Remote Riches: The Cleaning Business Playbook

This was a feature on the Melanin Money Show, We unpack how a “boring” cleaning business completed 11,000+ jobs without the owners lifting a mop, paid off six figures of debt, and turned into a remote, systems-first company that funds family time. Along the way, we dig into marriage dynamics, boundaries, and building a community that creates $18M+ in student results.

• owner mindset over operator mindset
• validating demand with pre-sales and lean startup costs
• hiring pipeline, vetting, and paying contractors on time
• pricing, upsells, and managing two customers with empathy
• turning mistakes into trust through fast, professional responses
• CRM automations, reviews, and sticky recurring revenue
• working with your spouse: roles, rhythms, and boundaries
• buying back time with help at home to protect family energy
• Cleaning Business University: community, coaching, implementation
• expansion into commercial and thoughtful legal lines on contractors

“Clean your business, clean your house, clean your finances.” 
Sign up at cleaningbusinessuniversity.com/starterkit

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_03 (00:00):
Our cleaner business has done over 11,000 jobs.

(00:02):
We've never played a lot of I'venever played a countertop, never
watched a disc.
We got multi-million dollar,billion dollar CEOs on their dev
and they're like, I'll just wishI had more time, more time with
my family.
We say we're doing all thesethings for our family.
We will work for our family.
We will live for our family.
Yes, I want to create freedom.
I want to create options, butour kids are here today.

SPEAKER_05 (00:19):
What is it like with your spouse?

SPEAKER_04 (00:24):
I think don't do this, but people need to be
intimidated or inspired by whatyou do.
Neither is your father.

SPEAKER_03 (00:32):
Let me give you guys a fun example of that.
I thought your car is a goodidea.
It's a beautiful car.
And then oh you bragging, yougot this, you got that.
Like, no, that shows you what'spossible as being a black man in
America and show you what youcan do in this world.

SPEAKER_05 (00:59):
What's up, everybody?
Welcome back to another episodeof the Melanin Money Show.
We got two special guests, maybeuh partially responsible for
recruiting us to Dallas, Texas.
Yeah.
Um, and so it's gonna be reallygood episodes.
Matter of fact, I've interactedwith their company more times
than I've interacted with themsince I've been here.
So we're gonna talk about it ontoday's podcast, but why you

(01:20):
should potentially considergetting into this business for
that very reason.
So we're gonna talk with twopeople who went from nine to
five resturns, seven-figureentrepreneurs, co-founders of
Cleaning Business University,marriage first mindset, paid off
$114,000 in debt to now havingover 18 million in student
results.
With no further ado, hot dogs.
How are y'all?

(01:40):
What's going on?
What's up?
What's up, the intro?
Absolutely.
Oh, absolutely.
Long time coming, right?
Long time we do, right?
Right.
So I mean you before we movedhere.
You spoke at our event that wehad here.
Killed it, by the way.
April of last year.
April of yeah, yeah.
Yeah, like before we moved here.
I was working, yeah.
That's why I couldn't come.
Yeah, so she can she can come.
So we said, but we had to had toget her on the show, the the
better half.

(02:01):
Absolutely, right?
Um on the show for the year.
He did shout you out on stage,too.
He did, he's a good man rightthere.

SPEAKER_02 (02:06):
Good man for me.
I know.

SPEAKER_05 (02:07):
I mean, what the lady's saying now, my man, my
man, my man, my man, my man.
But now, all jokes aside, man,it's amazing having you guys on
the show.
Um, as most people should knowby now, I'm very intentional
about um, you know, thebusinesses that I support,
right?
My home is a black builder, um,you know, the guy who just got
us the new cars that we got,black car broker.

(02:28):
So any anybody anytime I canfind and support good business
though.
Right.
It's not gonna be.
You know what I'm saying?
That happens to be owned byblack people.
Yeah, there you go.
Um, and so when I came here, Iwas like, I knew I was gonna
need, you know, somebody to umclean the house.
Now that they don't cleanhouses, yeah, but they own a
business where people do it foryou, right?
And I thought it was so coolbecause y'all don't, y'all don't
clean, I mean, not at all, y'alldon't touch a mop or a rag or

(02:49):
nothing, right?
So cool.
So anyway, so they own um acleaning matter of fact,
literally, I don't even thinkenough today uh I have my house
cleaned by their company.
So let's talk about how you guyseven got into this, why you got
because I mean cleaning businessof all things to choose.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (03:05):
It sounds boring and dirty, yeah, right, but
obviously y'all came in lookingclean like money.
So I you don't you don't haveto.
I think the biggestmisconception with this business
is that you have to be in thetrenches when you don't.
So can you just like let us knowwhat made y'all get into this
business?
And then we talk about like howy'all got got out of it.

SPEAKER_02 (03:23):
So the business started because of Anthony, and
when he brought it, I thoughtthat he wanted us to clean.
I'm like, absolutely not.
I know who you're talking to,but not me.
We're not doing it.
Yeah, um, he was like, no, wewouldn't go out and clean, we'll
get people to do it.
I'm like, how the hell are wegonna find people to do?
This doesn't even make anysense.
Yeah, so that was like early2017.
Um, and then he brought it backagain in 2017.

(03:44):
He's like, All right, yeah, Igot a plan.
This is how it's gonna go, thisis what we're gonna do.
And then I was like, okay, wecan do this.
And we were paying off debt atthat time.
And so who starts a businesswhen paying off debt?
I don't know.
But that was part of our processlike this can help this to pay
off debt.
Yeah, and that's essentiallywhat started um our cleaning
business.

SPEAKER_03 (04:01):
And looking back, looking back now, if you think
about any business owner, Iworked in IT for 15 years.
Yep, and the CEO of my ITcompany didn't know anything
about technology.
He barely knew how to use his, Iwould look barely known how to
use his computer.
And how do you start amulti-million dollar IT firm
without understandingtechnology?
He partnered with a person intechnology, a CTO.

(04:22):
And that's the way truebusinesses ran.
He didn't have he didn't have tosay, I'm gonna go and learn
technology to start thisbusiness.
Right.
He's if I find the rightpartners, I can go the business,
right?
So he's working from an owner, aCEO mindset from the very
beginning.
But we think local servicebusinesses like this that we
gotta be in the trenches doingit day to day.
Looking back now, I didn't havethat mindset, but now I
understand exactly why and howhe was able to do that in his IT

(04:43):
firm.
Yeah, so exactly.

SPEAKER_05 (04:44):
So for the record, since the inception of the
business, you y'all nevercleaned a countertop, never
washed a dish, never mind.

SPEAKER_03 (04:50):
We've done our cleaning business, has done over
11,000 jobs, and we've nevercleaned a single home.

SPEAKER_05 (04:55):
11?
That's that's that's crazy.
That's a hook.
Yeah, over 11,000 jobs andnever, and again, I'm a living
testament to it.
They got there, they just left.
Like I saw the second.

SPEAKER_02 (05:05):
We had no idea either.
One time I had to intervene andlike text your wife, and I'm
like, uh, because the cleanerreached out to me, I'm like, I
usually don't do this, but shewas asking me to come a little
early.
Is that okay?

SPEAKER_05 (05:18):
An amazing, amazing team.
Uh, you know, matter of fact,uh, I so we switched the
lighting in our house.
Some of so some of the like thechandeliers and stuff we took
down, and Anita, she actuallywas like, uh, is that for sale?
Now I was gonna sell it to herbecause we got like a wholesale
relationship with the um wherethey basically will take your
lighting and sell it wholesale.
But I'm just gonna give it toher for first.
She's so happy.
She's like, I can't have it forbirthday.

(05:39):
Let's go.
Yeah.
So but that just that justspeaks to how satisfied I am
with the service theyexperience, right?
She's done a great job.
So now let's talk a little bitabout okay, so you guys started
the cleaning business.
Obviously, it went well.
It became a vehicle orinstrument to not only help you
get out of debt, I'm assuming,but also now fund your freedom,
right?
Let's have two beautiful littledaughters came to the birthday
party earlier this year.

(06:00):
Legend had a blast.
So, how did it go from okay, wegot this cleaning business, we
got a dialed in.
Nobody even knows we own it.
It's like a little secretmystery to now we want to help
other people do the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 (06:11):
I think for us, this happened right at the top of the
pandemic.
Everyone was like, I'm going toteach, I'm going to educate.
And Janoko was like, nobodywants to know this stuff, but we
were fortunate enough to besharing our journey on social
media since 2016.
Yeah.
We had our wedding video upthere, we had our anniversary,
we had our what was the name ofthe event we did?

SPEAKER_02 (06:32):
Where?

SPEAKER_03 (06:32):
Where they were, we would we were doing a Beyonce
and Jay-Z thing.

SPEAKER_02 (06:35):
Oh, our engagement.

SPEAKER_03 (06:36):
Our engagement video announcement going back to 2015,
2016.
So we've been sharing our entirejourney on social media.
And during this time, we werekind of talking about the
cleaning business a little bit.
And we're always speaking aboutpaying off debt.

SPEAKER_02 (06:49):
Which he actually did a course on paying off debt
prior to.

SPEAKER_03 (06:52):
So we just got on IG Live and we just mapped out the
whole thing, how we were able tobuild this cleaning business.
And we said, if anybody'sinterested in learning more,
yeah, you know, because this hasbeen a vehicle for us, you know,
tap in.
And that's when you recognize,okay, well, the debt freedom
stuff is cool, but people wantto learn how to make money.
Yeah.
People want to be able to createoptions for themselves.
And I'm like, all right, let'sdo it.

SPEAKER_02 (07:09):
Because he said that we should do the course.
And I'm like, if you get 10sales on this IG Live, I'll I'll
do it with you.
So we didn't have a course, wejust went on and sold something.

SPEAKER_04 (07:17):
We all sold it before.

SPEAKER_02 (07:18):
We sold it to the pre-sale.
There we go.
And if you guys are interested,so we got like over 10 sales.
I'm like, okay, I guess we gottarecord it.
So like that night, we're onZoom at our counter.

SPEAKER_04 (07:36):
That's a lesson in business.
You sell it before it's readybecause if nobody wants to buy
it, then don't make it.

SPEAKER_02 (07:41):
Right.
That was my thing.
I was like, I don't thinkanybody's interested.
He's like, I promise you, let'sjust do this RG Live and let's
just see.
I'm like, okay.
So we went on and pre-sold it,and people were interested.
I'm like, okay, I guess peoplegotta record it now.

SPEAKER_03 (07:51):
A lot of people talk about giving value up front, and
we were giving value for solong, we didn't realize there
was any interest in a thing.
Right, yeah.
So we would just drop little,oh, we got a cleaning business.
Oh, we got 10 cleanings, andyeah, people was like, What the
hell?
Like the debt freedom, but whatis this other thing you guys are
doing?
Yeah, yeah.
So when we we was when we was onGood More in America, they they
talked about the cleaningbusiness for maybe about 16
seconds out of a three-minutesegment.

(08:12):
And people was like, wait, wait,what's that?
What's that thing?
What's that thing?
What's that?
What's that?
Yeah, and we was like, okay, Iwas like, there's something
here, we just gotta explore it.
And that's how we've been ableto help over 2,000 students make
over$18 million just from justputting it out there and seeing
what, you know, seeing what'sstuck.

SPEAKER_05 (08:26):
Yeah.
No, that's that's that's superdope.
So let's kind of take a slightlydifferent angle because I mean,
obviously I'm friends withy'all, so I kind of understand
the dynamic.
It seems like the dynamic is youcut you have all these bright,
amazing ideas.
That's a problem.
She's like, she's like, oh like,sit down, relax.
So what is it like to truly workwith your spouse, right?
Because I do a lot, almosteverything together.

(08:47):
I mean, we care, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying?
So look, look, break down likethe the highs, the lows, the
challenges, but ultimately itworks, right?
So, like, yeah, because I knowthere's some there's some
couples watching this right nowthat's like, I want to work with
my spouse, I don't know if itcan work.
So, like, give us some somelessons learned that you guys
have learned throughout thisjourney working together.

SPEAKER_02 (09:03):
So, I would say I don't think every spouse should
work together.
That's the first disclaimer.
Yeah.
I do feel like personalitiesmatter, and I do feel like you
have to like the other person.
Now, that's not shady to anyone,but I'm gonna say that's a is
that not a man requirement.

SPEAKER_01 (09:20):
Y'all see social media, it's like 50-50 or 10-0.
I love you, but I don't likeyou, baby.

SPEAKER_02 (09:25):
That's and sometimes that shows from people.
So I feel like to be aroundsomeone all the time, you really
gotta like them.
So that's one thing.
And then we do pour into likestrengths and weaknesses, right?
So um he was in IT and he knowsall that world.
That's not my world in anycapacity.
Yeah, I could use the iPhone andstuff, but I'm not into that.
Um, I'm a mental healththerapist, so when it comes to
communication with customers andjust different things, I would

(09:48):
be a bit more level-headed and abit more like, this makes more
sense, this doesn't, and you'retoo giving that way.
I'm like, yo, here's your moneyback and leave me know.
I don't need it.
Yeah, that's like take it easy,let me handle it.
So the strength of weaknesseswas a big thing for us, and then
I know it's cliche, but reallycommunication.
Like, communication is very bigin our house, you know, when we

(10:09):
were paying off the debt, andeven in general, it was like,
okay, we're having monthlymeetings, weekly meetings of not
just money, but are you happythis week?
Like, how's things going withus?
How's things going with the kid?
Did I say anything recently?
Um, and so that's big for us toreally nip things in the bud
almost immediately if there'ssomething that like I don't like
the way you're looking this way,or I don't like the way this is

(10:29):
going.
Yeah, those are huge for us.
So that communication, likingeach other, weaknesses, those
are a few things that I havethat we're doing.

SPEAKER_03 (10:35):
When sure everybody knows we're married, so when we
hop on our team calls, we try tolet the marriage dynamic hop out
on the conversation.
So even this week, um, like youknow, pretty honest
conversation.
Jinoka's like, I'm not feelingyour energy this week.
She's like, you're not leadingus right now.
And I'm like, whoa.
Yeah, I was like, she's like,something's wrong.
It's like you're not, you don'thave that.
You have decision fatigue.

(10:57):
She's like, you might have youmight be making too many
decisions that you don't want tomake a decision.

SPEAKER_00 (11:00):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (11:01):
And I'm like, okay.
As I had to step back a littlebit, I had to get back, you
know, get back in my bag, as wesay, right?
So it took me a couple days,like, what's going on?
Let me figure this out.
Where now I'm coming back on meas like all right, here's a
decision I'm gonna make, here'show we move it forward.
So those are businessconversations, but those are
family conversations because I'mnot feeling confident in my
business.
I'm not gonna be feelingconfident in the family, I'm not
gonna be making decisions.

(11:22):
Right.
So I had it took me a while tostep back, like a couple days,
and figure out, all right,what's holding me back right
now?
Why am I not making decisions?
And we had a conversation, andshe's like, Yeah, you're making
too many decisions, and that'sthe problem.
So, going back to the not thecons, but some of the challenges
that those things spill over ona daily basis.
So a business, marriage, family,it all comes out.
So we got a team, and they'relike, You guys good sometimes?

(11:44):
I like let me let me fall back alittle bit.
So that's fair.

SPEAKER_05 (11:47):
But I think um even within that, there's a lesson
because I think people like havethis idea that there's a
business life in a personallife.
No, it's not how it works.
The personal life ain't goingwell.
You're gonna you're gonna see itand it's gonna show up in the
business.
It's just understanding that,and um, I guess give yourself
grace in that process.
But I was interested to knowlike what that dynamic was.

SPEAKER_02 (12:05):
And then like stopping it because he doesn't
stop business.
I stopped it.
I'm like, it's four o'clock, I'mout.
Like he's like, Well, youentrepreneur, it doesn't end
here.
I said, today it does.
Like, all right.
My shit just came over and endshere, and many times I'm like,
I'm talking to you.
Why are you picking up yourphone?
Like, what's happening on yourphone right now?
He's like, You're right, let meput it down.
Yeah, and so it was kind of likethose reminders, but I think
when you're the person he bringsall the ideas, like it doesn't

(12:28):
stop for him, right?
Right.
So a lot of times I gotta likebring him in, like, all right,
we're at the table or we'regoing here.
Like, I don't know if younoticed we was at that party for
an hour, you had used on yourphone for 40 minutes.
Like, what was happening?
I know nothing's happening onInstagram, like right, right?
Everybody okay?
So some of that definitely stillhappens.
So, like you said, business andpersonal, it just kind of
overlaps all the time.
Facts.

SPEAKER_03 (12:47):
And that supposed gotta be able to do that.
Like, yo, aunt, tone, you good,cut it off, right?
And that's that's in challengesometimes.

SPEAKER_04 (12:53):
Yeah, so I think one of the questions I want to ask
in that in that regard, do youall, because you have business
together and you have personaltime, do y'all have to schedule
out like personal time to makesure like business doesn't come
in in the in into this area?
Or because I see what a lot whathappens with a lot of couples I
know that work together, theyend up letting the business
consume their personal life.
And it becomes more aboutbusiness and they kind of lose

(13:13):
their marriage in the middle ofthat.
Yeah, how do y'all avoid thatpitfall?

SPEAKER_02 (13:16):
So I would say definitely scheduling it is
important.
I would I kind of take the leadin that more, I would say.
That definitely just with thedate nine, so times we're going
out.
I'm like, we ain't talking aboutbusiness.
I me step in the car.
I'm like, don't talk aboutbusiness.
We're not hearing this.
Leave the business phone athome.
I'm not hearing it tonight.
And he was starting, he's like,You're right.
I'm like, yep, you don't want tohear it.
So yeah, it is kind of thatbeing cognizant of it because
your life is the business.

(13:38):
So it's like, what else are wetalking about then?
It's like if we ain't talkingabout this, what else are we
talking about?
But like there is other thingshappening, there's other stuff
that we can look forward to andkind of just leave that behind.
So absolutely, scheduling doesbecome a priority.
Like we say, like, if it's noton the calendar, it's not
happening.
So specific things like it needsto be on the calendar.
No, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 (13:57):
You got multi-million dollar,
billion-dollar CEOs on theirdeathbed, and they're like, I
just wish I had more time, likemore time with my family.
It's like we as entrepreneurs,we say we're doing all these
things for our family, we'llwork for our family, but we live
for our family, right?
That's real.
So this, and I gotta remindmyself, like, yes, I want to
create freedom, I want to createoptions, but our kids are here
today.
Yeah, like if my our daughterjust started walking, and it's

(14:19):
like if I would have been on thebusiness meeting and she called
me, Tony, he she just startedwalking.
I ran out of that meeting like,oh, I'm gonna go see my daughter
work walk.
So we gotta be mindful, like wecan work work all we want, but
we gotta live for our family.
Because the reason we'rerunning, we gotta live for our
family to enjoy it.

SPEAKER_05 (14:31):
And keep and keep that reason at the forefront.
So what allows you guys to dothat, obviously, you guys built
a business um that you can ownbut do not run in the sense that
you're not like you knowcleaning the houses.
So obviously, for somebody who'swatching, I know they can
they're not gonna be able to getevery nuance and every detail,
but if you were to explain tosomebody on this podcast, like
if you want to start your owncleaning business from A to Z,
what does that process at a highlevel at least look like?

SPEAKER_03 (14:54):
So I would call it the remote method, right?
If you look at multi-billiondollar businesses, it's Uber,
Airbnb, DoorDash, Amazon.
Uber does not own any taxisbecause back in the day, a
traditional taxi company, backin New York, you say go on, you
have to go in a corner, raiseyour head, taxi pulls up.
Very um chaotic.
Or you would call a company,yeah, they would sell a black
taxi for you.

(15:14):
Airbnb is the largest hotelcompany in the world, and they
don't own any hotels.
How is that?
All they do is connect you withpeople who already have
properties.
Right.
And then DoorDash doesn't ownany restaurants, right?
They do the same exact thing.
So that's exactly how we run ourcleaning business.
Very similar to like Thumbtack.
You go on ThumbTech, you canhire literally any service
provider you want.
That's exactly the same way werun our cleaning business.

(15:35):
So be the middleman, right?
The middleman operator.
So you're running the marketing,you're running the sales, you're
running the hiring, theoperations.
The only thing you're not doingis the physical labor.
You're doing everything else andmanaging it, but you're not
doing the physical labor.
So that's why we call it likethe remote middleman method.

SPEAKER_04 (15:51):
So my question with that is because I I hear a lot
of you know, the be themiddleman business, right?
My concern with being themiddleman is I now have two
customers.
Yep.
I have the like it's for Airbnb,I have the guest that's trying
to book, and I have the the therenter who I have to deal with.
How do you manage having to dealwith both parties?
Because if one person messes up,it's your fault.

(16:13):
Uh-huh.
You know what I'm saying?
So how do you balance both?
Yeah.
You want to take that one or youwant me to take it?

SPEAKER_02 (16:17):
So I think the one side of it when it comes to like
our contractors, like thebetting process in it, right?
So background check.
And we like contractors thathave their own business because
then you're more like you're notin and out, right?
So you take this seriously.
This is your craft.
You love to clean.
We like that.
Yeah.
And then on top of that, justmaking them feel and know that
it's a partnership becomesimportant.
Like, so your voice is asimportant as mine.

(16:39):
And like, we're not gonnatolerate people talking down to
you or doing negative things.
So showing up for them to letthem know that even though
you're just a contractor for us,we still gonna respect you and
show you that type of thing.
Because in this industryspecifically, they don't get
that, you know, they don't getthat level from even people
they've worked with in the pastand customers, they kind of look
down on them.
So that's another help, such ashelp.

(17:00):
So that's another like importantpiece just with the contractor
side.
So we tend to not have manyconflict with them at all,
really.
It's more of like, you know,I'll do it for you guys because
I'm working for you guys, butthis customer is not being nice,
or you know, so they would gothe mile for us because of the
relationship and rapport that webuild and set from the very
beginning, paying them on time,like we said we will, because

(17:21):
they've dealt with that.
People saying they're gonna paythem and they don't.
So that side we don't find muchconflict with.
Now, the customer side, peopleare gonna be people, right?
And you can't please everyone.
And we've just learned sometimeslike we gotta bite the bullet
and reimburse them, or you know,you know, that review they less
is gonna hurt us more than justgiving them back a hundred
dollars.
So that over the years we had tokind of learn that and suck it

(17:44):
up, even though we don't believethe customer is always right,
let's be clear.
Absolutely not.
But sometimes you just can'trationalize with certain people.
I've tried, and most of the timeI can, but there's some that I
can't.

SPEAKER_04 (17:53):
Trying to be rational with it with the
irrational person, isn't itirrational?

SPEAKER_02 (17:56):
Right, right.
A recent thing like that, and Itold him, I'm like, it doesn't
make sense to call this person,they're not in that space, so
don't even do it.
Um, so that's how we kind ofmanage it.
Not really with the con not manyconflict with them, but more
with the customer and justtrying our best to please them
because there's always somethingthat somebody wants.
Like, what do you want, really?

SPEAKER_04 (18:14):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (18:14):
At the end of the day, there's something that you
want, that's why you'recomplaining.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (18:17):
So kind of picking it up.
George has this analogy.
Should I let you say it?
Because I might butcher it.
Give it a try, give it a try.
Um last name, people say, ShouldI say it?
So it's like a restaurantanalogy, right?
Like if if you're if you ordersomething at the restaurant and
they bring you the wrong thing,you're not mad about them
bringing you the wrong thing.
You're mad about how they reactto bringing you the wrong thing.

(18:40):
Right.
Right?
So it's like if I say you, you Iordered a steak, you gave me
chicken, and it's oh my god,sir, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna
fire the person that broughtyou.
Like, no, no, no, no, no, worryabout it.
Just like, just bring mychicken, I'm all good.
But they kind of, so what you'relike, well, this is all we got.
You're gonna be you're gonna bemad.
So it's not about doingsomething wrong, it's about how
do you respond to that and howdo you fix it.

SPEAKER_02 (18:58):
And we say that with reviews too, right?
We tell our students, like,respond to all reviews, like
people look at that.
Like, no one's saying thatyou're not gonna get a negative
review, but how you respond tothe review may make a difference
of how if I go with you or not.
If you're like, oh yeah, you'recrazy, I told you already.
It's like, okay.
You still gotta remainprofessional even if this person
is wrong.
Like, even if you know that youdid everything right, you still
have to remain professional.

(19:18):
So I agree with that.
How you respond to things make adifference.

SPEAKER_03 (19:21):
You as a business owner, that's one of the main
things that you can control isyour communication.

SPEAKER_02 (19:25):
Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 (19:25):
So let's say you do have that angry customer, how
are you responding to it?
Are you communicating with themwith empathy, right?
She's like, all right, I'm gonnacall them, I'm gonna calm them
down.
I'm not like, no, refund theirmoney, let's move on.
We don't need it.
But it's like, how do you handlethat communication?
If you're running late, justlike you guys have employers,
you guys have team members,right?
If they do something with aclient, right?
How do you guys handle that?
It's the same exact thing.

(19:45):
The only difference is we didn'twe didn't train these people
from day one.
Yeah, they had a skill set andwe're just working with them as
a partnership.

SPEAKER_02 (19:52):
And then I think also recognizing generally, I
would say when things go wrong,there it's something that we did
wrong too.
There's something that, like,okay, so what can we learn from
it?
What did we do wrong in thissituation as well, as well, even
if it's just 20% out of 100,like that's important too to
identify.
So that's how we manage it.
Just kind of being real and upfront with the customer and and
trying to meet them where theyare.

SPEAKER_05 (20:13):
Okay.
Um, you know, you know, people,and I know y'all experienced
this with especially withcleaning business university
problem, people who areinterested or intrigued by it,
is like people will talkthemselves out of opportunity,
right?
Like, oh well, I would startthis, but it costs too much, or
it's like, so what are ifsomeone were to start, like what
is the kind of the rough startupcost?
What are some of like thesystems that you would need to

(20:34):
be able to run this business,uh, this remote cleaning
business?

SPEAKER_02 (20:37):
So startup, we tell people they need like$1,500 and
that's it.
They only need$100, notthousand.
$1,500 to start up because wedon't, it's not a brick and
mortar, right?
So to start, right?
I'm not saying that's all you'regonna spend.
But to start, yeah, thatincludes like getting an LLC,
starting your business bankaccount, um, starting some
marketing to get the clients andmarketing to get the

(20:58):
contractors.
And the good thing about it isit's not all in one shot.
It's not like Monday now, I'mslapping down 1500.
I gotta get my LLC, and thenmaybe two weeks later, like I'm
building as things happening,the website, that type of stuff.
That's a place to start.
Um, obviously, the more moneyyou have, I think the further
you get quicker, right?
When it comes to marketing,because a lot of this is paid

(21:19):
marketing online.
Yeah, um, so the more, themerrier.
But in regards to just startingthe business, roughly about
1500, and I'll have somestudents argue in the comments,
like, well, I only started with600.
Sure.
Yeah, I'm just trying to buffer.
I'm just trying to bufferpeople.
Yes, it can be cheaper, but justtrying to like let people know.

SPEAKER_03 (21:36):
So when it comes to like some of the systems that um
that 1500 includes, like, solike our CRM, we built our own
in-house CRM off of high level.
So it comes with ourautomations, comes with our
templates, comes with oursystems, our emails, our text
messages, everything else.
So those are some things thatthey could get from day one.
But if you like, one of ourclients, one of our uh students,
she built her cleaning businessto like$400,000.

(21:57):
And she's actually located in inTexas as well.
She's like, Anthony, I didn'twant to tell you guys I didn't
have an LLC, I didn't have Ididn't have a website.
She's like, I didn't do nothing.

SPEAKER_02 (22:06):
She's like after, like she did all that stuff
after.

SPEAKER_03 (22:08):
She's like, I got it, I got a cleaner and I got a
client.
And that's how I started mybusiness, right?
She's like, I'm right there.

SPEAKER_04 (22:12):
She's like cleaner, the client.
So I need to take all you need.

SPEAKER_03 (22:15):
In order for a business, you gotta make money.
She's like, I just needed thosetwo things, and that's what I
did it.
She's like, I went back andbacktracked and did those
things, but is that fromeverybody?

SPEAKER_05 (22:21):
But that but that's what we tell.
That's even like when people askus all the time, right?
You know, like in the challengesor whatever, they're just like,
like, we show them the whole theway your wealth should be
structured.
Yeah, and then they're likeyeah, and then and then they
think, okay, well, I need thetrust, I need this, I need that.
I'm like, you gotta pass what toput in that thing.
And so, like, granted, yes, ifyou talk to the attorney,
they're gonna tell you you needall these things, but like, it's

(22:42):
okay to get a little traction,get a little momentum, and then
you know, double back, right?
Is it the perfect or right wayon paper definitively to start
your business without thetrademark?
Probably not, but I'd muchrather you allocate time and
resources to making the money,yeah, right, and validating the
idea than spending money onthings that don't matter yet.
Right.
So we we agree with thatwholeheartedly for sure.

SPEAKER_04 (23:00):
Okay, so they have the LLC in the perfect world.
Um, they have the CRM set up sothey can understand how, you
know, and get the templates.
Hold on, I'm gonna cut you off.
I I I won't if I know if I don'tsay this now, I forget.

SPEAKER_05 (23:11):
So when people work with you guys to clean a
business university, they getaccess to the CRM that you guys
have built on top of Go HowLevel or whatever, right?
Or they get access to thetemplates.
Yep.
Y'all leave a lot of money onthe table.
Um we got we have a conversationoffline.
Well, get they'll leave it away.

SPEAKER_02 (23:25):
It's a separate payment.

SPEAKER_05 (23:26):
It's a separate payment.
Yeah, it's not included.

SPEAKER_02 (23:29):
And the funny thing is, then like what is we don't
get this included?
We have to build that out.

SPEAKER_04 (23:32):
We have a team that builds it.

SPEAKER_05 (23:34):
That's not an MMR to me.
That's not an MR.
It sounds like a franchise modelwhere y'all push out updates to
the C.
Anyways, that's anotherconversation.

SPEAKER_01 (23:41):
Yeah, but if you're any in the room.

SPEAKER_05 (23:43):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (23:44):
Yeah, he's a good one.

SPEAKER_04 (23:46):
Um But that was that was that was a good point.
So I'm thinking of the listenerright now, right?
I got my LLC set up, I got the$1,500 set aside, I get your
CRM.

SPEAKER_03 (23:54):
Who do I market to first?
All right, so chicken or theegg.
Yeah, same exact thing.
Okay, the question is are yougoing out to clean houses
yourself?
Probably not.
So the first thing you're goingto do is probably want to get
your your um cleaners, right?
Some places you can find yourcleaners as we tell people to go
on Facebook groups.
It might be a little outdated,but it still works today, right?
People are posting every singleday.
You got this platform calledNext Door.

(24:15):
Like, oh, my cleaner is amazing.
Working with her for 15 years.
Yeah.
She's looking for more clients.
You hit up that cleaner.
Hey, I'll sell your name in NextDoor.
My name is such and such.
I just started my cleaningbusiness.
Okay.
Would you want to operate withme?
Here's how I'm running mybusiness.
You can go to Craigslist.
You guys don't know whatCraigslist is, it's a directory
page.
Um be outdated, but it stillworks.
Go to Craigslist.

SPEAKER_01 (24:31):
So Craigslist is still there.
Craigslist is still there.

SPEAKER_03 (24:33):
It still works, right?
Um, indeed is one of theplatforms we found that if you
don't want to go out and huntfor people, they are looking for
jobs, they will come to you.
You can post your job ad onCraigslist, have an extremely uh
we have an extremely detailedjob ad because we want people to
see them like, whoa, they'rekind of strict about this
cleaning thing.
We might not want to work withthem because we don't want
everyone into our businessbecause our hiring process is
extremely, extremely thorough.

(24:54):
So you got the job ad that youstart posting on these
platforms, like I justmentioned.
And then from there, you findsomebody go through the
interview process.
We do a background check, we doa reference check, we make sure
they got insurance.
They don't have insurance, wemake sure they're willing to get
insurance.
And then and only then we do aum we do a phone screening with
them.
And then from there, we might doa first job or a test clean.
Uh, first job is like, allright, we got a client, like,
hey, you know, we're gonna giveyou a free cleaning in exchange

(25:16):
for some valid feedback from youon what happened.
Things go well, things didn't gowell.
After that, it goes well, andafter that only goes well, and
then we start marketing to ourclients.
So that's why I say the chickenor the egg.
You're going out and cleanyourself, absolutely do it.
But if you want the uh you wantto get the cleaners first,
that's how I would recommend.

SPEAKER_05 (25:31):
Okay.
What has been, I mean, obviouslyyou guys have over 18 million in
student results, which isamazing.
Um, what has been one of yourfavorite or best, I guess, like
client testimonials?

SPEAKER_03 (25:43):
My favorite would probably be um Alex.
And I'll say Alex.
Um, Alex is actually in uh hewas in Houston at the time.
Oh he's in Dallas now.
Uh young dude, he was doingtrucking, he was doing real
estate, he was doing stocks, hewas doing options.
I'm gonna do trucking, I'm gonnatry this cleaning business
thing.
I'll say, Alex, please do me afavor.
You're very brilliant.

(26:04):
You got a mastermind ability.
Focus on one thing.
Can we just do that?
He's like, all right, he startedselling off some real estate,
started selling off um histrucks.
He's like, I'm gonna focus onthis cleaning business thing.
And two and a half years, twoand a half years later, he hit a
million dollars in the cleaningbusiness.
Wow.
And he was like, eh, I'm good.
He's like, that was it.
And then after that, you know,he he did what he had to do with
his cleaning business.
Um, and that was my favoritetestimonial because I told him

(26:27):
from day one, I was like, youare very talented, just focus on
one thing.
Whatever you want to do, yeah,just focus on that one thing.
I promise you could do greatwith it.
And uh he's probably been one ofour favorites.
He was one of our earlierstudents.
He was like, I'm gonna take thisseriously, and he he dove in.

SPEAKER_02 (26:40):
Yeah, he followed it, and that was one thing
because we get students thatkind of like, and I'm like,
well, who told you to do that?
Yeah.
I'm like, oh yeah, well, I cameback around to it, but he was
like, I follow what you guyssaid and execute it and and it
worked, yeah.
So that's dope.

SPEAKER_04 (26:53):
Yeah.
Ask it for a friend.
Um, let me ask for myself.
What is a this is probably gonnabe a uh a question that the
question that needs morecontext.
What is a good clean, what isthe average cleaning rate that
you can get for cleaningsomebody's apartment?
Like, like in this, is it doesit depend on square feet and all
that stuff like that?
So let's say a 1500, 1600 squarefoot apartment.

(27:15):
What's a good, what's a goodcleaning rate?

SPEAKER_02 (27:17):
Um, a one bedroom, one bath.

SPEAKER_04 (27:19):
Two two bed, two baths.

SPEAKER_02 (27:20):
Oh.
Well, maybe it's close to liketwo, two twenty-five.

unknown (27:23):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (27:23):
On the earth clean, maybe around there, depending,
because a lot of the firstcleaning you try to add in, you
try to upsell and do like a deepclean.

SPEAKER_05 (27:29):
Oh, yeah, that's what the Listen.

SPEAKER_02 (27:32):
Holiday text.
Y'all coming next week.
So yeah, so you try to upsell ondifferent things.
And so maybe 225, 250 is justdependent.
That's actually the feedbackright there.
Yeah, why are you getting theholiday text?
So, yeah, yeah, just depending.
Um, yeah, that's why that'swhere I would land with it.

SPEAKER_04 (27:50):
Okay, I would see how much I was paying if it was
in market race.
That's about right.
Um, but what I think is uh dopeabout the cleaning business for
anybody who like is skepticalabout getting in, two things.
Number one, it should have ahigh stick rate because I don't
trust that many people in myapartment.
Like, same.
We have really expensive stuffin our apartment.
So once you find somebody youlike and you trust, the the

(28:11):
switching cost is is is high.
So once you get a client thatknows like and trust you, you
should have that client for along time.
Number two is that usually,y'all can correct me if I'm
wrong, cool.
People who get their house orapartment clean tend to be
people who are fairly affluent.

SPEAKER_02 (28:25):
Right.
So it is a luxury to get yourhouse cleaned, right?
Um, and you spoke about like ifthey like you, they should stick
with you.
Like we I could think I'm I'lluse his name as his name's
Roger, let's say.
Yeah, we've been cleaning hishouse every single week.
So we've gotten like$70,000 fromthis one customer.

SPEAKER_03 (28:40):
We cleaned his house $139 times.

SPEAKER_02 (28:43):
Yeah, knows the space.

SPEAKER_01 (28:45):
$339 times.
So that's our cleaner.

SPEAKER_02 (28:49):
That our cleaners, Anita, has the key to his home.
He's in Italy.
He's like, I'm not gonna be justlet her know the alarm's not on.
I, you know, she has the key.
She goes every week.
Yeah, she knows, like, she'slike, yeah, he has a big home,
he's by himself.
So, yes, you're right.
When they when they love you,they stick it through.
So sometimes we see people falloff just finances, because like
you said, you know, it is aluxury to get your home clean.
Um, but we find finances, butthen you do find people that

(29:11):
just like, well, I just want mywindow clean.
Like people do call, or I justwant the flow of mom.
Yeah, we're not coming.

SPEAKER_01 (29:17):
We're not the third, we have the wrong company for
that.

SPEAKER_05 (29:18):
Yeah, I find a mom and pop for that, you know.
But that's why I think there'sso much, we were talking offline
before the cameras won.
Well, I think it's so muchopportunity in which y'all was
doing y'all doing because thelevel of MRR that comes from the
stick rate of that, right?
If you have equity in thosecleaners' businesses or decide
is a million ways you can goabout it, right?
Like you can package that.
That's so easy to sell.

SPEAKER_04 (29:36):
Private equity will gobble that up because it's it's
a what a boring business thathas high reoccurring revenue,
sticky client retention.
Yeah, and um, this is somethingI want to ask y'all um as well.
So when I moved to Medellin,Columbia, I was introduced to
this concept of a house manager.
I didn't know that was a thingin America, but apparently it's

(29:56):
like what super effluent peoplehave, but it's way more
affordable in Medellin.
So when I came back home, Icouldn't unsee it.
So a house manager is not justsomebody that cleans your house,
but they go through yourcabinets and they restock
everything in your house.

SPEAKER_02 (30:08):
It makes sure the house functions.

SPEAKER_04 (30:09):
They make sure the house functions.
So like my question to you allis have you all thought about
adding that to something likethat?
So you're service not.

SPEAKER_02 (30:18):
We've added things like organization to our
cleaning business.
We've added things like carpetcleaning, but remember we work
contractors.
So whoever we work with gottahave it.
They gotta have it before westart marketing it.
So unless we look for thosespecific people that organize
it.

SPEAKER_05 (30:32):
I'm gonna challenge you on that though, right?
So either, you know, Dan Martel.
Y'all know Dan Martel.
Yeah, yeah.
So he's the guy who I got thehouse manager concept from.
And basically what he's sayingis like they might have started
out like he's like, if yourperson can clean your house,
they could probably fill up yourgas.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So even if they're not likedoing it, it's not a part of the
job description, yeah.
You can expand their mindset andthey can make more money.
Like, hey, would you be open todoing this?

(30:52):
If you can, if you can, I sawyour people today, they was
cleaning the floor, right?
If you can do that, surely youcan restock some cabinets,
right?
So is I mean, is it a risk tolike take that on and make them
like wonder if they can learn orteach that?
Yes, but it's a high probabilitythat they can do it.

SPEAKER_04 (31:11):
I would I would host a class and charge them.
We're real talking if I'm fromnow, this is the master class.
If I were you all, I would reachout to my cleaners and be like,
hey, we have this program, youknow, it's a thousand dollars,
whatever.
We will teach you all how toupgrade your skill set from
cleaners to house managers.
If you do this, you can go fromcharging$200 a house to$600 a
house.
It's a one-time payment.

(31:31):
So now you're getting paid fromthe contractors for you all to
create the SOP that you wantthem to follow anyway.
Yep.
And then they pay you, and nowthey become a certified house
manager, and then you bring itto your clients.
If my cleaners right now told methey had the ability to start
managing my house, I would giveit to them.
They haven't reached out to me,so I haven't said yet.
I'm I'm trying to fly my oldperson from Columbia to get her
visa to come here because Idon't know if they can do it,

(31:54):
but they if they said they cando it, I would give them a, I
would give them a try.
I will add this RT housebusiness.
Y'all give me some.

SPEAKER_03 (31:58):
Y'all let me let me give you a legal standpoint as
well, because we've gone throughthis.
Um, yeah, we've gone throughthis a few times.
So the way we run our businessmodel, we try to we try to
maintain a a reasonable distancefrom all the tasks they're doing
because you once you supportonce you pass a certain employee
showing employee, yeah, you'reright.
And where it's hard of labor.

(32:21):
I don't want to get into theconversation too much because I
don't want it to come back upagain, God forbid.
But we've gone through thisprocess, and they were like, you
guys are good.
Everything you guys are doing,basically, once you cross this
threshold, yeah, uh, we're gonnahave some problems.
So we wanna so we if we did,that's absolutely a great idea,
but there's certain legal,legal, legal at it, legal, legal
legally that we try not to crossbecause we've came to that line
a little bit.

(32:41):
So people are like, oh, how canyou do this?
Like, we've gone through it,we've proven the model, we paid
to prove the model, so you guyscan't tell me otherwise for now.

SPEAKER_05 (32:48):
So understood, and everything has its has its pros
and cons.
And you can do you can doeverything, right?
So it's not a so it's notanother.

SPEAKER_03 (32:54):
But one of the things she's like, you know,
have we ever thought about goingto employees?
Absolutely, but it's like howmuch what's the time commitment
that we would need to present inthat side, and what's the
opportunity cost?
No, for sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 (33:06):
The grass is always greener.
We just we just spitball, wegotta do the work.

SPEAKER_03 (33:10):
I can sit here and argue all day about it, but I
there's definitely opportunitiesthere, but we have to choose
which route we want to go.
But once you play that, once youtiptoe, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (33:18):
Yep.
No, I I got I think I think mypersonally, I think the biggest
opportunity is getting equitystays in the contractors that
are that y'all are alreadyworking with.
And and instead of it beinglike, and so now that all the
technology that y'all are using,they already have access to it.
Y'all, y'all still continue tocreate more distribution.
I thought that that's I thinkthat's the biggest opportunity.

(33:38):
Because now you still are ableto teach people at SKO, right?
And do that, but now you'regetting equity in these
businesses, and then you're ableto roll them up into one entity,
increase enterprise value, exit,whatever.
I'm happy to, you know, thatconversation arm of your
business, you know, since it'ssince y'all not doing it anyway.
But anyway, yeah, yeah.
Um so let's let's swing thependulum back uh a little bit

(33:58):
different.
So um, as I mentioned earlier inthe episode, you guys have two
beautiful kids.
One's about to turn one, andone's three, turns four in
February.
Okay.
We right there, so yeah.
Um, I knew it was right afterlegend, that's how I remember.
Um, so let's talk a little bitabout balancing as a married
couple is one thing.
That's a whole dynamic.
Right.
But balancing like business andmotherhood as a woman, because

(34:21):
you're involved in the business,right?
This is your business too.
Like, how are you able tonavigate, you know, raising
these two young kids, stillshowing up as a mother who I
know women oftentimes deal withwhat is it called, mom guild,
because it's like I'm balancingthis business that I'm building.
How are you just navigating allthose things, um, you know, as a
mother and as an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_02 (34:39):
So I think the important piece of it is like
your spouse as well, right?
Like, so how do they show up foryou?
How do they kind of support youto not make you just feel like
you're in this alone?
So I don't ever feel like I'mjust parenting alone, right?
So a lot of it is both of ustogether.
Like from the very beginningwhen uh Alani was born, it was
like, okay, we had shifts atnight.

(34:59):
Like you're getting up first,I'm getting the first.
You getting up first, I'mgetting.
So it's a lot of that kind of,it's not just me getting them
dressed in the morning.
He'll get them dressed in themorning.
So it's kind of that thatbalance that's provided.
But then on top of that, we'rethe only ones as family that
lives in uh Dallas, all of ourfamilies back home in Brooklyn,
New York.
So we do hire help, like we payfor help.

(35:20):
That's something that we don'tshy away from.
That's something that I had tolike let my mom know, like, this
is what's gonna be.
Because you know, like they'relike, well, why are you having
somebody and run my grandbaby?
Yeah, and where are you?
You were in New York, right?
So from the very beginning, wehad like a doula, a night nanny,
and then we had a nanny for twoyears, and now we have an

(35:40):
all-pair.
So the hired help helps me toshow up as a better mom, as a
better wife.
Yeah, and so the support of myhusband and then the hired help
helps me to not feel so kind ofalone, helps me to not and feel
like I can do other things anddo the things I want to do.
Like, okay, I can go out atnight with friends because
things are settled.
And it's not like, oh, myhusband don't know how to put
down his child at night.

(36:01):
You know what I mean?
So though that those are twothings I would say helps me to
kind of balance it.
Gotcha.

SPEAKER_05 (36:07):
Gotcha.
Yeah.
Random question.
Are you so uh last year, whatwas it?
2024.
Yeah, I took six months off fromdrinking and he he inspired the
journey.
So are you still having havingdrunk since since we went to
USAP?

SPEAKER_02 (36:21):
I haven't drank in three years now.
Yeah, Alani is so December 2021is when he started.
So do you still do you stilldrink?
Absolutely.
You deal with that.
You run that race, man.
The reason he stopped drinkingwas like a lot of because I was
pregnant.
He was like, All right, I'll goto the end with you with this
because she was born inFebruary.

(36:42):
He's like, all right, we gottwo, three months, we can stick
this out.
I'm like, okay.
Seven weeks later, I was backdrinking.
After she was born.
Like, I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_03 (36:50):
But that's one of my challenges.
Like, I go from one extreme tothe next.
It's like, all right, let me seehow long it'll go.
Then it's like, eh, do I reallyneed it?
Now it's not like I'm I'manti-like 40th birthday.
When that comes up, it's like,okay, maybe I go back at that
time, you know, when we'recelebrating.

SPEAKER_05 (37:03):
When is your 40th birthday?
Because you're 38 now after 39.

SPEAKER_03 (37:05):
Just turned 39.

SPEAKER_05 (37:06):
And 40 next year, man.

SPEAKER_03 (37:08):
40 next year.
So it's like, all right, maybeat that point, you know, our
10-year anniversary, maybe I goback to it.
But it's not like I'm anti-wegot a stock house right now.
Yeah, I got you.
I got you.
It's Friday.
I'm gonna have a journey.

unknown (37:18):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (37:20):
Like I'm in there.
How has do you feel like, youknow, a lot of people have
different perspectives on it?
How's that influenced, you know,you just, I guess, your journey
as a father, as an entrepreneur?
Like, has it has it changed, orhas it just been, I'm just not
drinking anymore and it is whatit is?

SPEAKER_03 (37:33):
I don't think it's changed much, honestly.
I think from our perspective, orat least from my perspective,
when it comes to drinking, islike we're at the point where if
we do drink, we got kids, weknow we gotta wake up and
they're gonna wake up at sixo'clock every single day.
Yeah, we can't handle hangovers,right?
That's the thing that we want todo that we didn't want to do
with.
So for me, it doesn't, I don'tthink it's changed too much.
Um, I think now I've adjusted somuch better to it.
But when I first stoppeddrinking, it was it was

(37:54):
definitely a challenge.
We go out to the club, we goout, whatever we're gonna do,
and it's like uh it's kind ofit's kind of challenging, but
everybody thinks that somethingis like what happened, why don't
you drink?
And it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 (38:07):
I think it must have been a rehab.
They think something is wrong.
They're not saying it, butthey're like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 (38:12):
I just don't want to poison my body today.

SPEAKER_05 (38:13):
Like, is that unreasonable?

SPEAKER_01 (38:16):
It's like if you don't smoke, nobody asks for if
you don't drink, it's like, whathappened to me?

SPEAKER_05 (38:19):
Do you think?

SPEAKER_01 (38:21):
I tell them my story is like, oh, that was boring.
It's like no reason.
I thought you had D UI.

SPEAKER_05 (38:26):
Yeah, like no, no, no.
So Cleaning Business University,right?
Because a lot of people listento this episode right now and
they're like, shoot, I need tostart me a cleaning business.
Right?
Um, tell us a little bit aboutit.
Um, if someone wanted to getstarted, what does it look like?
You know, what can they expect?
All the things.
I let you go.

SPEAKER_03 (38:42):
So Cleaning the Business University, way it
started and where it is to now,before it was just a course,
like a step-by-step moduleprogram.
Um, now we built an entirecommunity of over 2,000
students, and we literally giveyou the step-by-step modules.
That I think that's that's notas important right now because
information is so abundant,right?
Give it the information away forfree.
But the implementation and thecommunity is what we built over

(39:03):
these last, probably we've beenfocused on a community huge for
the last like two to threeyears.
We just had our first in-personcommunity event.
Um, and that's been Was it herein Dallas?
It was actually in Atlanta.
Atlanta, okay.
Because we were going to Atlantaand uh our coach is like, you
should do an event.
It's like, whatever.
Uh so we did it in the event.
But our next one is in Dallas,actually.
The next one is gonna be inDallas.
If you guys want to speak,absolutely.
Yeah, say look.
Yeah, give us some game, but umclean your business, clean your

(39:25):
house, clean your finances.

SPEAKER_05 (39:26):
There it is.

SPEAKER_01 (39:28):
Let's go.

SPEAKER_03 (39:30):
So it started with just step-by-step modules, then
it turned an entire community.
We do live coaching calls, webring in guest experts to come
in and share the information.
So that's what it's reallyturned into.

SPEAKER_02 (39:39):
And you can kind of sign up and everything at
cleanandbusinessuniversity.com.
That's where we market it at.
And it's become its own thing.
At first, people knew it wasjust for paying off our debt,
and now, like, some most peopledon't even know that part.
It's just like the cleaningbusiness coaches, is what they
say.
Or yeah, if we see somebodysomewhere and I'm like, oh, hi,
like, do you just randomly runinto people kind of just talking

(39:59):
about that specifically?
Like, oh, I've seen your adbefore.
Like, like you the cleaningbusiness people.

SPEAKER_01 (40:03):
I was like, Yeah, we own a cleaning business, but we
got stuff happening.

SPEAKER_05 (40:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So more than that.
I know, I know more than acleaning business.
I know we've uh ideated allsorts of potential ideas for you
guys' business, but like whenyou guys think about what's next
or the evolution of whether it'sthe actual cleaning business
that you guys own and operate orcleaning business university,
what are some things on thehorizon that you guys can share?

SPEAKER_02 (40:22):
So the actual cleaning business itself, I
think we were like, we havenever really tapped into
commercial.
And so many of our students likeexplode on commercial.
And it's so funny because peopleare like, um, you know, is the
course for commercial justresidential?
I'm like, it really focuses onresidential because that's what
we did, and that's an easier wayto get in.
However, many people will go onand do commercial.
So for our actual cleaningbusiness, I think the commercial

(40:44):
side is something that we'restarting to explore more and see
like where that goes.
And then cleaning businessuniversity, uh, I think more
in-person events because we'venever, it's funny, we've had it
now for five years, and we'venever done in-person events.
And so we're like now getting tothat connecting with our people
and finding just making surethere's other ways that we can

(41:05):
assist them.
Because generally, like yousaid, it was the course and
community, you stop there,right?
Um, but there's so much morewithin there that on a higher
level and a lower level that wecould be doing that we're
focusing on now.

SPEAKER_05 (41:16):
Remind remind me off-camera to give y'all some
insight on how to make thosecommunity that's profitable.

SPEAKER_03 (41:21):
Okay, yeah.
I think the biggest thing iswhen you speak about community.
I think when we were talking toour coach, it's like, I don't
want to leave my house, man.
I got the two kids, we're good.
And I think for me, the theolder I get and the more
comfortable I get with my familyin the ways, I just I would
rather be around the people I doknow, but I know there's a big
component, right?
Um, we didn't know that peoplewould travel 11 hours to come to

(41:42):
Atlanta when you did the event.
So now I was like, okay, I'mokay with you know getting out
of my comfort show a little bit,uh my comfort zone, but you
know, at the end of the day, I'drather be in my house, like with
the family.
So getting out there, gettinguncomfortable, um, introducing
ourselves, reintroducingourselves to the world because
we've done events with you guysand we've gone out and we've
traveled and stuff like that.
But I think the last probablytwo years has probably been a

(42:03):
lot very difficult for us.
And it's like, I'd rather juststay home sometimes.
So reintroducing ourselves andre- I think me relearning
myself, what I want to do, whatI don't want to do, um is super
important.

SPEAKER_05 (42:13):
Yeah, because y'all started this well before y'all
had kids.
Yeah.
Right.
You know, now you have two.
Yeah, two voting kids, right?
And so it's just like, you know,and I think we can't
underestimate the power ofrepresentation, especially
amongst you know, us in theculture, right?
So it's like, yeah, we don'thave obligation, right, to go to
be outside and be and be thatrepresentation, but we do have a
responsibility, right?

(42:34):
You know, to present, or youcan't be a healthy, happy,
married couple with kids, run abusiness together.
Like there's something to besaid about because that's I feel
like what people always like,anybody can do a cleaning
business university, right?
But like y'all are doing it as amarried couple, right?
Who has kids.
And so I think that level ofrepresentation, I think, is
powerful.
You don't have to do it, but Ithink I'm glad you guys are open
to you know doing more communitystuff because you'd be surprised

(42:56):
of the power of representationand and and how someone is
willing to do something.
They might have seen somebodydoing something similar, a
middle-aged white guy teachingabout cleaning businesses, but
now they're doing it because ohnow that makes sense.
If they can do it, I can do it.
They were in corporate, theyhave debt, they have kids now.
So I think it's it's somethingto be said.

SPEAKER_03 (43:12):
And as he's growing involved, our branding changes
too.
So when we first started fiveyears ago, like you said, no
kids, we was outside.
So our demographic was probablya little bit younger.
Now we're getting people, youknow, they're like, oh, I'm near
retirement.
It's like we ain't nearretirement.
Don't get me wrong.
We ain't we ain't we ain't gonnabe able to get it.
Like we we still outside likethat, but our branding has
changed a little bit where youknow, people like I got kids, I

(43:32):
got family, I want to grow thisbusiness.
So I think we also gotta bemindful of that too.
Um, so as we grow and expand,our brand changed a lot too.
The evolution, the evolution.

SPEAKER_05 (43:41):
I love it, I love it.
So, um, if you guys have helpedyour students achieve 18 million
in student results, my my my gutis telling me, you know,
actually I already know this thetruth, but y'all uh y'all have
been fortunate enough to uhcross the the million-dollar net
worth threshold yourself aswell, right?
So, my question for you guys, weask every guest is what does

(44:03):
being a melanin millionaire meanto you?
We just talked aboutrepresentation, but I'm curious,
like what does that mean to you?

SPEAKER_02 (44:08):
I feel like you like with life, I think that it feels
like just another thing.
You just kind of keep moving.
And it's unfortunate because Ithink about like when I got my
master's, I'm like, everyone'slike, oh my god, and I'm like,
yeah, it's something that I hadto like I was supposed to get,
like I was supposed to get it.
Not that I was supposed to be amillionaire, but it doesn't
necessarily feel different untilyou're like speaking to people
that maybe not are as close toyou, right?

(44:30):
Because they're like, wow, youdid all this, or like a parent
saying something to you thatobviously traditionally you
would be at a nine-to-five, youknow, or like a cousin or
something.
So that kind of I feel like hitsa little different sometimes.
But when you're in the motion ofit, you don't really recognize
it and sit in it.
I recognize, you know, just allthe good things that you're

(44:50):
doing and the way that you'reshowing up for people, you don't
really sit in that until once ina while you see somebody or
somebody write something to you,like, yeah, oh, you don't know
how much blah blah blah, youchanged my life.
And I'm like, that's a bigstatement.
Like, but usually you just kindof keep it moving, you just keep
doing the podcast, keep doingthe things that you know that
you can do it.

SPEAKER_04 (45:08):
The number keeps moving.
Yeah, yeah.
The goalposts, the goalpost,yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (45:10):
The goalpost keep moving, and you know, we have
those conversations like whendoes the goalpost end?
Like is it enough?
When is it?
And is it enough?
And it was like, I don't know.
I don't think I've ever, I don'tknow if I'm at that point that I
feel like I've had enough.
Like, I'm off Jeff Bezos.
Like I said, there's some room.
There's some room in there.
It's like you know what I mean?
So that it's just it's hardbecause like you know you hit
it, but then sometimes you justkeep moving, you don't sit in it

(45:33):
and kind of run it.

SPEAKER_03 (45:34):
We got that message literally, coincidentally
enough.
When you're as you guys know,when you're running ads on
social media, you get randomsfrom all across the world.
Right.
And I'm the type of person whereunfortunately I want to see
what's going on.
I want to see what people aresaying about my name, even if
they don't know me.
Yeah, and sometimes that couldput me in the fun.
I'll I go block and delete.

(45:54):
I'll I try not to respond tothem.
But I saw some negativecomments.
I go and delete them, but I'mlike, Joe, this person said
this.
How can you believe this?
And she's like, You don't evenknow.
They probably didn't even readit, they probably never looked
you out.
They don't know you from a holein the wall.
This we got the same messagethree times this week from
different people saying, Youguys changed my life.
And going back to the, you know,what does being a melanin

(46:14):
millionaire mean to us?
I think that's what it means.
And it's just about you sharingyour story because we recognize
at this point that it is almostour obligation to start sharing
our stories, letting people knowwhat's possible for them and
being a representation of thegreater good in the world and
our people.
So that's what it means to me.
And uh and that's been hismessage.

SPEAKER_02 (46:33):
Let's remind me at the beginning, just letting you
know what's possible.
I ain't gonna tell you to leaveyour job, I ain't gonna tell you
to just take it in.
Just know that there'ssomething, there's other options
out there.
You make a decision on this iswhere I want to go or or not.

SPEAKER_03 (46:44):
Let me give you guys a prime example of that.
Um, I saw your car.
You post about your car.
It is a beautiful car.
You growing up, I've never seenanybody in a more beautiful car
than that, right?
It's not just about the car,it's about the representation of
the black man getting out ofthat car.
And then I saw this man's car.

(47:04):
Okay, okay.
And I'm like, these are twoyoung brothers.
I told you no, but there arelevels that people are at.
And I'm like, you think you atsomebody's level?
Then you realize.
But it's like, it's not evenjust about being at the level,
showing you what's possible,right?
And people are like, oh, youbragging, you got this, you got
that.
I'm like, no, that showed youwhat's possible as being a black

(47:24):
man in America and showing youwhat you can do in this world,
right?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (47:28):
One of the best lessons I learned is that people
either be intimidated orinspired about what you do.
Neither is your problem.
So post your story, your wins,your car.
Now there's a difference betweenposting and flexing, but when
you tell people what you'veachieved, they either get
inspired or intimidated.

SPEAKER_05 (47:49):
Neither one of your problems.
Absolutely.
No, that's that's the fact.
And I'm glad you said thatbecause um I was more on the
reserve side.
I was like, oh, I don't know ifI want to, I don't know if I
want to post it, right?
But but it's like, will it domore good than it would got that
from Dan Martel as well, becausehe's a supercar god, and he was
just like, he didn't want topost his cars back in the day.
But there was just his men's,his mentor was just like, how

(48:10):
much good can you do with it?
Like we were driving, we weredowntown 4th of July, whatever
it was, little kid was soexcited, and he was like, you
know, trying to take a video ofthe car, and he'll never forget
that moment, you know, like inthat that might been been the
seed that was sown one damn Ihad that car.
Absolutely.
It's not about the car, it'sabout what who is the person you
have to become to get.
To get that car, right?
And if that's the good that youcan do by showing up, telling

(48:32):
your story, not flexing, notstunting on anybody, right, and
showing what's possible, I thinkthat that outweighs the the
naysayers, it outweighs thehaters, it outweighs the owe
your lifestyle more, or whateverit is, whatever assumptions
people want to have, because thetruth of the matter is those who
truly know you, right, you'reright, they'll know.
They'll know they'll they'llknow your they'll know your
intent.
They'll know you're not flexing,right?
Or if y'all are on vacation anduh uh some payments come through

(48:55):
from the cleaning business, it'snot to flex, it's to show.
Like we're telling y'all, yeah,I'm with my family right now,
and somebody else who is alsogetting fulfilled and they're
getting their fair wages, areable to do, are able to do
honest work, and everybody'sable to win, and I'm able to do
what I do, but somebody's gonnalook at that same post that I
saw that thing was dope, it'sgonna be like, oh man, they
stunt in there on some island inMexico, and everything's a

(49:16):
stripe screen.
Stripe screen side.
I see, man, that's dope.
Yeah, when are they gonna let meadd this acquisition arm for
their business or we can readit?
Um, so I'm just I'm so glad yousaid that because people need to
hear that.
At the end of the day, all thatmatters is intent.
And if you're a believer, Godknows your heart, and who can
you inspire?
And I think that's what mattersmost.
So we appreciate y'all for whaty'all do and what y'all
represent.
So glad to finally get y'all onthe this a shade of melanin, I

(49:38):
said the melanin came.

SPEAKER_01 (49:39):
We did it, we did it right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (49:42):
Um, we uh we appreciate y'all.
I'm actually glad it worked outthis way because the first time
I asked, I think it would havebeen like we didn't have a
studio, so we'd have been likein Atlanta.
We both were crossing paths inAtlanta.
Yeah, this is right.
This is right.
You both in Dallas, make ithappen.
So appreciate y'all.
Keep killing it, keep crushingit.
And um until next time.

SPEAKER_03 (49:58):
Now I want to give you guys, I want to give you
guys your flowers, man, becausey'all been playing out game,
y'all been sharing it, y'allbeen giving everybody so much
hope, so much inspiration.
So I definitely want to give youguys, both of you guys, your
flowers because you know, youguys coming up from where you
come from and sharing your storyand showing us what's possible,
that's the only way we all getahead.
Because if we only see back inthe day drug dealers doing this

(50:18):
type of stuff, and you guys areable to take it from a serious
level, showing us how to runbusinesses, showing us how to
run families, showing us how togrow our teams, right?
I see Carter and in Columbia,and I'm like, what is he doing?
Oh, he's running his businessfrom Columbia.
I see you with the family, and Isee you with the cars, and I see
you doing these things, it onlymakes us grow, man.
So I appreciate both of you guysfor sharing your platform and
just sharing your journeys alongthe way.

SPEAKER_05 (50:38):
Appreciate you guys, man.
Well, again.