Filthy Rich Cleaners Podcast E13: Why Libby DeLucien Slowed Down Her $2M Organizing Company

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Introduction

Coming up next on the Filthy Rich Cleaners podcast: “Don’t offer everything, especially in the beginning. Please do not do that. Get very good at cleaning, or whatever you’re starting with. Get very, very good at that. Don’t just say I’m gonna do everything.”

From your first dollar to your first million, welcome to the Filthy Rich Cleaners podcast presented by ZenMaid. Join your host, Stephanie Pipkin, founder of Serene Clean as she shares proven tips, tricks and hard-earned lessons. Whether you’re just starting out or ready to scale, get ready to discover how to build your own cleaning empire. Let’s roll up our sleeves and dive in.

Meet Libby DeLucien

Stephanie: Hello everyone, and welcome to Filthy Rich Cleaners. I am your host, Stephanie Pipkin, and today’s amazing guest is Libby DeLucien. She is a woman of many trades and many skill sets, and I can’t wait for you guys to hear all about her pretty incredible journey, as well as what she’s doing now. We’ll all learn some things about leadership, and we’ll talk about mistakes, horror stories, all the good stuff that you guys come here for. So Libby, thank you for being here and tell me about your story.

Libby: Awesome. Thank you for having me, super excited to be here. My story is a long one, but I think it’s pretty similar to a lot of your listeners. I do come from some business background, but not cleaning. You know, they always say there’s like new money and old money. I say I’m new cleaning versus old cleaning. I’m new money in cleaning because I’m fairly new to the industry. I didn’t know anything about cleaning. Never had a cleaning company as a child.

Starting from Desperation

Libby: As an adult, I started my cleaning company and organizing because we do organizing and cleaning out of pure desperation. Going through a horrible divorce, my ex kicked me out of our house, locked the change the locks, and took the kids. So it was like, “What can I do? What are the things I could do? I don’t have any money. What am I good at?”

I first started organizing. That is probably my unique ability, or the thing that I’m the best at. From there, we added cleaning, because all of the organizing customers were like, “I need a great cleaner.” And I was like, “Oh, this is easy. How hard could it be?” Because I have no background in cleaning, don’t know anything about it, I went in completely blind.

Learning the Business Hands-On

Libby: I cleaned for about, not quite, but almost a year. I organized in the field for about three years, and I cleaned for almost a year because I wanted to learn the ins and outs. I’m glad I did, because now, my God, I know how hard it is, I know how much the job can suck. I know how rewarding it is. I was the worst cleaner probably ever, because I over-cleaned everything. I was not efficient. By the time I got done my billable hourly rate was probably below minimum wage because I was so slow.

Stephanie: The details were there, but the efficiency not so much for sure. I mean, that’s why I’m such a fan of owners cleaning. I know it kind of sucks, but you know what clean is. And like you said, that point of being empathetic to your staff when you do add staff and knowing what is reasonable, even to the point of how many first times are deep cleans? Are we scheduling on a given team or given team member? Because those are way harder than maintenance clean. So keeping being cognizant of the challenges of this job. It’s very physically demanding. So when you’ve done the work, honestly, I don’t know if I could go back to full time cleaning. Like, if I ever get thrown into the field now, my whole body just aches. I’m like, “How did I do this?”

Getting Started with Organizing

Stephanie: I am highly intrigued by the organizing aspect in many facets. Would you say that getting organizing clients is very different than getting cleaning clients? I have talked to a few folks who really want to get into organizing, or they offer it, and they struggle to get clients. So do you have any suggestions on that? Or how did you get your first clients when you were strictly doing the organizing?

Libby: Oh my God, I got my first organizing clients through Groupon, and I don’t recommend it. It’s like 50% off of your regular price, and then Groupon keeps another percentage of that. By the time I was done, I think I got like $20 for a job. So I don’t recommend it.

Organizing is very similar to cleaning. I’ve always said I’ve wanted to launch an organizing course to teach cleaning companies how to incorporate organizing into their business.

Building a Distinct Service Model

Libby: For us, the way we were successful with it, and the way we scale it is we keep them completely separate. They have separate uniforms, their separate hourly rate. For organizing, we get like $100 an hour. It’s considered a different skill set.

When I first started, I was an organizer first, and then I started cleaning, and I still wore a different uniform if I was cleaning or organizing. We never co-mingle the two ever. You have to organize before you can clean. But the way people treated me as an organizer, when I walked into a house, they treated me like a god. They’re like, “Oh my God, can I get you a coffee? Can I get you water? Can I get you anything? Oh, you want a chair so you can sit down?” Because organize a lot of standing. But when I would walk into the house as a cleaner, they’re like, “Hey, can you get my water? Can you get my purse?”

Marketing Advantages

Stephanie: It was seen more like I serve it? I was kind of like—

Libby: This is bizarre, the way that you’re looked at and you’re treated and it’s just like society’s perception of cleaners. And I was like, this is just so crazy. With organizing, we can mix customers. We can recommend our service – if the house is too messy, we recommend organizing. If we’re organizing a house, we recommend our cleaning.

For me, it was very easy to scale because the word organizing, or professional organizing, is not as expensive as cleaning. When we’re promoting cleaning, we’re competing with franchises – it is a high dollar word, no matter if you’re competing in Facebook ads, Google ads, Thumbtack, Bark, it doesn’t matter because you’re competing with franchises. But with organizing, there are little to no franchises, and a lot of organizers are solopreneurs, like cleaners when they start out, and very few hire people, and very few market like paid ads.

The Organizing Process

Stephanie: That’s what I was wondering about. The reason why I’m so gun shy about organizing, or even coming on to it, just as I’m sure many of our listeners are, but hearing that $100 like hearing that, it’s like, oh, what? So when it comes to the actual process, is the client literally there with you? How do you know what they want? Is that just an intake form that’s super duper detailed? Like tactically, how do you make sure you are doing what is actually going to work for them?

Libby: It’s a great question, because when it comes to cleaning, it’s hard to train our cleaners to organize. They’re taught don’t open the drawer, like, “Oh my gosh, if you move it, put it right back.” That’s the mentality, the way they have. That’s how we train them. If they have experience, that’s how they were trained with other companies.

But with organizing, you come in and you destroy it – you take out all the drawers and you dump everything out on beds, you gather up everything off the counters, and your job is to not put it back in the same place. Your job is to create a process or a system so that this use of the space is more efficient.

Working with Clients

Libby: We have a variety of customers. We have some very high-end customers saying, “I don’t want to be involved. I just want my space to look beautiful.” And you can do that if you have experience or confidence. The rule of thumb is that you cannot get rid of anything without permission. So if they’re not in the home, we just simply keep the donation boxes in the garage or on the front porch for them to go through at another time. A lot of customers have the money and they don’t want to deal with it.

And then if they are home, and we prefer working with the customer. There are two big rules. One is, you can’t tell anyone what to get rid of. You have to coach them. You have to ask them the questions, just like a business coach – we’re not supposed to tell you what to do. We’re supposed to ask you the questions so that you get to your own answer. And the second rule was, you can’t get rid of anything without their permission. So as long as you follow those two rules, you’re not going to get yourself into any trouble.

Types of Organizing Services

Libby: It’s a great thing to add. It is easy to separate yourself. It’s easy to market because there’s not a lot of competition in the market. And it’s something that all of our customers need. Like, all of our cleaning customers, almost all of them, I would say like 90% of our cleaning customers could use it.

Stephanie: Do you suggest – I’m assuming the answer is yes, but correct me if I’m wrong – do you suggest always charging hourly for organizing? Or is it-

Libby: Oh yes, because you don’t know what you’re walking into. I’ve done hoarder houses. I’ve done total clean-outs. I’ve done $10,000 jobs with houses – families need to sell, somebody’s passed away. It’s a very, very fun job.

And there’s two kinds of organizing. If you’re a cleaning company and you want to offer organizing, you can start with offering organizing services – okay, not professional organizing. If you explain it well enough, you won’t get yourself in trouble, and you can actually have some of your cleaners do this.

Organizing services is essentially aesthetically making the area look beautiful. So what that means is you’re not necessarily creating a process or system. You’re not necessarily working with the client. You’re just taking a pantry and aesthetically making it look pleasing, maybe throwing away the expired stuff and or categorizing and making it look pretty.

Professional organizing is when you come in and you work with a client, you coach them, you help them. The purging process is huge in this and then from there, then you create systems, which would be like additional shelving bins. How does it work? Do you have small children? So let’s put the snacks at the bottom. That’s more professional organizing when you come in and you’re making processes and systems for the family.

Pricing and Business Model

Stephanie: I’m so happy – that was just like a light bulb moment of you just explaining that because we do, or we have done, like, light organizing, if you will, where it’s like, if a regular client wants their closet organized, or their shoe area or whatever, and it’s just a mess, we’ll just make it pretty or their kitchen cabinets or whatever. So we that’s exactly what we’ve done. We just don’t advertise it, because we’re so – again, price like estimating as well as is a question I have when it comes to that, because for cleaning, I know our production rates. I know it’s easy to calculate, but it just seems like, how do you even know how much time to schedule for the jobs? Do you always have eyes on and go see it? Do you have them send pictures? How do you handle that?

Libby: I stopped doing in-home quotes because they took all my ideas and then didn’t hire me.

Stephanie: Oh, I see.

Libby: Because you’re talking them through that like, “Oh, we could do this here and that there.” You know, along those lines, as far as how do you price it? It’s actually super, super easy to price. You price it by a block of hours. That’s it. So we do a four-hour minimum for $400 – that’s for professional organizing, for $400 each additional hour is $100. That’s it. We won’t go more than six hours. That’s our cap a day because you’re done, you’re tired.

Pricing Structure and Client Communication

Libby: And when people are like, “Well, how much is it going to cost?” And we always say, “Well, we can do as much or as little as you want. We can take you from the beginning of the process to the end. We can take you as far as you can afford it. But it’s up to you.”

The reason you want to price organizing this way is because an example is an office with papers. Papers take five times longer than any other room, because you can have a stack of papers like this, and it would have hundreds and hundreds of papers in it, versus a stack of hundreds and hundreds of T-shirts, is much larger, and you, the client, determines how fast or slow you go. So if you want to talk about everything, and you want to tell me your life story, about where you got this t-shirt from, more power to you.

Stephanie: Well that’s what that was. My next question was, when it comes to, you know, we charge hourly for residential there’s pros and cons to each way. There’s lots of ways to skin this cat, I know, and probably could be a lot more profitable doing it flat rate. We just haven’t jumped to that yet. Honestly, it’s a big, colossal thing to at this scale, to switch. So I don’t even broach the topic with my managers, because they’re like, “No, we’re not doing that yet.” Maybe something obviously commercial and vacation rentals are all flat rate. So my question is, do you ever have clients complain about the production rate of organizing, like they are dissatisfied with how much gets done?

Libby: Never. They love it. They love you. They’ve been able to talk open up. See physical results. Physical with cleaning, we see it if it’s really dirty, but if it’s not super dirty, you’re just kind of – it smells good.

Stephanie: You notice it when it’s not done well.

The Impact of Organizing

Libby: But with organizing, because it’s so visual, we never – I’ve never in all of our years, people are ecstatic. They love the organizing. They’re so grateful, and they’ve been meaning to do this, and it’s interfering with their life. Organizing interferes with so much of your life, like your health, your day to day. I’m huge on mental health and cleaning and organizing. Like we have this whole guide on how Cleaning and Organizing on our website can improve your mental health, either by having a clean and organized house or by the physical actions of cleaning and organizing can also improve your mental health.

Stephanie: And that’s definitely a branding Avenue or marketing strategy that we use in Serene Clean too, is talking about the mental health aspects of the effects of what we do and the lack of what we do, and what that does negatively to people. And I think it that is a wonderful strategy for us owners and for our listeners here of talk about those types of things, because the clients immediately gravitate because they feel heard, they feel seen, their experience is finally validated. Of like, “Oh, like, I am severely depressed, and my house is a total shit show,” and this can – we can literally change their life like that in one day of work by doing that.

Marketing and Client Connection

Stephanie: And so highlighting that, I ask our clients to talk about how it made them feel. You know, really just what – we are selling a feeling. We’re selling an experience. And it’s not just a logical decision people are making, at least when it comes to the women that are that are making that hiring decision. I typically find that this is a very emotionally like, a ball of yarn that we’re pulling when it comes to, like, the emotional aspect and baggage related to, well, because we’re the ones who are expected to maintain the household, regardless of, regardless of outside forces, if you have a full time job, etc, etc, statistically speaking, that that house labor is still falling on the woman. So would you say that it’s usually women who are reaching out for this? Or, surprise me, is it? Is it the other way around?

Libby: No, it is a lot of women. It’s just about the same as cleaning. I was probably like a 90/10 split, like 90% women, 10% men. I will say garages are huge in the organizing sector, huge. Like garages – we do a campaign like, you know, it’s 110 degrees outside, and you’ll leave your Tesla sitting out there, but you have a bunch of junk in the garage. Some of the marketing campaigns we’re like, “Do you feel bad for your car right now?”

And you know, you had said what you’re selling, and it’s funny, I just pulled up my Google doc because I worked for the last three weeks. I dove in. I restructured all our companies, and I got really specific on a few things, and it’s what we sell. And so for the listeners – if you don’t know what you’re selling, you’re not just selling cleaning. And I’m gonna read you – I have one for every company. I have one for myself as well. Like, what am I selling?

What We’re Really Selling

Libby: And so I’m gonna read you Organize It. So what we sell is peace of mind. We’re not just selling cleaning and organizing services. We’re providing the calm and clarity that comes with living in a clean and organized space. Your services help clients reclaim their time, reduce overwhelm and enjoy the sanctuary of their homes.

Stephanie: Beautiful and it’s so true, and it’s just like knowing who your ideal and likely buyer is, or defining your avatar as it’s oftentimes called, like that gives you clarity, because so many times I see people speaking as if they were speaking to themselves, and not all the time is who they are, their ideal and likely buyer.

Understanding Your Market

Stephanie: Sometimes yeah, I do consulting with guys, and the ads read as if a guy is writing them frankly, and not like it’s not to the busy working mothers who are going to be the one that’s hiring you. So it’s like, it’s very difficult to market well and effectively if you don’t know who you’re talking to and what you’re talking about and what you offer. So I love, that’s a really great tip to, like, get ultra clarity on what you’re offering.

Libby: Well, yeah, because if you think about it, everybody sells a feeling. So we’re selling the feeling of peace of mind. If you think about like, what does Starbucks sell? What does Apple sell? They’re not – they’re all selling a feeling, and it’s not a product and it’s not a service. It is a feeling. So you have to think about what is the feeling that you’re selling.

Branding and Business Structure

Libby: So for Organize It, and my cleaning company is named Organize It, I tried this. Guys, everybody’s like, “Oh, if I’m gonna launch organizing, I’m gonna open another business.” Please don’t. I had my organizing company first, and I decided, “Oh, I’m going to add cleaning. I’ll open a whole nother company, like a subsidiary, another Facebook page, another website.” It was a disaster.

Stephanie: Just explain much why?

Libby: Just it’s too much to keep up with. They’re the same customers. It’s the same office staff. We’re using the same CRMs, the same softwares, and so about two years in, I decided to merge them, and it’s been the best thing ever. It’s like unite – like we just conquer all of it together.

And you know, and a lot of people get worried about the name. So I’m not worried about the name when you’re marketing. If you hire a plumbing company – I mean, how often do we remember the plumbing company’s name? I know it sounds horrible, but it’s true. You’re not gonna remember my name. And then I just made my tagline – our tagline is, you know, “We’re the most organized cleaning company in the world.”

Stephanie: Oh, that’s clever.

Revenue and Business Model

Libby: So, you know, it’s Organize It and cleaning is our – it’s 20% probably of our revenue because it’s recurring. We’re organizing is very project based, high dollar tickets, but more project based. So I and when we kept the word Organize It, we decided to go like, super classy and sleek as like, “Okay, we’re gonna be different from a cleaning company.” We don’t have a cleaning company name, and so it hasn’t hurt us at all, like, by adding cleaning or vice versa, if you add organizing, don’t think you have to go change your name and do all that jazz.

Stephanie: And especially if you do have that brand recognition and power behind that original name. I’ve gotten that question before where people are like, “I want to add commercial. Should I do a different name that has, like, janitorial in it?” And I was like, “No, don’t do that,” because it’s just, what’s the benefit? It’s probably only going to be way more work. And like you said, especially when it comes to softwares. So what you’re gonna have two ZenMaids up? You’re gonna have, like, it just, it doesn’t – why, especially for your managers, of like, switching between so, because often, I mean, you’re probably having one operations team or one management team handling all of it, so making it more difficult on them for not much benefit. Don’t do that.

Business Evolution

Stephanie: Yeah, absolutely. So can you tell me then a little bit when it comes to how it’s evolved over time. Does anything stick out to you? I’m sure there’s lots of things that stick out to you, of how you did things in the beginning versus how you do things now. And this could be in the realm of anything managing your staff, the services that you offer, and getting more nuanced on that. Is there anything that you’re like, “Gosh, I wish we would have done that differently.”

Libby: Oh, a lot of stuff. I mean, I don’t even know where to talk about that for days. I’m like, I don’t even know where to start. No, I started probably just like everybody else I was using, well, I don’t even think you could call them independent contractors, because I was just paying them under the table and I only had, like, one, you know.

The Pregnancy Challenge

Libby: Where, where my business, when my business really changed, and it was only about like nine or 10 months into owning my business, I had my daughter. So I had struggled for a few years to get pregnant with my daughter, and had several miscarriages and tried and tried and tried. For all the listeners that are ladies, I actually had my tubes tied after my 16 year old and had the surgery to untie them to have my daughter who’s six.

Pregnancy and Business Growth

Stephanie: Oh my goodness. So wait, wait, wait, you had her when you’re nine months in the business. You so you were pregnant the entire-

Libby: Pregnant, almost the whole time.

Stephanie: Oh my gosh, you are a trooper.

Libby: Oh, and when I found out I was pregnant with her, it was this moment of, like, joy and sadness. It was joy because I had tried so hard for so many years, for like five years, and for like, a lot of failure, right? And it wasn’t working, and then all of a sudden, you know, the organizing was doing great. We added the cleaning, and the cleaning just took off like it was nuts. And when I found out was pregnant, we had only had the cleaning company a couple months, and we were doing great, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, what am I gonna do?” It was like, I’m happy, but I’m sad because I’m like, this is going so great. This is, it’s, what am I going to do?

Managing Through Pregnancy

Libby: So I cleaned until I was, like, the day before I had her.

Stephanie: I see, I see in the cleaning groups all the time, like, ladies pretty much up at the hospital trip, they’re cleaning, and I’m like, “How do you do this?” That’s amazing.

Libby: It’s amazing what happens when you’re desperate, right? A lot of innovation, new ideas come during times of desperation.

Stephanie: So true.

Libby: So I cleaned, I had one or two helpers, and they were great, didn’t they didn’t speak any English, like, I was just doing all, you know, I was just trying to figure it out. I had no clue how to create, like, how to do this professionally, and so when I, when I was getting close to having my daughter, I was researching, because I was like, I’m going to create a process.

Finding Solutions

Libby: I’m a professional organizer. I can create any kind of process, but I didn’t have enough history or experience to create a process for cleaning. I just didn’t, and I had my daughter, and the two helpers that I had at that time were great. They were like, “No, you take care of her. Stay home. We got this.” But they expected me to come back right after a little while, to come and help again, and I was so scared and desperate that I was going to have to go back.

The Breaking Point

Libby: And so my breaking point was going home from the hospital. So I was only in the hospital 24 hours, they discharged me, and when we got in the car, I looked at my husband and I said, “I have to go check on a house.” And he looked at me, and he’s like, “Are you crazy?” And I was though, I was literally crazy at that time. I didn’t have trust in my my two helpers. I didn’t know how to communicate. It was all my fault, and I was crazy. It was driving me crazy, and I did. I stopped all the way home from the hospital, and we – I had to walk a vacation rental, those darn vacation rentals, right?

Stephanie: One of my one of my favorite stories is my manager Crystal. She when she had her son, she was still, I mean, she’s manager, but also doing some cleanings. And so she had to go do a vacation rental. And my favorite thing is when she reenacts making a bunk bed when she is, like, eight, nine months pregnant, she like heaves herself – the challenge of cleaning pregnant.

Finding a Mentor

Libby: So I got desperate and going to that vacation rental, asking my husband, like, I literally heard myself saying, like, “Libby, you’re nuts. This is insane.” And so I started to look and look, and that’s where I found Debbie Sardone, and I invested in a mentor. So I always, I always encourage everyone. There’s many, many great mentors, coaches. If you don’t know what you’re doing, or you feel like you’re stuck to you know, to look, look for help. I was desperate because I didn’t want – I didn’t have time to figure this out. I had, like, a month until they expect me to come back into the field.

And so I just, you know, I bought – I felt like, buy your answer, so I always feel like, if you’re struggling or you’re stuck, coaches and mentors are like the fast pass at Disney World. If you pay a little extra money, you’re going to get to cheat the line.

Stephanie: Absolutely yes.

Choosing the Right Mentor

Libby: So, you know, find the one that resonates with you, find the tribe that is close to you. Like I said, there’s a great segment of coaches out there, just make sure you pick a good coach, because there are some that may not give the best advice.

Stephanie: Absolutely. It’s like, have they actually done like, what you want to do? And yeah, you know. And really checking out, what do you resonate with them? That’s where it’s like, okay, it’s like, we’ve all been on videos, things like that. And so pick, pick your poison, and who you connect with the most, and you’ll, yeah, like you said, you’ll find your tribe.

Learning While Working

Stephanie: And even, like, that’s why I’m such a big fan of, like, audio books, podcasts and things like that, because you can do that while you’re cleaning and so like, Guys, listen to books, listen to business podcasts, listen to this podcast, obviously. But there’s so many resources out there, and then taking a look at at, you know, furthering that will, like you said, fast track you to, because you’re learning from our mistakes. Basically, like the solutions that we have is truly because it was born out of pain.

Libby: Oh yeah, and it’s, it’s 100% pain. So, and I was, I was desperate, so I – yeah, here’s the thing, with desperation, we’ve all been there, and it’s like, do I let it defeat me, or do I use it to push me, or do I use it to help me find a solution or an answer? And we’re all in those times of desperation, whether you’re like, you’re feeling desperate because you’re burnt out, or you’re frustrated, or you can’t keep employees, or your customers are all canceling, that’s the time to, like, find that courage fearless. We call it fearlessness inside of you, to say, hey, I have to keep pushing through this.

Pushing Through Challenges

Libby: And listen to that, because if you give up, you’re gonna, you know, when you stop, you’re gonna end up right back where you were. And then you’re gonna ask yourself, why does this keep happening? Which is the definition of insanity. But if you push through it and you seek help, mentors, just curiosity, like listening to things like you said, the books, YouTube videos, there’s so many podcasts going on right now, just having that curiosity, I think naturally, will guide you to that tribe that you’re looking for, the person that you connect with. But when we’re not curious and we’re not open minded, I think that that prevents us from finding that solution.

Being Open to Learning

Stephanie: Not being too proud to say, like, I don’t know here, and because that puts you in that curious mindset and being willing to learn. And I will say I have experienced that having where, you know, doing consulting calls, and having lots of different types of conversations where I speak to somebody and they immediately, like, lead with, like, “I’ve done this and I’ve done this,” and like, “everything’s great.” And it’s like, well, why are you talking to me? Then clearly it’s not great. And kind of like, puffing out their chest because I think they’re, you know, they’re for whatever reason, you know, for whatever reason that they’re doing that. It’s like, I can see right through you, you don’t know what you’re doing, and that’s okay. And just say that. Like, why are we blustering here?

Maintaining a Learning Mindset

Stephanie: And so coming from a place of humility and wanting to be a student of the game at all times, like, I’m still a student. I am still – it’s, you’re never a master, you know. And so just always keeping that kind of learning mindset and being open to new things, and even just heck, these podcasts have been so informative to me because it’s like, okay, organizing, like, Absolutely, I’m still in Serene Clean and I’m like, That’s interesting. Maybe I’ll pull that string sometime, because I like hearing the prices and hearing you know how you can stand out and differentiate yourself and offer more to your current clients. Like, that’s a beautiful thing.

Growing Your Current Business

Libby: The easiest way to grow a business-

Stephanie: Sell more to your current customers.

Libby: Exactly, exactly, 100% and that’s we’ve had that conversation. You know, we have three locations for Serene Clean. It’s like, okay, we don’t want to open more locations. We want to, well, obviously, get as much out of the current market that we can, but then take a look at adding more depth and breadth to our current services so we can get more money out of the same customers. That’s the ideal because they’re already happy, they already trust you. They’re much more likely to buy from you guys.

Focus on One Thing First

Stephanie: But don’t take what I just said to mean I’m going to, like, don’t offer everything, especially in the beginning. Please do not do that. Get very good at cleaning, or whatever you’re starting with. Get very, very good at that. Don’t just say I’m gonna do everything, because then you’re gonna suck at everything and it’s gonna fall apart. So-

Libby: Well, you have to specialize. You have to specialize before you can generalize.

Stephanie: 100%, 100%. So things were growing. You got your systems in place. You have your daughter. You know. So what year was the – what year did you start? Remind me of that? Libby, 2017-

Business Growth Timeline

Libby: I started my cleaning up right at the end of 2017. I had my daughter in 2018 and from 2018 to 2021 I grew it to a million dollars, in three years, because it was pretty much almost at zero when I went to have the baby, because I left, and it was like there wasn’t much left. And we grew to a million dollars. And we were at 2 million the year Ian hit us, which was in 2023 and then that leveled us. We lost 400 customers in one day.

Dealing with Hurricane Ian

Stephanie: Say to that, like, like, tell me how you regroup, because now all of a sudden there’s no houses because they’re, yeah, literally leveled. So how do you rebuild? Also talk about your mentality, because that would crush a lot of people. They would, they would throw in the towel right there. And I’m sure, look-

Libby: So many of my local competitors did. So in that time before Ian hit us, I had launched WootRecruit, which is a recruiting software and so that kind of, you know, kept me busy. And it was one of those things where I think everything happens for a reason, because I had launched WootRecruit. I had money coming in when Ian hit us, and so one company’s kind of saved the other, or at least saved me, and I didn’t have to pay myself from one company because, so anyways, I-

Speaking When Disaster Strikes

Libby: How did I get through that? Like, mentally? I’m not gonna lie, it was, it was hard. I think the reason that I was okay with it, and I was speaking on stage in Vegas the day it hit us. It wasn’t supposed to hit us. It was supposed to go to Tampa. And my – I left my kids with my mom. My mom was like, “No, it’s not supposed to come to Fort Myers, don’t worry.” And I got on a plane, went to sleep, got there, woke up, and they’re like, “It’s stalled, and it’s headed straight to Fort Myers. And it’s Category Five, by the way.”

Leading Through Crisis

Libby: You know it was, it was probably one of the hardest times of my life, that being said. You know, my ex husband was extremely abusive, mentally and physically. He was an alcoholic. It was infidelity. So I’ve been through hard times being kicked out. Like I’ve been through extremely hard times. This was, like a hard time for me, because I had to be strong for our employees.

Managing Through the Hurricane

Libby: And, you know, we were a $2 million business, and I have a whole emergency preparedness plan. You can use it for the winter storms, hurricanes, you name it on like, how do I? Who do I start coaching at what time and how and why? That’s-

Stephanie: A great suggestion to put something into place. Because no matter where you are listening from. We all deal with natural disasters, all of us.

Libby: I shared it in ZenMaid a couple days ago for everyone to prepare for the winter storm. I’ll-

Stephanie: Definitely have to check that out. Oh my gosh, yeah. Well, yes, we just woke up to a bunch of snow, and my flight got canceled tomorrow from Savannah. So yes, it’s you never know what’s going to hit you and where.

Reopening After the Storm

Libby: No. So I had to learn how to be the strong person for them. Typically, I was always the strong person for myself, right in my past and those issues and but this was like, I had to be strong for our employees, because they everyone was, like, literally losing their mind. There’s no power, there’s no water. It looks like a bomb went off in our town, and it hit. It hit on Thursday. We closed Thursday and Friday, I flew back. I flew to another airport, drove in here because you couldn’t get in. And I spent the day on Sunday, walk like driving around as much as I could and trying to see what was going on. And I had to make the decision to reopen on Monday or stay closed.

And I know that if I didn’t reopen on Monday, I’m – When would I reopen? And I have to make sure that, and it’s one of those decisions, like, Are you being insensitive? Like, you know, but I – we have bills as a company, and our employees are expected to, you know, survive and make ends meet.

Adapting to Work Without Power

Libby: So I decided to reopen on Monday morning, we had no power. We had made shirts that said “We don’t need power to clean.” Everyone’s like, “Well, how did you clean?” I’m like, we bought brooms. Literally, the only thing you need power for to clean is a vacuum. We bought brooms and our cleaners carried their own water. We had them carry jugs of water, and they carried their own water.

So what we did was we reopened on Monday morning, and I had one house on the schedule. I-

Stephanie: I was gonna ask, like, how Monday morning even, like, was that was even on their mind at all, you know, to get clean so that like increased throughout the week then, like, you had, what did that first week look like?

Libby: It did increase because so many people were, you know, without water, they couldn’t even clean. They were without power. They wanted us to check on their houses. They wanted us to help us help them, because their house is flooded or they had, like, minor flooding, but so they wanted us to come mop or disinfect because they’d been living in it for four days with no water.

Emergency Communication Plans

Libby: So we did get that. Monday morning, we only had one house. I’ll never forget it. But in the afternoon, we had, like, 17 houses. And it slowly came back. But it was, it was hard. There was no internet. We have in my Hurricane Preparedness Plan. It tells you to coach your customers, employees, that you’re gonna communicate through email, because email takes the least amount of data to send. Send text messages don’t work anymore. Apps don’t work anymore. There’s not enough data. The cell towers are down. So we communicate through email.

Your CRMs are down, so you need to make sure, well, they’re not down. You just can’t access them because you don’t have internet. So you need to make sure you do a quick export, like, if you know something’s coming, just export your customers.

Planning for Emergencies

Stephanie: Good tip, good hurricane preparedness plan. Yeah, it’s in the mastermind. Maybe we’ll link it. Link it both in the mastermind group and the show notes for anybody who is interested in that. Thank you for sharing that. Because, I mean, you’re blowing my mind right now. I’m like, gosh, we need this. We need this. Like, obviously, we have a lot of things in place, but I did not think about all of this.

And, yeah, the power situation of, how do you get the clients, you know, addresses and all of that, even go to them so and honestly, what you’re what you’re saying right now, and like, what’s just screaming in my mind as you speak is just rolling with the punches and adaptability. And I think that is one of truly the markers of somebody who’s gonna make it, is, can you roll with psychotic situations and adapt and figure something out?

Learning from COVID

Stephanie: And obviously, both of us went through COVID as business owners, my business was just a year old, and obviously neither of us or anybody else had experienced this type of thing before. So I’ve seen some of your content related to like employees, pre, during and post COVID, so I definitely want to talk about that and go over it. But you know, COVID actually was very good for Serene Clean. How was it for you guys, and how did you adapt?

Libby: Phenomenal, phenomenal. Yeah, we did. We did so great. I gave away disinfectant. So I was lucky, because my distributor for my cleaning products hoarded disinfectant for me, and so we gave it away. We were on the news. We were giving away like through, drive throughs for people to come pick up bottles of disinfectant, bring your own bottle, and we’ll fill it up.

Adapting During COVID

Libby: And we took some GBAC certifications through ISSA, and we got GBAC certified. And so what we did was, every time we cleaned, we left the certificate and said it was cleaned by a certified GBAC company and and what we did was we went really big into commercial at that time, because they all wanted that sign on their door.

Stephanie: That’s exactly what my experience was when it came to, like, our commercial clients. So they were like, doubling their business because they’re all essential, and all of their workers were obviously, rightfully so freaking out. And so I’m like, like, they were asking us to do this. And I’m like, you know, you guys, I think I joked with one of them. I was like, “Okay, we’ll come and spray this disinfectant.” Like, because they bought us sprayers. Like, they’re like, “Use these sprayers. Here’s a disinfectant.” Like some of our clients provided that. I’m like, “So you want my staff to come do this?” And they’re like, “It makes our employees feel better seeing you guys do it, as opposed to us doing it.” Like, it was such a psychological thing in that, that entire situation.

Community Support

Stephanie: But, yeah, it’s, I love, gosh, that is so wonderful. That’s a great thing right there. When it comes to giving away the disinfecting and and, like, even there adaptability and this, this is gonna sound weird, I think, or potentially bad, but using situations in multiple ways, meaning you are helping people, but at the same time, it’s making your brand look better. We did the same thing during COVID. I reached out to all of the churches and local businesses that were shut down, and we did free deep cleanings for them, and that was because I had the PPP. I could pay it. But then also they all remember that. And so for you, I mean, that was beautiful free, free marketing, and you were doing a good thing. So it’s really not bad. It’s just you’re getting rewarded for doing a good thing. Basically.

Being a Community Resource

Libby: No we, I know we do that every time there’s a hurricane. So we have a whole strategy on how to help the community prep for it. So we have tips and plans, and we post them. We have – I’ve gathered this is going to sound so basic, but I’ve gathered all the live camera links in my area, and so when, when a bad situation is coming, like the snow, if you share those like on your Facebook page and in groups on your business profile, people come to it when, because they’re searching, or people in groups start to share it like, “Oh my gosh, I’m not there. I want to see how my family’s doing. I evacuated. I want to see what the area looks like.”

So just really doubling down. We shared all the police tips. We shared all the fire department tips. We came. We wanted to be that central source where our customers and our followers went to for good advice.

Stephanie: And you are. I mean being a powerhouse in your local community. That’s truly the way that’s the way to stand out, that’s the way to serve better. Because at the end of the day, this is a local service business, and if you just act in generalities as if your your business could be anywhere, you’re just missing out on so many opportunities to connect. Because the beauty is, we are part of communities, even if you are in a big city, like your business is in a community, and really leaning into that and being this go to resource.

Strategic Thinking

Stephanie: Oh gosh, very, very smart Libby, I’m just like, I’m really dazzled by all of this quick thinking on your part, as well as strategically thinking, because it’s not like, this is the last hurricane that’s going to hit Florida. So this is going to happen, and it’s just like you said, of continuing to do the same things and expecting different results is insanity. And that’s, you know, listening to the alarm bells, looking at the situations in your businesses, saying something needs to change, and brainstorming around that thing and not just expecting the problem to go away because you’re ignoring it, you know, that’s not going to work, and it will probably put you out of business eventually.

Looking at Long-Term Success

Libby: So if it doesn’t put you out of business, you’re going to hate your business eventually.

Stephanie: Exactly. It’s going to be the worst job that you’re shackled to ever, and you’re probably not going to make any money. So such a good point. So talk to me about, you know, hiring, and how did, how did WootRecruit come to be? Where did that come from? And just, yeah, let’s, I want to kind of switch gears and talk about staffing, because it is such a such a focus in our industry, as being a giant problem. It is such a challenge, not a problem, but a big challenge. So can you talk to me about that?

The Birth of WootRecruit

Libby: WootRecruit was created by myself because I couldn’t figure out how to hire while I was pregnant. I would clean houses all day, and I would run to a Starbucks, change my clothes in the car, all sweaty and dirty to run to, like a Starbucks for nobody to be there, absolutely nobody. And I kept doing this over and over and over, like one time I sat at a McDonald’s for six hours because I had staggered, like, six interviews, and one of them showed up.

And so I’m like, finally I stopped, and I said, “This is insanity. Like, this is crazy.” And I was recruiting the traditional way, like the, you know, post it on Indeed, look at all the applications, call the ones you like, then set up an interview and do them one to one. And I said, this, this is not gonna help, like, this is not gonna – I can’t scale this way. There’s not enough time in the day.

Developing WootRecruit

Libby: So I went back to the drawing board. And I’ve always been very techie, just self taught stuff, like, you know, Google or YouTube videos. It was before ChatGPT existed, so and I created a process, and I automated the process, and, my God, it turned hiring into like a breeze. It was like, it’s like the Uber of hiring. I turned it on, and people were there and I didn’t have to do anything. It’s like, “Oh, wow, this is great.”

And someone had asked me, like, how am I growing so fast? How can I keep up with the staffing demand, the turnover we have and cleaning is horrible. And I said, “Oh, well, I created this process,” and it just, it’s like, on demand hiring. And they’re like, “Oh my gosh, would you give a presentation about it at this conference?” I’m like, “Yeah, sure.”

Early Success Stories

Libby: So I was in the audience, and one of my good friends, Paul Fauci, he has a giant four or $5 million cleaning company in Phoenix, was in the audience, and he said, “This is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. This is, like, this was worth my whole trip.” And you know, that was in 2020, right? That was literally when COVID hit. We were at a conference, and we could even get home.

And he said, he goes, “Would you help me implement this into my business? Will you do it for me? Like, will you work me?” And I said, “Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I don’t even know what we’re doing or if we’re even gonna get home.” And so we worked on it, and from we launched it in, I believe it was May, and in four months, he went from 17 cleaners to 42.

Growing WootRecruit

Stephanie: Oh my gosh, that’s amazing. He’s massive.

Libby: And his ability to grow is something like I’ve never seen, because he will put the money towards if I need more marketing, I need more trainers. And so we took him from 17 to 42 cleaners, and after we did that, he came back to me, and he said, “Would you be willing to make this a product and sell it?” And I was like, “I never thought about it.”

Stephanie: Yep.

Libby: I said, “Sure.” And so we worked on it, we offered it to a couple of our friends, and then it worked really well for them. And so in 2021 we launched WootRecruit, and it’s just been the first year we were live. We made, we did a million dollars in two years in revenue. I mean-

Stephanie: I mean, this is a problem that is never going away. It is the reality of our industry is hiring’s the bitch.

WootRecruit’s Growth

Libby: So, you know, from there, it’s been great. It’s so I created it out of desperation, again, like when you’re desperate, you innovate, you find solutions. And I created it out of desperation, pregnant, trying to get myself out of the field.

Stephanie: Wow, that is, that is incredible. So how many cleaning company owners, or cleaning company businesses, should I say, utilize WootRecruit right now, do you know?

WootRecruit’s Industry Reach

Libby: I think there’s about 400 so we don’t just, we don’t just service cleaning. We service about 25 different industries. So we’re very big. We’re very big in cleaning. We’re very big in commercial cleaning. We work very – all for commercial cleaning. Okay, so, residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, very big in landscaping, lawn care, roofing is a big industry for us. Truck drivers, like CDL drivers, we do. We do anything that is an entry level, W2 high turnover.

Stephanie: Okay, got it? Yeah, I’ll be getting more information about this. I’ll talk to you out of the call, because this is very intriguing to me. And yeah, it is a challenge, and there’s ways to work around it. Of course, we do group interviews and things like that, but it is a big, a big challenge, obviously, especially when people quit without notice, or you get new opportunities and you have to scramble. So yeah, I would, I would love to learn more about this and encourage our listeners to do so as well. This sounds intriguing to you, because it certainly does to me.

WootRecruit’s Business Model

Libby: And yeah, well, WootRecruit. This is one thing I say about WootRecruit. We don’t have a contract. Why did I do that? How many of us have been like, let’s just say, kind of screwed by Angie’s List, or like Home Advisor, or some other places where you have to sign a contract. Sorry to those, if you’re listening that like them. The last the last time I signed a contract was with Angie’s List, and it was absolutely freaking horrible, like I was getting assaulted and violated, you name it.

And I told, you know, our team, I never, never want to do that to anybody, because I don’t want that done to myself. If my service sucks, then I can leave. But the way we keep like customers and our reputation is by providing really great service. That being said, we’re not for everybody, because we don’t recruit in the traditional way. It’s very non traditional but that’s also why we get results.

Non-Traditional Recruiting

Stephanie: Interesting. Yeah, that’s, that’s when you say, can you go, are you willing to go into a little detail on, like, What do you mean by non traditional ways?

Libby: We’re not an ATS. An ATS is an applicant tracking system which are, like your typical, like Jazz HRs. They come free with, like, your Gustos and your Bamboo HRs, they’re barbarically outdated and slow. They’re okay if you’re, like, hiring a C suite or an executive, or, like, a million dollar revenue per employee, like a garage door installer, no, but when you’re hiring a cleaning technician.

It doesn’t allow for the volume we need so that we can select applicants out of value instead of out of desperation, because I need to hire. Oh, well, two people showed up. Well, statistically, that isn’t going to work, because we need to make four offers to get one great hire, right? And if I only-

Stephanie: The whole warm body situation, we definitely went through our phase there where it’s like, “Are they alive? Do they have a pulse? Great.”

Understanding Industry Needs

Libby: So it doesn’t give us the volume that we need for our staffing demands and residential, commercial lawn care and roofing. It just doesn’t what we, I think, what we mess up in cleaning a lot, and this is for no matter if you’re small or large, is that we take tools that maybe were created and we don’t know what they were created for, like assessments, and the ATS is, and we take these tools that people talk about and we see in books, and we use them without any regard that, oh, like, maybe this was for $180,000 employee, or maybe this was for an executive level higher, and we’re trying to make it work for a cleaning technician, and we’re wondering why it won’t work for a cleaning technician, and we’re frustrated.

Using Industry-Specific Tools

Stephanie: Yeah, square peg into a round hole, and really not understanding like this may not be for me and our specific you know, that’s why I like ZenMaid. It’s made for cleaning company owners and so their features that they add are for us. It’s not just for any service provider. Sorry, yeah, not trying to plug ZenMaid, but it’s true. I mean, I am trying to plug it, obviously, but so it’s just, I like things that using things that are made for for us, and also where you’re at in your your business life, if you will.

Software Decision Making

Stephanie: So yeah, that’s a that’s pretty amazing. I’d love to hear any other thoughts you have on kind of mistakes that you oftentimes are seeing with folks when it comes to, you know, softwares or making decisions along. Because for me, I know, like, for us, we’ve definitely gotten a little software crazy sometimes, and add things, and then, like, in hindsight, of like, “Oh, like, we’re not going, like, are you actually going to use it?” And then you’re spending a shit ton of money on different softwares and that disappointment. And then, you know, you’re like, “I’m never gonna love again. Like, I’m not gonna try any more softwares,” when, truly, there may be a great one out there for you. So any suggestions and tips on that?

Libby: Yes, so as an organizer, unless the software selling you a system, right? No, I’m sorry, unless the software is selling you a process, do not buy any software without having your process. So with WootRecruit, you’re buying a process. You’re buying my process that I created, automations, workflow. Those verbiages in there, the copies written, you have to do nothing.

Understanding Software Processes

Libby: But if I go buy like, let’s just say like a CRM, like a Keep or like a Go High Level, I have to create everything in it, right? So what we typically do is we run to buy a software because we think it’s our solution. But that being said, the organizer side of me, like my professional organizing side, has shifted over the years to I do a ton of business structure and frameworks and organization and businesses, you have to have your process first, and then you find the software that fits your process. If you don’t, then you’re conforming to the software’s process, and then we get frustrated because it doesn’t work the way we want it to. But unless the software is giving you a process, you have to have your process first.

Stephanie: So some of our listeners, what do you mean by process, and how do you find out if that software works for your process?

Defining Business Processes

Libby: Yeah, so a process is nothing but a series of steps you’ve written down of how you want to execute something. Execute something, right? So their strategy that’s high level, like, my goal is $2 million this year in 2025, right? A process or tactics. Tactics are like, here are the steps that I’m going to do to get to $2 million and so you have to make sure you have the tactics or the strategy. People call them playbooks, playbooks. People call them SOPs. But you have to now have an idea of how you want it to flow for your business. What are the series of steps that you would like to see. Then you have to demo the softwares to see if it does it. And that’s why, typically, we get upset because we buy something, and they’re like, “Well, I want to do it like this, but the software doesn’t do it like that.”

Planning Before Software

Stephanie: It doesn’t feel intuitive, because it doesn’t go with how you potentially work. So really it’s you need to map out your ideal, or what you think you want it to do, or how you want to do this process, and then find the thing that suits you. That’s a great tip and very actionable. So even if you know you’re just just a one or two man crew, you’re just by yourself right now, that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t be documenting. You should absolutely be documenting.

And as I always say, these are living, breathing documents. They change a million times. Like, it doesn’t like, don’t stress so much. Like, this needs to be perfect. It’s just you tweak it. And even it’s like a scientific experiment. You have a hypothesis, you try it out, and then, were you right? Were you wrong? Just, just tweak it. It’s okay.

And, you know, the software is my I am assuming, like they may shape that a little bit, you know, to work with it, because nothing’s going to be perfect, but it shouldn’t be so completely different from how you behave or want to behave, because that’s never, you’re never going to use it. Then at that point.

Avoiding Software Overload

Libby: No. And, you know, with software, just do your own research. Because I see a lot of people buying stuff because of, we have a ton of FOMO in this industry. Like, look at this news the app. Like, “Yay, another” and it’s like, literally death by a million cuts, paper cuts. It’s like $9 and $10.30 $9 and I own two softwares, but it’s definitely and we don’t need them.

So there are stages of growth, and through the stages of growth, you have to learn how to simplify, and you’re gonna have to learn how to cut back. When I hit over a million, I couldn’t get to a million and a half. I actually had to cut out stuff because I had made it too complicated.

Navigating Business Growth Stages

Stephanie: Mm, hmm, yeah. And really, I mean hitting like, there’s different points where you hit different stagnation, and you have to do a bigger shift in how you run things, and you might need a bigger overhaul. And I typically, like, I know when I talk to a lot of people, or my own experience of like, yes, getting to like, four or 500 then it’s like, now we really need to start systematizing everything. And then, yeah, you hit a million, and it’s like, okay, then things change. And now, like, we’ve been out like, you know, 1.3 between 1.3 1.4 for like, the past year or so. It’s been intentional, because we’re like, we are not ready for more until we fix these internal problems that are happening. Because all we’re going to do is grow the problems along with the business. So it’s like, fix these, and then we can focus on that and and not and thinking long game. Obviously, you got to make quick decisions. You have to, you know, push for growth at all times, and be, be looking for that, but don’t get ahead of yourself. You know there is. It’s a balancing act of taking on a bunch to push yourself, but also you don’t want to sink the the boat because you try to move too fast. At least it’s been our experience, and it’s been good to take that slow down period this past year or so, because it was just a galloping, like, like whirlwind, as I call it for us from the beginning. So do you have any points where you wish you had, like, taken a little bit more time to think things through?

Navigating Seasons in Business

Libby: Well, the hurricane did that for us. When we got and we reset, it was actually, I feel like it was for a reason, when we got, when we got hit with the hurricane, a lot. My cleaning business friends are like, what can we do? We want to help you. Let’s grow it. And I said, You know what? I think I’m good. We were growing so fast, the wheels and the bus were shaking like and so we decided to kind of step, take a step back. And so there are seasons. So this is the thing you have to ask yourself, for the listeners, there are seasons in your life for everything. And so there are seasons of growth, there are seasons of implementation, and there are seasons of stability right there. There are seasons and so they evolve just like they do the season outside, like winter, summer, spring and fall. And so your business can’t always be growing. So that’s like, one thing. I get irritated, too, and the cleaning, it’s like they it cannot always be growing. Nope, it’s it’s too messy, and it causes too much instability. And it probably, you’re probably turning over a lot of people, because a growing company is a messing company, a fast growing company is a very messy company, and that could create fear and instability in some of your people. And so what season are you in right now? So when we got hit with the hurricane, I kind of just had to come to terms with I’m in this. I’m in the season of stability like we’ve implemented. But now we need to focus on our processes. We need to slow down. We were a little too big for our britches.

Stephanie: It’s a pride thing, at least that was for me, of like it. I had to check my ego and stop the door because, because it was like, why am I? And I think that’s one of the problem. I mean, obviously the internet’s a beautiful thing, but we are you guys who are all listening. You now know how much my business is bringing in. You now know how much our guest businesses are bringing in, all right? And these numbers are making you feel things about your business, I’d imagine. So please, please, please. I know that you may find it is an inspiration. Use it as that, but make sure you keep it in realm of like we’re all in different circumstances, and that may not be where you need to be. You maybe shouldn’t be in a season of growth right now, because it’s such a mess, and so don’t feel pressured because of of what we’re saying or the numbers that you hear, and at the end of the day, you don’t know what the hell is going on. You do not know how much they’re taking home. Most likely, you don’t know anything about that and so, and you also don’t know what kind of sacrifices are being made to get to that potentially. So keep that in mind. Try to try not to compare. I know it’s so hard not to do that because of the internet, and we’re so like, we know so much more about each other than we would ever know 20, 30 years ago. You’d never know what another business is bringing in like, you know, you just no

Don’t Compare Your Chapter to Someone’s Book

Libby: And I would say you cannot compare your chapter to my book, like you can’t compare your chapter of where you’re at right now to my book, because you don’t know, like, like, Stephanie just said, you don’t know. Like, I just got done working three weeks in a row, 100 hours a week. It was intentional. It was intentional. It was like, heads down. I bought a software we’re gonna get this launched. We’re gonna get it built. We’re gonna get and I was also restructuring all the companies. And then I took three days off and went to the Virgin Islands. But, but you, you don’t know all the things I did. You don’t know. You know, when I hit that first million dollars, I literally had no profit because I was thinking it all back into marketing, just trying to hit a million dollars. Like, like, that’s it. And you don’t know, the days that I set my garage and cried because I blew like, $2,000 on Google AdWords in like eight hours, because it was, I set it up wrong.

Stephanie: Right there. And thank you for saying that it’s like, it like, you can all be dazzled by revenue numbers and that, you know, again, coming back to coaching and things like that, like, you know, being a being a consulting person, you being a coach. Don’t be dazzled completely by that. You should really be dazzled by like, what kind of life are they living? And is that what you want? And are they choosing to live it that way? What you just said, that was a choice you made. I work very long hours sometimes, or, you know, go long stretches. That is a choice, because I really love what I do, and I’m very passionate about it. I do not need to do that. It’s my choice. And so really, you know, holistically, taking a look at who are you listening to? Who are the messages that you’re exposing yourself, and if it makes you feel like crap all the time when you’re hearing somebody talk it, you know, take care of you. You know you if seeing that type of stuff and being being influenced by outside forces on what you should be doing in your business, like it’s very different than potentially, what we need to be in. And it’s so funny this you are now the third guest who has brought up seasons of life and seasons of business. So listeners, I hope you guys are noticing this pattern that, like all of our guests are saying, Pay attention to the fact that this may not be the season that you want to be in. It’s the season that you have to be in, accept it, learn from it, and be where you need to be. Stop trying to be in fall when it’s spring, right?

Implementation Isn’t Sexy

Libby: Well, implementation isn’t sexy. None of us, like, do we just want to keep learning. Like, let me learn. Let me take another course. Like, let me there’s nothing sexy about implementation, but we need it, because without that. The Learning is worthless.

Stephanie: Absolutely. And I could have a million ideas, and I do, and I throw them at my managers, and it’s like too much. We need to focus, focus, focus, focus. You’ll hear that word a lot on this podcast, too. It’s something I continually struggle with. And so this has been like a reminder to myself as always, of just stay focused on one path until you get through that thing, and then you can move on to the next and, you know, again, many guests have talked about this already, so I just hope you guys are paying attention to the fact that, like, Here are these, you know, million plus dollar cleaning company owners who say, this may not be the season for growth guys, and maybe it is. But I just, I want you to heed that warning, because I think a lot of people get impatient, or you hear our stories, especially when they did grow fast because of our circumstances or whatever, and you’re like, why can’t I have that like and you can have something like it, but it’s going to be a different story. Every single story is going to be unique. And just, you know, focus on your own

Growth Comes at a Cost

Libby: Enough, it comes at a cost, and you have to ask yourself, are you willing to pay that price? I had a conversation with a business owner who wanted to be a million and a half. She’s a million right now, but she will not do enough internet interviewing slots. She needs more help, but she will only interview like one day a week, only, like one time slot. And I said to them, I said, if you want to be a million and a half business owner. You need to, you need to open up your slots. You need to have more applicants coming through. You don’t have enough staff. She goes, Well, I said, otherwise you’re not going to make it. That’s the price you have to pay. And she said, maybe that, maybe I don’t want to pay that price, then well.

Stephanie: And it’s like, at that point, it’s like, I have an HR manager, like, Crystal’s my HR manager. That’s her job. Like, at that point, do you need to delegate? Do you need to bring on a VA or something like, to help you accommodate the administrative staff? So don’t be, don’t get too many administrative staff. But also, don’t be stingy guys like, don’t expect that you can just handle it all and not think that there’s going to be problems. And also, you probably need different opinions, because you may be, you know, barking up the wrong tree, and you’re blind because all you’re seeing is your own thoughts, you know?

Introducing “1 Layer Deep”

Libby: Yeah, yeah. Well, Libby, this has been amazing. I do want to just shortly touch on your book. What is your book about? I know that that is it about to launch? Or has it launched?

Libby: No, it’s about to launch. We’re still finishing up so it’s 1 Layer Deep, and it’s operational. It’s an operational blueprint for growing and scaling a business. So everyone’s read, buy back your time with Dan Martell, and it’s like, here’s your buyback time, your buyback rate. You know, hire your executive assistant, hire your VA, hire all this. But my book is kind of that step before that, because it’s like, what if I can’t afford to buy back my time right now, what if I don’t have the processes or any structure yet? How do I get that so that I can buy back my time? And so it’s kind of the step before that, and as far as creating structure in your company to kind of give you that freedom to buy back your time, because when we’re smaller, we’re just like throwing stuff at the wall. We don’t have anything documented, and if we did document it, no one can find it. So it’s 1 Layer Deep as a strategy, or kind of a mindset that I used back in the day, when I used to organize people’s houses they would want, like the most beautiful targets, we like organizing organizing bins and, like, drawer dividers. And I always call those, I always call those booby traps, because they’re setting you up to fail, because there’s too many steps in the process to maintain that area. And so you want to create 1 Layer Deep, like it’s one layer to the solution.

Stephanie: I love that. I’ll definitely, I will absolutely, be listening to that, because that is it really keeping things as simple as possible, because the simpler it is, the easier it is to implement, to follow, and then tweak as needed. So that can’t wait to read that.

Where to Find Libby

Stephanie: So Libby, where can we find you? Where can we listen to you? Where can we find your book when it launches?

Libby: So on my website has everything. And it has all my businesses. It has my book. Well, it has to sign up to get notified when it releases. It’s supposed to release and sometime in May or June. And so on my website, Libbydelucien.com or Libbyd.com if you can’t spell my last name, and I am the only DeLucien in the world. So if you just Google me, you will find me.

Wrapping Up

Stephanie: Wow, that’s amazing. Wow. We will absolutely be looking for that book, and everybody go check out our other interviews as well, and other, you know, YouTube channels and things like that. Because I will encourage you, she’s had a lot of great conversations. And I definitely, I feel like we could have a whole hour just talking about what you just said for your book. So maybe we do another interview closer to the launch or when it launches, because I would love to dig a little bit deeper into that. Because, as you said, it is that you know being the step ahead or in front of the buyback your time concept, which, that’s a book I highly recommend everybody to read, but you are so right is that a lot of people. No, they can’t afford to do that yet, so it’s not practical advice necessarily to everybody.

So Wow, I’m so excited to read that. And thank you for your time. Libby, I really appreciate it. And everybody thanks for listening. Hit that, subscribe. Hit that, like, leave a comment what you thought, and share this with your cleaning company friends that you think that they would enjoy this. I’ll see you next time on Filthy Rich Cleaners. Bye, guys.

Outro

If you enjoyed this episode of The Filthy Rich Cleaners podcast, please be sure to leave us a five star review so we can reach more cleaners like you. Until next time, keep your work clean and your business filthy rich.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Libby DeLucien’s website
• ZenMaid
• WootRecruit
• “Buy Back Your Time” by Dan Martell
• Emergency Preparedness Plan for Cleaning Companies
• Upcoming book: “1 Layer Deep” by Libby DeLucien