This will be short and sweet. One of my favorite books is "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg. Here's the excerpt. "In a brutally competitive world where everyone seems to be fighting to earn more and achieve greater success, 'The Go-Giver' offers an alternative set of business success principles built on giving and adding value to others."  This is a must read for all business owners. I have made it a must read for my kids as we teach them the value of entrepreneurship and service. They go hand-in-hand. You can't be an entrepreneur without serving others. About 2 years ago, I had a chance to be on a Total Life Freedom Community Call with Bob Burg. What a treat. He was so full of wisdom on building relationships in business. But it was this one-liner that moved me the most.

"If you sell on price, you are a commodity. If you sell on value, you are a resource."

This episode is a follow up to "The Messy Middle" There was a place in between your initial goal to start your cleaning business and the place that you defined as success where things got messy. It got really hard to stay motivated. You weren't sure if you made the right decision. Your doubts and fears and condemnation crept in to try to steal your dream. This is the messy middle. I shared this truth about setting big goals and starting something new. "It always gets messier after you start!" I want to turn your attention to another destructive habit that can steal your dream. It's called anger. This will not apply to many of you, but for the ones that it does, please listen. I have personally listened to a lot of podcasts and many on cleaning and entrepreneurship. I have never heard one on anger.

I have told this story so many times to friends and on other podcasts over the past 6 years since I've heard it. The Country Preacher teaches a powerful model for decision-making that I have used in the toughest of decisions.  Are you familiar with a Venn Diagram or the overlapping circles? Look it up if you're not familiar. Picture 3 circles overlapping in a way where there are 3 areas where any 2 circles intersect and only 1 area where all 3 circles intersect. Here are the 3 circles the Country Preacher used:

I introduced a new Smart Cleaning School character in "I Can't Take Any More Customers" His name is Robot Bob the Solo Cleaning Machine. Bob doesn't eat. He doesn't sleep. He only needs oil and a battery charging station. This stud of a solo cleaner can leave his charging dock at 7 am Monday morning and start cleaning his first house by 7:30am. He cleans 3 houses without a lunch break. He doesn't stop to answer a phone call. He is a phone. He doesn't check the news or social media. It's all hardwired inside of him. Robot Bob just cleans and drives. Oh yeah, Robot Bob can drive because he has a self-driving electric car.  Robot Bob finished 3 houses by 4:30pm and earns $150 per clean or $450 for his house cleaning day. But he is not done. Bob stops back at his charging station for a 1-hour recharge and then drives to clean his first office. Robot Bob arrives at this first nightly office at 6pm and proceeds to clean 4 offices straight through the night because he is a Solo Cleaning Machine. Robot Bob finishes his 4th office at 5:30am Tuesday morning. He earns $600 in offices for the night. Robot Bob then drives to his charging station for a 1-hour recharge and is back to clean 3 houses on Tuesday. That's just one day in the life of Robot Bob the Solo Cleaning Machine. He cleans 3 houses and 4 offices from Monday through Friday, then he cleans 8 offices on Saturday and Sunday. Isn't Robot Bob a total stud?! He is creating $7,650 per week in revenue and since he doesn't eat or sleep, his expenses are very small. He only has to pay for electricity, oil, maintenance on his car, cleaning supplies, and insurance. Yes, even Robot Bob realized he needs to be a professional. These numbers are insane for the Solo Cleaning Machine. Robot Bob is profiting $350,000 per year!

I have a friend that I wish to keep anonymous. However, her story is one that I think many can relate to. Let's call her Abby. Abby is a single mom with 2 teenage kids that need her a lot. She also has a full-time job that needs her even more it seems. She can't seem to balance it all to get time for herself. Add to this that Abby was in a bad car accident as a young adult and suffered severe back injury. Thankfully, the accident was not her fault and she gets a monthly payout from the law suit for life. Obviously, it's not enough and can never pay for her back. But it helps her get by. The back injury has made sleeping virtually impossibly as she suffers every night with pain and discomfort. Many nights Abby will get to bed around 8:30pm and toss in bed sleepless with pain until 4:00am. When she finally falls asleep, her brain only registers an hour and a half to 2 hours of sleep because Abby has to get out of bed to go to work to pay the bills and take car of her kids. Somehow Abby has been able to function in life with little sleep. She gets her work done. She gets home to get her kids to and from school, feed them, clothe them, help them with their homework, and keep the house. Abby is a hero to those kids. All she wants is some sleep and some time for herself.  So she pays a big cable bill to have her shows to give her some peace before another long night of sleeplessness. Can you relate to this story about Abby at all. Do you know anyone like this?

I have been habitually late my whole life. This is not new news to long-time Smart Cleaning School Podcast listeners. In fact, I blamed it on my mom in a past episode. Let me first right a wrong. My mom declares that it was not her that was always late when I was a kid. Yes, our family was always late for events (all of them). But my mom has edited my blame from her to her husband, my step-father Paul. Sorry Dad. You're the culprit of lateness. I was influenced by this as a kid and carried lateness into adulthood. It wasn't until a few pivotal times that I learned some things that would change me. One is from the Royal Rangers Ministry that I am very invested. I've been to leadership training camps with the Rangers and hear this from the beginning to the end. "5 minutes early is on time and on time is late." The other is from my Pop-Pop. I shared in "He Built You a Clock" how my Pop-Pop showed me all throughout his life that being on time was important. It showed others that you value their time. I learned this on the weekends growing up and learned lateness during the week. At the age of 45, I can say that I finally get it. I don't want to be late anymore. I want to show people that I value them by being there on time. In fact, I want to be early. Does this relate?

This will be a fitting follow-up episode to "2 Rewards and a Consequence" I shared an elaborate goals structure for 90-day SMART goals. That's what I'm doing. I didn't want it to necessarily be what you're doing. Each of us is unique and responds to goal-setting differently. I know that I've covered these stats before, but listen to them again. 83% of people do not set goals. 14% set goals, but don't write them down. These 14% are 10x more successful than the non-goal-setters. 2% set goals and write them down. They are 30x more successful than the non-goal-setters. 1% set goals, write them down, and are held accountable to achieving them. This 1% Club is over 100x more successful than the non-goal-setters. The takeaway should be abundantly clear. Set goals, write them down, and get into accountability. If you don't, you'll wander aimlessly with the 83%. Let me also be clear. I never said the 83% were unsuccessful! Many of them do extremely well and many of them do not. These stats simply show that the average of the non-goal-setters pales in comparison to the focused few that have goals.

It's been a while since I shared a business update from Carfagno Commercial Cleaning also known as the C3 Experience! This podcast started exactly 3 years ago as the Solo Cleaning School because I was starting my second solo cleaning company. If you are unfamiliar with my story, please go back to the "Introduction to the Solo Cleaning School". I encourage you to continue listening from the introduction as this podcast is a "how did Ken do it" course for free. The other major episode to check out is "A New Freedom Vision", which is where I declared that I was done solo cleaning and that we were going to take a family trip to Florida for a month. I started sharing monthly updates with Coach Josh with our family and business progress on transitioning from solo to a team with systems. It was very difficult, but "The Fight Was Worth it"! There, I've given you a 3-year C3 update referencing 3 popular episodes. 

I have prescribed a heavy dose of business owner's mindset on this podcast. My desire is to level-up the newbies and speed up their success. Plus, I really enjoy teaching this stuff. Sometimes I teach something on the podcast and use it as a lesson to my kids or in a local networking group. Sometimes I teach in my local networking group and share it as a podcast. In this case, I taught a lesson to my daughter with my wife that I also wanted to share with you. If you are new to the show, go back a few episodes and listen to "Beginner's Business Mindset". It's a great place to start your journey as an entrepreneur. Speaking of entrepreneurs... let's do a test. Are you an entrepreneur? Entrepreneurs are always thinking. We are looking for problems for the opportunity to solve them. This leads to so many new businesses, inventions, books, etc. Some entrepreneurs are overactive problem solvers like my friend Vincent that they're always in problem solving mode, finding problems even when it doesn't exist. It's a curse and a blessing of the entrepreneur. We are ALWAYS thinking, figuring, bettering, tinkering, creating. We can't stop. We say "How Can I" to every problem, where the employee mindset will say "I can't".