March 4, 2025 • 42 mins
In this episode, we sit down with Stripe to share our entrepreneurial journey—how we went from a side hustle to multiple seven-figure businesses while working full-time.
We talk about the mindset shifts that helped us scale, the mistakes we made along the way, and why automation has been key to our success. Plus, we get real about balancing business and family life, navigating layoffs, and making sure we always have options.
Whether you’re just starting out or looking to grow, this episode is packed with insights to help you on your own business journey. Tune in now!
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---Resources----
Learn how to start and scale a cleaning business without cleaning ANY Houses
Cleaning Business University Course
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https://tidytrack.io/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's going on, guys ?
Welcome to another episode ofthe More Than A Side Hustle
podcast, where we help 9 to 5erscreate more impact, income and
influence outside their jobs.
We're bringing you a specialconversation featuring Stripe.
If you guys don't know, stripeis a billion dollar company and
we had the privilege of doing aninterview with them.
From starting our cleaningbusiness while working a full
(00:20):
time job to building multiplesevenure businesses while
navigating parenthood layoffsand life's curveballs.
So we're also about the powerof automation, while having
options is everything, and howleveraging Stripe has helped us.
So if you're an entrepreneurlooking to level up or if you're
brand new to entrepreneurship,this is for you, so let's tap in
.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thank you for having us.
Jake, appreciate that intro man.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Glad to have you guys here and appreciate you.
You both look incredible,glowing as well.
Just wanted to just jump intoit as of right now.
So, anthony and Janoka, likebefore, the kids, before the
business, before the move toDallas, can you take us back?
Who are you guys and how manybusinesses are you currently, do
(01:05):
you currently are under the HotTramoli umbrella, and what
types are they?
I know that was a lot, but I'lltry to remember all of it.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
So my name is Janoka, we are from Brooklyn, new York,
we've known each other for Idon't know, 20, 25 years, dated
in high school, went to collegeand then got back together after
that, and we've now beenmarried for nine years and also
have lived in Dallas, texas, fornine years.
Originally from Brooklyn, newYork, I am a mental health
(01:34):
therapist, so I am licensed inNew York and in Texas Currently
now, though, just a full-timeentrepreneur.
And what would you want to add?
Mother to two beautifuldaughters?
Absolutely.
What would you want to add?
A mother to two beautifuldaughters?
Absolutely.
What do you?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
want to add to that.
Oh, jake.
For my part, I want to saythank you, stripe, and thank you
, jake, for the invitation totalk to you guys.
We've been using Stripe foralmost a decade now in our
multiple businesses and it'sbeen instrumental.
So when we got the opportunityto have this conversation with
the colleagues of Jake, weabsolutely jumped at the
opportunities.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Oh, he also asked how many businesses we have right?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So the Heart Trimony was pretty much a play on our
last name.
So our last name is HeartZogand our wedding hashtag was the
Heart Trimony.
H-a-r.
You can see it back there,right?
So our wedding hashtag was theHeart Trimony.
And after the wedding was donethis was during the Snapchat
phase, when everybody was usingSnapchat and they were using
(02:29):
these filters and geotags.
So we had the brilliant idea toput the hashtag and the geotag
as a name when you search for it.
So anytime you typed in heartzone and heart trimony, this
logo came up.
So everybody at our weddingstarted tagging that and people
were like what's the hearttrimony?
And then we moved down to Texas.
We actually turned it into abusiness.
We started sharing our journeyon social media as we were going
(02:51):
through our debt freedomjourney, as we were going
through.
Just going as a newlywed couplefrom Brooklyn, new York, to
Dallas, texas, was a hugetransition for us and we started
sharing this journey onlinewhile we were trying to pay off
debt, while we were trying tostart these businesses, and the
Harchimony became our.
I guess you would call it ourholding company at this point.
But now we have our cleaningbusiness in Dallas, texas.
(03:14):
We also have our digitaleducation business.
I know Jake said six-figure,but it's actually seven-figure
now.
We have our digital educationbusiness on top of that, and
then the content creationbusiness as well, so that
includes our podcast that Jakesaid.
Excuse me, that includes ourpodcast.
That includes any sort ofinteractions we do online.
That includes our contentcreation business and things
(03:35):
like that.
And then we also have realestate.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So those would be a few things that work Businesses
we have now.
We once had a VA business, butwe bought it and then sold it.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
So we no longer have that Gotcha Gotcha.
So you guys have two sevenfigure businesses.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
That's on me.
I should have done my research.
Sorry, you're good, jake, justwant to throw that out there.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Never know where this goes, so touching on the
business.
So what inspired you to startyour first business, the remote
cleaning service, and what keystrategies did you implement
initially?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So what made us start the business was we were paying
off debt.
So that's not necessarily partof this story, but that's part
of our story.
So we paid off $114,000 of debtin 23 months and in order to do
that, we were side hustlinglike crazy and we started a
cleaning business.
Most of, or all of our ideascome from Anthony, because he's
(04:27):
consuming either reading booksor podcasts, and I'm either
shooting it down or saying yes.
So the idea actually came fromhim to start our cleaning
business and we started our debtpayoff journey, I want to say
in January, and then October iswhen we October.
November is when we launchedour cleaning business in 2017.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, and the reason we went and started some of
these things was because wemoved from New York.
We both had high paying jobs,like you guys are, in tech.
I was in tech for 15 years andI pretty much got to the top of
the ladder at my tech companyand we did IT for hedge funds
and private equities.
And we moved down to Dallas,texas.
We just had a lot of free time.
It was like all right, we werenewly engaged we didn't have any
(05:05):
kids at the time Newly marriedwe didn't have any kids at the
time and really I started seeingpeople online talk about paying
off debt and things like that.
But, honestly, there wasn'tmany people in our community
that were talking about moneyfreely, right?
So as I got into more of thosecommunities, I started realizing
there are people who look likeme, sound like me, from the
projects as us.
(05:26):
That was someone paying offdebt, that was someone raising
their income, that was someonemaking six and seven figures and
I said, wait, these peopledon't know more than me.
Why can't we do that?
So we started sharing our storymore and one of the first things
we did was start this onlinecleaning business and when we
went into that business, some ofthe strategies we used was we
knew that we didn't want toleave our nine to five jobs
because we were pretty muchhighly paid.
(05:47):
It was like, all right, we'regoing to use everything that we
make for my nine to five to helpus fund our five to 10, which
is our side hustle so that weget to the point when our side
hustle does become our mainhustle.
We have the opportunity to, wehave the option to leave
whenever we wanted to.
Unfortunately, that actuallyhappened.
I left my nine to five aboutthree years ago, and I'll let
Janoka tell her side of thestory.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So I left my nine to five seven months ago.
I didn't leave it, they left me.
It was a reduction in force.
So two weeks, two, three weeksafter having our second baby, I
got a call while on maternityleave that we are eliminating
your position.
I was with the company for nineyears and so then that happened
and it was like okay, we havethese other businesses.
(06:29):
Yes, I was upset because I'vebeen there for nine years, so I
have some type of connectionthere.
And while I'm on maternityleave we have all these emotions
happening anyway.
But we did have our cleaningbusiness and other businesses to
help us and obviously it's notover.
So right now I am a full-timeentrepreneur.
I want to say I was going tosay not by choice, but we've
been discussing it for the pastlike five, six years, as to at
(06:53):
what point would one of us leave, and then it became when do
both of us leave?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
So it was the push maybe that I needed, that I
didn't know I needed just wrongtiming essentially, and one of
the best things about thathappening was because we talk
about when you go on ourplatforms.
We never talk about anyoneleaving their job.
We never say you have to leaveyour nine to five, you have to
start a business, you have to beentrepreneurs.
Our biggest thing is that youhave to have options.
(07:17):
That's the biggest thing.
I know you guys have absolute,you guys have striped.
It's never going to happen toyou and I wish it doesn't happen
to you.
But that day when you walk intoyour job and they say there's a
reduction in force but you're nolonger needed, what do you do?
At that point?
You got to figure something out.
So for us, when we started ourside hustles, we started at a
(07:38):
point where we didn't need theincome, so that by the time we
did need the income and thingswere happening.
When we got that reduction inforce conversation and I told
you before it happened thatthey're about to fire you,
because I've fired tons ofpeople when I was at my job,
unfortunately as part of my role, but there's some conversations
that start happening, but I waslike this is going to happen to
you soon and let's startpreparing ourselves now.
So that was the biggest thing,and I think it was a blessing in
(07:59):
disguise, because it started toprove that the things that
we've been talking about andbuilding over these last couple
of years have been helping us.
So, jake, I'll pass it back toyou.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
That's incredible.
I'm very sorry to hear that youwere impacted by the reduction
of labor at your job, but I'mglad to hear that let's spend
more time on the business andwith family, essentially like
when it started.
It was like when you werebuilding this business, there
were, there was like, forks inthe road or issues that came
about.
What were like some commonmistakes that you encountered
(08:29):
while you were building yourbusiness or building the
entrepreneurship journey, andwhat advice would you give to
others to avoid those pitfalls?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
So this, the cleaning business was our first business
ever.
So if you can imagine, ifthere's something you've done
for the first time, you canimagine how that went Probably I
don't know, overextendingyourself with customers and you
learn that all money isn't goodmoney but in the moment you just
want it all.
Or knowing that you need tocharge for sales taxes,
(08:57):
depending on the state that youlive in, depending on the
services that you provide,thinking of marketing as an
investment versus an expensethose are just three things I
can think of off the top of myhead right now.
That are things that we had tolearn and adjust.
Now, seven, eight years later,I can speak about that freely
and try to advise people thatare just jumping in, but those
are things that I think about itautomatically.
(09:18):
I don't know if you haveanything to add to that.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
No, those are some good ones.
I think for me, some of thebiggest challenges that we see
is that people don't believeit's possible for them.
And I'm big into mindsetbecause I think, as the last
couple of years I've been biginto personal development and
the more I talk to people whohave nine to five jobs and
people who are wanting to dosome things outside their jobs
and just entrepreneurs, theyjust don't believe it's possible
(09:42):
for themselves and it's just alimited belief.
When I worked at my nine tofive job, my my boss asked me
why do I have so many like jobsoutside of my job?
Cause I worked at it.
We worked at a local gym whilewe were trying to pay off debt.
And my boss found out.
He's like why are you workingat a gym If we're paying you
over six figures?
And I was like you have tounderstand.
(10:03):
I was like you are limited byhow much you could pay me.
And I was like I can make asmuch money as I want outside of
my job.
And he's like oh, that makessense.
But he was like you're makingover six figures, like why would
you work at a gym?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And I was like because I can make as much money
as I want outside the job andyou got free membership.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I mean, those are the things that made me realize
that when you get into thesespaces you start to realize
there's so much more opportunityout there for you and that was
like the biggest thing isgetting in different circles and
learning what other people weredoing and how they were
transcending whatever they weredoing before that.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Okay, so you did mention a lot about making sure
you have options and in themidst of your debt journey,
paying down your debt andworking at gyms you clearly had
different options.
So would you share like apivotal moment in your journey
when you considered giving up,like in terms of the
entrepreneurial side, like Icould?
(10:59):
Just, we both have great jobsand professional people.
Why are we doing this and whatmotivated you to persevere
through that challenge?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So I could tell you exactly where we were.
I can see the cars, I can seeit all.
It was like seven, eight monthsinto the cleaning business.
So this is August 2018.
So more than that, probably 10months into the clean August
2018, we're like walking our dogand we're like should we to do
this?
Things were the summer.
Sometimes things slow down withthe cleaning business because
people travel and then theydon't need as much cleanings.
(11:32):
It felt like money started toget low and there was a lot of
headaches with the contractorsand people that we work with.
And is this even worth it?
Do we need to even continuethis?
So at the time, I think I wasmore ready than he was to give
up and be like, yeah, let's justlet it go.
We tried it.
We said we did it.
At least we did it for acertain amount of time.
(11:53):
Let's just move on, and I thinkwe should just at least give it
.
I don't know if you said a yearor one more month I can't
remember which one it was but Ithink let's go with the month he
said let's at least give it onemore month.
And the next month, which wasSeptember, was our highest month
ever.
So just listening and keepingon for that one extra month
(12:13):
which is always hard because youdon't know if you keep on, if
it's going to keep failing or ifit's going to get better you
just have to trust and thinkthat you would make changes.
So I think us making changesabout getting serious about who
we're hiring and our hiringprocess and that type of stuff.
Also, people going back toschool come end of August,
september down here in Dallashelp that.
(12:35):
So that was a pivotal momentfor us.
Definitely I think that's whenwe also hired an accountant
because we're like, ok, we'regetting money, but we don't know
how much we're making and theyhired an accountant to like
really see the numbers, and thatwas the change for us.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
And during that time you don't.
You learn more about thebusiness as you go along.
The game of entrepreneurship,it doesn't ever end.
The game of business doesn'tever end.
It's just like fitness.
You don't ever get to the pointwhere you're like, all right,
I'm going to stop working out.
You're like I'm in shape, I'mgoing to stop working out, cause
what happens when you stopworking out?
It's over the game of marriage.
There's no end destination.
You're like I'm happy, I haveto stay happy In business.
(13:13):
You have to stay in business,you have to keep going.
So these are those long-termgames that have no finish line
and you just keep going andgoing.
And it sounds sad when you sayit out loud, but really these
the point of marriage is to staymarried.
The game, with the point ofbusiness, is to stay in business
and keep things going.
So those are the times.
(13:37):
And then when there's anon-tangible part about it, and
I just this literally justhappened to us last week both of
our kids have been sick and ouroldest is about to be three
years old and she had the fluand she had an ear infection at
the same time and she is cryingher eyes out, and that morning
we just decided to just lay inthe bed with her.
We was like, all right, thatfirst part of the morning we was
(13:58):
laying in the bed with her andwe were like that's the part of
entrepreneurship that there's notangible part that says, oh my
God, you got to make a gazilliondollars.
This is the part where this isthe part that makes it worth it.
We got to lay in the bed withher and we'd have to rush to do
anything that we didn't want todo, but that was a part that
just reminds you why you keepdoing what you're doing Because,
like I said, there's no rewardsfor being the best in the world
(14:20):
.
We got one plaque back there,but the game is just to keep
this thing going.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Gotcha, Gotcha, yeah.
So it's more toentrepreneurship than just oh
how much money I can make.
It's also like time.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
The freedom of it all Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, so peace of mind?
That's incredible.
So, like during the transitionfrom these were side hustles
essentially to full-timeentrepreneurship, what were the
most like significant mindsetshifts that facilitated the
change?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
One.
I would say we started treatingit differently.
You treat a side hustledifferent from a business,
essentially.
So we knew we had to get VAs inplace and managers in place,
that type of stuff.
So we tried to start treatingour business differently.
Like I said, we put in thataccountant in place, helped us
to know where our money wasgoing, coming in and out, doing
more education for us as well,like we knew.
(15:13):
Even when we hit that roadblock, we knew that the business
could work because we saw itworking for other people.
So it's like why wouldn't itwork for us?
So that was the thought behindit as well.
So reaching out to people inour area that started the
business cleaning business alongwith us, seeing some things
that they were doing that wereworking, and that was a good
networking opportunity for us aswell.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
I think the way we showed up was different.
When we decided to make thatchange and I think that's the
biggest thing that we've beenable to, even to this day, like
showing up differently, right?
So when we had the side, we didit.
When we felt like it, it waslike, eh, we feel like doing it
today, we feel like doing it ornot doing it.
But when we really startedtaking it seriously, it was like
, after we leave our jobs nineto five or five to ten we're
(15:56):
going to work on this on theweekends.
If we got to go out, we're goingto be like, are we going to be
late a few hours because we haveto work on this?
There are some hires that wegot to make in our business that
we have to turn some thingsdown.
We had to say you know whatwe're not going to travel as
(16:17):
frequently.
All right, we're not going togo here this weekend.
Any bonus we got I think thelast two bonuses that I got we
took those bonuses that I gotfrom my job and just put them
right towards that.
Yeah, we could have bought atrip or we could have got a new
car and could have did this andthe third.
But we knew what that focus wasduring that time.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Or taking a call from an angry client at happy hour.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Like you have some things you have to do before you
have a VA or somebody in place.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
It's happened a few times.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Absolutely.
The way you show up was waydifferent when you start taking
it more seriously.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Gotcha, it's more on the line now.
You both have a background intech, essentially, so what role
has automation played in thesuccess of your businesses and
how have you're like and how hasthat been like consistent when
you run like your weeklywebinars, and how does it impact
your business growth?
Speaker 1 (17:09):
at our jobs.
The biggest thing was how areyou going to run your business
while you have a job?
And when we first started, thebusiness wasn't busy enough
where it was taking up too muchtime during the day, and we did
get to a point when we weredoing a maybe $30,000, $40,000 a
month where we were like, okay,we need to hire somebody
outside of our jobs so that wecould have someone answer the
(17:29):
phones and assist us.
So the first thing we startedwith was a virtual assistant.
That's what a VA is.
We referred to that a few times, but the VA is pretty much
anybody that can work fromanywhere in the world virtually
and help you run and manage yourbusiness.
So one of those first hires wehired outside of Renown to Five
was like a customer serviceagent, where phones are ringing
or emails or the teams hadneeded assistance.
(17:50):
They would reach out to thosepeople so that we could continue
to focus at our jobs.
And then you get to the pointwhere you have an operations
manager.
So we hired a full-timeoperations manager for our
businesses and then, in terms ofautomation, we started learning
about different platforms.
We use Slack a lot in ourbusiness.
You guys heard about some issuestoday, but we use Slack to
manage our teams, all of ourteams, across our businesses and
(18:13):
any contractor that we workwith.
We have about 10 differentchannels where we're
communicating with them, whetherit's on our website, whether
it's on marketing, whether it'son sales, whether it's on hiring
, so everybody has their ownchannel in different parts,
whether it's on content creation, on whatever it is, everyone
has their own channel.
We're communicating throughSlack.
Then we also use somethingcalled Basecamp, which is a
(18:35):
project management tool.
So we used to put all of ourdocumentation, all of our files,
where everybody in thecompanies could go in and just
grab those type of things.
Now you can put all that stuffin Slack anyway.
And then also we created ourown platform that helps our
students in their cleaningbusinesses, called TidyTrack,
and that now that system nowallows them to automate some of
the follow-ups.
It allows them to do emails,text message marketing for them,
(18:59):
and you could even have AI pickup the phones at this point, so
you could have someone callyour business.
Ai could pick up the phone andliterally have a conversation
with them back and forth and getthem the book.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
So those are some of the things that we have in terms
of automations and systems thatwe're using on a daily basis
that we have in terms ofautomations and systems that
we're using on a daily basis Wow, that's really impressive,
especially using with the adventof AI and utilizing that for
your business.
The sky's the limit with that.
Speaking of automation, I don'tknow, but there's a company I
don't know how do you get paid.
I think it's called Stripe.
I think you guys use them, socan you share your experience
(19:37):
using Stripe as your paymentprocessor?
What worked well for you andwhat do you think Stripe could
improve on for you guys, foryour business specifically?
Never heard of them.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah, so we use Stripe for our cleaning business
and even the platform that wewere using ended up changing
payment processes like to theirown, but we ended up staying
with Stripe.
So to this day, we still useStripe.
I don't think we've had.
The main issue I would say thatwe've ever had with Stripe is
when people request refunds andwe provide the proof that they
(20:08):
have the cleaning agreed to thecleaning and they said this and
they said that and it it's nope,they won.
So that's like the biggestissue that we face is like
almost, not almost never, butvery rarely would we win when it
comes to that and we even tellpeople when.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
This is a live example we had.
There was this person inAtlanta who went viral after
winning a competition.
She had a juice bar and shewent viral for winning a
competition on best juice orsomething like that.
So on social media she wassharing her posts and me and my
friend reached out to us Like,how can we support you?
I'm in Texas, you're in Atlanta, how can we support you?
You got to be local for me toget the juice to you.
(20:48):
I was like no, I just want togive you money.
She's how to do that.
So I was like we told her to setup a Stripe account.
I was like, listen, go set up aStripe account.
Have people be able to donateto you, whether it's 5, 10, 15,
whatever it is, because peoplethat are not local to you want
to support you and this is a waythat you could grow your
business without having to befocused on just the local market
.
So she was able to do that andable to collect a couple
(21:08):
thousand dollars and she wasable to say send voice notes and
thank you cards and stuff likethat, because people want to
support her and we see it allthe time, business owners get
stuck in that same cycle ofespecially local business owners
.
They want to do the Zells, theywant to do the PayPals, they
want to do the cash apps.
Our long guy comes every singleweek and I have to remember to
send him a Zell.
I'm like, once you leave myhouse, I've completely forgot
(21:32):
about you.
So I was like, if you are justable to set up a Stripe link
with a recurring payment, everytime you come you just charge
the card and we'd be good to go.
So Stripe makes it so easy foryou to go in and launch a
business.
Not just launch a business getpaid for your services without
having to set up all these techbackends and automation and
things like that.
Set up the Stripe link, set upthe quick pay and you're able to
(21:53):
get paid immediately.
So those are things that wetell our students even to this
day when it comes to launchingbusinesses, and people just ask
for advice on stuff like that.
I mean, genova's already talkedabout the challenges with
Stripe, so I won't go back tothat.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Yeah, I'm glad that you're having for the most part,
you're having a greatexperience using Stripe.
Of course there's we haven'twon yet.
There's plenty we could dobetter for our users.
Essentially, so, I'm glad thankyou for that feedback and
that's appreciate that.
So, going forward, I like asthe businesses have evolved in
(22:26):
and you're moving in thedirection you want to, how did
you determine the right time tohire additional support, as you
mentioned, like using a VA andeverything, and what does your
current team structure look like?
Speaker 2 (22:40):
so we decided to hire additional support where we
felt like we were losing money.
So when we were no longer to nolonger able to answer the calls
right away, then we're losingmoney because the customer is
moving on.
So that was easy for us tofigure that out.
Then, um, I think smallbusiness owners or first time
business owners, you think thatonly you can do the thing, which
we thought that as well.
But we were going to have ourfirst child and we're like, yeah
(23:04):
, I am not going to be, I don'teven want to speak to, I don't
even want to see an angry client.
So we need somebody in place tobe able to help us manage this
as we still grow the business,to be able to help us manage
this as we still grow thebusiness.
And that's when we put anoperations manager in place,
when we were like forced to,even though we should have done
it before that because she camein and then the next month we
(23:24):
had our highest month ever andwe were.
We had the business for fourand a half years by then.
Once she came into place, shewas able to help us scale.
So that's just a quick tidtidbit.
People always think they needto do it all.
So those are some things thatkind of forced us to put people
in place.
Yeah, so would you ask.
Another thing you said thestructure of the business.
(23:44):
Is that the last thing you?
Speaker 6 (23:45):
can ask yeah, so we have a uh, so we have to break
it down.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
So we have the educational platform, which is
cleaning business university,and then we have our local it
down.
So we have the educationalplatform, which is Cleaning
Business University, and then wehave our local service,
cleaning Business itself.
Cleaning Business University isour digital platform.
We teach beginningentrepreneurs and even any
entrepreneur how to start andlaunch their own cleaning
business without cleaning houses.
(24:08):
So under that, under thatumbrella, we have a full time
operations manager.
Her name is Shanil and she'sactually she lives in Jamaica,
so full time.
And she, shanil, and she'sactually she lives in Jamaica,
so full-time, and she works withus.
She's from, she literally livesin Jamaica, and she actually
ran our cleaning business andour virtual assistant business
in the past.
Under her she has somebody.
His name is Kenneth, he'sfull-time and he's more of a,
(24:30):
he's more of an admin for herand he is in the Philippines.
He's full-time as well.
Then in the actual cleaningbusiness side did I miss anybody
on there?
And then it's obviously us two.
In the actual cleaning businessside, we have Shante.
She's in Barbados, she's afull-time manager, and under her
she has Ella, which is a VA inthe Philippines, and then we
(24:50):
have team members who go out andactually do the cleaning.
So we have about 15 cleanersunder them who go out and do the
cleanings every single day, andwe both foresee both of those
businesses.
And then, on a content side, wehave an ads team.
We have coaches, we havemarketing, there's sales.
There's a few different pieceson the content creation side,
(25:15):
because that takes a little bitmore resources where, while
we're here, those things have tostill get done.
But overall those are like themain structures that would apply
here.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Gotcha, Philippines, Jamaica plenty of options to go
on company-wide trips,Absolutely.
We've said that we haven't doneit, but yeah, this is the final
question before we open it upto the viewers.
Balancing family life and thebusiness I can only imagine it's
challenging.
How would you ensure that youmaintain your healthy work-life
(25:42):
balance and continue to growyour business?
And also what's next for theheartrimony from a business
standpoint and in life?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
So I guess we'll address the balance part first.
The balance part means having awife that puts her foot down
with boundaries, that's how youhave it.
If it was up to Anthony, heprobably wouldn't have a healthy
balance essentially.
But I am very big on put thephone down back and wait.
The day is over.
We're taking this vacation.
(26:10):
That's who I am.
That's just.
It is what it is, and so that'show we find it.
But we also understand thatsome days there isn't balance.
That's just, it is what it is,and so that's how we find it.
But we also understand thatsome days there isn't balance.
That's just the truth of it.
Some days it is, the priorityis work, and then maybe I'm just
all in with the kids, andthat's okay, cause majority of
the time we're able to balanceit all.
So that's what balance lookslike.
(26:30):
Sometimes you're not going toalways have that 50,50.
Maybe it's a webinar day, whichis something that Anthony does
every Thursday, so he needs timeto do that, or maybe it's
something else, but that's howwe kind of figure things out.
What else would you add to that?
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, those are the main ones, even when we were
both at our jobs.
Like, my job was prettydemanding.
I had about 35 people under mebut I made sure that when I was
time to vacation I was able totake my time off.
But we had to put I had to putmy team managers in place so
that they knew how to handlethings that when I was out.
So the same thing, we do thesame thing.
We did our nine to five to makesure that it happens on the
(27:07):
cleaning business side.
So we're about to go on vacationfor about a week or so and our
operations manager is going tohave to run the businesses while
we're gone.
So she's been equipped to doand we've trained her so that
she could do that, so that wecan have that time off.
Because we talk aboutentrepreneurship and it being
sexy and all of that stuff.
But at the end of the day, alot of times if you don't work,
you don't get paid.
So there's no guarantees whenyou do this thing.
(27:29):
So when you're out, you have toworry about it, and for me it's
always on my mind.
So just because I turn it offphysically doesn't mean I can as
easily turn it off mentally.
Those are some of thechallenges that I see, but, like
she said, us taking that timeoff, I've been on vacation with
Jacob and I'm on my laptop for aday.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Right, and you're like bro you got to turn it off.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
I'm like I can't turn it off mentally.
It's just, it's a part of meright, and that's to me is where
, when you do something that youlove, it's hard to turn it off.
So you can't turn off lovingyour kids, you can't turn to
loving your wife and you growingsomething from scratch and
seeing where it could go to.
That's a part of that's a partof the journey as well, so that
would be my part of that.
Speaker 6 (28:08):
Cool, cool.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Anything in the pipeline, anything you guys are
working on for the future.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
So main thing right now, I would say, is growing our
education platform, cleanaidBusiness University.
We've had over 2000 studentscome through that program and
they've done over 14 milliondollars in their own cleaning
businesses, launching in like 42plus states we just started to
(28:39):
toy with, so trying to take thatmore seriously and see where
that could go.
and then we got two kids and oneis turning three now, so that's
that's a big part of thejourney too, so she's learning
how to say no and leave me alone.
I need space, and all of thatstuff matters thank you both for
answering those questions.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
um appreciate that that was very insightful and
very helpful for anyone who'sinterested in that, so I'm going
to open it up to any questionsfrom any attendees.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
All right.
Thank you guys for sharing yourstories.
It's been really interesting tolisten to and really
inspirational.
I'm curious how you thoughtabout financing options for your
business when you were firstgetting started.
There's things like SBA loans,other types of creative
financing you could haveexplored.
But if you could talk about howyou balanced, kind of, your
goal of paying down debt withthe possibility of taking on new
(29:28):
debt to fund the business, ah,that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
So I don't think that I mean with the cleaning
business is such a low coststartup we're talking about
$1,500, $2,000 to even getstarted that I don't think we
even explored the SBA loans orgetting into more debt.
I might would have told him noif he said that we're going to
go into more debt to start thebusiness, I'd be like what's the
logic behind it?
But now, the way that I see itand the way that I know that we
(29:54):
can pay it back quickly, it's alittle different.
I would be open to it, but atthat time, like I said, because
the business is such a low coststartup, that didn't cross our
mind.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
And I've seen a lot.
Yeah, that's an amazingquestion.
We started the business.
Our goal, like you said, wasn'tto go on more debt.
So we said what point where weunderstand entrepreneurship, we
understand business, so we knowwe could take out an SBA loan,
get a local service business andgrow that and use that debt,
(30:25):
use that money to income to payback that debt.
But when we first started wewere like absolutely not.
And that's where I see a lot ofpeople, especially like today's
age everyone wants to jump intofinancing and getting loans and
stuff.
But it's like you haven't ran abusiness yet and you're talking
about going to take out amillion dollar loan on a
business that you've never evenstarted before on your own.
So I think for us it would be.
(30:45):
It was a lot more, a lot moregrace.
When we started the business,we controlled the growth of it,
versus us taking out a loan orsome sort of financing and
buying a business or doingsomething like that and then
being forced in a position weweren't absolutely ready for.
But that's a great question,greg, thank you.
Anyone else?
Speaker 4 (31:06):
this has been so much fun and so interesting to
listen to you talk about yourbusiness and your life.
Thank you for coming here.
Thanks, jake, for organizingthis.
So I'm just wondering stripewas founded by two brothers, so
a different kind of family froma couple that's married and fell
in love.
But I think, having worked invarious places, that you see how
(31:28):
the culture of a company isvery much shaped by the founders
, and how the founders interactwith each other and also other
people, and how they want theculture to evolve.
Do you talk about that?
Do you feel like it's just anatural thing that happens?
I know it sounds like most ofyour employees are remote, so
maybe like how do you have aculture and what does that feel
(31:51):
like?
How would you describe it?
Do you feel like, oh, you wantto maintain it as it is or you
want to evolve it into something?
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Yeah, no, it's really important for us.
It's not just, yes, they workfor us, but it's important that
one, that we like them.
That's very important.
I need to like you if you'regoing to work for me, since
you're so small too.
One that we like you and that webuild a partnership right and
that's even important with thecleaners that we work with.
I know so many people say whywould they work with your
(32:20):
company?
We're like because we treatthem as people.
We say happy Mother's Day, wesay Merry Christmas, we say and
so they're on vacation.
They're sending us pictures ofthem and their kids.
They're letting us know.
So those type of little touchesdefinitely comes across in our
business and how we operate andhow we want to continue to
operate.
It's not just we're the bossand you do what we say.
You're the expert in your ownright in your field, in what
(32:41):
you're doing.
Give us the feedback, let usknow what you've seen.
Let us know what you've seenwhen you've worked in other
places and what makes more sense.
Or we asked you to do it thisway, but you think that doing it
the other way would make sense?
Sure, go of it, and we try toencourage that with the people
that we work with all the time.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
And when I worked at, when I worked in my previous
company, I was one of their we.
They grew that company to over200 employees.
I was employee number 12.
So when we started, when thatcompany started, there was no
principles, there was no culture, there was no HR, and the
culture was what grew thebusiness, what kept people there
, what attached them to what wewere doing.
(33:18):
It wasn't something that was onthe wall that we read every day
.
And as we grew and scaled toover, when we got to employee
number 50, we started thinkingabout those things like, oh,
these people, it was no longerour internal network, it was
friends and friends of referralsand referrals of people who've
heard about us.
But even so, that cultureremained the same.
But then you get to a pointwhere you're no longer inside
(33:38):
that internal network and thosethings are important.
But I think for that companythat I work with and also us, it
was how you displayed yourselfevery single day when you came
into the business, how youreacted to problems.
We had an issue with ouroperations manager and she was
like I was totally comfortablecoming to you and telling you
about this issue and she didn'tdelay it.
There was, it was like I madethis mistake.
(33:59):
Here's how I'm doing, here'swhat I'm doing to rectify it.
Do you have any questions?
And I was like, oh, that's whatculture became and that's what
it is.
So she didn't hesitate, shedidn't wait.
A t-shirt, it just.
I think it happens organically.
But at your company size youmay have to put it on the wall,
(34:22):
put on t-shirts and say like theAmerican flag every single day.
But I think when you're such asmall company it's easier to
display your company morals asyou are interacting every single
day.
Speaker 6 (34:34):
Okay, that's a great one.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5 (34:38):
Yeah, another one just occurred to me.
I joined right around when youmentioned moving from Brooklyn
to Texas.
I'm from New York as well.
I grew up in Staten Island.
Were you even consideredstarting your own business, or
(35:01):
did you proactively choose tomove to a lower cost state or
lower cost state?
And I'm curious if you would,if you could have seen yourself
going through the same steps andthe same journey while still
living in New York, or if movingwas a key part of making that
possible.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So our life would absolutely look different if we
were in New York.
Absolutely, absolutely.
So when we moved here, weessentially just moved for his
job and we didn't pay off debt.
We didn't talk about anythingwhen it came to businesses or
anything like that.
We always say that if we werestill living in New York, we
probably wouldn't have paid offdebt, because there would be no
(35:31):
reason to get uncomfortable Likewe were here in Dallas by
ourselves, no friends, no family.
Right At home, all of ourfamily, all of our friends are
still there.
Yeah, I'm not working a sidejob at the gym, I'm going to
brunch on Saturday.
I'm sorry that's not happening.
Right, those things aren'thappening.
So our life would absolutelylook differently if we stayed in
New York.
I don't think we would have abusiness.
(35:51):
I honestly don't think we wouldhave paid off debt either.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
I don't know what you would say.
Yeah, I totally agree.
I think a lot of the mindsetshift, a lot of the mindset
changes, had to come from usleaving our environment.
Yeah, if you're in the sameenvironment every single day,
doing the same exact things,where do you think the change is
going to come from?
It's not going to come fromanywhere unless you are
extremely responsible forlooking for that change.
When we came in diligent aboutthat, when we came to Texas, we
were already.
(36:14):
We already changed ourenvironment.
So it was a lot easier for usto change our mindset when we
came here to look for differentthings to do.
So that's the biggest thingwhen you're able to change your
environment, it's going to be alot easier to change your
mindset.
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Yeah, Hi, thanks again for giving us your time.
This has been really helpful.
I wanted to take a second toask a question about how you all
use Stripe and apologies if youalready walked through this
because ironically, I was tryingto move out of my cleaning
people's way.
I was like on camera, offcamera but I wanted to have hear
(36:50):
you all talk about how.
I heard you talk about how theif you had any feedback.
It's on how Stripe handlesdisputes where people users,
customers dispute theirprocesses.
But like, how do you keep trackof your Stripe account?
Are you actively day-to-daygoing into the dashboard?
Are you waiting for yournotifications on your mobile app
?
I ask this question selfishlybecause I support the teams that
(37:12):
service.
The services are the dashboardand the mobile app.
But I also want to make surethat we are aware we Stripe are
aware of how Black users thatyou all represent all Black
users, but how Black usersengage and interact with their
Stripe products.
So can you say a little bitmore about that?
Speaker 2 (37:31):
So I would say that I think when we first started we
were living in Stripe it wouldbe on the screen all day, every
day.
So you see the interactions andstuff coming in.
Now that we've been in thebusiness a bit longer, it's not
as often for us, more ouroperation manager may be going
in.
We obviously get the emailalerts, and so that always still
(37:51):
feels good.
Let me tell you, even if it's$50 coming over versus $2,000,
it feels amazing to see thatalert that it's about to hit
your account, and then also ouraccountant goes into it a lot to
to pull for our PNLs as well.
So I wouldn't say that we lookinto it as much as we used to,
but we still.
At least twice a week ouroperations manager is in it.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah, and the way we use Stripe when we first started
so we use it for a fewbusinesses.
So number one is a cleaningbusiness, but then also number
two is the digital educationplatform as well.
In the cleaning business side,we want to see how many people
are on a recurring plan so wecan see our MRR over time, which
is we always want to see thatnumber.
Also, disputes were veryimportant.
(38:34):
One thing we weren't doing werefailed payments.
So we set up a zap thatwhenever there was a failed
payment inside of the platform,we would get a message inside
Slack or email saying there wasa failed payment for us to reach
out to them, and it made ourlives a lot easier versus
waiting for the failed paymentto go through on Stripe.
So our dashboard wasn't if Ilogged in now it's probably just
(38:57):
revenue over time monthlyrecurring income, daily income,
failed payments and subscriptionpayments were the main ones.
And then sometimes rememberingproducts that we've sold in the
past, remembering products.
So when we go back and look atthe discovery dashboard on any
previous service or product weoffered in the past.
But I don't have have stripe onmy phone to look at the
(39:18):
notifications because it becomeit was.
I didn't want to see thepayments all day, so I got my
email set up for that.
I don't have the notificationsand I also don't have the app on
my phone.
I use it from the desktopperspective and I'm probably the
one that was in it the mostwhen we first started.
So just the desktop was goodfor me.
I didn't need the mobile and Ididn't need notifications.
I know some people liked that,but it wasn't.
It was like all right, it's toomuch.
Speaker 6 (39:40):
Thank you both.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
No problem, and you guys use the platform too, right
, was it Kajabi?
Yeah, we use Kajabi.
Okay, for one of the otherbusinesses.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
For the course we have.
Our Clean and Busy Universityis held on Kajabi.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Our course is on there, okay, the digital side of
things.
And then we also had we had ourpayments going through strike
for that one too.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Yeah, impressive uh.
Is there any other questionsfor the heartrimoni?
Speaker 4 (40:07):
I just want to ask a quick.
I'm also a new yorker and I'mthinking I've lived out in
california for 20 years.
I would love to go back to newyork, but are you thinking
you'll eventually go back to newyork, or I?
Speaker 5 (40:17):
would go back, but uh he absolutely wouldn't go back
to New York.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
But are you thinking you'll eventually go back to New
York?
I would go back, but heabsolutely wouldn't go back.
I would go back, simply like Isaid, our friends and family are
there, even though they visitus down here all the time.
But I know he's like the amountof space is just you can't get
that in New York, which isabsolutely true.
But yeah, I would and hewouldn't, are?
Speaker 1 (40:38):
you in California currently?
Yeah, okay, yeah, I would stayin California, I wouldn't go
back.
I would stay in California.
I'm not going back to New York.
The amount of people, the yes,it was just.
I think the lifestyle adjustmentwas difficult at first, but now
I won't say it was difficult,it was different.
I don't want to say difficult,it was different.
(40:58):
But I think when we got downhere, we got settled and we were
like listen, you got your ownspace, you got your own yard,
you get to.
There's no beating that.
And her father actually is bornand raised in New York, but he's
lived in Miami for the pastmaybe two decades or something.
He was always used to tell usyou guys got to get out of New
York, you got to get out of NewYork, you got to experience
something different.
You have to live somewhere else, because our lifestyle in New
(41:19):
York, when you think about it asa whole, it's not normal living
.
So when you wake up in themorning, you are going on an
underground train where you'reon it with thousands of people,
you're compact, you can't move.
It is just not normal.
People doing things on the trainthey shouldn't be doing you.
People doing things on a train.
They shouldn't be doing.
You shouldn't have to beexposed to that every single
morning.
You don't realize it becauseyou're like, oh, just New York,
(41:41):
this is what we do.
But when you leave and youthink about it, you shouldn't
have to see somebody on a trainurinating.
It's like things you shouldn'tsee on a daily basis.
Yeah, what New York has is Ilove New York summers
destination and not to live forme.
Yeah, Thanks.
(42:02):
Okay, stay in Cali.
I want to go back to New York,thank you.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
Anything else?
Anyone else have any otherquestions for the Hachimoni?
Certainly, business, life,entrepreneurship, whatever comes
to your mind.
I think we're good.
Yeah, you're pretty good,janoka.
Anthony, thank you so much foryour time and taking out.
I know you guys are incrediblybusy.
We have two kids running aroundand I just want to let you know
(42:29):
, on behalf of Black Stripes aswell as Stripe, that we
appreciate your time and glad tohave you.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
We're still.
We're about to be 10 years intomarriage and people were able
to follow us from before we evenstarted our engagement journey.
As we go through life, we'vejust been sharing it on social
media good, bad, ups downs,indifferent, business,
entrepreneurship.
So feel free to check us out inany way, shape or form.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Thank, you both and thank you.
I'd like to thank everyone whoattended as well.
What's going on, guys ?
Welcome to another episode ofthe More Than A Side Hustle
podcast, where we help 9 to 5erscreate more impact, income and
influence outside their jobs.
We're bringing you a specialconversation featuring Stripe.
If you guys don't know, stripeis a billion dollar company and
we had the privilege of doing aninterview with them.
From starting our cleaningbusiness while working a full
(00:20):
time job to building multiplesevenure businesses while
navigating parenthood layoffsand life's curveballs.
So we're also about the powerof automation, while having
options is everything, and howleveraging Stripe has helped us.
So if you're an entrepreneurlooking to level up or if you're
brand new to entrepreneurship,this is for you, so let's tap in
.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thank you for having us.
Jake, appreciate that intro man.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Glad to have you guys here and appreciate you.
You both look incredible,glowing as well.
Just wanted to just jump intoit as of right now.
So, anthony and Janoka, likebefore, the kids, before the
business, before the move toDallas, can you take us back?
Who are you guys and how manybusinesses are you currently, do
(01:05):
you currently are under the HotTramoli umbrella, and what
types are they?
I know that was a lot, but I'lltry to remember all of it.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
So my name is Janoka, we are from Brooklyn, new York,
we've known each other for Idon't know, 20, 25 years, dated
in high school, went to collegeand then got back together after
that, and we've now beenmarried for nine years and also
have lived in Dallas, texas, fornine years.
Originally from Brooklyn, newYork, I am a mental health
(01:34):
therapist, so I am licensed inNew York and in Texas Currently
now, though, just a full-timeentrepreneur.
And what would you want to add?
Mother to two beautifuldaughters?
Absolutely.
What would you want to add?
A mother to two beautifuldaughters?
Absolutely.
What do you?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
want to add to that.
Oh, jake.
For my part, I want to saythank you, stripe, and thank you
, jake, for the invitation totalk to you guys.
We've been using Stripe foralmost a decade now in our
multiple businesses and it'sbeen instrumental.
So when we got the opportunityto have this conversation with
the colleagues of Jake, weabsolutely jumped at the
opportunities.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Oh, he also asked how many businesses we have right?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So the Heart Trimony was pretty much a play on our
last name.
So our last name is HeartZogand our wedding hashtag was the
Heart Trimony.
H-a-r.
You can see it back there,right?
So our wedding hashtag was theHeart Trimony.
And after the wedding was donethis was during the Snapchat
phase, when everybody was usingSnapchat and they were using
(02:29):
these filters and geotags.
So we had the brilliant idea toput the hashtag and the geotag
as a name when you search for it.
So anytime you typed in heartzone and heart trimony, this
logo came up.
So everybody at our weddingstarted tagging that and people
were like what's the hearttrimony?
And then we moved down to Texas.
We actually turned it into abusiness.
We started sharing our journeyon social media as we were going
(02:51):
through our debt freedomjourney, as we were going
through.
Just going as a newlywed couplefrom Brooklyn, new York, to
Dallas, texas, was a hugetransition for us and we started
sharing this journey onlinewhile we were trying to pay off
debt, while we were trying tostart these businesses, and the
Harchimony became our.
I guess you would call it ourholding company at this point.
But now we have our cleaningbusiness in Dallas, texas.
(03:14):
We also have our digitaleducation business.
I know Jake said six-figure,but it's actually seven-figure
now.
We have our digital educationbusiness on top of that, and
then the content creationbusiness as well, so that
includes our podcast that Jakesaid.
Excuse me, that includes ourpodcast.
That includes any sort ofinteractions we do online.
That includes our contentcreation business and things
(03:35):
like that.
And then we also have realestate.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So those would be a few things that work Businesses
we have now.
We once had a VA business, butwe bought it and then sold it.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
So we no longer have that Gotcha Gotcha.
So you guys have two sevenfigure businesses.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
That's on me.
I should have done my research.
Sorry, you're good, jake, justwant to throw that out there.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Never know where this goes, so touching on the
business.
So what inspired you to startyour first business, the remote
cleaning service, and what keystrategies did you implement
initially?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So what made us start the business was we were paying
off debt.
So that's not necessarily partof this story, but that's part
of our story.
So we paid off $114,000 of debtin 23 months and in order to do
that, we were side hustlinglike crazy and we started a
cleaning business.
Most of, or all of our ideascome from Anthony, because he's
(04:27):
consuming either reading booksor podcasts, and I'm either
shooting it down or saying yes.
So the idea actually came fromhim to start our cleaning
business and we started our debtpayoff journey, I want to say
in January, and then October iswhen we October.
November is when we launchedour cleaning business in 2017.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, and the reason we went and started some of
these things was because wemoved from New York.
We both had high paying jobs,like you guys are, in tech.
I was in tech for 15 years andI pretty much got to the top of
the ladder at my tech companyand we did IT for hedge funds
and private equities.
And we moved down to Dallas,texas.
We just had a lot of free time.
It was like all right, we werenewly engaged we didn't have any
(05:05):
kids at the time Newly marriedwe didn't have any kids at the
time and really I started seeingpeople online talk about paying
off debt and things like that.
But, honestly, there wasn'tmany people in our community
that were talking about moneyfreely, right?
So as I got into more of thosecommunities, I started realizing
there are people who look likeme, sound like me, from the
projects as us.
(05:26):
That was someone paying offdebt, that was someone raising
their income, that was someonemaking six and seven figures and
I said, wait, these peopledon't know more than me.
Why can't we do that?
So we started sharing our storymore and one of the first things
we did was start this onlinecleaning business and when we
went into that business, some ofthe strategies we used was we
knew that we didn't want toleave our nine to five jobs
because we were pretty muchhighly paid.
(05:47):
It was like, all right, we'regoing to use everything that we
make for my nine to five to helpus fund our five to 10, which
is our side hustle so that weget to the point when our side
hustle does become our mainhustle.
We have the opportunity to, wehave the option to leave
whenever we wanted to.
Unfortunately, that actuallyhappened.
I left my nine to five aboutthree years ago, and I'll let
Janoka tell her side of thestory.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So I left my nine to five seven months ago.
I didn't leave it, they left me.
It was a reduction in force.
So two weeks, two, three weeksafter having our second baby, I
got a call while on maternityleave that we are eliminating
your position.
I was with the company for nineyears and so then that happened
and it was like okay, we havethese other businesses.
(06:29):
Yes, I was upset because I'vebeen there for nine years, so I
have some type of connectionthere.
And while I'm on maternityleave we have all these emotions
happening anyway.
But we did have our cleaningbusiness and other businesses to
help us and obviously it's notover.
So right now I am a full-timeentrepreneur.
I want to say I was going tosay not by choice, but we've
been discussing it for the pastlike five, six years, as to at
(06:53):
what point would one of us leave, and then it became when do
both of us leave?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
So it was the push maybe that I needed, that I
didn't know I needed just wrongtiming essentially, and one of
the best things about thathappening was because we talk
about when you go on ourplatforms.
We never talk about anyoneleaving their job.
We never say you have to leaveyour nine to five, you have to
start a business, you have to beentrepreneurs.
Our biggest thing is that youhave to have options.
(07:17):
That's the biggest thing.
I know you guys have absolute,you guys have striped.
It's never going to happen toyou and I wish it doesn't happen
to you.
But that day when you walk intoyour job and they say there's a
reduction in force but you're nolonger needed, what do you do?
At that point?
You got to figure something out.
So for us, when we started ourside hustles, we started at a
(07:38):
point where we didn't need theincome, so that by the time we
did need the income and thingswere happening.
When we got that reduction inforce conversation and I told
you before it happened thatthey're about to fire you,
because I've fired tons ofpeople when I was at my job,
unfortunately as part of my role, but there's some conversations
that start happening, but I waslike this is going to happen to
you soon and let's startpreparing ourselves now.
So that was the biggest thing,and I think it was a blessing in
(07:59):
disguise, because it started toprove that the things that
we've been talking about andbuilding over these last couple
of years have been helping us.
So, jake, I'll pass it back toyou.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
That's incredible.
I'm very sorry to hear that youwere impacted by the reduction
of labor at your job, but I'mglad to hear that let's spend
more time on the business andwith family, essentially like
when it started.
It was like when you werebuilding this business, there
were, there was like, forks inthe road or issues that came
about.
What were like some commonmistakes that you encountered
(08:29):
while you were building yourbusiness or building the
entrepreneurship journey, andwhat advice would you give to
others to avoid those pitfalls?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
So this, the cleaning business was our first business
ever.
So if you can imagine, ifthere's something you've done
for the first time, you canimagine how that went Probably I
don't know, overextendingyourself with customers and you
learn that all money isn't goodmoney but in the moment you just
want it all.
Or knowing that you need tocharge for sales taxes,
(08:57):
depending on the state that youlive in, depending on the
services that you provide,thinking of marketing as an
investment versus an expensethose are just three things I
can think of off the top of myhead right now.
That are things that we had tolearn and adjust.
Now, seven, eight years later,I can speak about that freely
and try to advise people thatare just jumping in, but those
are things that I think about itautomatically.
(09:18):
I don't know if you haveanything to add to that.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
No, those are some good ones.
I think for me, some of thebiggest challenges that we see
is that people don't believeit's possible for them.
And I'm big into mindsetbecause I think, as the last
couple of years I've been biginto personal development and
the more I talk to people whohave nine to five jobs and
people who are wanting to dosome things outside their jobs
and just entrepreneurs, theyjust don't believe it's possible
(09:42):
for themselves and it's just alimited belief.
When I worked at my nine tofive job, my my boss asked me
why do I have so many like jobsoutside of my job?
Cause I worked at it.
We worked at a local gym whilewe were trying to pay off debt.
And my boss found out.
He's like why are you workingat a gym If we're paying you
over six figures?
And I was like you have tounderstand.
(10:03):
I was like you are limited byhow much you could pay me.
And I was like I can make asmuch money as I want outside of
my job.
And he's like oh, that makessense.
But he was like you're makingover six figures, like why would
you work at a gym?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And I was like because I can make as much money
as I want outside the job andyou got free membership.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I mean, those are the things that made me realize
that when you get into thesespaces you start to realize
there's so much more opportunityout there for you and that was
like the biggest thing isgetting in different circles and
learning what other people weredoing and how they were
transcending whatever they weredoing before that.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Okay, so you did mention a lot about making sure
you have options and in themidst of your debt journey,
paying down your debt andworking at gyms you clearly had
different options.
So would you share like apivotal moment in your journey
when you considered giving up,like in terms of the
entrepreneurial side, like Icould?
(10:59):
Just, we both have great jobsand professional people.
Why are we doing this and whatmotivated you to persevere
through that challenge?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So I could tell you exactly where we were.
I can see the cars, I can seeit all.
It was like seven, eight monthsinto the cleaning business.
So this is August 2018.
So more than that, probably 10months into the clean August
2018, we're like walking our dogand we're like should we to do
this?
Things were the summer.
Sometimes things slow down withthe cleaning business because
people travel and then theydon't need as much cleanings.
(11:32):
It felt like money started toget low and there was a lot of
headaches with the contractorsand people that we work with.
And is this even worth it?
Do we need to even continuethis?
So at the time, I think I wasmore ready than he was to give
up and be like, yeah, let's justlet it go.
We tried it.
We said we did it.
At least we did it for acertain amount of time.
(11:53):
Let's just move on, and I thinkwe should just at least give it
.
I don't know if you said a yearor one more month I can't
remember which one it was but Ithink let's go with the month he
said let's at least give it onemore month.
And the next month, which wasSeptember, was our highest month
ever.
So just listening and keepingon for that one extra month
(12:13):
which is always hard because youdon't know if you keep on, if
it's going to keep failing or ifit's going to get better you
just have to trust and thinkthat you would make changes.
So I think us making changesabout getting serious about who
we're hiring and our hiringprocess and that type of stuff.
Also, people going back toschool come end of August,
september down here in Dallashelp that.
(12:35):
So that was a pivotal momentfor us.
Definitely I think that's whenwe also hired an accountant
because we're like, ok, we'regetting money, but we don't know
how much we're making and theyhired an accountant to like
really see the numbers, and thatwas the change for us.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
And during that time you don't.
You learn more about thebusiness as you go along.
The game of entrepreneurship,it doesn't ever end.
The game of business doesn'tever end.
It's just like fitness.
You don't ever get to the pointwhere you're like, all right,
I'm going to stop working out.
You're like I'm in shape, I'mgoing to stop working out, cause
what happens when you stopworking out?
It's over the game of marriage.
There's no end destination.
You're like I'm happy, I haveto stay happy In business.
(13:13):
You have to stay in business,you have to keep going.
So these are those long-termgames that have no finish line
and you just keep going andgoing.
And it sounds sad when you sayit out loud, but really these
the point of marriage is to staymarried.
The game, with the point ofbusiness, is to stay in business
and keep things going.
So those are the times.
(13:37):
And then when there's anon-tangible part about it, and
I just this literally justhappened to us last week both of
our kids have been sick and ouroldest is about to be three
years old and she had the fluand she had an ear infection at
the same time and she is cryingher eyes out, and that morning
we just decided to just lay inthe bed with her.
We was like, all right, thatfirst part of the morning we was
(13:58):
laying in the bed with her andwe were like that's the part of
entrepreneurship that there's notangible part that says, oh my
God, you got to make a gazilliondollars.
This is the part where this isthe part that makes it worth it.
We got to lay in the bed withher and we'd have to rush to do
anything that we didn't want todo, but that was a part that
just reminds you why you keepdoing what you're doing Because,
like I said, there's no rewardsfor being the best in the world
(14:20):
.
We got one plaque back there,but the game is just to keep
this thing going.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Gotcha, Gotcha, yeah.
So it's more toentrepreneurship than just oh
how much money I can make.
It's also like time.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
The freedom of it all Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, so peace of mind?
That's incredible.
So, like during the transitionfrom these were side hustles
essentially to full-timeentrepreneurship, what were the
most like significant mindsetshifts that facilitated the
change?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
One.
I would say we started treatingit differently.
You treat a side hustledifferent from a business,
essentially.
So we knew we had to get VAs inplace and managers in place,
that type of stuff.
So we tried to start treatingour business differently.
Like I said, we put in thataccountant in place, helped us
to know where our money wasgoing, coming in and out, doing
more education for us as well,like we knew.
(15:13):
Even when we hit that roadblock, we knew that the business
could work because we saw itworking for other people.
So it's like why wouldn't itwork for us?
So that was the thought behindit as well.
So reaching out to people inour area that started the
business cleaning business alongwith us, seeing some things
that they were doing that wereworking, and that was a good
networking opportunity for us aswell.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
I think the way we showed up was different.
When we decided to make thatchange and I think that's the
biggest thing that we've beenable to, even to this day, like
showing up differently, right?
So when we had the side, we didit.
When we felt like it, it waslike, eh, we feel like doing it
today, we feel like doing it ornot doing it.
But when we really startedtaking it seriously, it was like
, after we leave our jobs nineto five or five to ten we're
(15:56):
going to work on this on theweekends.
If we got to go out, we're goingto be like, are we going to be
late a few hours because we haveto work on this?
There are some hires that wegot to make in our business that
we have to turn some thingsdown.
We had to say you know whatwe're not going to travel as
(16:17):
frequently.
All right, we're not going togo here this weekend.
Any bonus we got I think thelast two bonuses that I got we
took those bonuses that I gotfrom my job and just put them
right towards that.
Yeah, we could have bought atrip or we could have got a new
car and could have did this andthe third.
But we knew what that focus wasduring that time.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Or taking a call from an angry client at happy hour.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Like you have some things you have to do before you
have a VA or somebody in place.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
It's happened a few times.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Absolutely.
The way you show up was waydifferent when you start taking
it more seriously.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Gotcha, it's more on the line now.
You both have a background intech, essentially, so what role
has automation played in thesuccess of your businesses and
how have you're like and how hasthat been like consistent when
you run like your weeklywebinars, and how does it impact
your business growth?
Speaker 1 (17:09):
at our jobs.
The biggest thing was how areyou going to run your business
while you have a job?
And when we first started, thebusiness wasn't busy enough
where it was taking up too muchtime during the day, and we did
get to a point when we weredoing a maybe $30,000, $40,000 a
month where we were like, okay,we need to hire somebody
outside of our jobs so that wecould have someone answer the
(17:29):
phones and assist us.
So the first thing we startedwith was a virtual assistant.
That's what a VA is.
We referred to that a few times, but the VA is pretty much
anybody that can work fromanywhere in the world virtually
and help you run and manage yourbusiness.
So one of those first hires wehired outside of Renown to Five
was like a customer serviceagent, where phones are ringing
or emails or the teams hadneeded assistance.
(17:50):
They would reach out to thosepeople so that we could continue
to focus at our jobs.
And then you get to the pointwhere you have an operations
manager.
So we hired a full-timeoperations manager for our
businesses and then, in terms ofautomation, we started learning
about different platforms.
We use Slack a lot in ourbusiness.
You guys heard about some issuestoday, but we use Slack to
manage our teams, all of ourteams, across our businesses and
(18:13):
any contractor that we workwith.
We have about 10 differentchannels where we're
communicating with them, whetherit's on our website, whether
it's on marketing, whether it'son sales, whether it's on hiring
, so everybody has their ownchannel in different parts,
whether it's on content creation, on whatever it is, everyone
has their own channel.
We're communicating throughSlack.
Then we also use somethingcalled Basecamp, which is a
(18:35):
project management tool.
So we used to put all of ourdocumentation, all of our files,
where everybody in thecompanies could go in and just
grab those type of things.
Now you can put all that stuffin Slack anyway.
And then also we created ourown platform that helps our
students in their cleaningbusinesses, called TidyTrack,
and that now that system nowallows them to automate some of
the follow-ups.
It allows them to do emails,text message marketing for them,
(18:59):
and you could even have AI pickup the phones at this point, so
you could have someone callyour business.
Ai could pick up the phone andliterally have a conversation
with them back and forth and getthem the book.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
So those are some of the things that we have in terms
of automations and systems thatwe're using on a daily basis
that we have in terms ofautomations and systems that
we're using on a daily basis Wow, that's really impressive,
especially using with the adventof AI and utilizing that for
your business.
The sky's the limit with that.
Speaking of automation, I don'tknow, but there's a company I
don't know how do you get paid.
I think it's called Stripe.
I think you guys use them, socan you share your experience
(19:37):
using Stripe as your paymentprocessor?
What worked well for you andwhat do you think Stripe could
improve on for you guys, foryour business specifically?
Never heard of them.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah, so we use Stripe for our cleaning business
and even the platform that wewere using ended up changing
payment processes like to theirown, but we ended up staying
with Stripe.
So to this day, we still useStripe.
I don't think we've had.
The main issue I would say thatwe've ever had with Stripe is
when people request refunds andwe provide the proof that they
(20:08):
have the cleaning agreed to thecleaning and they said this and
they said that and it it's nope,they won.
So that's like the biggestissue that we face is like
almost, not almost never, butvery rarely would we win when it
comes to that and we even tellpeople when.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
This is a live example we had.
There was this person inAtlanta who went viral after
winning a competition.
She had a juice bar and shewent viral for winning a
competition on best juice orsomething like that.
So on social media she wassharing her posts and me and my
friend reached out to us Like,how can we support you?
I'm in Texas, you're in Atlanta, how can we support you?
You got to be local for me toget the juice to you.
(20:48):
I was like no, I just want togive you money.
She's how to do that.
So I was like we told her to setup a Stripe account.
I was like, listen, go set up aStripe account.
Have people be able to donateto you, whether it's 5, 10, 15,
whatever it is, because peoplethat are not local to you want
to support you and this is a waythat you could grow your
business without having to befocused on just the local market
.
So she was able to do that andable to collect a couple
(21:08):
thousand dollars and she wasable to say send voice notes and
thank you cards and stuff likethat, because people want to
support her and we see it allthe time, business owners get
stuck in that same cycle ofespecially local business owners
.
They want to do the Zells, theywant to do the PayPals, they
want to do the cash apps.
Our long guy comes every singleweek and I have to remember to
send him a Zell.
I'm like, once you leave myhouse, I've completely forgot
(21:32):
about you.
So I was like, if you are justable to set up a Stripe link
with a recurring payment, everytime you come you just charge
the card and we'd be good to go.
So Stripe makes it so easy foryou to go in and launch a
business.
Not just launch a business getpaid for your services without
having to set up all these techbackends and automation and
things like that.
Set up the Stripe link, set upthe quick pay and you're able to
(21:53):
get paid immediately.
So those are things that wetell our students even to this
day when it comes to launchingbusinesses, and people just ask
for advice on stuff like that.
I mean, genova's already talkedabout the challenges with
Stripe, so I won't go back tothat.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Yeah, I'm glad that you're having for the most part,
you're having a greatexperience using Stripe.
Of course there's we haven'twon yet.
There's plenty we could dobetter for our users.
Essentially, so, I'm glad thankyou for that feedback and
that's appreciate that.
So, going forward, I like asthe businesses have evolved in
(22:26):
and you're moving in thedirection you want to, how did
you determine the right time tohire additional support, as you
mentioned, like using a VA andeverything, and what does your
current team structure look like?
Speaker 2 (22:40):
so we decided to hire additional support where we
felt like we were losing money.
So when we were no longer to nolonger able to answer the calls
right away, then we're losingmoney because the customer is
moving on.
So that was easy for us tofigure that out.
Then, um, I think smallbusiness owners or first time
business owners, you think thatonly you can do the thing, which
we thought that as well.
But we were going to have ourfirst child and we're like, yeah
(23:04):
, I am not going to be, I don'teven want to speak to, I don't
even want to see an angry client.
So we need somebody in place tobe able to help us manage this
as we still grow the business,to be able to help us manage
this as we still grow thebusiness.
And that's when we put anoperations manager in place,
when we were like forced to,even though we should have done
it before that because she camein and then the next month we
(23:24):
had our highest month ever andwe were.
We had the business for fourand a half years by then.
Once she came into place, shewas able to help us scale.
So that's just a quick tidtidbit.
People always think they needto do it all.
So those are some things thatkind of forced us to put people
in place.
Yeah, so would you ask.
Another thing you said thestructure of the business.
(23:44):
Is that the last thing you?
Speaker 6 (23:45):
can ask yeah, so we have a uh, so we have to break
it down.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
So we have the educational platform, which is
cleaning business university,and then we have our local it
down.
So we have the educationalplatform, which is Cleaning
Business University, and then wehave our local service,
cleaning Business itself.
Cleaning Business University isour digital platform.
We teach beginningentrepreneurs and even any
entrepreneur how to start andlaunch their own cleaning
business without cleaning houses.
(24:08):
So under that, under thatumbrella, we have a full time
operations manager.
Her name is Shanil and she'sactually she lives in Jamaica,
so full time.
And she, shanil, and she'sactually she lives in Jamaica,
so full-time, and she works withus.
She's from, she literally livesin Jamaica, and she actually
ran our cleaning business andour virtual assistant business
in the past.
Under her she has somebody.
His name is Kenneth, he'sfull-time and he's more of a,
(24:30):
he's more of an admin for herand he is in the Philippines.
He's full-time as well.
Then in the actual cleaningbusiness side did I miss anybody
on there?
And then it's obviously us two.
In the actual cleaning businessside, we have Shante.
She's in Barbados, she's afull-time manager, and under her
she has Ella, which is a VA inthe Philippines, and then we
(24:50):
have team members who go out andactually do the cleaning.
So we have about 15 cleanersunder them who go out and do the
cleanings every single day, andwe both foresee both of those
businesses.
And then, on a content side, wehave an ads team.
We have coaches, we havemarketing, there's sales.
There's a few different pieceson the content creation side,
(25:15):
because that takes a little bitmore resources where, while
we're here, those things have tostill get done.
But overall those are like themain structures that would apply
here.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Gotcha, Philippines, Jamaica plenty of options to go
on company-wide trips,Absolutely.
We've said that we haven't doneit, but yeah, this is the final
question before we open it upto the viewers.
Balancing family life and thebusiness I can only imagine it's
challenging.
How would you ensure that youmaintain your healthy work-life
(25:42):
balance and continue to growyour business?
And also what's next for theheartrimony from a business
standpoint and in life?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
So I guess we'll address the balance part first.
The balance part means having awife that puts her foot down
with boundaries, that's how youhave it.
If it was up to Anthony, heprobably wouldn't have a healthy
balance essentially.
But I am very big on put thephone down back and wait.
The day is over.
We're taking this vacation.
(26:10):
That's who I am.
That's just.
It is what it is, and so that'show we find it.
But we also understand thatsome days there isn't balance.
That's just, it is what it is,and so that's how we find it.
But we also understand thatsome days there isn't balance.
That's just the truth of it.
Some days it is, the priorityis work, and then maybe I'm just
all in with the kids, andthat's okay, cause majority of
the time we're able to balanceit all.
So that's what balance lookslike.
(26:30):
Sometimes you're not going toalways have that 50,50.
Maybe it's a webinar day, whichis something that Anthony does
every Thursday, so he needs timeto do that, or maybe it's
something else, but that's howwe kind of figure things out.
What else would you add to that?
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, those are the main ones, even when we were
both at our jobs.
Like, my job was prettydemanding.
I had about 35 people under mebut I made sure that when I was
time to vacation I was able totake my time off.
But we had to put I had to putmy team managers in place so
that they knew how to handlethings that when I was out.
So the same thing, we do thesame thing.
We did our nine to five to makesure that it happens on the
(27:07):
cleaning business side.
So we're about to go on vacationfor about a week or so and our
operations manager is going tohave to run the businesses while
we're gone.
So she's been equipped to doand we've trained her so that
she could do that, so that wecan have that time off.
Because we talk aboutentrepreneurship and it being
sexy and all of that stuff.
But at the end of the day, alot of times if you don't work,
you don't get paid.
So there's no guarantees whenyou do this thing.
(27:29):
So when you're out, you have toworry about it, and for me it's
always on my mind.
So just because I turn it offphysically doesn't mean I can as
easily turn it off mentally.
Those are some of thechallenges that I see, but, like
she said, us taking that timeoff, I've been on vacation with
Jacob and I'm on my laptop for aday.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Right, and you're like bro you got to turn it off.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
I'm like I can't turn it off mentally.
It's just, it's a part of meright, and that's to me is where
, when you do something that youlove, it's hard to turn it off.
So you can't turn off lovingyour kids, you can't turn to
loving your wife and you growingsomething from scratch and
seeing where it could go to.
That's a part of that's a partof the journey as well, so that
would be my part of that.
Speaker 6 (28:08):
Cool, cool.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Anything in the pipeline, anything you guys are
working on for the future.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
So main thing right now, I would say, is growing our
education platform, cleanaidBusiness University.
We've had over 2000 studentscome through that program and
they've done over 14 milliondollars in their own cleaning
businesses, launching in like 42plus states we just started to
(28:39):
toy with, so trying to take thatmore seriously and see where
that could go.
and then we got two kids and oneis turning three now, so that's
that's a big part of thejourney too, so she's learning
how to say no and leave me alone.
I need space, and all of thatstuff matters thank you both for
answering those questions.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
um appreciate that that was very insightful and
very helpful for anyone who'sinterested in that, so I'm going
to open it up to any questionsfrom any attendees.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
All right.
Thank you guys for sharing yourstories.
It's been really interesting tolisten to and really
inspirational.
I'm curious how you thoughtabout financing options for your
business when you were firstgetting started.
There's things like SBA loans,other types of creative
financing you could haveexplored.
But if you could talk about howyou balanced, kind of, your
goal of paying down debt withthe possibility of taking on new
(29:28):
debt to fund the business, ah,that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
So I don't think that I mean with the cleaning
business is such a low coststartup we're talking about
$1,500, $2,000 to even getstarted that I don't think we
even explored the SBA loans orgetting into more debt.
I might would have told him noif he said that we're going to
go into more debt to start thebusiness, I'd be like what's the
logic behind it?
But now, the way that I see itand the way that I know that we
(29:54):
can pay it back quickly, it's alittle different.
I would be open to it, but atthat time, like I said, because
the business is such a low coststartup, that didn't cross our
mind.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
And I've seen a lot.
Yeah, that's an amazingquestion.
We started the business.
Our goal, like you said, wasn'tto go on more debt.
So we said what point where weunderstand entrepreneurship, we
understand business, so we knowwe could take out an SBA loan,
get a local service business andgrow that and use that debt,
(30:25):
use that money to income to payback that debt.
But when we first started wewere like absolutely not.
And that's where I see a lot ofpeople, especially like today's
age everyone wants to jump intofinancing and getting loans and
stuff.
But it's like you haven't ran abusiness yet and you're talking
about going to take out amillion dollar loan on a
business that you've never evenstarted before on your own.
So I think for us it would be.
(30:45):
It was a lot more, a lot moregrace.
When we started the business,we controlled the growth of it,
versus us taking out a loan orsome sort of financing and
buying a business or doingsomething like that and then
being forced in a position weweren't absolutely ready for.
But that's a great question,greg, thank you.
Anyone else?
Speaker 4 (31:06):
this has been so much fun and so interesting to
listen to you talk about yourbusiness and your life.
Thank you for coming here.
Thanks, jake, for organizingthis.
So I'm just wondering stripewas founded by two brothers, so
a different kind of family froma couple that's married and fell
in love.
But I think, having worked invarious places, that you see how
(31:28):
the culture of a company isvery much shaped by the founders
, and how the founders interactwith each other and also other
people, and how they want theculture to evolve.
Do you talk about that?
Do you feel like it's just anatural thing that happens?
I know it sounds like most ofyour employees are remote, so
maybe like how do you have aculture and what does that feel
(31:51):
like?
How would you describe it?
Do you feel like, oh, you wantto maintain it as it is or you
want to evolve it into something?
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Yeah, no, it's really important for us.
It's not just, yes, they workfor us, but it's important that
one, that we like them.
That's very important.
I need to like you if you'regoing to work for me, since
you're so small too.
One that we like you and that webuild a partnership right and
that's even important with thecleaners that we work with.
I know so many people say whywould they work with your
(32:20):
company?
We're like because we treatthem as people.
We say happy Mother's Day, wesay Merry Christmas, we say and
so they're on vacation.
They're sending us pictures ofthem and their kids.
They're letting us know.
So those type of little touchesdefinitely comes across in our
business and how we operate andhow we want to continue to
operate.
It's not just we're the bossand you do what we say.
You're the expert in your ownright in your field, in what
(32:41):
you're doing.
Give us the feedback, let usknow what you've seen.
Let us know what you've seenwhen you've worked in other
places and what makes more sense.
Or we asked you to do it thisway, but you think that doing it
the other way would make sense?
Sure, go of it, and we try toencourage that with the people
that we work with all the time.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
And when I worked at, when I worked in my previous
company, I was one of their we.
They grew that company to over200 employees.
I was employee number 12.
So when we started, when thatcompany started, there was no
principles, there was no culture, there was no HR, and the
culture was what grew thebusiness, what kept people there
, what attached them to what wewere doing.
(33:18):
It wasn't something that was onthe wall that we read every day
.
And as we grew and scaled toover, when we got to employee
number 50, we started thinkingabout those things like, oh,
these people, it was no longerour internal network, it was
friends and friends of referralsand referrals of people who've
heard about us.
But even so, that cultureremained the same.
But then you get to a pointwhere you're no longer inside
(33:38):
that internal network and thosethings are important.
But I think for that companythat I work with and also us, it
was how you displayed yourselfevery single day when you came
into the business, how youreacted to problems.
We had an issue with ouroperations manager and she was
like I was totally comfortablecoming to you and telling you
about this issue and she didn'tdelay it.
There was, it was like I madethis mistake.
(33:59):
Here's how I'm doing, here'swhat I'm doing to rectify it.
Do you have any questions?
And I was like, oh, that's whatculture became and that's what
it is.
So she didn't hesitate, shedidn't wait.
A t-shirt, it just.
I think it happens organically.
But at your company size youmay have to put it on the wall,
(34:22):
put on t-shirts and say like theAmerican flag every single day.
But I think when you're such asmall company it's easier to
display your company morals asyou are interacting every single
day.
Speaker 6 (34:34):
Okay, that's a great one.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5 (34:38):
Yeah, another one just occurred to me.
I joined right around when youmentioned moving from Brooklyn
to Texas.
I'm from New York as well.
I grew up in Staten Island.
Were you even consideredstarting your own business, or
(35:01):
did you proactively choose tomove to a lower cost state or
lower cost state?
And I'm curious if you would,if you could have seen yourself
going through the same steps andthe same journey while still
living in New York, or if movingwas a key part of making that
possible.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So our life would absolutely look different if we
were in New York.
Absolutely, absolutely.
So when we moved here, weessentially just moved for his
job and we didn't pay off debt.
We didn't talk about anythingwhen it came to businesses or
anything like that.
We always say that if we werestill living in New York, we
probably wouldn't have paid offdebt, because there would be no
(35:31):
reason to get uncomfortable Likewe were here in Dallas by
ourselves, no friends, no family.
Right At home, all of ourfamily, all of our friends are
still there.
Yeah, I'm not working a sidejob at the gym, I'm going to
brunch on Saturday.
I'm sorry that's not happening.
Right, those things aren'thappening.
So our life would absolutelylook differently if we stayed in
New York.
I don't think we would have abusiness.
(35:51):
I honestly don't think we wouldhave paid off debt either.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
I don't know what you would say.
Yeah, I totally agree.
I think a lot of the mindsetshift, a lot of the mindset
changes, had to come from usleaving our environment.
Yeah, if you're in the sameenvironment every single day,
doing the same exact things,where do you think the change is
going to come from?
It's not going to come fromanywhere unless you are
extremely responsible forlooking for that change.
When we came in diligent aboutthat, when we came to Texas, we
were already.
(36:14):
We already changed ourenvironment.
So it was a lot easier for usto change our mindset when we
came here to look for differentthings to do.
So that's the biggest thingwhen you're able to change your
environment, it's going to be alot easier to change your
mindset.
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Yeah, Hi, thanks again for giving us your time.
This has been really helpful.
I wanted to take a second toask a question about how you all
use Stripe and apologies if youalready walked through this
because ironically, I was tryingto move out of my cleaning
people's way.
I was like on camera, offcamera but I wanted to have hear
(36:50):
you all talk about how.
I heard you talk about how theif you had any feedback.
It's on how Stripe handlesdisputes where people users,
customers dispute theirprocesses.
But like, how do you keep trackof your Stripe account?
Are you actively day-to-daygoing into the dashboard?
Are you waiting for yournotifications on your mobile app
?
I ask this question selfishlybecause I support the teams that
(37:12):
service.
The services are the dashboardand the mobile app.
But I also want to make surethat we are aware we Stripe are
aware of how Black users thatyou all represent all Black
users, but how Black usersengage and interact with their
Stripe products.
So can you say a little bitmore about that?
Speaker 2 (37:31):
So I would say that I think when we first started we
were living in Stripe it wouldbe on the screen all day, every
day.
So you see the interactions andstuff coming in.
Now that we've been in thebusiness a bit longer, it's not
as often for us, more ouroperation manager may be going
in.
We obviously get the emailalerts, and so that always still
(37:51):
feels good.
Let me tell you, even if it's$50 coming over versus $2,000,
it feels amazing to see thatalert that it's about to hit
your account, and then also ouraccountant goes into it a lot to
to pull for our PNLs as well.
So I wouldn't say that we lookinto it as much as we used to,
but we still.
At least twice a week ouroperations manager is in it.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah, and the way we use Stripe when we first started
so we use it for a fewbusinesses.
So number one is a cleaningbusiness, but then also number
two is the digital educationplatform as well.
In the cleaning business side,we want to see how many people
are on a recurring plan so wecan see our MRR over time, which
is we always want to see thatnumber.
Also, disputes were veryimportant.
(38:34):
One thing we weren't doing werefailed payments.
So we set up a zap thatwhenever there was a failed
payment inside of the platform,we would get a message inside
Slack or email saying there wasa failed payment for us to reach
out to them, and it made ourlives a lot easier versus
waiting for the failed paymentto go through on Stripe.
So our dashboard wasn't if Ilogged in now it's probably just
(38:57):
revenue over time monthlyrecurring income, daily income,
failed payments and subscriptionpayments were the main ones.
And then sometimes rememberingproducts that we've sold in the
past, remembering products.
So when we go back and look atthe discovery dashboard on any
previous service or product weoffered in the past.
But I don't have have stripe onmy phone to look at the
(39:18):
notifications because it becomeit was.
I didn't want to see thepayments all day, so I got my
email set up for that.
I don't have the notificationsand I also don't have the app on
my phone.
I use it from the desktopperspective and I'm probably the
one that was in it the mostwhen we first started.
So just the desktop was goodfor me.
I didn't need the mobile and Ididn't need notifications.
I know some people liked that,but it wasn't.
It was like all right, it's toomuch.
Speaker 6 (39:40):
Thank you both.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
No problem, and you guys use the platform too, right
, was it Kajabi?
Yeah, we use Kajabi.
Okay, for one of the otherbusinesses.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
For the course we have.
Our Clean and Busy Universityis held on Kajabi.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Our course is on there, okay, the digital side of
things.
And then we also had we had ourpayments going through strike
for that one too.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Yeah, impressive uh.
Is there any other questionsfor the heartrimoni?
Speaker 4 (40:07):
I just want to ask a quick.
I'm also a new yorker and I'mthinking I've lived out in
california for 20 years.
I would love to go back to newyork, but are you thinking
you'll eventually go back to newyork, or I?
Speaker 5 (40:17):
would go back, but uh he absolutely wouldn't go back
to New York.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
But are you thinking you'll eventually go back to New
York?
I would go back, but heabsolutely wouldn't go back.
I would go back, simply like Isaid, our friends and family are
there, even though they visitus down here all the time.
But I know he's like the amountof space is just you can't get
that in New York, which isabsolutely true.
But yeah, I would and hewouldn't, are?
Speaker 1 (40:38):
you in California currently?
Yeah, okay, yeah, I would stayin California, I wouldn't go
back.
I would stay in California.
I'm not going back to New York.
The amount of people, the yes,it was just.
I think the lifestyle adjustmentwas difficult at first, but now
I won't say it was difficult,it was different.
I don't want to say difficult,it was different.
(40:58):
But I think when we got downhere, we got settled and we were
like listen, you got your ownspace, you got your own yard,
you get to.
There's no beating that.
And her father actually is bornand raised in New York, but he's
lived in Miami for the pastmaybe two decades or something.
He was always used to tell usyou guys got to get out of New
York, you got to get out of NewYork, you got to experience
something different.
You have to live somewhere else, because our lifestyle in New
(41:19):
York, when you think about it asa whole, it's not normal living
.
So when you wake up in themorning, you are going on an
underground train where you'reon it with thousands of people,
you're compact, you can't move.
It is just not normal.
People doing things on the trainthey shouldn't be doing you.
People doing things on a train.
They shouldn't be doing.
You shouldn't have to beexposed to that every single
morning.
You don't realize it becauseyou're like, oh, just New York,
(41:41):
this is what we do.
But when you leave and youthink about it, you shouldn't
have to see somebody on a trainurinating.
It's like things you shouldn'tsee on a daily basis.
Yeah, what New York has is Ilove New York summers
destination and not to live forme.
Yeah, Thanks.
(42:02):
Okay, stay in Cali.
I want to go back to New York,thank you.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
Anything else?
Anyone else have any otherquestions for the Hachimoni?
Certainly, business, life,entrepreneurship, whatever comes
to your mind.
I think we're good.
Yeah, you're pretty good,janoka.
Anthony, thank you so much foryour time and taking out.
I know you guys are incrediblybusy.
We have two kids running aroundand I just want to let you know
(42:29):
, on behalf of Black Stripes aswell as Stripe, that we
appreciate your time and glad tohave you.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
We're still.
We're about to be 10 years intomarriage and people were able
to follow us from before we evenstarted our engagement journey.
As we go through life, we'vejust been sharing it on social
media good, bad, ups downs,indifferent, business,
entrepreneurship.
So feel free to check us out inany way, shape or form.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Thank, you both and thank you.
I'd like to thank everyone whoattended as well.
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