Explore "smart cleaning" with insightful episodes like "Best Of - Blueberry Pie", "Lifetime Value of a Client", "7 Misconceptions of Solo Cleaning", "How to Do a COVID Clean" and "I Meant to Do It" from podcasts like ""Smart Cleaning School", "Smart Cleaning School", "Smart Cleaning School", "Smart Cleaning School" and "Smart Cleaning School"" and more!
Do you struggle with selling and not charging enough? Do you believe you offer something special to the world? Listen to this "Best Of" episode called "Blueberry Pie". This is one of my favorite episodes of this podcast. I've used this mindset to teach multiple solo cleaners the value they can offer.
This is a story that will cost a cleaning supplier a lot of money. First of all, I hope you all know me by now. I am not vindictive. I did not have a bad experience with the company I'm going to mention. However, I chose to do my 3-stars out of 5 review to the world because it will illustrate a vital lesson on the lifetime value of a client. I purchased my Mosquito Carbon Lite vacuum cleaner from my friend Joshua Burnstein, owner of Sawgrass Cleaning Solutions, Boynton Beach, FL. Joshua is a authorized distributor for Mosquito, which he does as a side hustle. I now use him exclusively to take care of my vacuum needs. But I almost didn't and here's what happened.
My Mosquito has a uniquely designed tapered hose to maximize power and flow for my 160 cfm motor! That's nerd talk, but it means my vacuum really sucks! All of my hoses start to wear down after 2 years. They tear between the ribs and I have to cut a piece off to keep it working. This particular hose has been cut a dozen times to the point where it's barely long enough to vacuum with. I put off ordering a new part from Josh as he told me the replacement part is $100 with shipping! When I could wait no longer, I did a Google search to see if I could get the part cheaper anywhere else. There were a few at $100 and one at $45, which ranked high on Google SEO. It seemed like a reputable supplier, Salamone Supplies out of Menomonee Falls, WI. I researched the company and found the part I needed on the website for a great price. I told Josh and he was highly suspicious as he knew the part wholesaled for $80 on the low side. He wished me good luck. I apologized for jumping ship as I had to try. I ordered the part. To the credit of the company, they contacted me via email and was kind and cordial in their replies. They received the order, but soon realized that they had the two parts mixed up on their website. The part I ordered for $45 had the part number and picture correct for the part I needed, but they had the wrong price listed. They emailed me to let me know of the mistake and asked if I'd like to receive the $45 incorrect part or the part I needed for their price of $90 + shipping.
Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website
There are so many questions that clients and prospects have asked me over the years. As a consultant in the cleaning industry, I get asked even more. My cleaning company website has an in-depth Learning Library that I'm very proud of. Several of these articles are FAQs that I've pulled to the home page of my website. From time to time, I'll bring you one of these articles. Today is such a time as I wanted to mentally equip you, the solo cleaner, with how to answer the naysayers that believe solo cleaning is not possible, not worth it, or not professional. Here's a link to my article, "How Can You Possibly Clean Alone, Ken?". For the purposes of this podcast, I'm going to read it! There are 6 misconceptions that I highlight in this article and I encourage you to remember them as you connect with potential clients. As a side note, I added a 7th misconception for this podcast for solo cleaners directly.
If you would like optimize your solo cleaning company like I've done twice, I encourage you to check out my Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership where I provide independent course work to train you in my ISO Model. You also get access to me through twice monthly Q&A's and access to like-minded, growing solo cleaners in our community.
I referenced a listener of this podcast in the Funny Papers. Tonsha Hokanson is the owner of the brand new company, In a Jiffy Cleaning, LLC serving the Twin Cities, MN. They are doing outstanding work for their clients and in my estimation (having connected personally with the owners), they do it right. I highly recommend reaching out via email: inajiffyclean@gmail.com
Right off the bat, let me make this statement. There is not one way to properly do a COVID-19 clean and disinfect, but there is science that governs us to follow protocols and procedures to ensure best results. There are so many companies out there doing COVID disinfection. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell which are tried and true with years of disinfection and training from the ones that saw an opportunity in 2020 and short-cutted the system to make money. I would first like to give a shout out to a good friend who has become an expert in disinfection in the Washington D.C. area. Mark Lineberry of Universal Janitorial Services has an incredible article on COVID & Reopening Your Facilities (Guide)and another on properly doing Electostatic Disinfection Services. It will show you just how much training it takes to do this right and I HIGHLY recommend that you begin learning this science so you can help more families and businesses in your community. As you know, I've become a local expert in Philly on the same topic as I've been called to share to various audiences my "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". I don't use a delivery system like fogging or UV or electrostatic spraying. These require a lot of training and expertise that I don't have. They also require a large equipment investment. I have companies that I refer when clients request this. My clients understand that I do "High Touch Point Disinfecting". The philosophy is simple. 80% of the pathogens lie on 20% of the surfaces. I don't need to kill 100% of the pathogens with a complicated delivery system. I kill 80% by hyper-focusing on the surfaces where pathogens are most likely to settle.
A few weeks ago, I got an email from a weekly office client that one of their employees tested positive for COVID-19. They suspected it on Monday and everyone left the office to work from home. The positive test came in on Wednesday to confirm. The office remained closed until the following Monday. The office manager wanted my company to substitute a regular cleaning with a COVID clean. This was not the first time, so they knew I would do a good job. Here's the steps I took:
Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website
I have two related funny stories to the theme of this podcast. Have you ever seen the "Polar Express" movie during Christmas? Most of you have. Toward the end, when the main characters are lost in North Pole, they stumble in the elf operations room. There are a number of videos playing of kids and a red buzzer goes off. One kid is shown on the Naughty List as he repeats the phrase, "I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I didn't do it." After the movie, my own kids were repeating that phrase including my 3-year-old and if you have kids, so are they. This innocence is cute as a kid, but not as an adult leading a business. My Uncle Bob told me a story about a friend. This guy is a jack of all trades. He does lawns, gutter cleaning, moving, tree service, power washing, whatever. He just goes wherever the money is. But this Jack is uninsured and thus, unprofessional! He takes on a lot of risk. If he is guilty of any damage, the homeowner better hope he doesn't pull the Polar Express line. My uncle told me that a neighbor of his called Jack over to remove an oak tree. When he asked him if he had insurance, Jack lied and said he did. He successfully removed the oak tree, but he didn't put the tree where it was supposed to go. A professional would survey the yard and take vital measurements first. Jack did not and the cry of TIMBER lead to the sound of an oak tree smashing into the roof of the house! It was a miscalculation for Jack. Thankfully, no one was injured. But the house was severely damaged. My uncle told me me how this will play out. When the homeowner hires someone knowingly that doesn't have insurance they take the risk and hope that their own insurance will cover damages if something happens. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. Sometimes it covers partial, but never the whole thing. In this case, if it turns out the contractor lied about having insurance. The homeowner can file a lawsuit, but the guy has no money and he won't get anything anyway. The homeowner is screwed either way. What's the lesson here? It's pretty obvious. Don't be Jack. Don't hire Jack. Let him keep rolling down the hill with Jill.
For the main part of this episode, I want to share a short story that happened on the way to work with my kids. As I drove to work, a headache was pounding and I said out loud without realizing it. "I meant to bring the Advil with me, but I forgot." As soon as I said it, my brain kicked this thought. "A lot of good meaning to do it brought me. My head still hurts!" I realized how true that statement is for so many. So many people are meaning to do things, but never do them. in other words, "I meant to do it" is a way to justify their intent but never having to do the action. It's a form of making an excuse. I won't accept that type of life. I got home from work that day and immediately put the Advil in my work bag. I removed the excuse for the future. Unless people start changing their 'meants' into 'dos', they'll be feeling a lot of pain at some point too. And by that time, Advil won't cure it!
In this episode, I'd like to share a few updates from my solo cleaning business. It is true that I stopped striving for my goals in late 2020. But I didn't stop marketing. My "Optimizer's Website", strong "Google My Business" profile, and participation in local networking and chamber events. Recently, I had a couple find me on Google that lead to my website and a phone call. They had their questions answered on my website and the rest over the phone, so they scheduled an in-person estimate. After the estimate, I sent out a proposal my typical menu of customized house cleaning options. Matt and Laura had a few days to digest the menu, so Matt called me to negotiate as any good sales guy would. I explained what my options were so he understood them. One of my monthly cleaning options was of interest but it was about $20 too high above their budget. Ultimately, he asked if I was willing to negotiate, which means could I lower my price to get him as a client? My answer was simple and it never changes. This is not hard for me and it should not be for you either. "I don't lower my prices or my quality, but I can definitely lower the scope or the frequency of my options and provide another option which hits your budget." This would be a win for him as it hits their price. It would be a win to me because I still will earn my same hourly rate because I don't compromise on my prices.
Matt's feedback to me was awesome. "We loved your menu of options and how you customized a plan just for us. We also like that you don't do contracts and we can switch between options as we decide what works best." This is a young family with growing and changing needs . They don't want to be locked into something, they want to grow with a cleaning service. This is a great example of why I advocate and coach to always create a menu to give options. if you only give one price, it can only be yes or no. Many in the industry fight me and say this is not scalable. I disagree. If you have good enough systems and can train your employees, you can definitely scale. The biggest benefits for me is that it allows me to win a higher percentage of clients and spend less on marketing. Plus, it allows me to service the customer better as I optimize my business. They feel listened to, respected, and it allows you to build trust ultra quick. Add on to this, my initial cleaning strategy of staggering over three visits. That's another way to customize and new clients love it because it allows them to get the product without the upfront fee. We shall see if Matt becomes one of my final clients before starting my waiting list.
It's a new calendar year. 2020 was so difficult for many families and so many are exploring other options for income. In this new "Best Of" series, I bring you an older episode that truly connected with my audience. "How to Start Your Solo Cleaning Business" is still one of my most downloaded episodes to date. Everything that I taught in this episode is valid in 2021 and beyond. The only addition would be for you to take cleaning science seriously. I did a wildly popular talk in my area called the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". It turned into webinars, YouTube videos, and a podcast. I encourage you to become an expert in cleaning science so you can disinfect like a pro and increase your stock as a cleaner in your area. It will set you apart big time.
I was listening to the Tim Ferriss Podcast recently as he interviewed the one and only Seth Godin. Between comments, Tim uttered the metaphor of the duck does all of its work under the surface. I literally had to pause the episode and write out this one! In my last episode, Mission 20/20 Accomplished, I painted a picture of team cleaning companies growing through insurmountable odds and I shared my success in 2020. I don't want anyone to think that we had it easy or growing our cleaning businesses come easy to us. Let's learn from the duck and then come back with the goal of encouraging you and giving you truth!
The duck appears to always be in control as it glides across the water. It is cool, calm, and collect without a care in the world. Yet, it gets to where it's trying to go. It does change direction and sometimes glides in circles, but it always gets to where it's trying to go. It's easy to see the duck from the side of the lake and say. "Why can't my life be as easy as the duck? They just find the pond or lake that suits them and simply glide across the surface, stick their head under water for a bite to eat, and chill!" Or what if you're thinking this. "I'm watching and listening to Ken build his second solo cleaning business and it seems like he's a duck. He just magically with total calm gets to his destination. He tripled his profits in 2020 during a pandemic. I guess Ken is just a duck!"
You were sitting on the side of the pond looking across the water at the duck. It does look easy from that perspective. My son recently bought the GoPro camera and he can stick it under water and capture incredible video. If your lens is looking at the duck, you see what you see. But if you take a GoPro and point it under the water at the same duck, you will see a different image. You won't recognize the duck. It is far from cool, calm, and collect. You see a duck's bottom and a flurry of webbed feet. That creature looks like he is fighting for his life. His legs are kicking and paddling like crazy. Sometimes the leg paddles forward, sometimes backward, and sometimes stops. But most the time it's swirling and kicking and paddling like crazy. If your perspective of the duck was from the GoPro lens, you would think that life is so hard for the duck. How can ducks even survive at all!? How will he ever get to where he's going?
The lens from the side of the pond is the lens that others see you from, while the lens underwater is the one that you see you through. It goes back to the episode I did on "The Four Windows". The lens from the side of the pond is the first window and the underwater lens is the second window. Let's bring this back to my business growth success in 2020. You've been listening to my podcast and watching me from the side of the pond. I've tried to be vulnerable and transparent so you could get a look from underwater, but it's hard. I am living it and I know just how hard I've been kicking this year. Nothing has come easy. My little webbed feet have been fluttering away for 10 months, many times having no idea which way my legs were taking me. I relied on my faith and worked like it was up to me and prayed like it was up to God. I've been in mastermind and coaching environments where I've been beaten and bruised. My webbed feet have hurt all along the way, yet you've seen me glide from $30,000 to $80,000 in revenue in 10 months of a pandemic, riots, wild fires, political unrest, family issues, illness, and deaths in the family. Are you starting to see yet?
Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website
2020 started with such promise to many. Unfortunately, it ended much differently. This episode is not a co-miserating-let-you-off-the-hook-if-you-did-nothing-about-it episode! This is an episode to fire up the winners. With all the doom and gloom in the media of pandemics, failing economy, and people's livelihoods being destroyed, do you know that there are scores of absolute winners that crushed it in business in 2020 despite the doom and gloom? It's true. In fact, billionaire Mark Cuban predicted it early in the pandemic when he said that many new corporations will be birthed during this time. He also said that the entrepreneur who can pivot toward the future will always thrive. I've paraphrased Mark, but it's so true. I challenge you to search for entrepreneurs who have crushed it in 2020 and learn why and how they did it. Many had their backs pressed against the wall and had no direction but ahead. That's a winner. I facilitate and lead the SMART Cleaning Tribe. This is a group of cleaning business owners growing with employees toward 7-figures and I keep them focused and accountable to their WHY, BHAG, SMART goals. On a mastermind & accountability call recently, we were discussing 2020. They all had SMART goals to double their revenues in 2020. One of the members did. Carrie Cottrell from Cleaning by Carrie out of Galion, OH more than doubled her company well past the quarter million mark. Carrie is crushing it. I've watched her all year. She provides a high quality service at an affordable price. Her product is solid. Plus, Carrie is in a rural, small-town area and she has networked like crazy. She has put herself out there on local news interviews, the chamber, local networking groups, and posting on Facebook every single day something of value to others! It seems that everybody knows Carrie in Galion, OH. She may as well be the only cleaning company there because it certainly seems like it. I'm so proud of Carrie! Jenn Jubrey (Maid Spotless Cleaning, Albany, NY) had to shut down completely by order of the state for nearly 3 months. Yet, she still managed to grow enough just to hit the same revenue as 2019 and position herself to pass $500k in 2021! Her accountability buddy is doing the same thing. Michelle Allegrezza (Sparkling Homes Cleaning, Albertville, MN) lost a large percentage of her clients and staff in 2020 due to the pandemic and she personally dealt with severe illness and family crisis. Like Carrie and Jenn, Michelle is a winner. She dug in big time and went back into the field to personally clean solo again until she had her new hires trained to replace her. Check this out. She finished the year 11% down in revenue from 2019, but was extremely wise with the money that did come in to become a 100% debt-free company! How many business owners can say this in 2020? Michelle and Jenn are racing to $500k and I love stoking the fire of competition! Hannah Brees (Shine & Sparkle Cleaning, Dallas, OR) had wild fires and a pandemic nearly take out her business. Heck, the Oregon wildfires were within miles of her house. She grew her revenue in 2020 while losing more than half of her team and also having to clean solo again for a short time! Way to go Hannah!
Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website
I started this podcast with no expectations. It's a highly niched show for people wanting to optimize a solo cleaning business. When my show got to 1,000 downloads, I was shocked! It kept growing. Recently, the Solo Cleaning School Podcast crossed 20,000 downloads in 13 months! That's incredible to me. I am a member of the podcasting community and the "Downloads" metric is so important to people. I've seen some tote their download number around as if they are really big stuff, yet I've seen others with millions of downloads with such humility, you'd think no one listened. I was somewhere in the middle. I couldn't figure out what this number meant until recently. The man I'm talking about with 3 million downloads and total humility is John Stange. He's a local pastor to me and runs the Desire Jesus Website. John is a total stud. He is a master content creator and has a book coming out this May with a major book publisher. I'm so proud to call John a friend.
When I crossed 20,000 downloads, I got a text from John. He said this. "Congratulations on crossing 20k!" Without thinking, I replied. "Thank you John! That's 20,000 opportunities to impact another for Christ." Obviously, this is a conversation between two Christians, one being a pastor. I don't want you to dismiss it as I kept thinking on this. It dawned on me how amazing this comment truly was. I don't have 20,000 listeners. I have a couple hundred listeners that have collectively downloaded one of my episodes 20,000 times. The number astounded me. What is 20,000 downloads? I've had 20,000 opportunities to impact another life with a message of hope. I've had 20,000 opportunites to coach a struggling cleaning business owner to win. I've had 20,000 opportunities to speak to a struggling single mom looking for a way to earn income for her family. I've had 20,000 opportunities to share why solo cleaning is one of the best businesses on the planet.
This gave me incredible energy as I now have a podcast metric that truly matters. Many will call them downloads, but not me. They are opportunities to impact another human life for good!
Do you know that I have a companion free Solo Cleaning School YouTube Channel ? Make sure to check it out as I give bonus content not on this podcast. And these YouTube views and subscribers are opportunities as well. Thank you for helping to spread the opportunities to others who need to hear them.
"Hi, I'm Ken and I'm an overthinker." I constantly make simple things complex. That's what an overthinker does. We complicate the most simple task to the point that we cannot take any action to complete it. Another term for this failure disease is procrastination as Dr. Schwartz talks about in "The Magic of Thinking Big". The rare person that can take the complex, make is simple, and take massive action are the most successful in life. Our president, like him or not, is a great example of this. Unfortunately, I'm an overthinker and so are most of you!
Recently, I did new member to the Solo Cleaning School Elite On-Boarding Call a few weeks ago with Carrie Miyazono. She is a super bright and coachable young lady. Carrie just earned her black belt in Tae Kwon Doe, instructs at my friend Ken Hoop's Martial Arts School, and works nights to pay the bills. She is a warriorette. Ken recommended her to my podcast and she is literally the first that I know about that listened to every episode from the beginning to now and she's going through a second time. She has an advantage over other solo cleaners starting out. She has a niche, which is cleaning martial arts schools. And she has a school owner, Ken Hoops, that will refer her to other schools. Carrie had a few questions as she got started. She is a classic overthinker and was building her business in her mind verses taking action. She was already cleaning for Ken, but stifled on how to grow her business. That's where I come in as her new coach. I layed out a super simple strategy to break through the overthinking. In other words, I stopped her from making the simple complex and helped her see how the complex can be simple. Here was my advice. It is viable for many of you listening.
I assured Carrie that she WILL get business from this process. This gave her so much energy as she realized how complicated she had made things. Then I asked her how much money she needed to quit her overnight job. I took that number and showed her how just 2 new martial arts schools would replace that income so she could be a part-time solo cleaner and martial arts instructor. Carrie was so pumped up. If you relate to this advice, there are a few options. You can certainly reach out to me. I have a link on my website for listeners to ask me coaching questions. The other option is to take the plunge like Carrie did and join the Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership for $50 per month, so you can access my coaching and full ISO Model Training Course for solo cleaners! I hope to see you there!
Make this a play on the year 2020. No one could have ever guessed 2020 would go as it did. There was a major pandemic that shut down the country for months. Riots broke out across the country. A presidential election turned into a 2 month battle in court. On a personal note, I lost both grandparents and nearly lost my mom. No matter what goals you set for 2020, few of us were able to hit them. In fact, I've been connecting with cleaning owners from all over the country all year and most were just trying to get back to where they were as 2020 started! At the end of 2019, I shared an important strategy planning episode called "Think Week". I followed that up with a 5-part goal-setting series prior to the pandemic. (Goal Setting I: What is Your Why? / Goal Setting II: Why Set Goals? / Goal Setting III: Make Your Goals SMART / Goal Setting IV: The Accountability Roadmap / Goal Setting V: Kill Parkinson) I highly recommend that you re-listen to each of these 6 episodes as you close 2020 and prepare for 2021.
This episode is a little different. It's hard to look ahead. As you may know, I wrap up each year with a Think Week. This year is different... obviously! I have been achieving my #1 goal all year. Therefore, I already have my "thinking" done for 2021 planning. Instead of teaching you how to think and set goals for next year, let's talk about something related. I was having a conversation with a newlywed couple at breakfast during our honeymoon retreat. I shared when you are starting out in life, every decision seems like a major one. You feel like each decision you're making will last your entire lifetime. But the truth is that our lives change often. Looking ahead, our steps don't seem to make any sense. That's what faith is. God numbers and plans our steps. We must trust in Him (if you're a person of faith). But then I told the newlyweds that looking back, everything is crystal clear. It all makes sense looking back. I've been married close to 20 years and I can see major decisions I've made and which have majorly impacted my life. I shared how a contractor picks up different tools along the way and when he gets to the job site, he has all the tools he needs to complete the job. I related this analogy to this young couple as the "job" is God's purpose in our life. The "contractors" are us and the "tools" are the decisions we make along the way. I added that my engineering training has allowed me to flourish in my solo cleaning business and I could have NEVER planned that one. It just happened. "Life sometimes happens and maybe that's another way that God remains anonymous." This analogy made a ton of sense to the newlyweds and even more sense to me. I said. "Hark, I need to make this a podcast episode." They gave a strange expression and my wife smiled.
As you approach 2021, I want you to obviously do your best to plan your goals as I've taught in the above-listed Solo Cleaning School episodes. But I also want you to consider yourself a contractor collecting valuable tools along the way. 2020 was hard. I guarantee you picked up valuable tools that make no sense now, but they will!
In my last Carfagno Cleaning update, I shared about my honeymoon getaway with my wife, my grandfather in the ICU, and some wins in my solo cleaning business. I've already shared a "Tribute to My Father" in a previous episode as well, so you know how that ended. I have a few other updates from this week in business.
As I've shared previously, Matt and Laura are a young family with a small child and both working full time. They have kept up the cleaning of the home, but it's getting overwhelming. They've never hired a cleaning service, so they turned to Dr. Google for the answer. Google lead them to my company, Carfagno Cleaning, only because I focused on it this year. Check out "Google My Business Rocks". Matt was highly impressed with my Google profile and called me on the spot. I answered this call while on my honeymoon. Normally, I'd let it go to voicemail, but I was answering everything due to my grandfather. Matt had some basic questions, so I referred him to my website. He pulled up the site on the spot and said. "Wow, you're legit! This is a great website." These are great responses and as you can imagine, increased my value to Matt. He wanted to know about the basic models of cleaning, maid versus cleaning services, costs of each. I referred him to the article I wrote on the question. This impressed him even more. Then I covered some of the basic FAQs from my website over the phone. He booked me for an estimate on the spot and was already talking about hiring me. I did the estimate this week with Matt and Laura. It was fun as they were so engaged. They loved how I customize a home into options to make my higher-end service affordable to everyone. As I left, I promised an email proposal with cleaning options by the end of the week and I met that promise. They are most interested in monthly cleaning. They are a perfect fit and would be the final house I need to complete my 2020 goal for houses. I did want to share this direct feedback to you, my podcast listeners, from Matt and Laura. Remember, they are a young 30's ish couple with two incomes, a dog, and a baby. "We love how you customize our house. When I heard that over the phone, I felt confident we'd get an excellent cleaning at a price we could afford. We knew you were legit and have passion for what you do."
A few weeks ago, I received an inquiry from Erin. She is a local realtor referred to me by my BIB friend and realtor, Mary Ann Alig. She was the selling agent for her niece and nephew and wanted to gift a move-in cleaning to them. There wasn't a way to see the house as it was under contract until the house closed. Therefore, I pulled the real estate listing online and looked at the 50+ pictures to give Erin a ballpark price estimate. We went back and forth until we agreed on a price of $350 and booked it for Thanksgiving week. When I showed up at the house, I conducted my formal walk-through estimate to negotiate a final price and cleaning list with Erin. I never compromise on bathrooms and kitchen deep cleaning, so this portion came to $250. Then I figured out how much I could do in the 10 rooms with only $100 to work with on our pre-agreed-to price. It worked out to about 10 minutes per room based on my formulas. Thus, I proposed a detailed deep cleaning on the bathrooms and kitchen surfaces (outsides only) and a quick dust, vac, and mop of the rooms for $350 to hit the goal. Erin still wanted the inside of the refrigerator and cabinets done. Here's how this went down.
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This was my 4th episode of the Solo Cleaning School Podcast. My goal was to share the top tangibles and intangibles that made solo cleaning so awesome. I also wanted to balance this with the Cons of Solo Cleaning. This has been one of my most popular episodes, so I wanted to bring it back. Enjoy!
I've shared about my mastermind community many times. Total Life Freedom has members all over the US and for some cool reason, there are a few in my area. We formed up TLF Philly and held our first local lunch get together recently at Chili's in King of Prussia, PA. We had a wonderful time and discussed big ideas, what's working and what's not in our businesses. We laughed. We shared. At the end, the bill dropped and John Stange took it and as quickly as he could be paying with his credit card. A few of the others objected until I stepped in. I shared my lifelong struggle with this and told them to allow John the honor to give to us. They understood and John was so happy. We allowed a giver to give. This is powerful. Now let me explain the mindset.
In the classic book, "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg, he lays out the "5 Laws of Stratospheric Success". The final law ties it all together. "The Law of Receptivity states that the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving". This is vital. You cannot give if no one receives. If you refuse to receive, you literally stop a giver from giving. There is a natural and beautiful symmetry between the two and each are vitally important. It's unhealthy to only receive and never give as this stops the blessing from flowing from you and to you. It's equally unhealthy to only give and never receive. Bob is very clear that we must learn to acquire the skill of each, giving and receiving. When we do, we can function in the stratospheric success.
I have personally struggled with this my whole life. I never wanted to ask for anything, for any help. I would do it all by myself. My wife would have to force me to ask for help when we had to move. I would not ask for money, for help, for even advice. Why? Well, my men's accountability partner Billy Altman answered that for me a few years ago. He said. "Ken, you're a firstborn. You're independent and that's a good thing. But you're not asking anyone for help. Do you know what that's called?" I replied. "No, Billy." He uttered one word that changed everything. "Pride!"
That stung badly because he was right. I was literally holding back givers from their deep desire to give. This is a big problem as givers need receivers. I changed course right away and have been a much better receiver over the past few years. And guess what?! I've been a much better giver too and my success has catapulted. I wonder if this is a coincidence. By the way, the TLF Philly group of John Stange, Emily Brunner, John Schuchman, and Brad Imming will meet up at least quarterly and we'll each get the opportunity to give!
Would you allow this giver to give? I am offering up 30 minutes of my time each week to answer questions for any listener to this show. Just go to my website to request your time slot.
2020 has been a year none of us will ever forget. Is that not the understatement of the year!? We had a global pandemic, government shutdowns, trillions in stimulus, panic, fear, riots, election chaos, and it's still not over. None of this even scratches the surface of how I'll remember 2020. For me, it's the permanent end of my childhood and the time for me to prove out the legacy left to me. What does that even mean... "the end of my childhood"? In 2020, both of my grandparents on my father's side passed away. On the surface, this may seem extraordinary that I still have grandparents living... and it is. It's so much deeper. Ken Sr and Gabriella Carfagno were my Nana & Pop-Pop for 43 years. In reality, they are the true mother and father in my life. I spent every weekend with them growing up. They are the ones I sought approval and affirmation, especially my Pop. Their loss ends my extended childhood, where I still had a father to go to for counsel. Pop was the patriarch of the Carfagno Family and now he's gone. I'm now left to stand on my own and become the new patriarch, but I don't stand from the ground. I stand upon his shoulders. This episode is a short departure from cleaning as I want you all to pause and reflect on what you have already. What are you grateful for? Your family? Your health? Your business, where ever it is?
Here's the text of the eulogy I gave at my Pop-Pop's funeral:
I would like to thank my dad, Ken Jr, my uncles Bob and David, and my brother Dominic for allowing me the honor to remember our father and Pop-Pop today. Ken Carfagno, Sr was always larger than life to us. We have always felt that Pop was the greatest man that ever walked this earth except for Jesus himself. I am so grateful that I got to spend every weekend with Nana and Pop-Pop growing up. They made me who I am.
Ken was the youngest of five children from Jerry and Concetta Carfagno. Nana Concetta ran out of Italian names, so she named her 5th after the 1930's singer & actor Kenny Baker who she thought was very handsome. Who knew that name would carry on 4+ generations? Ken married his high school sweetheart, Gabriella Corbett on October 20th, 1956 after going steady for over 4 years. They raised 3 boys and half the neighborhood on both Anchor Street and Harvard Road! Nana and Pop were inseparable for over 63 years of marriage. None of us could ever say one's name without mentioning the other. They were Mom and Dad, Nana and Pop. That's how interconnected their souls were. When Nana passed away this February, a huge piece of Pop died with her. Although we're grieving, we know they're together again.
Pop was only 40 when I was born. He was young, full of energy, joy, and life. Nana and Pop raised me as their 4th son (even though I was a grandson). Pop taught me humility, gratitude, how to be a man, how to live a righteous life, how to keep God at the center of your life and make church-going & prayer a discipline. He taught me how to be faithful to one woman your whole life, how to love, how to honor, how to live, how to share wisdom with those you love, how to provide for your family, and how to invest in your future. He was the only man to truly recognize my potential and creativity and he fanned that flame throughout my life. When I met Teresa in 1998, he did the same for her and over time built a very special relationship. Nana and Pop never treated her as an "in-law". She was truly their daughter.
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Let's get back into the driver's seat of my own solo cleaning business, Carfagno Cleaning. I have kept my promise from the introduction to this podcast. I will continue updating you every week with progress from my own solo company. 2020 has been a great year as I've hit several growth goals. Carfagno Cleaning is cranking as a solo cleaning company. My brand and reputation is established. I'm known my many in my community as the cleaning and disinfecting expert. I'm known as a presentation cleaning expert and that my prices reflect that. My marketing machine is fully operational with Google My Business, local networking, an interactive optimizer's website, and a proven sales strategy. I'm finalizing my 2020 desired cleaning schedule of all-day Saturday offices and 3 houses per day, every other Thursday and Friday. I'm getting close to this goal, which will give me a great schedule and over $90,000 in revenue.
This update is different. I am combining multiple weeks that all seem to mesh together. I got back from the TLF Mastermind Retreat in Pittsburgh on October 9th with big ideas to close out 2020 and beyond. But my life took another track. In late October, my Pop-Pop went into the ER for a life-saving procedure. He's been in the ICU ever since. I'm the family point of contact and have been fielding doctor calls daily and updating the family. I've been making difficult decisions on his potential end-of-life care. I've had my phone on loud ringer 24/7, never knowing when I'd get a call and got many in the middle of the night. I've coordinated his care and taken the lead in the family. I'm exhausted.
I'm so thankful that I put in the work this year for my cleaning company to be where it is. I can simply show up to all scheduled cleanings and collect money. We are profiting over $5,000 per month from cleaning alone on a few days per week. New leads come in each week that are filtered out or in by my "Optimizer's Website". I'm attending all local networking that I can attend. I'm setting up new estimates and taking on new 1-time jobs as they are available. This has given me the freedom to take care of my family and Pop-Pop, while in the hospital. Does this motivate you? Would you like a solo cleaning business that's fully operational, optimized, and automated? Make sure to check out this podcast form the beginning to see how I did i
I'd like to share a few updates from the past few weeks in business and in life. The first update is a win from my website. Becky was a lead from my wife. She purchased a table off my wife, Teresa from Facebook Marketplace. When she discovered we owned a cleaning business, she mentioned that she was interested in cleaning. Teresa asked me what to say to her. I told her to link to my article on how much my cleaning services cost and why. Becky loved the article and how in-depth my website was. She filtered herself in and we set up an estimate. They were a lovely family. Becky invited me to sit on the back porch to discuss the cleaning in an interview format. Be prepared for that as some families will expect it. To date, I've done it around 10 times in 15 years. After our conversation, we walked around the house for me to ask questions and take notes. I promised cleaning options and prices in a proposal by the beginning of the following week and met that promise. Unfortunately, Becky and her husband had to say no because of price. She indicated that she really, really wanted to hire me, but the cost was too high. This has happened dozens of times and in some situations, they call back months later. I asked Becky if I could add her to my mailing list. She was excited to get bimonthly cleaning tips!
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Have you ever played an instrument? I've been playing the guitar for a few years as a hobby. I'm no Santana, Van Halen, or Hendrix, but I can play the basic chords to play the majority of songs. I don't know about your instrument, but mine falls out of tune as the weather changes. I have picked up the guitar on many occasions to play a favorite song and it was off. Personally, I can tell by the G chord. If that chord is off at all, the whole song is off. Let me take this further. I enjoy singing with the songs as I'm the rhythm guitarist for the family worship band. I know pretty much NOTHING about musical theory, but I do know this. My voice is perfect for the key of G. How do I know this? My son and other musical scholars told me. When my guitar is out of tune, I have so much trouble matching my voice key to the music. Have you ever experienced this?
Let me relate this to your solo cleaning business now. I shared an important mindset episode called "Excellence Vs. Perfection". In this episode, I helped many cleaners break their perfectionist habits. Perfectionism is doing the best job you can to make you happy. Excellence is doing the best job to make your client happy. At first, you may think they are the same. That's not the case. Perfectionism is a disorder and falls under the OCD category. I would know. Check out my episode, "My Lifelong Struggle with Tourette Syndrome" so you know I understand. A perfectionist is cleaning to satisfy the itch they have to make the house look perfect. You can never accomplish it and many solo cleaners spend 5 - 8 hours cleaning a 3-hour house. This does not make the client happy. No one wants you in their house that long. If they pay by the hour, they are mad. And if they pay by the job, they feel guilty you're still there. The pursuit of perfection is never achieved. It's selfish in nature to scratch the itch. Excellence is another story. You have the client in their proper place. Your goal is to provide the best service tailored to their specific needs.
Do you remember the guitar story? It's difficult to sing and play a song when the guitar is out of tune. Once you figure out what key to play and the guitar is tuned, your song sounds great. Likewise, once you figure out the song that client likes, you can tune your cleaning system to that client. The outcome is called excellence. They are so happy with you because you "get them". When they make requests, you do them, and continue doing them, they trust you more! They feel heard! This is exactly how I optimize my solo business. I have to figure out which type of music each client likes and then tune my instrument to play it better and better every time.
Over 15 years, I have created a cleaning system that plays great for most clients. However, I am always ready to fine-tune my cleaning system to play a slightly different key for a slightly different type of client. This process is constant as I strive to get faster while playing an awesome song! Come join me in 2021 as I optimize my second solo cleaning business with this strategy!
I've been working on my brand new www.carfagnocleaning.com website as I have time for two weeks. I finished it this week! I'm so happy with it. Let me take you back first. I ran Carfagno Cleaning for 14 years without a website. I've always kept a company profile, but on other company sites like HomeAdvisor, Facebook, and LinkedIn. After getting back from the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Gatlinburg, TN in October 2019, I launched my first website for my personal solo cleaning business. The first version was okay. I just wanted a place to hold my blog articles, share some basic profile information, and provide ways to connect with me. Honestly, I invested way more time into growing my Google My Business profile, acquiring reviews, and then linking viewers back to my website. It's been a solid one-two punch as I've stabilized my new solo cleaning company.
During the pandemic, I've been writing many teaching-style articles and going on local webinars. I have also spent hours on phone calls with cleaning prospects collectively, answering the same questions over and over. I have known for some time that my website needed to modeled after the book, "They Ask, You Answer". I highly recommend this book as you start to switch from stabilizer to optimizer. Here's the basic concept. Most companies hide or protect their information so competitors can't steal or undercut them. Some hide it to use in their sales process. This book shared a giving philosophy. People are research-oriented and like to learn as much as they can on their own. Provide them that! I also learned from my good friend, Courtney Wisely of Rescue My Maid Service, that Google ranks websites higher with site retention over 2 minutes. She figured out that the most engaging way to keep someone on your website is to have a video. If you look at her website, she has a 2-minute explainer video that is engaging. As a result, viewers stay on her site. I wanted to do the same thing. My main goal was to create the ultimate optimizer's website. I want prospects that hear about me to find my website and then feel like they've entered a school environment and had an experience. My new website does that now. It does all the work for me and filters out the wrong and filters in the right! I'm not going to walk you through every page and piece of my website as I did that on a Facebook Live for members of my Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership recently. However, I did take a 15-minute clip from this paid training and put it on my Solo Cleaning School YouTube channel. Make sure to check out this BONUS CONTENT! This was a huge accomplishment for me this week in my cleaning business!
I set to work right away from there by reconnecting with prospects that I'd previously sent proposals for cleaning. I checked in with them and shared my new website, asking if they had any questions. I also reached out to my chamber president to see if I could be of any assistance. Last time I did that, I was invited to help facilitate Zoom webinars for the chamber during the pandemic. This lead directly to 3 new clients! Steve Hunsberger wasted no time! He immediately found a use for me by inviting me to share my chamber experience on a few separate calls as our chamber merges in another local one. I will be sharing my tips on how to get the most from your chamber. It will be fun.
Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!
I had a conversation with my daughter yesterday that really gave me the push I needed to share this episode. I won't go into any details, but I'll just say that my daughter is 12 and she has dealt with a form of OCD that has caused her some pain. This pain has created a very special bond between father & daughter that I would never remove. We sense each other in a extra sensory sort of way. She knows when I am hurting and likewise and we each have a supernatural ability to calm each other. It's a benefit of the lifelong struggle I never thought possible when it started at 10 years old for me. She came to me with a recent struggle and instead of commiserating and allowing her to pull the victim card, I got bold with her and said "You need to get tough!" She was surprised. I went on to tell her that there are no perfect people and that God has a beautiful way of turning our greatest struggles into our greatest victories IF we allow Him to. There are tons of wonderful people with disabilities that have to work harder than we do just to get dressed and start the day, yet they recognize that they will literally have to outwork others in every area to win. They choose not to be the victim. I told her that I've struggled for 33 years, but it has made me stronger. I've had my pity parties, but for the most part, I've used my disability as fuel to win. I challenged her to change the way she thinks. "Stop coming to me with the struggle and asking how to get rid of it. Instead, embrace it and use it as fuel to turn your 'I cant's' into 'How can I's'"! She was energized after this conversation and I truly believe my 33 years of struggle lead me to that one piece of advice that will alter the trajectory of her future. I know for a fact that there are others listening to this episode struggling with the same thing. My prayer is that it gives you hope and a new resolve to embrace your disability, use it as fuel to win, and fight harder every day to achieve the God-given dreams you were put on this planet to achieve. With that, let me share my lifelong struggle with Tourette Syndrome.
I remember playing Nintendo after school with Mike in the 5th grade with this sudden insatiable desire to stretch my arms completely out. When I did it, I felt better. It was like an itch that got worse and worse that needed to be scratched. The movement of my arm scratched the itch. I was full of big ideas and creativity. I was an only child, always playing alone so creativity was my best companion. My mom was finishing her psychology degree and newly married. Many changes were happening in my life. I can remember playing ping-pong with my dad in the basement and the itches expanded to my legs. Now, I had to stretch my arms and legs constantly. These nervous tics only grew from there to nose snorting, squeezing eye blinks, licking my lips, biting the inside of my mouth, neck and head twitches, hand stretching and knuckle cracking. It happened so fast that my 10-year-old brain overloaded and my psycho-analyzing mom could not keep up!
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