I think the way that you see that the most upfront way you see that is in the reviews. You see five star reviews about how your company helped them do X, Y, Z. I remember we got a review about how this woman had a two-year-old toddler who fell into a heating grate at their house and broke a leg.

And they had hired us to pick up the slack while they were dealing with a two-year-old and a cast, which sounds miserable. And it was great. They left us an awesome review that we really helped their family out during this hard time. So much so that when the cast was removed, they kept us. That was the whole point. They liked us so much.

We got it. We solved the problem. And then they kept going. So that's a good thing to do. It's a feel good. Absolutely. And like really that's like the core of being an entrepreneur is you're solving problems, guys. Like you're filling holes and creating a solution to somebody's problem, which is so simple, but it is so revolutionary at the same time,

because who else is going to do it? Entrepreneurs changing the world because we're solving problems. We're creating experiences. We're making people feel a certain way. And the last one is helping people get back their time, which we talked about that all the time. That's our tagline claim your weekend. But people say it to us all the time too. It's like you're giving back people their time.

That is so invaluable because that's the only thing you can never get back is your time. You can always make more money, but you cannot get your time back. So if you're actually giving that to somebody, through a service through whatever your product is, which is the cleaning, they don't have to do that. Now they can spend that time with their family.

They can be present, they can be happy and more grateful what the time they do have. So when you just think about that, I mean, that's so huge right there. That's just amazing, amazing gift that you're giving your community, the people around you. And I know just from experience when we've ever had our house cleaned, even before we started the cleaning business,

that was always just such a cool thing to have growing up. And even before we started the cleaning business, just to have that time with our kids, not to be spending time, scrubbing the floors on a Saturday, all of that stuff. So anyways, good stuff. Time should be viewed as a resource. It's a finite resource that you cannot make more of.

So you can always make more money. That's a hard quote for some people, especially if you're, if you're early on in the business, let's just money. You can always make more of it, but you can never get back more time, time travel doesn't exist, but you can always come up with an idea for something else, monetarily. So yeah,

that time is huge. And it's been fun as an entrepreneur because now we're getting time back to not having to put 80 hours a week into a business or something like, for instance, I'm going skiing on Monday. I'm super excited about that. I haven't done that in a while. So that type of stuff is time for you and time for your customers.

That's why they'll keep coming back. Absolutely. So anyways guys, those are some real world examples. I wanted to give you guys some other examples as well, starting out with a quote from a book, my wife has actually been reading this pretty interesting. You might think it's interesting Brandon, since you're more of the science guy, but it's from a doctor Dr.

Daniel, I don't know how to say his last name coun, but it's called the spark in the machine. And I thought just this little paragraph was cool because it all about this. Like how one little thing can make all the difference. So I thought this was fascinating. I don't know how true it is, but it talking about a butterfly creating this huge impact.

So the reason a butterfly's wings wing beating in Japan can create a hurricane in Havana is because of this feedback. A tiny vortex at the beginning is exponentially amplified in the system until it creates a radically more powerful yet almost identical, the chaotic movement of air around a butterfly's wing as a hurricane in miniature, that conditions have to be perfect for hurricane to occur,

but even so it was the butterfly's wing beating that made the difference. Somehow this little butterfly has wings really think is so small is creating in miniature, but also maybe in the bigger scope of things, an actual hurricane, which I was like, that's crazy. I don't know to what extent this is scientific and all that. But if you could start thinking about things that way,

guys like the smallest things can have the hugest impact. The flapping of a butterfly's wings could create a hurricane, the small things that you do in your business every day that create impact in your people's lives and your community's lives. Those are the things that create monumental shifts in your neighborhoods and your communities on and off after that. So I thought that was really cool That what you're talking about there,

it's called the butterfly effect. It is called the scientific theorem that there's real science behind that it was a mathematician who came up with that quite a ways back, Google that guys, if you want a little bit of information, but it was made famous by that Ashton Kutcher movie of 1999 or whatever also called the butterfly effect. But yes, I do think that concept is very cool that small outsized contributions can have big outcomes at the end.

And we talked about that a couple of different ways in mindset episodes, where we saying like, well, if you're just 1% better last week than you were this week, it ends up being 3700% over the course of a year or something like that. So those little things do the reps. That's what we always say, like do the reps and that's part of the butterfly effect like that little flopping of your wings coming to work every day,

that'll create some big hurricane for you down the road. Yeah, absolutely. And so just some other examples. I think I mentioned the beginning of the episode, my wife and I had been watching HGTV, this show called hometown, which replaced fixer upper, the chip and Joanna Gaines show. It's very similar. They pick these houses and they go fix them up.

But they said something on the show that really I found was fascinating as well. They said, we literally started in this little town in Laurel, Mississippi, this rundown town at the time, it wasn't really going anywhere. And they started fixing up one house, just one house. And as soon as this house was done, they noticed all of a sudden people were taking notice and it was small town,

of course, but people started talking and then lo and behold another house and somebody else in the neighborhood started fixing up a house on that same street. And it wasn't even them, but it was like this ripple effect, like the butterfly effect. And years later now they said like, literally like neighborhoods have been completely revamped. There's businesses that have come in that would have never come in before.

And the business is booming. Neighborhoods are booming again, and people are moving in everywhere and it's just crazy. So I think that's a really cool example of just how one little thing, like even you in your little town, wherever you're at. And you might think that maybe what you're doing is inconsequential. It's not important or you're just a small little business,

but it makes a difference. The good things that you do, the things that you picking up someone's house, even making it look better, it can go a long way and it could change someone's life. It could change a whole community. Just that right there. Yeah. I'm going to do the graffiti example. Cause I got that. So this is the one where when you clean up graffiti right away,

it leads to less vandalism. So this was really shown in the 1980s in New York, it was called broken windows policing where you really aggressively go after little, teeny, tiny crimes like broken windows, like, like in 1980s in New York, everything's covered in graffiti. There's like a Michael Jackson video that happens in a subway in New York. And around that time everything's dirty and gross.

But if you really get aggressive with broken windows and graffiti and you prosecute those crimes, that it leads to less of those crimes. So that I do think is important. And so that's the same thing. So like, you may look at a big project, it's this huge thing this whole entire neighborhoods covered in graffiti. How are we going to do it?

Well, clean it all up. And then the next time someone puts something on the wall, go get it really fast. Then people will be less inclined to do it. If their artwork's not going to be seen as much or whatever you want to refer to graffiti as you know what I mean? Yeah. I know that example I've heard. I don't know if it's in that book,

the tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell. I think there's something in there similar that he talks about. Same thing with neighborhoods. If you notice just like we talked about a neighborhood going the upward direction and getting better and improving, it's also the other way. Like if someone starts like not mowing their lawn and like leaving a crap out on their yard, other people might start doing it doing,

it could bring the whole neighborhood down. There's this tipping point when enough good things start happening. That it tips everyone in the right direction. Everyone starts wanting to be better and in this, but it starts with you you're the leader. So it lead that cause in your community, wherever that is. And then one other one I wanted to mention was there's this little grocery store I'm here in Fort worth right now.

And it's called the Roy Pope grocery. And I was talking to some people in the neighborhood and it's been there since like 1950s. Okay. So this neighborhood around it is actually really up and coming. I would say it's a really nice neighborhood, but people that have lived there for years told me, oh man, you should have seen this grocery store 10 years ago.

It was a total dump. It was really dark and dingy. Nobody wanted to go in there and this whole neighborhood felt run down. So as soon as this grocery store, you should see it. Now. It's really nice. Brandon. You've seen it. It's Been there. It's Really cool. Yeah, it is really cool. And they've got like a really cool outdoor patio that we sat on and then totally made this like old brick building that would have just been junkie,

like some dark grocery store. Now it's like this modern, vibrant, clean. Yeah. There's a restaurant in it. There's a coffee bar in it. You can get sandwiches. There's a really cool artismal wine and beer part of it. They carry local stuff. It's really cool. I liked it a lot. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so people that have lived there told me,

man, when this grocery store came in, it changed the entire neighborhood. Everything got better. Like houses started looking nicer. More people started coming out and like going to it and eating out on the patio. And it just like changed the whole vibe of everything. So that's another example, guys of just one business, one little place in a neighborhood that changed the entire neighborhood.

Brandon, you have another example in Denver, right? Yeah. When we lived in Denver, we lived in this neighborhood called south park hill and it was very nice, but we were on the edge of the niceness where it starts to become not so nice and literally a block behind our house. There was this little strip mall called Oneida park. And when we moved in,

it had a sushi place that had been there forever. A really shady looking liquor store with like people hanging out on the front porch, string and stuff out of paper bags, type of place like a rundown mechanics place, everything just looked run down. And then this one restaurant opened up called tables and it tried to be almost dining in this like strip mall,

which was totally counterintuitive, but they started it. And then all those other little businesses around it changed to be nicer. The liquor store moved to a different thing around the corner and upgraded and got super fancy and got security and started kicking people out. And then there were five restaurants, all of a sudden than, than this from scratch really cool ice cream place opened up.

And I didn't get to see this cause we had moved down here to Albuquerque. But when I was there recently, I drove through it and I was blown away by what this place looked like now. And then suddenly I was jealous that I sold my house cause I could have been walking over there every night. Cause it was right there. But that is the example that one business can really shift the tide.

One change in a neighborhood can shift the tide and you guys, the entrepreneurs running our businesses. You can be the change that you want to see in the world. That's the Gandhi quote, but you can be that. So run the business that you want to run, where you pay people. Well, and you're not the manager that shouts at people and that will flow through the employees,

to the customers. They'll feel better when they're doing the work. They're not so stressed out and they'll communicate that to the customers. And then all of that just gets fed back up to you through this loop and it just starts getting better. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You guys, so that's it for the episode today, guys, we just want to encourage you guys and let you know that what you're doing matters,

your cleaning business matters, your business matters and it is making an impact in the world. And the smallest little flaps of the wings of your business will create ripple impacts and hurricanes across your communities. So yeah. I want to leave you guys with that today and just encourage you guys to keep on going, keep on, keeping on and making a difference in your world and your communities and your families.

You guys are doing great. And yeah, I think that's pretty much it. So anything else you want to leave him with? Brandon? Keep it clean. Keep it clean. Thanks for joining us today. To get more info, including show notes, updates, trainings, and super cool free stuff. Head over to Profit Cleaners dot com and remember keep it clean.

Announcer:
Thanks for joining us today. To get more info, including show notes, updates, trainings, and super cool free stuff. Head over to Profitcleaners.com and remember keep it clean.