More Than a Mom: Jhanilka Sharing Her Story on Side Hustle Pro Podcast

Today's episode features Jhanilka as a guest on @sidehustlepro podcast " Side Hustle Pro". 

This conversation dives into Jhanilkas side of the story on how things started but also about her journey managing the job , business marriage and being a new mom. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
You're listening to Side Hustle Pro, the podcast
that teaches you to build andgrow your side hustle from
passion project to profitablebusiness, and I'm your host,
nikayla Matthews-Okome.
So let's get started.
Hey friends, hey, today in theguest chair I have Janilka
Hartsog.
She is one half of the dynamicduo known as the Hartrimony over

(00:26):
on Instagram and YouTube, andshe is a mother of two from
Brooklyn living in Dallas forthe past eight years.
Together, her and her husband,anthony, are certified side
hustlers who paid off $114,000in debt by doing various side
hustles after work at their 9 to5s.
They then started exploringdifferent business ideas and

(00:51):
they became millionaires byowning a cleaning business
without cleaning homesthemselves, and they have taught
thousands of students to do thesame.
In today's episode, you'll hearfrom Janilka who was five weeks
postpartum at the time of thisrecording, by the way talk about
a side hustler and she shareshow and why they got started on

(01:12):
the side hustle path and thereal ins and outs of owning a
contractor-based cleaningbusiness and how you can get
started owning one as well.
She talks about so much more.
I love this episode.
It's like a teaching workshop,real deep dive episode, so I
hope you love it.
Let's get right into it,janilka, welcome.
Welcome to the guest chair.
Yes, thank you for having me,of course.

(01:33):
Now I am so fascinated by yourstory, both individually as well
as with your husband, and thefact that you are five weeks
postpartum and doing this withme.
I just have to give you all thesnaps.
So, thank you.
Thank you so so much.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yes, I could not miss this opportunity, so I'll be
there.
I'll be there.
My husband can watch the baby.
It's fine.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
And that's what I love about y'all Real teammates,
as well as partners and loves.
So how do you introduceyourself these days?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
So how do you introduce yourself these days?
You know it's funny that theway I'm introducing myself is
going to be different becausejust two weeks ago I got let go
from my job, so while onmaternity leave.
So my introduction would havebeen my name is Janoka, from
Brooklyn, new York, living inDallas, texas now for the past
eight years, married with twobeautiful kids, and we own a
cleaning business, and I stillwork my nine to five.
But that part is now erased asI don't necessarily still work

(02:29):
it.
So that changes my introduction, but it is what it is.
We own a cleaning business inDallas, texas.
We teach students how to owntheir own cleaning businesses as
well without working in it, sorunning a remote cleaning
business.
We've been doing that for thepast four years.
We also have a podcast, morethan a side hustle podcast, and

(02:50):
so that is my introduction atthis time of who I am.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Oh, my goodness, look at the timing on that.
Well, you know what.
Sometimes we get the pushbefore we're ready, right.
But I really admire that about,about you guys.
You're a certified sidehustlers like you're like we're
gonna do this until you know why.
If we can juggle it all, whyquit?
So I have questions, but I'mnot even gonna let that
sidetrack me about the.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
I feel like that's a lawsuit, right, like you sound
like my friends, they're likewait, can we sue?
Just take it easy.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
What field were you in outside of?
So I'm a mental healththerapist.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
I'm a mental therapist, so I'm licensed in
New York and in Texas andtechnically I was doing on the
insurance side of things when itcomes to mental health.
That's what I've been doing forthe past nine years.
I have done private practice, Ihave done virtual therapy, but
I slowed that down when we hadour first baby.
But that's my title.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Okay, so I noticed that you call out that you're
from BK, you know how y'all.
Brooklyn people do?
You just had to let me knowthat.
So you grew up, you were bornand raised in Bk.
How long were you there beforeyou moved to dallas?

Speaker 2 (04:07):
we moved here eight years ago, so I was there my
entire adulthood, if you will.
So we got married in like may2016 and then moved here june
2016 and what made you guys move?

Speaker 1 (04:17):
I have a feeling it's because you guys are side
hustlers and the cost of living?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
well, no, it was it was really because of anthony's
job and we didn't really startside hustling and the cost of
living.
Well, no, it was really becauseof Anthony's job and we didn't
really start side hustling anddoing those things until we
moved here.
I actually say that if wedidn't move, we wouldn't be
where we are today.
If we were still in Brooklyn,life would definitely be
different, because all of ourfamily and friends still remain
there.
So I don't think that we wouldhave had a push or need to want
to change anything in our lifebecause we would have been

(04:43):
comfortable, not in a bad way,but just we were comfortable and
no need to change.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
So it's interesting that you say that because
obviously you started sidehustling.
I know a little bit of yourjourney and for you know
listeners, you can share withthem, like what was your impetus
to start the side hustling?
As far as the financial reason,impetus to start the side
hustling.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
As far as the financial reason, yeah, so we
were side hustling to pay offdebt.
So we paid off $114,000 of debtin 23 months and that's really
what started ourentrepreneurship journey and
everything like that.
So that would have been 2016Christmas, our new year's
resolution.
I said I want to travel andsave more.
And Anthony was like thatdoesn't make sense, like we
can't do both.
It's like you gotta, you gotta,figure this out.
That doesn't make sense, likewe can't do both.
Like you got to figure this out.

(05:26):
That doesn't really make sense.
And so I was like, okay, fine,that was the beginning of his
journey of listening to podcasts, and so when I was coming on
today, he was like I'm justsuper hyped because she was one
of the first podcasts I startedlistening to, so I have to give
him that shout out.
So, around the time that hestarted really getting invested
in it and, honestly, whatstarted us on this journey was

(05:46):
Dave Ramsey he got obsessed withthat and just listening to
paying off debt and stuff likethat, and we took some of his
lessons and tweaked it, becausewe still had a nine to five and
a thousand dollars to savewasn't enough for me.
So that was really what startedour journey.
And we started working at a gym, you know, renting out our car,
watching dogs, the whole nine.

(06:09):
That's what we started and westarted our journey.
And we started working at a gym, you know, renting out our car,
watching dogs the whole nine.
That's what we started.
And we started our cleaningbusiness that year of 2017 as a
way to pay off our debt.
So that's what kicked it off.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
We also do need to talk about the hustles that you
can do to help you get into thefinancial position to while
still having a nine to fivewhile still having a nine to
five right to pay off, pay downdebt and be able to do what you
ultimately want to do when youhave that freedom, when you're
not under the, you know, a debtshadow or what have you.
Um, let's get into the sidehouses a little bit before.

(06:42):
Can you mention them?
But not everyone might know, soyou did.
I think it's called rover right, where you babysit pets.
I know you guys aren't even bigfans of pets like that right.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
No, no, no so coming from, coming from brooklyn, dogs
are kind of like I didn't.
Neither of us grew up with dogsand most people in brooklyn you
think of them having like pitbulls, so you're scared of dogs.
You don't like, you know, don'treally like dogs.
But one of my stipulations tomoving down to Dallas was that I
wanted a dog and I wanted anopen concept kitchen.
That was something that I waslike if I'm going to leave, this

(07:12):
has to be in place.
And so we started watching Dogson Rovers, kind of like an
Airbnb for dogs, instead oftaking them to Petco and stuff
like that.
So I think the fact that wecould, you know, say yes or no
and we could meet up with thedog first to see if we liked
them, if they're big or small,kind of helped us to feel more
comfortable.
And then we had our reoccurringdogs, so we knew them, we're

(07:33):
comfortable with them and stufflike that, and it was in our
apartment and no kids, all thattype of stuff, so it was more
flexible for us at that timeit's a very smart side hustle
and a fun story.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
So actually my hair.
One of my hairstylists, the onewho does my crochet locks she
does rover, that's the firsttime I ever heard of it, so I'll
.
She does the locks out of herhair, so I'll show up for my
hair appointment and she's likeyou're not scared of dogs, right
so you have to ask all the timewhen somebody's walking in.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
I didn't tell you this before, but iauritas before
, but I can't knock the hustle.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
I can't knock the hustle.
And then you rented.
I've never heard of thisrenting out your car.
How does that work?

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, so back in 2017 , we were doing it.
It was Turo, which is it'sstill around now, but it wasn't
as popular then and at that time, my husband had just got a car,
because moving down to Dallasthat was like a gift to himself
turning 30, all that type ofstuff.
He just got an infinity and sowe rented it out to be able to
pay it off.
And essentially that's what wedid.

(08:32):
And so, the same way, toro iswhere people either pick it up
from you or you drop it to themat the airport or whatever.
We did that with his car and mycar, because I had a Nissan
Altima and I was working fromhome.
So I came from New York workingfrom home and so I wasn't
really driving it.
So we rented out both of themuntil his car was paid off.
He was like, okay, I'm done, nomore lending out my car.

(08:54):
So that's what we did as well.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
Wow, that takes some trust.
I've never heard of that, butthat's smart.
You get your car paid off.
And then what was the other one?
You said you worked at the gym.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
We worked at the gym.
We work at a gym.
We started working at equinox.
We're both very big, uh,workout people and you got a
free membership.
So, uh, my husband actually wasworking in maintenance at the
gym at equinox and I'm like,well, I was getting off at four
o'clock.
I'm like, what am I gonna do?
I want to do something.
And I started working the frontdesk, um, and I was there.
He had did it for maybe aboutseven, seven months, like he was
putting in like 40 hours a weekon top of his nine to five.

(09:28):
I think he got burnt out, but Istayed until, like right before
kovit, I became like a teamlead and manager of the front
desk and everything like that.
So much while working my nineto five.
Um, I really enjoyed it.
It was a way to get out thehouse as well.
We didn't really have manyfriends or family, so that was
just another thing for me tosocialize too, okay.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
So I see what you mean when you're like we were in
Brooklyn with friends andfamily meetups and yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
And and Equinox.
Really, we started at $9 anhour and so when you think about
that, we are high incomeearners and my husband was,
making you know, over sixfigures.
It's like why would you work a$9 an hour job?
But we had a goal and it addedup over time.
Between Rover and cars andEquinox, we were able to throw a
good amount to debt every month.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
So that's why we did it.
Much respect for that.
I like that you did it together, right?
Because my next question isjust about, like, the time.
You know that kind of demand onyour time, like how, what did
that do for you as far as havingtime to rest or just having
self-care time?
I'm assuming this was beforekids, right, right?
So what was the time demand?

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Definitely before kids, and the biggest thing that
I think with any of the sidehustles that we did was that we
could control it, and that wasthe important thing.
So we can always say no torenting out our car, we can
always say no to the dog, andthe managers at Equinox knew we
worked a nine to five and theywere very flexible with us, and
so to work there, I think youhad to do 20 hours a week really

(10:56):
to be part-time, and so theywould be flexible in that regard
as to what that looked like.
So all of our side hustles wehad control over, and that made
the difference.
I think that if we had to likeif someone else was dictating
our time, it wouldn't be as fun,it wouldn't have lasted as long
, and so that makes the world ofa difference.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
And how does it impact your main hustle?
As far as you know, do you haveto?
Are you racing sometimes afterwork to get to the side hustle
Like?
As you know, do you have to?
Are you racing sometimes afterwork to get to the side hustle
Like?
How did you so that?

Speaker 2 (11:28):
was something that that was something that he had
to face, that he like would hittraffic, like running to the
side hustle, but they were a bitlenient with that at the gym.
And then the gym was maybeabout seven minutes from our
house, so if I got off at four Iwouldn't start till five, and
so I had ample amount of time todo that.
And the weekends, you know,were free, so we had the time.

(11:49):
We made it work.
A lot of times we worked thesame shifts, so it didn't feel
like you know, like the sametiming, so no one's home alone,
or if you're home, then maybeyou're cooking for the next few
days, and so it was just amatter of that.
But once again, it was beforekids, so it's a different
ballgame at that time and youalso had a timeline in mind.

(12:21):
Right, I think this is soinspiring.
But, in order to stay thecourse, I'm sure it's helpful to
know, ok, we're just doing thisuntil this date because the
debt it started off by nothaving a timeline, but then we
saw that we paid off $12,000 inthree months and we're like, oh
okay, so we can do this.
Let's, let's really get seriousabout this.
And the goal was to pay it offby my 30th birthday, which which
we did.
We like hit the button on theon the loans two days before, so

(12:41):
it could reflect actually on mybirthday in in um december of
2018.
So that's, that's essentiallywhat it was, and we put like a
contract in place.
Well, I put it in place becausemy husband, you know, he would
just go straight for it.
I'm like I need to live a life,you know beyonce has a concert.
I need to be able to go so yes,yes, yes, we put a contract we

(13:04):
put a contract in place, we hadit on the fridge and we just
kept going for it and we did it.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
As you were side hustling.
At what point did the seeds ofentrepreneurship, of thinking
about starting a cleaningbusiness, start?

Speaker 2 (13:23):
I always say all of our businesses and I think
information starts from myhusband and then I agree or
don't agree.
That's how it comes Like.
He brings it to me, I say yayor nay and then we proceed with
it.
So he had originally heard iton a podcast about like a
college student making like$10,000 in revenue without
cleaning homes but owning acleaning business and he's like,
hmm, how is that possible?
Brought it to me and I shot itdown.

(13:45):
I'm like, absolutely not.
We don't know anything about abusiness.
Why would we start a businessLike?
This has never been in ourdiscussions as a married couple
Like what are we doing?
We have no idea what we'redoing.
So he left it alone.
And then he brought it back,but with more information and
more steps of like what we wouldneed to do to get there.
And then I agreed to it.

(14:06):
I'm like, okay, sure, this willhelp with the debt payoff.
It's something different, let'sjust do it.
We never, you know, a lot oftimes I say, when you do a
business, look for the futureand you know real business.
People kind of think like that.
But that was our first businessand we had no idea what we were
doing so it just was us like,let's try it and see.
So we agreed in like octoberand went live in november.
Like the day after thanksgiving, we had our first time.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yes, that's that's how it went.
So many questions.
What do you mean?
You just started.
What were the steps to getstarted?
How did you get the cleanersright, the people, and know that
they would do a good job, soyou get good reviews right?

Speaker 2 (14:42):
so a lot of it.
At that time we were justtrying to figure it out.
So honestly, we were Googlingit or he would listen to a
podcast or try to join aFacebook group of cleaners.
But the way that we do it isthat we have contractors, so we
don't work with employees, sothey need to know how to clean
already.
So we run the business modeljust like a Uber or Airbnb,

(15:04):
where Uber doesn't own any cars,airbnb doesn't own any homes,
but they just have people thatknow how to do it.
So we vet them out just throughour interviewing process,
making sure that they haveexperience, checking their
references, making sure theyhave insurance.
They have to have their owncleaning supplies.
Yeah, if you are a type A thatyou feel like you have to know

(15:24):
for a fact they're going to beperfect, then maybe it's not for
you, but I think our qualitycontrol of the vetting process
and then we call every singleclient after every single clean.
To this day we've we're sevenand a half years into the
business and we still do thatsame process to make sure that
you call yourself.
At the beginning we did.
Right now we have virtualassistants and a manager with

(15:45):
that business, so we are notcalling ourselves, but for two
and a half to three years or so,it was us calling ourselves
until we finally delegated thatout.
So that's how we make sure thatthey're they're cleaning well,
but at the very beginning it wastrial and error.
There wasn't any kind ofcleaning business courses or

(16:06):
anything out there where we canjust follow, besides just
listening to someone giveinformation on a podcast and try
to piece it together, and sothat was the process at that
time.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
So at that point, had you stopped the side hustles so
you paid off your debt?
Did you just stop them coldturkey and you were able to
focus on like nine to fives andthe cleaning business?

Speaker 2 (16:27):
It was all part of it .
So we started the cleaningbusiness November 2017 and we
didn't pay off our debt untilDecember 2018.
So a whole year later we werestill doing it all.
So, like I said, Anthony wasdoing Equinox but then he
stopped it maybe six, sevenmonths in.
So all of 2018, he reallywasn't working it, but I still

(16:49):
was working that.
We were doing the cleaningbusiness, had our nine to five
the Rover, so we were doing allof it at once and it was chaotic
.
It was chaotic and very hecticand you would be at a bar on
Friday night and a client iscalling to complain and you got
to step outside and take thatcall.
Yeah, that was what our lifewas at that time.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
As you're advising people now, right, I think.
As you're talking aboutstarting the cleaning business,
I'm still a little bit confusedbecause I understand the concept
of not having employees, likeit's Uber, it's Airbnb, but like
, how do you really facilitateus?
Like, walk us through startingthis business?
Like, what does it look like,operation wise and workflow wise

(17:30):
, starting it?

Speaker 2 (17:32):
really was.
We wanted to make sure we didit legitimately.
So we did a LLC, we did thebusiness bank account, we got
all those things in place.
We put maybe a thousand dollarsinto the account to start it
off.
Now this is why I say like wefollowed Dave's stuff, but not
to the T, because how could youstart a business while paying
off debt?
Like that doesn't make anysense.

(17:52):
So we did all those things.
But then we started to figureout, okay, we need a website.
So we started to figure out,like, where do we go to find a
website?
Where do you go to find people?
And we started looking onThumbtack, indeed, like carecom,
and these are where we werefinding people.
Then we're like, okay, what dowe ask them?
To find out information.
So we have to interview them.

(18:13):
So when we started, we wereinterviewing them at a Starbucks
, because we're like, oh, wehave to see them face to face.
You can't do that virtually Inthe world that we live in now.
You like, duh, you could dothat on the phone, right, yeah,
but we were meeting them atstarbucks and doing maybe six
interviews between a three, fourhour block.
So we were doing some of that.
And then marketing.
Where can we start to market at?

(18:34):
Where do you look for peoplewhen you want to clean?
that's google, I'm just yelling,yeah that's, that's thumbtack,
um, and so starting to put moneyinto that marketing and that
that was our process to then getclients and have people then go
out.
So to connect, you know, we gota client now.
Now we need to have the cleanergo out and do the job.
And so it was a lot of phoneconversation, it was a lot of

(18:57):
handholding to build processesand feel comfortable and know
that this can work.
But I think when we got thatfirst client on Thanksgiving,
the day after Thanksgiving,we're like holy moly, okay, we
got to get somebody out therenow.
Yeah Right, and then our first,our very first cleaning that
one, we had somebody in thenight before they said they
couldn't go.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
So we're like, okay, we went to Facebook groups for
cleaners we just started lookingfor, like, hey, we have a job,
can anybody take this?
And we found somebody and theyended up being a contractor that
we worked with for a prettylong time, to the point that,
when they moved out of the state, we bought their business
because they were letting go oftheir clients.
Yeah, so it worked out.
But in the moment you're likewhat?

(19:40):
This is your first businessever and somebody is canceling
the day before.
So you can imagine that feelingwow.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
So if people are looking for cleaners, do they
find you?
Because you have a listing foryour cleaning brand on thumbtack
.
What's the name of it, by theway?
So is it like you have listings?
So our cleaning?

Speaker 2 (19:58):
business is maize to match and it's down here in
dallas, texas, so we don'treally have a listing people.
People find us looking for acleaning, okay, and then we
would connect and send ourcleaner out to do the job.
Right, we don't really hostcleaners per se, like we don't
really market that.
We just market our cleaningbusiness and we send people out
to do the job based on theamount of cleaners that we have

(20:20):
that we've worked with over theyears and continue to gain.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Basically, yeah, Because the cleaning industry is
such a unique thing, Like whenI first it starts with like word
of mouth, like when I was firststarting to like work with
cleaning services, and thenthere comes a time when, well,
maybe I'm looking for someonedifferent than who I got word of
mouth.
So then I'm Googling and it'slike sometimes you find

(20:43):
companies, sometimes you find aperson yeah, on yelp or what
have you.
So that's what I was curiousabout, like how do people find
you, your people, like do theyfind tom, who's actually one of
your workers?

Speaker 2 (20:57):
so they don't find our workers, they find our
company, our company.
Okay, yeah, that's what theyfind, they find our company.
And so, like those mom and popshots that you're talking about,
are people that we may make ourcontractor to go do jobs
because it's more work for them.
And people say, well, why wouldthey work for you if they have
their own business?
Because there's but so muchword of mouth can goes, but so
much a small one individual cango.

(21:17):
So if they have 10 jobs a week,we can provide an extra 10.
Now they have have 20 and soit's more money for them and so
that's why they would work forus.
Just like, you know, a uberdriver, is somebody going to
pick him up off the street?

Speaker 1 (21:29):
no, but if he's part of the app, yeah, exactly so
similar to that and do you haveany kind of like app or ways
that you're keepingcommunications going with people
so when the job goes out it'seasier to put the feelers out
and get somebody?

Speaker 2 (21:44):
yeah, yeah, we use the app that Launch27, it's a
company that's built basicallyfor cleaning business and other
service-based businesses.
So we use their app and wecommunicate with them that way,
via text and stuff like that.
But a lot of them we've built,you know, relationships with and
, but we can send out a blast atthis point and people accept
the jobs and then we just assignit to them.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Did you have to also do background checks?
We do background checks.
You do background checks.
Good, we do background checks.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Our full process is really weput out a job ad.
Somebody says they'reinterested, we do an interview
If we feel they're good to go,we do a background check, we run
references, we ask.
We run references, we ask fortheir ID, we ask them to send a
picture of their cleaningsupplies.
Then we have them do like atest clean, like a one-time job,
to see how it goes, and then wewould go ahead and hire them.

(22:31):
So many people will make itthrough that entire process
because it takes a long time.
But that's that's the goal.
I don't want everybody comingthrough.
If you're really legit and youdo it well, then that's the goal
.
And we like working with peoplethat own their own business
because generally they havetheir own insurance and they're
serious about it.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
So yeah, I love that, I love that.
And then, like, do you do thisprocess a few times a year
Because it seems like you have acore group that's pretty
substantial right now.
So how often do you even haveto go through that process so it
can?

Speaker 2 (23:01):
be, especially at the beginning.
We all we have a saying ofalways be hiring, because you
think that you got them and youdon't.
They do well, and then theymove or that something happens.
So we always say to always behiring.
I think for the first time lastyear we had put a pause on it
the end of last year, so that'swhat that was.

(23:21):
Seven years in the business wewere like always hiring,
literally because they're thekind of if we don't have people
to do the job, then we don'thave a business right, because
we need them to go ahead and dothe clean.
So we are always hiring.
So we stopped it and then we'vestarted back again and then now
we paused it again becausewe're at a good place so you can

(23:41):
turn it on and off as a faucet.
That's the good thing about it.
But especially people juststarting out, I say always be
hiring.
Don't worry that you have fivepeople and you're like well, I
don't have enough jobs.
Trust me, they'll show you thatyou need more, because there
are contractors and they canwork as little or as much as
they want, so somebody couldwork one day.
You think you have all thesepeople when you don't.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
As far as the money side of things like obviously
you teach a course this has beenlucrative for like.
Obviously you teach a coursethis has been lucrative for you,
like you.
You guys became millionaires,right, like by age 35, you were
a millionaire Yep, amazing.
But it seems like somethingthat would have a low-ish margin

(24:26):
.
I don't know, maybe because thehouses are bigger in Texas, but
I just feel like cleaningservices don't tend to be a lot
of money.
So I'm curious about the moneyside.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
So that's the difference between a mom and pop
in a company, right, Because amom and pop you can hire someone
.
Say they steal from you and yougot their number.
How are you finding them?
You're not.
Or if they don't do a good job,you want somebody else.
You got to go look for anotherelse.
You got to go look for anothercompany, you got to go look for
someone else.
For us we have this like 200%guarantee.

(24:57):
If we go out we don't do a goodjob, you can call us and we'll
come back and rectify the issue,Right?
Um, if something is broken andsomething is stolen, like, we
can rectify the issue, we do thebackground checks.
You know it's a bit moretrusting.
So a company versus anindividual is going to be
cheaper, Absolutely, so we do.
You know, on average ourcleanings are about $250.
And then we have a split withthe contractors.

(25:19):
Either we do a split of 60, 40,where they get 60%, we get 40%,
or 50, 50.
And so then we have add-ons forthings If you have pets, if you
have this, if you want us to docarpet cleaning, if you want us
to do organizing.
So our margins can be between20 to 30 percent generally,
month to month.
Obviously that can fluctuate,Seasons can fluctuate, but
usually that that's where itkind of lands.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
And then, how long did it take to scale up to a
substantial amount of cleaningsper day and per week?

Speaker 2 (25:46):
The clean business was our first business, so I was
particularly scared.
I'm like I don't want to putmore money into it.
But with marketing, that's thename of the game, right?
Any business?
I get emails from Target threetimes a day, right Do?

Speaker 1 (25:59):
they need to, not for me.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
I'm in there two times a week.
You don't even need to marketto me.
But you know marketing isessential to the business.
But I think as a first timebusiness owner, that's very hard
to wrap your mind aroundbecause you just feel like
you're putting money out and notseeing it, but it's like if I
don't know you exist, I'm notgoing to purchase from you.
So it's a whole cycle, it's awhole mental thing of really

(26:22):
doing that and for this businessit kind of goes hand in hand
with marketing and scaling.
So I would say we did it slowerthan we would now because I was
definitely, you know, scared,uh.
But it can scale in three, fourmonths.
Like you know, we had one ofour students hit a million in
sales in two years.
Absolutely it took us like fiveor something like that, like we

(26:45):
were nowhere near that and youknow we have students doing 100k
.
In eight months we did 100k andmaybe 14, 15.
You know what I mean.
We were just not moving as fast, maybe because we have
everything else happening.
You know, we didn't necessarilyneed the money, it was just
like to pay off debt and stufflike that, uh.
But also we were scared, uh,business owners.
And so when I speak to peoplenow and I'm like you really want

(27:09):
to scale, put the money intrust that it will come back,
you know what I mean.
And it will, especially withmarketing in this business.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
So trust that it will come back.
How much money we talking here?
What are the startup costs fora business like this?

Speaker 2 (27:25):
So the startup costs are pretty low.
We say to have maybe about like2000,.
But that includes getting yourLLC business bank account and
like having money for marketingto find, uh, contractors and a
little bit to find clients.
Right, so every month you can.
The good thing about running itwith this model with the
contractors is that you can turnit on and off, right.

(27:46):
So COVID, for example right,that would have been a big hit
If we had employees would havebeen like, okay, we lost a lot,
but at the time we just turneddown our Yelp.
We're like, okay, we're notmarketing a lot because there's
not much business coming in andpeople aren't working, et cetera
, like that.
So it's always a faucet that youcan turn on and off.
Now we put in like four or$5,000 into Google a month.

(28:07):
You're talking about Google ads, google ads, google local
services they're two separatethings.
But we put that much in.
Yelp can be 3000, $4,000 amonth, but then we have $60,000
a month, so in 40,000,.
But we've built up a clientele,right, we market back, we email
, we text, we call.
You know we do all of thosethings on top of marketing on

(28:27):
these paid platforms.
So somebody hearing this islike 5,000 is outrageous, but if
I'm getting a $60,000 return,then that's not outrageous, it's
just part of the game.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
That's not outrageous , right?
Not outrageous at all.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
Yeah, because $40,000 , $60,000 a month.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
That definitely works out.
And when you're marketing andemailing your clients, is it
just things like specials orreminders?
How do you email them and keepit interesting?

Speaker 2 (28:53):
or reminders Like what, how do you email them and
keep it interesting, spicy andinteresting?
So it is specials, it isreminders, it is tips on how to
clean, it is back to school, itis um codes for a back to school
20.
So you can get, you know, comeback to us and you get this
amount off.
So it's a combination of of allof that.
Yeah, that you would.
You know, we see email from aMacy's.
We're like oh, how can weadjust this to our cleaning
business?
How can we make it sound likethis what they're saying?

(29:15):
Because this brought me in orthis subject.
I opened this subject because Isaw this or this headliner and
we just put it into our business.
But I think that that comeswith time, because when you're
starting you're thinking.
You're not thinking like that,you're just just thinking like I
gotta talk about thecleanliness.
How can I get somebody to getin?
I just need to give them a code.
You're thinking literal yeahvery literal, like there's
everything around you that youcan grasp from things that

(29:38):
happen and I'm like oh, let meput that in there like right now
what's going around, verymindful very demure, right.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
How can I?

Speaker 2 (29:45):
put that in my cleaning business email to say
like before it goes out of styletoo, yeah it's very demure.
It'll make you open the theemail, right.
So just little things like thatis important.
But I think that comes withtime.
I don't know that comes withsomeone just starting out as an
entrepreneur or business ownerspeaking of just starting out.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
So you mentioned where you've gotten to $40,000,
$60,000 months.
Do you remember how much youmade your first month?
What was the first month like?

Speaker 2 (30:20):
So the first month probably was small November,
because we got it afterThanksgiving.
So I think we maybe had likefour bookings, three bookings.
So eight months into thebusiness we were in the point of
thinking of closing it down.
It was the summer.
It was the summer and that canbe slower months.
Who knew?
Because we didn't know that canbe slower months and we're like

(30:40):
is it worth it?
Should we continue?
Does it make sense?
And my husband was like let'sat least do it for a year, let's
just see you know how it worksout, and then we can stop it
there.
If it doesn't work out, we canjust stop it there.
And that was August.
And then September we ended uphaving our highest month.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
How much was that at that point?

Speaker 2 (31:02):
At that point that might've been like maybe seven,
8,000.
That was like oh, wow, okay.
And the funny thing was whichit's not funny, I wouldn't
advise it now was that we didn'treally get a bookkeeper until
we were about two years in.
So we had no idea how muchmoney we were bringing.
We just left it in.
We just kind of left it in torecycle.
The business took a little bitout to pay for the debt, but we

(31:24):
weren't even like really keepingtrack of what it was.
And when we got a bookkeeper andwe're like, holy what, wait a
minute.
And when we got a bookkeeperand we're like, hold on, wait a
minute, we have a lot of moneyhere, a lot of profit that we're
making here, and I think thathelped us to scale as well.
So we definitely hit a bump.
Eight months in and we justthink about it now Like imagine
we actually stopped.
Then Life would have beendifferent.
We wouldn't have continued ourbusiness, we wouldn't have been

(31:54):
teaching thousands of studentsthat go on to make millions and
change their lives and buyhouses and things from the
cleaning business.
It wouldn't have happened.
But that all sales to say westill had our nine to fives
right and we still were sidehustling, and so that gave us
the comfortability to know thatwe can continue on.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Yes, yes, because you weren't depending on it for
your livelihood, correct?

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Correct.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
What do you think, other than it being summer and
maybe you'd be nervous.
New business owners what do youthink caused that bump?
What should people who arestarting this kind of business
expect as an early bump?

Speaker 2 (32:25):
So I think what's important is something that we
weren't doing a lot of isreaching out to leads, right?
So you know people may sign upfor your website, but then it's
like, what do you do with them?

Speaker 1 (32:37):
Are you emailing them ?
Are you calling them?

Speaker 2 (32:39):
So same type of thing , like even if we didn't close
them meaning they didn't bookour services, we were just
leaving them there.
But now we're like you paid forthose people and you need to
remarket to them.
You need to send them an email,you need to call them people
and you need to remarket to them.
You need to send them an email,you need to call them, send
them a text.
Because they didn't book thendoesn't mean that they're not
going to book at all, becausehow many times do you opt into
something you just don't andthen eventually you do?

(33:00):
That wasn't something we werethinking about at all, like
contacting previous clients orcontacting people that didn't
book with us.
So that helped to bump it upalready because you pay for it
and now I don't have to pay forit again and now they're coming
back into me, so that gives me abump in profit and things like
that.
That was a change for us,definitely.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
It's interesting that you mentioned people that
didn't book.
So how did people that didn'tbook end up on your email list?

Speaker 2 (33:24):
So you know there is a in our system, like you can
send the quotes.
We have a crm and you can sendthem quotes.
So you don't.
Their information can be storedthere and then even on like
yelp or google, their contactand me, if they gave it to you,
their contact information can bestored there now.
And so when we have peoplestarting out, I'm like put those
contact informations like onexcel, like put it somewhere.

(33:46):
Now we have a whole like crmthat it automatically goes into
and we market to them that way,so that's how you would reach
them again.
They technically stand there.
So now I would tell people thataren't paying for a CRM yet,
just starting out, just put themon Excel, put their name,
number and email, call them,text them, email them.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
Thank you for that reminder.
Yeah, and I think getting aquote, that has to be the best
lead magnet ever, Because youjust want to know, like you know
.
Okay, I'll give you my email,Give me the quote If you don't
know how to get people see whatyou can give them a quote for,
especially for this kind ofbusiness.
You got me wanting to start acleaning business.
I'm not even going to lie toyou.
When you see me sign up for thecourse, you will not be

(34:27):
surprised, but I need to know, Ineed to know, I need to know.
So you talked about the lowstartup costs.
Do you have to guarantee peopleanything or what?
How do you?
What's the incentive for themother than more business?
Is there any money exchangeupfront, like to?

Speaker 2 (34:42):
incentivize them.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yeah, the contractors .

Speaker 2 (34:44):
No, there's no money upfront.
Um, the money, money isn'tbecause they're getting more
money, because it's more thanthey can do, it's more than they
can market.
So most of our contractors theygo by word of mouth, and so
we've had some contractors thatthey were working for a company
and then they all becamecontractors independently and so
it's just word of mouth as faras they can go.

(35:05):
But what keeps them around iswhat we always say is something
as simple as just treating themas humans.
Like a lot of our workers havetold us that other companies
that they work for they wouldyell at them, they would talk
down to them, they would allowcustomers to talk to them, which
we a certain way, which wedon't play.
Like, we don't allow that.
Like we say you leave if youfeel uncomfortable with

(35:26):
someone's doing something.
We'll handle the backlash of itall.
Um, but we have relationshipswith our contractors.
It's their birthday.
We will say happy birthday,we'll send them something,
christmas, mother's Day, allthese things.
So we've built relationshipswith them.
It's not just a job, it's likewe want you to feel comfortable,
it's a partnership.
At the end of the day, we relyon them.

(35:46):
We say you're the expert, youtell me how much you would
charge for this.
You're there, we thought itwould be this amount, but you
can see it and we trust you.
You tell me.
So the partnership, thecommunication and just treating
them as humans has helped themto stick around.
The transparency we pay themevery week.
We don't play with their money.
We say we're going to pay youevery week.
We pay every Fridayautomatically.

(36:07):
There's no question.
That's another thing that theyface, that people say they'll
pay and they won't.
So that is.
I think those things like thathelp us to be different and have
people stick around.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Okay, okay, so that's also interesting too.
I guess I've never used anofficial cleaning service, cause
I'm used to just paying peoplein cash right After they're done
.
Oh no, we don't take no cash.
Everything's online.
No't take no cash.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
Okay no, we're not even coming to your home if you
don't book online, if your cardfails we try to put a hold on it
before we go out.
If it fails, we are not evencoming to the house.
We are calling you and sayingthat it has failed.
You need to be able to put ahold, and then we'll be there.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Okay.
So yeah, we do everythingthings online and what about the
quote process?

Speaker 2 (37:01):
I'm fascinated by this because, y'all, I'm really
starting a cleaning business andI hope you are.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
So we'll get into the course next.
But the quote process, right,cause it's a lead magnet, so I'm
assuming it has to be kind of afast thing or like how do you
facilitate that?

Speaker 2 (37:15):
they, they can book us online, so they don't even
have to talk to anyone.
They don't have to speak to anyof our like.
All of our information isonline.
Like you put, uh, the size ofyour home how many bedrooms,
bathrooms, is it apartment, isit a house?
Is a townhouse?
You say your square footage.
You tell me if you have pet.
You tell me, if you want,inside of your fridge, inside of
your oven.
Is it a move in, move out,meaning that your home is empty?

(37:36):
Do you want us to organize?
Do you want us to do carpetcleaning?
All of that is on our websiteand you can see the cost of how
much it's going to cost you.
You can see if you doreoccurring services like
biweekly, monthly, the discountyou'll get.
All of it is there.
And so then you put your cardinformation.
You could put notes there, likeI'll leave the key under the
plant pot.
We don't got to talk at all.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Everything is on the computer.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
In that way, do we speak to people?
Absolutely.
Do people still want to speakand confirm certain things?
Absolutely, but we don't haveto, and so that's how we're able
to be open 24 seven, becausewe're open online.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
How did you approach other than Google ads and Yelp
ads?
How else did you approachmarketing the business?

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Primarily online has been our thing, because in
Dallas we don't, we didn't knowanybody Right, so we didn't have
a church or a job to reallykind of market it to things like
that.
So primarily online.
But we have tried puttingflyers under doors.
We have tried like cold mailing.
You know you get flyers in themail.
We haven't done thatconsistently enough.

(38:39):
But commercial, that's anotherthing that we do and our
students have gone on.
We have students that kind ofexcel in that.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Oh commercial properties.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Commercial cleaning, commercial properties.
Yeah, we have students thatkind of excel in that.
We dabble in that here andthere.
So the marketing really hasbeen online for us mostly, and
we're always looking to try todo different things, but that's
just where we started and we'recomfortable with.
In regards to time, like you,either have time or money, and
for us, we had the money to putonline, okay.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
And the money initially was coming from the
business and recycled back intoit into the app.
Yes, Is that okay and that'sthe benefit of side hustling.
You don't need to take themoney from the business to pay
yourself.
You can put it right back intothe growth.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
And eventually we did , though.
Eventually the cleaningbusiness.
We eventually started takingmoney from it, but for a good
two, two and a half years wedidn't take, you know, anything
besides like debt.
Other than that, it wasn'tcoming to us.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
So let's talk about, yeah, the shift when the
cleaning business starts tooutpace nine to fives, at least
on your husband Anthony's side,right Like so.
When did that happen and whendid he feel comfortable leaving
his nine to five to do this fulltime?

Speaker 2 (39:52):
So I would say the cleaning business and the side
hustles, the bar, kept movingright.
So you say at first we're likelet's just be able to pay one
bill, right, let's just be ableto pay a phone bill or something
.
And then it was that.
And then let's just see if wecan get a thousand, and it was
that.
Then let's see if we can coverour salary, and it was that.
But then you're like well, I'mhaving my salary and this extra

(40:13):
money, so let me just continueon.
And so we've had manyconversations of one person
leaving the job, both of usleaving the job, who leaves when
, who leaves?
I'm leaving first.
No, you're leaving.
We've had those conversationsuntil Anthony, which was it was
all crazy to do it at that timeanyway, but it'll be three years
this december that he has left.

(40:34):
So december 2021 is when heleft, um, his job, and it really
was that he's like I'm just notreally happy here, like I'm
just existing.
Um, he actually was a directorthere and he said his boss had
yeah, he was high up there.
So his boss had a conversationwith him, like oh, just checking
in, just wanting to know if youstill want to be here.
He was like actually, I don't Idon't, and I don't even want to

(40:57):
I don't even want to, in arespectful way, I don't even
want to lie to you guys, and soa month later again it.
It was an it.
So when we moved down here, hebuilt up this office.
So he had like 30, 40 peopleunder him and his goal was to
really make sure that peoplewere in a better place.
So, like, help them to move upthe ladder, especially, um,
black people in the office, liketo really help them, and he's

(41:19):
like I felt like I've done all Icould do at this point and I'm
ready to go all in, but it wascrazy because that was december
2021.
Our daughter was being bornfebruary 2022, so we had a baby
on the way.
That's very interesting timingVery interesting, and we just
had closed on our house and wemoved in December 2021.
So, everybody at work was likeyou're having a baby and you

(41:41):
just got a house and you'releaving.
But that's just the power of us, like betting on ourself and
feeling like now is the time andwe feel that we can make it and
praise this to to god.
We're two and a half years into that and navigating it all
yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
And how well was the business doing like?
What kind of revenue were youbringing in monthly at that
point?

Speaker 2 (42:03):
so at that point I want to say the business, um,
the cleaning business, was doingabout maybe like 45 000, but
then we also have at that timewe had one rental property.
We now have three rentalproperties that we have going.
And then we have the coachingside of things as well, that we
do with the course and stuff.
So that was bringing in moneyas well.

(42:23):
So multiple things and I stillhad my job, so you didn't have
to worry about the benefits partof it.
So all of those combined helpedus make the decision when did
you start start the course?

Speaker 1 (42:34):
when did you start teaching what you know?

Speaker 2 (42:37):
so we started teaching what we knew.
July 2020 and I like, onceagain, I'm always like, if you
want to say negative nancy, I'mlike.
I don't think anybody wants toknow about the zoom.
It's like I, you know, likemost people were following.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
You were two years in at this point, right right,
because it was 2018 when youlaunched 2017.
2017.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
November 2017, we launched yeah.
So now it's July 2020.
And I am like most people werefollowing us because of our debt
payoff, like that's how peopleknew us.
We were on Good Morning Americabecause of our debt payoff,
like everybody knew us.
Because of that, we paid it offso quickly to young kids, you
know.
And I was like I think peoplewant to know that.
He was like no, every time wepost about the cleaning business

(43:15):
, people are saying things andI'm like whatever he's like, I
think we should do a course.
I'm like they don't want tohear it.
So we kind of did it.
We did a thing.
We kind of went on ig live,when we used to go on a lot, and
we said that if we can sell 10courses, then we will do do the
course.
We didn't have a course.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
We just said that we were selling and we didn't have
it.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
We didn't record it yet, yeah, and I think we sold
like 12 or 13.
I'm like, at what price point?
Too low?
We were at like 97, 79,something like that.
Okay, very, very low, or 120.
If you get it now, before welaunch, it was like 150,
something outrageous.
And so we went on and 13 peoplesaid they wanted it.

(43:56):
I'm like, okay, so we have torecord it.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
That night we recorded it was like a Saturday
night.
I swear, I love this.
I love this.
It was a Saturday nightRecorded in one night.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
I love that we sat there and at our we're in an
apartment, I can see it and wesat there sweating hot.
I'm like I need a drink.
Let's, let's get this go.
And we recorded it and if youwatch it it's kind of like it's
not.
And I'm happy we kind of did itthat way, because if we did it
the way that, what we know nowperfection would be the lighting
, the look.
It's nothing like that, but theinformation is still the

(44:27):
information.
Like we're cracking jokes, westill have the information, but
if you watch courses now, youknow you're not cracking a joke.
We're here to give information.
People want information.
What are you laughing about?
But it has gone on to make ourstudents 13 plus million dollars
.
We have students in 42 plusstates.
The same exact course.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
We've added on to it.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Those are snaps.
We've added on to it.
We've added on to it Absolutely.
But that same core course isthe same information and it
still works.
So that's kind of how thiswhole thing came about.
His idea and I'm like ain'tnobody want that, and people
wanted it and people continue towant it because it is something
that they can do remotely.
You can, you know, you can doit on your computer, on your
phone.
I don't have to go do thecleaning.
Is it work?
Absolutely, it's a business Ihave to put in work, but it's so

(45:12):
doable and we've had tons oftestimonials that show how
doable it is on top of us stillrunning a cleaning business.
We still do it.
And so that was the beginningof that journey.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
July 2020.
And then now with the course,is it more like a evergreen kind
of thing where you're nothaving to do updates as much
unless something major happens,or do you do any kind of like
monthly check-in or livecoaching?
So we don't?

Speaker 2 (45:37):
really know we really don't have to do much updates
and probably because cleaning iscleaning right.
But we do have a communitywhere we kind of talk through I
mean, because in the course youcan't possibly say every single
thing that happens right but wehave a community of people that
encourage.
You know 200 plus students inthere that encourage each other.
We go in and answer questionsbecause the biggest thing I

(46:01):
think is most of our studentsare first-time entrepreneurs.
So the biggest thing is thatmindset shift.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
It's not even really the business entrepreneurs.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
So the biggest thing is that mindset shift.
It's not even really thebusiness.
It's that mindset shift that itrequires for them to feel
comfortable, to take that risk,to have an understanding, to not
second guess themselves, notoverthink.
Yeah, and it's not as hard asit like.
It's not as hard.
It's not right.
You're asking questions thatdon't even matter at this time.
You're not even there yet.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
Yeah, wait for that to come, wait wait for that to
come, wait for that to come.
So wow, 13.5 million, you said.
From what?
200 students?

Speaker 2 (46:34):
that's amazing well, no, 13.5 million from our
students across the board.
We have 200 plus students inour community but, um, it's
probably 2,700, 2,700 peoplethat have taken of our course.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
Yeah, so now, before we jump into the lighting round,
you guys have so many sidehustles and businesses.
You know we had to go one byone, but we have to touch on the
real estate next.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Now, is that it?
Is there another?
Is there another?

Speaker 1 (47:14):
That's it.
That's it, it's the podcast.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
It's's the real estate, it's the cleaning
business, and then our digitaldigital stuff.
Yeah, that's it for now.
Okay, what made you decide todo to invest in real estate?
Um, I think because we're notreally risk takers per se, right
, and so this digital space wasnew, is new, and if it ever cuts
, what?
What happens now?
Where do you fall back on?
Uh, so real estate is whichthat can be choppy too.
Let's be clear.
You're not always getting rentevery month.
Real estate is more ofsomething that's consistent in

(47:35):
long-term, that we wanted tomake sure that we have in place.
We continue to want to get more, but right now we're just at
three and we will hopefullycontinue to grow with that.
But that has been bumpy and andhas its own stories as well.
It's not smooth sailing at all.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Right.
What exactly do you do withinreal estate?
Did you buy a multi-unitproperty and then have renters?

Speaker 2 (47:58):
So we wanted multi-unit, but it's very kind
of difficult in Dallas, not asmuch multi-units that you would
find maybe in New York and stuff, so we didn't find that.
So we have one in Dallas andtwo in St Louis, actually two
properties, and we have propertymanagers to manage that.
We live a very delegate life.
Um, we're not those types ofpeople that need to do it all.

(48:18):
And you know, yes, we can havemore money if we did it all, but
that's just not how we, youknow we operate.
So, yeah, we have, um, propertymanagers that handles all three
of those.
So we just check in, we answeryou know they have to do
something, yes or no, and that'show we navigate it.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
And then you put the investment and then the mortgage
should be covered by the rentright, and you mentioned that
you're not getting rent everymonth.
So what has the real listsometimes.
What's the realistic financialexperience been like for you
guys?

Speaker 2 (48:50):
So with one of our mainly our property out here,
out here in Dallas, it's reallynot in the best area, so we've
had bumps with that, withgetting somebody out and getting
somebody new in.
So that was like a nine monthprocess of just us paying that
mortgage because we had to fixit up and we had to find
somebody else and do all of that.
Our St Louis properties havebeen, I think, better, I would

(49:13):
say, probably based on locationtoo.
So that is stuff that we faceand then, like right now we may
be going through evictionprocess with somebody because
they didn't pay rent in like twomonths and they're like don't
have plans to do so.
So you know definitely it's notalways smooth sailing when it
comes to real estate, which isanother reason that I was like
hesitant about it, but I thinkthat there's more ups and downs

(49:38):
and that's part of business.
Essentially, we're willing totake that risk when it comes to
real estate.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Interesting.
I admire your practicalapproach to risk.
I think I'm in that same boatin terms of I want to research,
vet and weigh the pros and consbut at the same time, the
mindset shift that I have allowsme to say, okay, now here's how
we can approach it.
So I much respect for that.

(50:06):
And I'm curious what made youinvest in st louis, like, do you
have family there or is it justa good price for the place?

Speaker 2 (50:15):
st louis.
We met someone actually onlinethat she does st louis
properties out there, that shedoes real estate and kind of
essentially holds your hand,like, finds the property rebuilt
, like does the construction.
So we just had to pay,essentially pay for that um
program, and then it became weown it and it went like that.
That's really how we did it.

(50:36):
But no, we don't know anybodyin st louis.
I've actually never been there.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
I've actually never been there, so I don't know.
No, I've never been there and Idon't think we have enough time
to unpack all my questions foryou.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Janilka yeah, no, I've never been there.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
But that's how we did those two properties.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
I can give you her name if you want, but yeah,
that's how we did it.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
So you have a podcast .
You guys have a podcast calledMore Than a Side Hustle.
What's that about?
Do you help people manage allthese side hustles?

Speaker 2 (51:07):
So we've done interviewing of other people and
we've done just us too.
Most of it is just us too andwe talk about everything from
entrepreneurship to our life, toour differences, because we are
similar but very different, andso I think that helps our
dynamic Also, just managing itall.
We talk about that, we talkabout our travel, we talk about
our kids, so it's everything inone and that's why we named it.

(51:30):
At first it was called heartzog hustle our name and then
we're like that feels selfish,and so that's why we named it
more than a side hustle, because, yes, business is at the
forefront of us, but that's notall we do.
We have man, you know, we havemarriage meetings, we travel a
lot, we do content.
We go to New York and stand ontables and brunch like we do

(51:52):
other things.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
You're multifaceted, you're versatile.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
I love it so we speak about all of that on top of
interviewing people that youknow it's more.
It's become more than a sidehustle for them, like they
started out in this.
So, photographers, we had adoula, we had her come on.
So just different things thatwe've had people speak about in
the podcast.
So it's a good time.
We enjoy it because I think weenjoy just each other and we do

(52:15):
everything together, but weenjoy just each other and just
chatting and getting theinformation out there.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
So it's really inspirational.
You know what true partnershipcan look like in this journey of
life, marriage andentrepreneurship, and your
transparency as far as whatyou're comfortable sharing, of
course, is going to help othersand does help others, and I'm
curious what the future lookslike in terms of what's the
ultimate goal, in terms of howmany businesses do you want to

(52:43):
start?
How?
Many kind of things do you wantto do entrepreneurially and
manage your family life as well?

Speaker 2 (52:50):
It was up to my husband would have probably 10
businesses.
So that's the balance.
That's why I'm here to keep himin check and be like that'll
make sense.
Let's not do that right now,but I think right now we're in a
space of really probablygrowing our digital side, our
coaching side of it, becausewe've had the course.
But we've also realized that alot of people just want to be
around us and just hear moreabout us, the experience, and

(53:13):
maybe it's not just about thecleaning, just more about the
inside of us.
So that's one part of it.
Another part of it which iskind of it's funny how it works
out with God, was like,literally, I think the week
before I had my daughter justnow, I kind of put out there
that I wanted to do more thingson my own, independently, which
my husband has always encouragedme, and I'm like I know I don't

(53:34):
want to hear me, it's okay.
But I like put that out thereand then I was able to connect
with you.
So that was like for me, like asign of this is my first
podcast ever by myself.
So I think that now we are, weare going to yeah, you're a sign
of this is my first podcastever by myself, yeah.
So I think that now we are, weare gonna yeah, you're part of
my journey, so we're gonna focuson, like how I can individually

(53:55):
grow and put information outthere, um, and just balance it,
because I'm, like you know, youfeel like I don't want to do a
get ready with me.
I don't know how to do makeup.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Well, so like I don't want to do that, or is my life
really that interesting?

Speaker 2 (54:07):
I'm gonna be pumping, breastfeeding, going to the gym
and coming back.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
You know that is.
That is so many of our lives,right right.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
So just figuring out how to showcase that, I think,
is going to be a challenge forme now, obviously still having a
newborn.
We also have an au pair herenow.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
I don't know if you know what that is, but of course
yeah um, we just camedesperately, would like an au
pair, and now I don't know ifyou know what that is, but of
course, yeah, um, we just camedesperately, would like an au
pair, and so when I talk aboutthe delegation on that, like,
yeah, my first daughter.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
We had a nanny for two years and now she's in
school and so now we went the aupair route, so that's a whole
nother experience.
So and now I've now I don'thave a nine to five, and so you
know, it's so many differentthings happening, I think me.
So we are, we together, aregoing to try to figure out, like
, how do I find my wayindependently, how do I, you
know, put content out there?

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Right, like, what do you even want to do?
What I want to do, yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
What I want to do next.
What does it even look like?
Is it just mommy stuff?
Maybe on our podcast, and it'sa segment part of our podcast.
So it's all those ideas thatare flowing that we're trying to
figure out.
So not necessarily startinganother business, which
hopefully it may becomelucrative financially hopefully,
but focusing more on myreinvested a lot of your capital

(55:18):
into capital intensive types ofbusinesses now, like with the
real estate.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
But how does that inform how you move forward,
like you've gone from being indebt to millionaires?
What's that experience?
Like and how is that informingyour life?
Like, why aren't you just likehell, yeah, I'm quitting my job?

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Which is what everybody has said.
I think that and I said that tosomeone I'm like, 80% of me was
like I wanted to leave anywayI've been wanting to leave.
Maybe God had to force my hand,I probably wasn't going to pull
the trigger.
20% of me is like that becomespart of your identity, like I
was there for nine years.
I got my master's in this, sobut at the same time, I can
always do therapy.
Therapy is always going to beneeded.

(56:06):
It doesn't need to be in thatcapacity, I can do it in any way
.
So that is that part of it.
And just I think just beingconfident, I guess, is part of
it.
Like I am confident in a lot ofthings and especially just
being comfortable in doingthings together, cause that's
what I've known, that we've done.
So now doing it independentlyis something new, and so feeling

(56:26):
confident, feeling kind ofcringy about it, figuring things
out, is a whole new experience.
So, absolutely, I could havequit my job years ago at this
point.
I just I just did it forwhatever reason.
It just felt like, well, we'renavigating it all anyway, why
not continue?
So, um, yeah, so I'll befiguring it all out and

(56:47):
hopefully sharing as I figure itout Sharing as you go, document
, document.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
That is my mood for this current phase of life.
Like build out loud, learn outloud.
You never know who you'rehelping.
It helps people to connect withyou and it's just fun to look
back at how far it comes so likelook at this, like you ever
look on your socials.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Like look at this video.
This is horrible.
We're like looking down hereand it's gray, it's not clear
and, yeah, that's part of it.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
You just grow it's just nice, it's.
It's so funny.
When I get the flashbacks onfacebook from when I used to do
the facebook lives, I'm like I'mproud of that girl, right, and
I'm sure you're proud of.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
When you guys look back like yeah, I'm proud of you
you showed up you did it, you.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
You move forward when you were like I don't know if
anyone's gonna care about this,and now you help people start
million dollar cleaningbusinesses.
So love that.
So now we're going totransition into the lightning
round.
You just answer the very firstthing that comes to mind are you
?
You ready?
I'm ready, all righty.
Oh, and before the lightninground, real quick, what's the

(57:52):
name of your course, if peoplewant to check it out?

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Clean and Business University, so they can go to
cleanandbusinessuniversitycom.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
Love the SEO for that .
Okay, number one.
What is a resource not Googlethat has helped you in your
business that you can share witha side hustle per audience.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
I'm going to say Total Money Makeover, which is
Dave Ramsey's book, but it wasthe start of everything for us
with paying off debt and knowinghow to budget and we budget in
our business as well.
So that was a kickstart.
Even if you're not followingthe exact policies, just
changing that mindset of moneywas a big deal for us and helps
us in business to this day.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
All right.
Number two who is anon-celebrity Black woman
entrepreneur who you'd want toswitch places with for a day,
and why?

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Mia Ray, a glamaholic .
She's from Detroit.
I've never been to Detroit, butI feel like they're straight
shooters, like New Yorkers forsome reason she gives me that
vibe the fact that she's builther business from the back of
her trunk, that she always showsto now, to her having a new
home and having pop-ups andeverything, and she's always
setting it straight with people,and I think that she's

(58:58):
innovated her ads that she putsout.
I just love everything abouther.
She gives me positive vibes soI really I would love to meet
her one day yeah, same, I loveme and ray how she approaches
business.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
I love that.
Um number three what's anon-negotiable part of your day
these days?

Speaker 2 (59:14):
These days is different, but working out, um,
I haven't worked out like that.
I get a six week clearance nextweek and I should be back in
the gym, but, um, working out isdefinitely a big part of my
life.
Five to six times a week Iwould work out, so I really
enjoy that.
I like to see the change.
I like, yeah, sweating.
I love it all.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
So Number four what's a personal trait that you have
that you think has really helpedyou in business?

Speaker 2 (59:38):
I would say boundaries.
I am very strict on that whichis opposite for my husband, Like
I have to tell him to shut itoff, but like I'm not checking
email until I'm sitting at adesk.
So, if you like, oh, I messagedyou.
Yeah, it's not.
It's eight, 39 o'clock in themorning.
I haven't sat down yet.
Like give me a second.
Um, I'm very strict onboundaries.
I'm very like okay, Iunderstand this is happening for

(01:00:00):
the business, but we can'tchange anything.
Right now.
We're at dinner, phones aredown, child is asking us
questions, so that's somethingthat I don't play with
boundaries in the business?

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
Yes, and then finally , what is your parting advice
for fellow women entrepreneurswho want to be their own boss
but don't want to leave thatnine to five?
You don't have to.
That's my parting advice.

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
I don't think that you have to.
I think you can manage it all.
Obviously, it depends on yourjob, but then I think there's
different seasons and there'stimes where I'm working a nine
to five and I got to work a fiveto 10.
Like, it's just what I have todo, so you don't have to leave
your job.
We've never encouraged and Iwould never encourage anyone to
leave their job unless they wantto obviously encourage, and I

(01:00:48):
would never encourage anyone toleave their job unless they want
to obviously but do both ofthem.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
Why not Do both?
Do something, do both and withthat, where can people connect
with you and your multitude ofbusinesses and courses?
And resources after thisepisode.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
So cleanandbusinessuniversitycom is
where you can get our course inregards to us, the heartrimony,
and I'll spell that.
That's for YouTube, that's forTikTok, that's for Instagram,
it's the h-a-r-t-r-i-m-o-n-y andthat's a play on our last name
and matrimony.
it was our wedding hashtag.
And the podcast wherever youlisten to podcasts at more than

(01:01:25):
a side hustle podcast, so thatwould be.
And the podcast wherever youlisten to podcasts at more than
a side hustle podcast, so thatwould be Yahoo, apple, spotify,
any of those you can find it,and the visuals for our podcast
is on YouTube as well, so that'swhere you can find it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Well, janelka, thank you so much for being in the
guest chair.
This was very highlyinformative, so I am so grateful
that you were here and thankyou for having me, Of course.
And there you have it, you guys.
I will talk to you next week.
Hey guys, thanks for listeningto Side Hustle Pro.
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(01:02:00):
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(01:02:23):
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