Another solo cleaner took advantage of the free coaching calls that I offer on my website. Claudia Adriazola of CMA Cleaning and Organizing in Onalaska, WI has a big goal to build her cleaning company with systems and a team to provide her with time and money freedom. However, her current solo business is a mess right now. She cannot optimize her solo business because she has no scheduling foundation. That's when I asked permission to record her coaching call so I could teach the four-week rotating schedule. She accepted. This is the lesson that I cannot believe I missed in 300+ episodes. It is so vital and foundational. 

​This original episode was a free coaching call from a podcast listener. Shasta had grown her initial business with low-paying customers on an hourly rate. She couldn't figure out how to transform that business into one that produced a livable income and time for herself to rest. I quickly saw her block. She had a scarcity mindset of thinking that there were no new customers out there. She thought her only option was squeezing her current bag of lemons until the skin started breaking. I explained to Shasta that there is no more juice in there and that she needs a brand new bag of lemons. This scarcity mindset is prevalent in new cleaning owners and especially the solos out there.

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".

This interview originally released on December 13, 2021. At the time  of our interview, I did not know that we would sponsor Damon's product the T-Bag. We were simply having a conversation from one cleaning business owner to another. Damon has a great story of try, fail, and adjust. He has been in this industry for decades and found a pain point that he wanted to solve. Damon invented the T-bag to solve the problem of janitors wasting time replacing trash bags while cleaning. It's a simple invention, but so is the coffee collar and the button. These inventions remain in the creative minds of most. It takes a special type of person to take a chance. That's why I support Damon Washington so much. Before I replay this interview, I wanted to give an short update on the T-bag since last December.

Colette is my personal accountant and she closes out a 3-part interview series we did on the Smart Cleaning Tribe. Colette gets into the nitty gritty of what a valuable accountant can do for you.  First of all, she dives into business budgeting and how the business owner and accountant partner to help the business grow and plan for the unexpected. I took Colette's advice from the last episode "Hire Professionals on Day One" I hired an accountant in my second year when we had no money. I purchased insurance on day one. I found an attorney to work with in year two. However, I never had an accountant that does as much as Colette does for us. Beyond business budgeting, Colette explained what tax planning looks like. This is a huge value add your accountant can add for you. She shared some 2022 tax updates and how they may impact each of us at a high level to demonstrate how vital it is for us to have the right tax professional. Make sure to listen to Colette's checklist of what questions we should be asking our accountant when tax planning. Lastly, Colette gives us a checklist to us, the cleaners, on what we need to do on our end to help our accountant help us.

Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page  at smartcleaningschool.com/resources to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

In part two of this 3-part interview with my accountant Colette on the Smart Cleaning Tribe, she dives deeper into the role of the accountant. In one question, she explains the benefits of hiring an all-in-one bookkeeper and accountant to help the business with tax planning and prep way before tax day. In another question, Colette surprised us all. "When should we hire an accountant?" Colette said that she is a big believer in hiring insurance, tax, and legal professionals in your business on Day One. Yes, it will cost you in the beginning. But the cost of fixing bad books or hiring a legal team after the fact or not having insurance coverage and an event happens is WAY more expensive. She is an advocate therefore of hiring these 3 professionals on Day One. Colette answers an interesting question about state versus federal tax laws. Plus, I share how Colette personally bills me for services. I think it's brilliant as I can budget accounting all year at the same price. It's a win for the cleaning business owner. From her side, she has reliable recurring income. That's a big win for her. I highly recommend an accountant that bills on a monthly retainer.

As mentioned in episode 1, feel free to reach out to Colette with questions or to hire her for accounting services. You can find her at CMBA Solutions. 

​I asked my personal accountant Colette Melott (CMA, EA) to join the Smart Cleaning Tribe for an Expert Call to help cleaning company owners understand their numbers and who to hire in their specific case. Colette starts this interview with the accounting basics.

I was in Dallas with my son for a podcasting conference in August. It was a blast, especially hanging out with my son. We stayed at the downtown Sheraton, which afforded us the ability to walk the city a bit. I also had the opportunity to connect in person with two former guests of the Smart Cleaning School. I went to lunch with Greg Shepard from "Sail Around the World". We had a blast walking around the city and enjoying a quality Mexican meal. Greg is a friend and definitely a mentor. He stretches me big time. The day after lunch with Greg, I had a personal tour and breakfast with Debbie Sardone from "A Buffalo Charges the Storm". Debbie is highly regarded coach in the residential cleaning industry as well as a friend and mentor. Back to my son and walking Dallas. I really, really wanted to visit Dealey Plaza. As a kid, I was enamored with the movie "JFK" starring Kevin Costner. The movie makes a compelling case for a second gunman on the grassy knoll. I have seen the Zapruder film so many times, that I already felt like I've been there. I was wrong. Being there was different. Kenny and I walked into Dealey Plaza. I was in awe. He knew more about the Lincoln assassination than Kennedy, so I described it as best I could. That's when I noticed a guy with a bike helmet and bike showing the Zapruder film and explaining the details of the assassination. Kenny and I walked over to listen. We stood on Elm Street in front of the old Texas State Book Depository as he pointed to the 6th floor corner window. The window is half open with boxes arranged exactly as they were in crime scene photographs. He paused the video on his phone and pointed to the first large "X" on Elm Street. This is where JFK was struck the first time in the neck. He played the Zapruder film. We could see Kennedy grab his neck. It was too surreal. He kept the film running as JFK was struck with the kill shot. He pointed to the second "X" on Elm Street. "On November 22nd, 1963, that's where an American President was assassinated." Chilling. We thanked him for his history lesson and walked the plaza. We stood on the "X" and took a picture. We stood on the grassy knoll and took a picture. We stood where Abraham Zapruder took the movie and yep, we took a picture. It was much, much different in real life. Dealey Plaza is virtually unchanged in 59 years. History is powerful, especially when we can be there in person.

In March 2002, Teresa and I joined the Quixtar business as Independent Business Owners (IBOs). It was the first business we ever owned. I was excited. I was ambitious. I had discipline. I had it all, right? Nope. I didn't have a business owner's mindset. I did not think like an entrepreneur.  We started learning from Diamond IBOs. We saw the Diamond lifestyle of total freedom of time and money and we wanted it for our family. We heard this from our mentors, from CDs they gave us, and from Diamonds on stage. "You will be in 5 years based on the books you read and the people you associate." This was the starting point of our business owner's mindset. We were learning the fundamental truth that humans highly influence other humans. We are all creative miracles with immeasurable possibility. We all have the same brain and nervous system which the late, great Zig Ziglar said surpassed the world's best  supercomputer of his era. As I learned this stuff, I asked the question. Why are the poor, poor and the rich, rich? There are many factors, so please don't dig too deep into this. I starting reading success stories from the poorest of the poor ascending through the poverty to become wealthy and influencing millions. I also heard of trust fund kids with all the money in the world descending into drug addiction and losing it all. That quote became truth to me. "You will be in 5 years based on the books you read and the people you associate." As I read those stories of success, they all had this in common. Other successful people helped them change the way they thought so that they could get where they got. Does this make sense? I was learning that I had an incredible brain and potential. But I wasn't tapping into it. I needed to start associating with different people that thought differently. I needed to turn off Sportscenter and the news and start watching successful people that I admired. I needed to put down magazines and Dean Koontz books and read wealth mentality books. I'm not the same person I used to be. I've been reading books to grow my mind and success for over 20 years. I've been associating with mentors that stretch me in every area of my life. I'm still becoming the person that I want to be in 5 years. In today's language, I needed to find mentors on podcasts, social media, YouTube, and attend conferences. That's what this podcast episode is all about. If you are brand new to the cleaning industry, I hope you choose to follow this show and absorb the mindset so you can grow!

This conversation with Crystal Hamm was wide-ranging in topics, but mainly focused on her past. In the present, Crystal runs a $3 million dollar residential cleaning company. Her team loves her and she loves them. She has build a company in the Raleigh Area that serves people greatly called the Go 2 Girls. I can't endorse this company enough if you live in Wake County, North Carolina.

Check out this interview with Crystal and listen to her story. She comes from rural America, climbing trees, and sliding into 3rd base for softball. She has come so far from her beginnings as the daughter of a coal miner to an employer of over 60 team members. She has a truly remarkable story. Here are a few quotes that I especially loved...

"That's my mentality. We never stop learning."

"My self worth was tied to that growth. So I felt that once I hit a million dollars then this small town girl was going to be good enough."

I am a listener to the Tim Ferriss Podcast and have been for years. I don't relate with every episode, but some of them really move me to action and inspire me. Here are some examples. Kelly Slater taught me to be humble. Hugh Jackman inspired me to utilize the rowing machine in my workouts! Chris Bosh showed me that my problems aren't that big! In this episode, Elizabeth Gilbert taught me the Art of the Simple No. 

This talk was originally given for Coach Josh. He runs a Facebook group called TwelveTwo, which exists to empower entrepreneurs to pursue excellence in their finances and relationships. I had been working on this exercise after attending the Growth Now Summit Live in Lititz, PA with Justin Schenck. During this conference, my friend and Movement Influencer Andre Young taught me a simple exercise to help board rooms narrow down their company values to core values. What does that mean? Andre runs "You Evolving Now" and explained that leadership teams can think of many words to explain what the organization believes in. However, this exercise helped the teams he has coached to force their long list of values down to the vital few that were truly core. They are the ones that capture the essence of WHY the company exists, HOW they operate, and WHAT they do. I just pulled in a little Golden Circle by Simon Sinek too. Anyway, I borrowed this exercise from Andre along with Simon's mindset and adapted it to creating better habits 

This was episode 11 of this podcast, originally published on November 14, 2019 which was a tough month for me. We had successfully built and sold an optimized solo cleaning company in Upstate New York and moved back home to Philadelphia after nearly 20 years away. I desperately wanted to have a career where I could work from home and enjoy my kids growing up. I made an assumption that I'd be able to build up our online business of courses, memberships, and the proceeds of this podcast while living off the sale revenue from our NY cleaning company. I had just returned from the Total Life Freedom Gatlinburg Retreat with a new direction. I told my mastermind and my wife that I would continue to build the online business. However, I promised them that I would get back into the trenches of solo cleaning and prove to whoever was listening to the podcast that I could do it again. I built one solo cleaning company over 15 years to $60,000 profit cleaning just 2 days per week without employees.  I vowed to do it again and set SMART goals of $20,000 revenue goals for the upcoming year of 2020. I even called this goal - Vision 20/20! We all know that 2020 turned out differently, but that didn't stop us! We accomplished every goal in 2020 and shared every detail in the first 100 episodes of this podcast.

This November 2019 episode was very important as it taught a vital lesson in HOW I was able to raise prices and optimize a solo cleaning business so fast. If you're thinking to yourself, 'how, Ken?' The answer is in the title. Enjoy!

Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page at smartcleaningschool.com/resources.

The Solo Cleaning Elite and the ISO Model Course are the classes available to solo cleaners in the Smart Cleaning School. I am the original student and have honed the curriculum for any solo cleaner to create the profit, time, and freedom they are looking for without ever having to hire employees. I created the curriculum with our first solo cleaning business in New York as the model. We built an optimized solo cleaning company with 17 clients that created $60,000 annual profit on 2 cleaning days per week. It was awesome as I could be home with my family 5 days per week! This business sold for $80,000.  Over the past 5 years, I have coached dozens of solo cleaners through my ISO Model with success. I have also built a second solo business to $70,000 profit on 2 cleaning days per week and scaled this business to almost $200k in annual revenue and a team of employees. Why do I tell you all of that? Simple. One of the classes in the ISO Model is called the 3 S's of Solo Cleaning.  You can only optimize so far and every solo cleaner must make this decision at some point. Will I STAY a solo cleaner and continue to optimize to my ideal income and schedule, while turning down many prospects? Will I SELL my solo business to move on or enjoy retirement? Will I SCALE my solo business with a team of employees so we can grow to impact our community? I have done all 3 S's of solo cleaning. Therefore, I am a credible instructor for the ISO Model Course. 

I hear this statement so much in the cleaning groups. It sounds like a great problem to have, but in reality, it's a defining statement. Let me give context to the people asking it. They are called solo cleaners. I was one for 16 years. A solo cleaner starts out super excited to make money for their family. They love cleaning and can do it as a side business. As they get better and their name gets passed around, they start adding more and more customers. But here's the problem. A solo cleaner has a limited number of customers they can work with. Even the most efficient solo cleaner even has a limit. For fun, let's create a solo cleaning robot named Bob. Bob doesn't sleep and is able to clean 3 houses Monday to Friday during the day and 4 offices each night and 8 on Saturday and Sunday. Bob is a machine, literally. He cleans 15 houses and 36 offices every week by himself. If each house and office is worth $150 per clean, Bob is creating just under $400,000 in annual revenue and approximately $350,000 per year in profit as he doesn't sleep or eat. All he needs are the supplies and insurances to do the work. This is absolutely ridiculous. No one can work like Bob. I just wanted to show you that a solo cleaning robot could earn $350,000 per year. But he couldn't earn any more. What if Bob was reprogrammed to need sleep? He would tap out around $175,000 or $200,000. The point is simple. There is always a limit in solo cleaning. Most solos out there are no where near Bob. Does that strike a chord? Are you working like crazy and have no more time to take on more customers. Congratulations! You've hit the wall. So what are you going to do about it?

I need to give credit to where credit is due for this episode. Thank you Vincent Pugliese for this mindset. If you don't know Vincent, check out "Content But Not Satisfied". Vincent has grown an online community called Total Life Freedom with over 100 strong in the past 4 years. The members inside this community have access to expert calls on various topics of online platform building, elite masterminds, internal courses, retreats, and of course, the extremely valuable connections between like-minded, freedom-seeking entrepreneurs. I have been a part of this community and mastermind since the first day. In fact, I am an original member and was there to help Vincent set up the foundation. I've had a unique perspective of watching Vincent build this community and raise up leaders from within it. I remember the hard times too, such as last summer. We stayed together in Nashville for Podcast Movement. When the masses went to the insane iHeart afterparty with drinking, we stuck around the hotel to mastermind. You see, Vincent had built a great community. But like any business, he had some parts and people that were higher maintenance than others. I showed him my 2 x 2 grid to map out the various aspects of his business. I talked about this in "Why I Fired My First Client", where I divided all of our clients into 4 groups - low-paying & high-drama, high-paying & low-drama, high-paying & high-drama, and  low-paying & low drama. When you hear these listed out, it's obvious that we want the high-paying & low-drama and don't want the low-paying & high-drama. It's the other two groups that cause us so much grief. I explained this to Vincent and he started getting excited. Then he asked if we could add a mid-range box and make it 3 x 3. That's when I got excited. We started mapping his various clients and income streams on this grid. It spoke so loud that we knew what he needed to do. I did the same exercise for us as well. By the way, this is vintage Ken & Vincent since we met at a Dave Ramsey, Seth Godin, Gary Vee conference in 2014. We mastermind so well together. When the drunkards returned from the iHeart party, we were chilling in the hotel restaurant with wings and our maps. We were so excited. Vincent pledged that he would raise the standards in his community to have 100 amazing people that were all low-drama. Some were low-paying and some were high, but no one brought drama. They would be an ultra generous community always looking out for others. This was the vision. This episode releases at the 1-year mark of that mapping meeting. Vincent's vision has come to fruition. TLF has leveled up more than I've ever seen it.

When I started this podcast in late 2019, I never imagined in a million years that I'd be eulogizing my father a year later. If you get a chance, check out the Tribute to My Father from December 17th, 2020. Ken Carfagno, Sr was born in Northeast Philadelphia on May 11th, 1936. He was the youngest of 6. Ken Sr. married Gabriella Corbett on October 20th, 1956. They were 20 years old. Soon after, they had their first of three sons, Ken Carfagno, Jr. That's my dad. 18-year-old Ken Jr married 16-year-old Lynn Driban in August 1976 and Ken Carfagno III was born on March 1st, 1977. Ken Sr became a Pop-Pop at the age of 40. My parents didn't stay married long. I have shared this so many times in this podcast as it's so vital to understand me. My single mom raised me during the week as a kid, while my dad and mostly my Pop-Pop raised me on weekends. The most influential man in my life has always been my Pop-Pop. In latter years, I started calling him my father because he raised me into the man that I am. Thank you for listening to this opening and my genealogy story. I just wanted to give you context to this episode.