My Greatest Ideas have Never Come from Being Busy

I have been a huge fan of the Tim Ferriss Show lately because I love the long-from interviews with world-class performers as Tim dissects how they accomplished what they've accomplished. I LOVED a recent interview with Kelly Slater. If you've never heard of Kelly Slater, he's an 11-time world surfing champion and highly regarded as the GOAT in the sport. I listened to Kelly's interview and was mesmerized by his mindset, attention to detail in his craft and his health, and most importantly, the simplicity of life he lives. I have two life lessons to share from Kelly that really impacted mine.

Tim was asking about Kelly's goals. Kelly response was awesome. He shared how nice it is to be in a position where he can mentor the young guys in the sport as he loves the sport and wants to be an ambassador. He stressed how vital it is for him to "always stay humble because when you're humble, you're teachable. When you're teachable, you can continue growing." He said the best way to learn is by teaching. Kelly went on to say. "If you think you know something, go teach it. That's when you will really know it." There is SO much wisdom in Kelly's words that I want to repeat it. Are you humble? Are you teachable? Are you learning and growing? Are you taking what you know and teaching it to others? This is the process of becoming the best in the world. I am not the best at this, but I am doing my best to teach you all what I know through this learning vehicle called a podcast. I find it amazing that I am constantly learning more by teaching it to you!

In a latter question, Tim Ferriss asked Kelly about money and houses. Kelly stated that he is the middle child, but was forced to become the family leader because other members of his family had emotional and other issues. Kelly has made gobs of money over the years. Wikipedia reports his career surfing earnings over $4M! He shared his love for traveling and the many homes he's purchased in multiple countries over the years. Tim asked Kelly what his happy ending looks like. I love Kelly's answer as it reminds me of the "Mexican Fisherman". I'll paraphrase. The happy ending comes when all the lessons are learned. Kelly has done it all, spent a lot of money, but it never lead to happiness. He joked that what he'd love to do is simply buy a simple van and travel around to his surfing events in it, keeping a simple life of competitive surfing and helping others in his sport. He has learned so much in his 49 years and wants to stay humble, stay teachable, stay learning, and stay teaching. Over a lifetime, he'll collect a book of lessons and that's how he defined a "happy ending". This is beautiful.

This episode is a self-check. Are you humble, teachable, learning, and teaching others? If you are not, these podcasts are a waste of your time. If you are not, you'll never grow your cleaning business beyond where it is now. Sure, it may grow short-term, but it will crumble in the long-term. I urge you to ask those that know you best if they think you're humble and teachable. This is the 2nd window from "The Four Windows". Once you know and get honest with yourself, make the decision to get better. Go and learn the lessons you need to learn to lead toward your happy ending. Then teach it to others and be a difference maker.

Would you like to figure out what makes you tick and how to create an action plan for 2021 that will enable you to WIN?! Check out the "2021 Smart Goals Workshop" and access your free goals worksheet. 

 This episode wraps up our 4-part coaching series to teach you what it means to be truly coachable. This episode is a clip from a recent Solo Elite Membership Call addressing the 4 characteristics that determine how coachable YOU are. I hope you listen and learn. Then I hope you evaluate your own level of coachability.

What was the result? Are you truly coachable or not? If you answered yes and you want to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures  without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Get access to this game-changing training for only $97 per month or $997 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, live Q&A community calls, access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and more! You can also sample the membership with the "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

This is a great follow up to "The Value of Coaching with Josh Melton". Josh has been coaching me through Marco Polo in 2023. I ask him questions and he responds. I am very coachable, so the content of my questions evolves over time from basic how-to questions to leadership and how my coach thinks questions. My goal is understand the Mind of Josh. How would Josh handle this situation? I have learned and grown as a student because I apply and take action on what Josh teaches me. I take notes on how the situation went and what I could have done better. The business improves. Do you see what I've done. I never have to ask Josh the same question twice.

 Here is the value of the coaching. Josh has the experience that I don't. He has the revenue and the team that I don't. He has the leadership that I don't. What do I have? I have the humility to submit, to be teachable and coachable, to take action on the advice from my coach. I learn from the coaching and action that I take. I take ownership and therefore grow to the next level of leadership, coachability, teachability, accountability. I grow and get closer to winning. My mindset takes a step closer to my coach's. Meanwhile, my coach continues to grow so he always has plenty to teach.

This is music to any coach's ears. We all want our students and mentees to succeed. Here's the problem. Many of you are UN-teachable. You are UN-coachable. You won't take action or you won't take right action with the right resistance as Josh would say. You make the same mistakes over and over again. We try harder to help you get it and in the process, we get frustrated and give up. Do you know why? We want success for you more than you want it for yourself. "That's not true, Ken!" I do want to succeed. Answer me this. How many books have you read on leadership, business development, or people skills? How active and involved are you in your community through business networking, chamber events, and community service? How helpful are you and how good is your name in your community? How many social media posts, phone calls, and emails have you made to attract your ideal customer? How well do you know your numbers? How many times have you asked the same question on how to clean this or how to price that in a Facebook group? How much time do you spend growing and learning from a coach or mentor? How much action do you take and how fast do you take it? How eager are you to Go for No to get to Yes's faster?

Do you see the level of ownership it takes to truly be coachable and teachable? How would you grade yourself? I will be transparent. I would grade myself at a 7 for the majority of my entrepreneurial journey. There is one reason it was this low. I was too slow to take action. I spent too much time overthinking. I thought that I was learning how my coach thought, but how could I? I wasn't taking much action and action is the only way to acquire the knowledge. Napoleon Hill calls it Applied Knowledge. This allows you to get feedback from what you applied, which yields new questions.  I grade myself much higher now. I 'm a 9. That's why we've grown so fast and I never ask Josh the same questions twice. That's why my questions have moved from HOWs to leadership questions. This is what it takes to truly be coachable.

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My wife and I were enjoying breakfast at Postively 4th Street Cafe in Ocean City, NJ. We love this place and especially the lattes. Oh my, they are good! During our connecting time, we were searching for ways to improve our business and effectiveness as parents. I asked the question. "How can we become 10 Talent People in each area of our life?" This is a reference to a story that Jesus teaches in the Book of Matthew. I'll read it. 

Matthew 25:14-30 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’  He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’  Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

We are Christians, so this has significant meaning to us. When I asked the question to my wife, "How do we become 10 Talent People", it was our desire to be the 5 talent servant who invests his five to make 10. We want to make 10 talents in every area of our life. From this question, multiple breakthroughs occurred. I'd like to share one of them with you as I believe it will help you a ton. In the Four Windows episode, I painted the image of a window with cross lattices that makes 4 individual panes of glass in each window. Each of the 4 panes represents something in our life.

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This original interview was released in April 2022 right after our family got home from our first month-long trip to the Gulf Coast of Florida. I hired Josh to be my coach to take me from a solo optimizer to a commercial cleaner with a team that would allow me to go to Florida for a month. He did and we went! The reason we succeeded is my coachability. In fact, the reason anyone succeeds to higher levels is determined by the value they place on coaching and how coachable they are.

 This episode kicks off a 4-part series to help you transform into a truly coachable person. This will elevate your business to the levels that create the freedom that you want.
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1.      Coaching Series I The Value of Coaching – Josh and Ken dig into Ken's business transformation from a solo optimizer to a delegated team that enabled Ken's family to go to Florida for a month. We talk about coaches and advice and how we value them. This is a great kick off to this series.

2.      Coaching Series II We All Need a Coach – Ken covers the 4 windows of knowledge and proves that everyone NEEDS a coach. The question is this. Will you be coachable and acquire one?

3.      Coaching Series III Are You Truly Coachable – So you want to be coached to the next level, do ya? You believe in the value of coaching and you want it. Ken has one question for you...

4.      Coaching Series IV 4 Characteristics of Coachability – This final part is a clip from a Solo Elite Membership Call where Ken and Whitney dive into the 4 main ingredients needed to be successful.

Once you complete this series, there will be no doubt that you face a choice. Are you going to hire a coach and do what they teach or not? If you choose to be coachable, check this out! You can optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures  without the drama of employees! You can also earn full time income part time without employees. Get access to this game-changing training for only $97 per month or $997 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, live Q&A community calls, access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and more! You can also sample the membership with the "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com. 

 In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, we talked about one of the biggest struggles in the cleaning industry. This struggle is especially challenging for newbies. And it's not just pricing and how to price. This clip from the Solo Elite walks you through how to remove the emotion around the pricing you give. Wouldn't that be an awesome skill to learn? It will take a few vital other skills.

 1.      You MUST be willing to track your cleaning times and analyze them. This allows you to properly estimate ALL future jobs accurately. You can develop a quoting algorithm that allows proper pricing to be predictable. Say that 5 times fast!

2.      You MUST know your numbers from your business profit and loss. This allows you to evaluate how much you should be charging per hour or how much profit margin you need to create in your pricing. In other words, you need to know what it costs you to clean 1 hour. Once you know this, you can add profit and charge what you need to.

3.      Simply OFFER your prices. Offer this and other price options to cover the various possibilities for the customer to hire you. Hit send.

This process gives you an actual pricing process that you know is fair and reasonable. You don't have to wonder if you've priced too high or low. You will know that it is just right and in their hands to say yes or no. Either way, there is no emotion. You offer your "Blueberry Pie" and "Go for No". Make sure to check out those classic Smart Cleaning School episodes.

Once you learn how to track, price, and offer, you too will take the emotion out of pricing. Would you like to access membership calls and content like this one? You can optimize your solo cleaning business to make six figures without the drama of employees You can also earn full time income through part time cleaning! Get access to this game-changing training for only $97 per month or $997 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com. 

 In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, we talked about finding your ideal customer and niching. Unfortunately, most new cleaners will take anyone and anywhere. This is not ideal because you allow others to dictate the terms of your business. You need to set your own terms to be a real business. One of those terms is WHO will you serve and WHY?

 I use the analogy of fishing to parallel how to find our ideal customers.
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1.      What type of fish do you want? This comes with experience as you learn the types of customers you prefer to serve. It could be determined by their demographics like their income level, their location or neighborhood, or their age. It could also be determined by their psychographics, like their attitude on money with spending verses investing. You can identify to types of customers that are the least amount of drama as well. Over time, you will identify your ideal client.

2.      Where does this fish swim? You need to do the research and find out where your ideal customers hang out, whether that's in person at meet-ups or online on social media groups or even in local organizations and clubs. This will tell you a lot about your fish.

3.      How do you lure your fish? Be a giver and give what helps your fish. Consistently show up in this pond and be known as a generous person. Attract your ideal customer with the types of lure (information) that will speak to them.

Once you find your ideal customer and create the demand that they MUST have you as their cleaner, they will pay your prices. This is a huge secret of the ISO Model and the coaching you receive in the Solo Elite Membership. Would you like to access membership calls and content like this one? You can optimize your solo cleaning business to earn full time income through part time cleaning without the drama of employees! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com. 

 Much time is needed in this podcast episode to clear the names of several members of Total Life Freedom Philly. Before I share the final installment of 'Who Paid for Lunch Clue', I must share a few things that happened in my cleaning business since my last update. It will be short. Trust me! First of all, I was asked to lead an education piece for my local MCBA networking group. I taught on the "They Ask You Answer" process. I have LOVED this book and implemented it into both of my websites for Carfagno Cleaning and Smart Cleaning School. The group enjoyed the discussion as it gave them much to think about. I had a one-time cleaning job booked at a historic barn & wedding venue. When we got there, the plumber was replacing some parts and had the water turned off to the entire barn. The plumber was willing to give us an hour to "do our thing" with water, but I had to decline as we needed at least 5 hours of water. Ultimately, I rescheduled the job and wasted 2+ hours of my day and potentially $750 of other work I could have scheduled. Here's what I found out. The plumber was due to work on Monday at the barn, but got held up at had to postpone to Tuesday. I was scheduled for all day Tuesday. The plumber lets the barn know late on Monday that he can't make it and he'll come over in the morning. This is find in his isolated world, but in the greater picture, Tuesday was already booked. This plumber should have called the barn and worked out a suitable reschedule date like I did. He didn't and unfortunately, it only cost me not him. If this makes you angry, don't let it. It's my fault. I should have called to confirm the barn Monday night or Tuesday morning to make sure I'd have water. Things happen. I just wish that this plumber was more professional. ​

  Okay, the time is here. I love my mastermind community, Total Life Freedom. There are 100 members all over the US and some out of country. Last fall as the restaurants were beginning to open, TLF Philly decided to get together for the first lunch. At the end of lunch, our beloved pastor paid for the table. It was an act of generosity that I so appreciated. I have struggled with accepting gifts, so I declared that I'd pay for the next TLF Philly lunch and made a podcast episode about it called,"Allow a Giver to Give." I had no intention of this free lunch to turn into anything. But that all changed when we met for the second lunch (Don't Fight Google or Facebook, Fight for Lunch). A few of us had the idea to try to pay, but a "Benevolent Benefactor" beat us to it. In my haste, I filed the case with Carfagno & Carfagno, a private investigatory firm in the Philly Area, one of the nation's finest. Our goal at Carfagno & Carfagno was to crack the case of 'Who Paid for Lunch Clue' on January 13th, 2021.


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 My Total Life Freedom local friends and local networking friend Eric Laylon intersect for a second episode. In "Don't Fight Google or Facebook, Fight for Lunch", my friend Eric Laylon from ReachLocal shared great marketing tips and stats on the digital giants. I followed this with a story of who paid for lunch. In this episode, I am copying the format! 

 Last week in my local MCBA meeting, Eric ran the business education segment and taught on the benefits of using Alignable for marketing. I've personally avoided it, but Eric gives some great points and tips that may have persuaded me to look into it more. Thus, I wanted to share it with you. LinkedIn is a business platform for business owners and professionals (employees). Alignable is for small business owners locally (not nationally like LinkedIn). The platform is already niched to local and small business owners, which makes it a natural marketing companion to in-person local networking. Alignable has niche groups that you can join of "like interest". Eric says he has gotten so much more business through Alignable vs LinkedIn because of the platform's ability to hyper-niche. Eric explained that you can set up your profile with "who you'd like to connect with". Then, Alignable takes your preferences and puts you in front of those people. Eric uses the premium $30/mo version because the free version limits you to the # of people you can connect with. I thought Eric did a great job presenting Alignable and it really intrigued me. What do you think? Do you use this platform? I'd love to hear about it if you do.

​A few leads came in this week. The first one was military-like. My friend James Hardy of the Carpet Guys was in an online group and saw a request for a house cleaner. He was in the process of typing in my name and website when something else caught his attention. The owner of a local cafe gave my name first. He recommended me and then texted me. "Ken, do you clean for the cafe?" I said no, but I do clean the owner's home. Then he told me about the recommendation to Steven Hunsberger. I thanked him and shared that Steven is the president of my chamber and we're friends. Then I contacted Steven and he felt so embarrassed that his friend Ken and the only cleaner of 400 members in his chamber didn't come to mind when he was looking for a house cleaner. There are multiple takeaways here. First, I am so thankful that I was triangulated by multiple friends to recommend me and they all knew each other! Another is that I have done a poor job in communicating that I clean houses to Steven in all of our interactions including our recent breakfast! Steven knew that I cleaned offices, but had no idea that I did houses too. We talked on the phone and I answered all of his questions in hopes of educating him on the various options he had for hiring a house cleaning service.


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 In this episode, I have an important lesson to share from a new friend of mine in the digital marketing space on the power of Facebook and Google. Eric Laylon is a consultant with ReachLocal. He understands the online landscape more than almost anyone that I know. He's a new member of the MCBA networking group and had a chance to share a presentation on his work. I asked many questions as I wanted to understand a little more of the trends he's seeing in 2021.

• Google drives 85% of all online traffic and still dominates the online search landscape. Bing is #2 because Comcast uses them as a default, but they use Google ad platforms. Google will continue to dominate. If you're not visible on Google, you're not visible.
• Google My Business is a free way to create SEO for your business through images, reviews, articles, and deals. Ads are an excellent paid option to generate leads.
• Eric says you should be investing 3-5% of revenue into marketing for average returns. 8% is aggressive and 3% is slow growth. Invest 60-70% of this marketing budget on digital. This is what the large companies are doing in 2021!
• Facebook is similar to google. They have 223 million users in the United States alone out of 331 million people. That's 67% of the US is on Facebook. A business page is free and allows you to create interest for your product or service for free. Ads (like Google) are an excellent paid option as well.

Thank you Eric for teaching and sharing the trends and stats for 2021! My takeaway is simple. If you ever want to be found in your cleaning business, you have to be on Facebook and Google as they represent 67% of the country and 85% of all online searches. And you can access both for free through a Facebook business page, personal page, Google my business profile.

That was quick and to the point! Let's dive more into my own solo cleaning business. I have used digital marketing to grow my solo cleaning company in 2020. I tried everything, but focused on Facebook and Google My Business digitally while attending local networking to round out my marketing strategy. I didn't use any paid advertising and grew my company by $60,000 in revenue in 2020. Going forward, I plan to continue. I did get an idea this past week that I had originally planned in 2019 and never did it. I am the only cleaner in a 300 - 400 member chamber of commerce. Many members know who I am now since I've been helpful in leading webinars for the chamber, but I figured that the majority do not know me. I could cold call them and try to fleece them for business. I don't operate like that. Here's what I'm going to do. I'll make a list of the members that have an office that is a good fit for my office cleaning company. These are buildings under 5,000 - 6,000 square feet that need cleaning weekly or less. Once I have the list completed, I'll send emails with personal videos to the owners or contacts through the chamber to say hi and introduce myself. From there, I'll see who has any interest in connecting more with me. I'll schedule Zoom calls or breakfast meetings with the ones who want to know me. Then I'll add these new friends to my twice-monthly newsletter. I am guessing that 150 of the members fit into my demographic out of 400. Out of the 150, I wouldn't be surprised if I can connect and add 30 to my newsletter. Who knows from there. Those 30 could be 10 clients at $500 - $800/month in the future, which is over $60,000 of annual revenue! Either way, I make new friends. Win-win.


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