 Hey, good afternoon everybody Tom Stewart. Hey, I'm a Liz Trotter. This is smart business moves. Hey, Liz Howdy everybody We're at the day Liz. I am at Lake Chelan lovely Lake Chelan in Eastern Washington. I'm with Stacy Sutton over here. This is her vacation home and Periodically we come and do a like a work retreat It's a lot of fun. Yeah, so Eastern Washington, which is like inland you're Actually closer to the East Coast than what you normally are It's been a long day, Liz. So is it like is it mountainous there? I mean, I've never been to that part of the country I think so. We're kind of in a ravine here where we are Like if you were to look outside, there's mountains all the way around us So we're kind of in the Middle of a ravine. Stacy's having trouble getting She's gonna do it on her phone. Hey Linda. Hey Leslie Hello So, yeah, we so yeah, we're east of the mountain. Yeah, I'm a couple hundred miles closer to you There you go Yeah, it's very nice here though. It's beautiful weather Not yet Ben I can't see you She thinks she's connecting Tom. There she is. Yeah, it's happening There Hey, Stacy. Hey, how's it going here? I'll give you a little view I don't know if you can see Wow Out there got the mountain that lake That's beautiful. Yeah, it's much more beautiful in real life So it looks like the weather is nice too. It's not cold is it? Oh, you know, we're not gonna be able to I'll go outside Okay Hey, Amy We're just seeing Liz on the left and Tom on the right. It is weird. I thought the same thing, Linda Sometimes you have to mix it up a little bit We're crazy today Stacy's trying to figure out where to go so we don't get the refurb I'm getting a chair and going outside Yeah, there you go. Yeah, she's going into the garage so Today we yeah, it is does seem weird Tom with you in the middle there You want me to move? No, it's fine. I know it's fine Um, so today we are do you have anything going on Tom? We were going to talk about some financial stuff. I had looked today on Robinson's the same thing you guys are mixed up today Okay Yeah, whoa All right, there's this does feel Feel more comfortable more normal Okay, is this far enough away Liz that you were not echoing? I don't hear anything. Do you hear anything Tom? No, this is good Yeah, sounds good. Yeah, when you were in the same room with me, it was definitely a problem Uh, I get my notepad so I'm just gonna turn my sound off so I don't echo Tom, did you want to make an announcement about what we're going to do next week or did you want to wait until later? Um, yeah, we can do that and there was one thing I was looking for an article. Um Here we go I don't know if we ever announced it um They raised the cap on the idle loans to a half a million dollars So can we get more money? theoretically You know, I was capped at 150 Yeah, and they raised it to 500 000. I think that you would have to demonstrate some need But theoretically if you could You could go back and get additional Idle monies, which is alone. You got to pay it back, but it's a low interest rate over over 30 years Is it the same interest rate or is it more? I don't know. Um, I just stumbled across this. Yeah, it looks like 3.75 Which was what it was originally. Yeah, I thought it was 2.75 Yeah, I think it was three. I think it was over three Which is still dirt cheap and if inflation kicks in the way, you know Some people are are projecting in a year or two. That's going to look really cheap. Yeah, no kidding Well Well, we'll dig into this a little bit more. I will have more to say about this on the days ahead, but You know, I don't know if there's anybody out there that really feels that they need those funds I know a number of people got them and turned around and gave it back because they just didn't want to want to own the money Yeah, I gave mine back I held on to mine Because I did I did not give mine back. I I I like playing with other people's money I think my brother would probably like to You know, I I think Are you putting the link in the comments tom? I might I could do this and I Imagine the sba website would Speak to this as well I know he definitely likes to use other people's money Every chance he gets Or stacy You doing okay stacy Well, I'm outside, but I can't see anything Your your glasses got really dark I Go on the backside of the house You see this year. They're talking about, you know, you you might be due For an increase based on the the new maximum loan amount. They don't say 500,000 here I'll drop this in there as well. But yeah, turn your brother on to that. He I will right Yeah, we can talk we can talk about what we talked about earlier today We're going to be switching up our format for smart business moves starting next monday. That's going to be the 12th, right? Yeah, I'm thinking right Yep, you're right you know I guess There's a difference between quantity and quality and I don't want to set the bar too high but We feel that sometimes it's it's just you know, we're we're we're we're stretching ourselves to come up with the most useful information for smart business moves doing this four days a week so Liz and I we're we're you know looking at alternatives and feel that We could actually deliver more quality if we cut back the frequency we do this but have You know more planned out You know agendas with with with themes and and more strategic You know Yeah, and you know So we're going to cut back to two days a week. We're going to do it monday and wednesday yeah, and Liz is going to Basically take the lead on mondays and i'm going to take the lead on wednesday and So basically we're each going to be developing a really cool program for just like One hour a week To be clear tom's going to create a really cool program. I'll have something Well, we'll both have something but you know, I think that'll You know Okay, I could go on but I guess that's pretty much the the gist of it, huh? Yeah, and next week. We're going to be talking about sales, right tom. That's right Yep, so this week we really wanted to talk about the phc program Because arcsy has I think it's arcsy learning has a really amazing Deal that they're putting on right now I was talking to stacey about the deal actually because she bought 10 um seats to the phc Back back when we were selling it a while back And then I was telling her that they have this Amazing deal. What is it right now tom? It's 90 days anybody register in 90 days. It's sort of an all-you-can-eat program for Yeah, it's like a buffet. This is like uh golden corral Do they still have those I think so Yeah for 500 bucks 500 dollars Um if this is going to be available for the month of april only but once you once you you buy You've got four months to sign up four months days many people as you can so you If you do the numbers the class is normally 150 ahead and If you're an arcsy member it might be a little it is I mean it is less than that, but I don't know by how much Let's look it up It's normally 149 dollars per person per person So so basically, you know three and a half people In their discount price Hey, I don't know what the arcsy discount is. I think it's about 30 off of you do that deal But you're still to the point where you've got at least five people to train This is a better value So stacey, of course, she's a numbers gal Tell tell tom what you said as soon as I told you about this deal stacey Because I didn't think she would really be all that interested right? She already bought 10 seats first thing I've barely got it out of my mouth. And what did you say? I said, well, I could save my 10 seats And buy the all you can eat program and get everybody that is employed now and save my 10 for Turnover people that is brilliant because you will be hiring 10 people four months from now absolutely, so And those don't expire right No, you got a year to use them you got a year. Yeah, so she's still got She she gets this for four months She puts all of her people through it and then she has 10 more to be putting through for the rest of the time I'm like that That's the ticket right there and there's another part of this that I don't know if it's been announced but I'll go ahead and I'll share it because I know it to be true that they're working on developing a spanish version of the test with all the the the quizzes and the final exam and Uh, the goal is and they're moving towards and I think they're gonna do if they'll have it available by the beginning of may Oh, that's awesome travis. I don't know if you're on here or not, but did you hear that spanish? That's awesome. So so the real thinking was that they wanted to Make all you can eat good for three months But it's like well, you know what we get the spanish version out by the beginning of may And then we'll give three months after that. So that's why it's four Yeah, it's it's really like three months plus a bonus month because the spanish Wanted to give people three months to sign anybody who wants anybody who wants to take the Class in spanish That's a great that's a great I thought it was a great deal to buy The package that I bought and I was just getting ready to get going but now i'm gonna buy the all you can eat package too No, i'm thinking that all you can eat is you can't hardly beat that with a stick right there That's awesome. So we're really talking about two tom. We've been talking Everybody's been talking a lot about You know, how are we? How are we competing today with with the employee situation? We're competing with It it used to just be Okay, there are certain people that are always just going to come to our Jobs that are attracted to the house cleaning profession for whatever reason and now That's doesn't seem to be true. It's like we're really competing with a lot more companies for The people that we want to hire so we're trying to find ways we were talking about The different things that we can do to be competitive, you know One is the the superior training. What are the benefits? Of course, everybody has to pay more right now So what are some of the things but I really feel like this training is a big deal Well, you and I know we've talked a lot about this Training but when you bring people in you give them good training and then there's this ongoing training also Where they feel like they are, you know going back to matter meaning measure When they feel like they really They know the stuff that they're doing When you're investing in them they feel, you know Like they know they're more pride in what they're doing because you're investing in them Yeah I really hits all of the pieces there So I I don't know if there are certain portions of the Of the program that are more impactful than others, but it seems like All of the pieces matter Yeah, they all add up towards Creating a whole new perception about what professional house cleaning is and Why it's important and it's not just a job you know I had somebody talking to me just this week about a new hire and They got a call During the first day from another employer and decided that they wanted that job more than the house cleaning job Yeah And you know, I told them about this training program I mean there's a lot of things involved there, but You know, if you started your people out with phc training program They might look at that job differently and if they had gotten that phone call they'd say well, you know what? This is awesome. I've never had a job in my life where they actually Invested invested in me this way That You know, there's no guarantees But it's a cumulative effect and this is definitely Something that that that we can do to improve the quality of our jobs and that would be defined You know one way by reduced turnover Well, I don't know. I I know that there are a lot of people that have been That have purchased the phc program and that have been using it I'm wondering if anybody's on here is Leslie on here. I know that she yep. They're sure I use this certification to promote applicants and it's been very effective In addition, I think it turns out a more confident employee that has a very good understanding This is a profession versus a job. Yeah Absolutely So you're using the certification to promote to applicants Then are you putting it in your ads Leslie? Like how do you how do you um Cue it up for them. I'm curious about that. Are you do it in the interview? process Yeah, I'm really curious about that um, one of the things that I I can't wait to hear what she has to say, but um One of the things that I've noticed is I'm sure everybody's noticed this too. There are just so many Facebook groups out there for cleaning Facebook groups cleaning owners and there are so many of them where The people Don't know anything about like the science of cleaning. I don't want to denigrate anybody Especially in my own industry But where I feel like everybody could really benefit from this training even people That are really dedicated to the industry and really want to they're really looking to grow their businesses They're not looking at it as just a job something to do until they get another job Or because they lost their other jobs. So now they're cleaning houses But they're really trying to build Yes, when I talk to applicants about the hiring process, I talk a lot about this training and what it will do for them I agree with you a hundred percent. Yeah so It's uh, it's a little bit tricky because Trying to talk to business owners saying hey, we all need this training Makes some people feel like Are you saying that I don't know what I'm talking about? No, I'm saying we we all need more education I say you will be a confident professional. I really like that I really like that confident professional I don't know Leslie, how soon do you uh have your your your new hires take the ph say I'm sorry. Liz. We can go ahead and wait for that Well, I am wondering Yeah I agree any I am wondering how people are using it too. Uh, I was talking with another business owner Uh, I think that might have been chris and He was saying how Um, he wants to be part of how people promote Into a the professional position So there they come in as trainees rookies whatever you call them And you're not a professional cleaner because a lot of people you just you know, you get your you're inside training on how to clean but um You're not actually a professional cleaner at that point now you can or a professional house cleaner You can clean stuff. You know how to clean some stuff but you don't have the The knowledge to be a professional house cleaner and he's using this to Get people on that track this idea of being a professional house cleaner and Creating this whole big program around Well Upstate That looks like your picture yesterday Oh my gosh, just so frustrating Which really appeals to our applicants specifically who usually don't identify as confident or professional Yeah, they do a few hours a day in addition to hands-on training So do they how long does it take them to go through the program lastly? i'm curious just does it take like a month or Saying they do a couple hours a day. I think each module is about It's about an hour some hour or some a little bit less. It averages out to about an hour And how many total hours time is it? Well, there's seven modules plus you got the final exam the whole thing's about eight hours Yeah, I I'm hoping that it is a A way to differentiate right and that's what you're thinking too stacey, right? That looking for a way to be to be different and to stand out and above Oh, absolutely. And I think that you know, I was thinking about putting some sort of Like reward out there for when they get the certificate And you know something and making a big deal about it like we have employee meetings that Are every other week where we celebrate something and you know, hey Liz passed her professional house cleaners Exam and give them a certificate right there in the meeting and Maybe some flowers and a coffee card or something like that. Yeah I wanted to take like their picture and maybe turn it into It's just harder because we don't have people in the office like we used to But I was thinking of somehow like taking their picture and you know, posting it on a wall as professional or Maybe posting it in slack so that everybody Can see or like even like an announcement in the paper or You know, I'm trying to think of a way to make it bigger Doing a newsletter and one Are One of our blogs a month that we're going to feature one of our employees And so we could you know, you could feature your professional and let your clients know too Yeah And then that blog is on the website so you can go in there and see this history of you know, professional house cleaners in the blogging section or employee section No, that's a good idea. Yeah, so you're so the blog goes out It's posted onto your social media. It's posted onto your website It goes out as a An announcement in your company newsletter that goes to all your clients. You can throw it into your drip email marketing There's really nothing bad about Letting the world know that you're offering a professional status to your staff It makes your company look just 10 times greater than it already is I wonder if we can combine this uh phc training with the with the Like vip program that we've been talking a lot about You know, uh, you might So we're talking about telling our clients that When they when they're telling us what they want instead of saying, well, you know for this size house, etc It's normally 150 dollars instead saying well, it looks like it might be a good candidate for our vip program Would be about 185 dollars per cleaning. You'll get a professional house cleaner and you get to choose blah blah blah Um, I wonder if we can do something like that. You know, it might also be nice We have that certificate And their picture maybe their picture in the corner of the certificate that goes out from the reminder email Hey, we're gonna be at your house tomorrow or you know Stacey the professional house cleaner is going to be at the house tomorrow with the certificate Just trying to think of ways that we can use all of that stuff We actually charge more for a professional house cleaner in the vip program. That's what I was thinking, right? Get the knob get the non professional cleaners Yeah, that that put pieces a little bit trickier. Yeah, we need to work on the branding there a little bit okay, but But there is a way to do that because when you go to get your hair done, tom I know you don't have this but you guys know when you go to get your hair done You can get the person That That you pay more I can't remember what they're called. Do you guys remember what they're called? You you pay more for the person that's been doing it for longer that has more training You can get the normal Has a Stylist one level one level two level four and Yeah, you pay Your entry level fee Or your upgraded fee and this person's more detailed in color and this person's more detailed in extensions and This person So you can do the same thing if you really dial in the professional house cleaning You can get you know, this person's got a five star rating for five years of employment with us And Specializes in move in move out or initial deep cleanings there is the spring cleaning superstar Liz, I just want you to know that lanie is my regular person and she is at the highest status at altar Good to know Last time I talked to you about your hair tom it was some random person down the street Things that my life has changed things are better now. Okay good. I'm glad to hear it Well, your hair is looking good. So all right appreciate that. Yeah Um, I do like this idea a lot How to how to be able to use This and and you know what we might be able to do using jumping off of leslie's idea How they're going through the training like an hour a day whatever a couple hours a day I like the idea maybe for my company Of there's eight modules and so there's eight levels. So when you do the first Module whatever it is your level one once you've done the second level now you're level two third Because we all know that that growth ladder makes a really big difference for your employees and if they have eight levels boy, that's a good way of letting people know Letting them know that they matter and that there's more meaning in the work that they're doing And it's an easy way for them to be able to see what the difference is Where sometimes it's harder, you know, I was thinking that you could tie it into Uh, you know earning some pto along with the modules So they get an hour of pto for every module that they complete So that adds up to a full paid day and then when they get their certificate and pass their exam They get another paid day. So they get two days of paid time off Once they complete it you had to watch that though that one you have to watch out for because if you if you give an external reward to Something that is an intrinsic Something that is um created intrinsically where the motivation is coming from the inside and then you reward it on the outside You actually reduce the motivation. So you have to be careful with that one. That's uh, That's uh, one of those things that can really backfire on you when you So there are lots of studies about this. That's why I love that book by daniel pink drive Um, now I do like yeah, right leslie the reward and maybe not even the certificate The reward is the physical manifestation Of the training of your knowledge So that's the reward the reward is you are more educated. You are more experienced or more professional They give us that idea to go through it Well, that's part of it too, but you're giving them something I mean, they're making some money. You're paying them while they're doing it one way or another but They own that they carry that with them the rest of their lives You know for for for some, you know people and are and in the general workforce that that that we're hiring and bringing these positions It might be the only academic, you know, the most prestigious academic accomplishment they've ever ever had, you know Especially the people that typically are coming to our business. Yeah, shannon. You could give a pay raise when completed That's I think it states that that's where you're going right there You want to give them some more some more monetary incentives, especially because you personally Are monetarily motivated But we we have a lot of our people Are not as monetarily motivated although Nowadays, you know, we've talked a lot about this right in the last six months a lot of our people are Not so much motivated by the money, but it's the bar has been set much higher than it has been in the past so on What's the name of our triangle tom? The hierarchy of needs. Yeah, the hierarchy of me Yeah, mazal. Thank you So on mazal's hierarchy of needs before the level, you know, the the base level was much lower than it is now now people really have to have If they're if they're not seeing $15 in that line, they feel like they can't survive just because that's the The common number that's out there now It costs roughly $300 for us to get them certified. Okay, that's a great number to have leslie That's good information by the time you pay them for the Work that they do and the training etc. That's cool I do I do love this idea. Maybe Maybe eight levels is too much, but maybe you could do two modules And so there's four levels Right. So for these two levels you do these two modules and then you get a bump I really like that idea a lot I wish we were um I wish we were all on a zoom call. This is very much like a mastermind Call call that we have like a meeting that we have well We all sort of throw ideas in there and walk away with some good ideas Do you think uh, you know like badges or pins or something and you could give somebody a pin after completing each one of the modules and Do some customized pins where each module has a pin that kind of symbolizes what that module was about Yeah, like the safety symbol for safety and a science symbol for science Yeah, I think that's a great idea. Okay, I'll tell you where I come into problems with the pins We all know that pins are winners, right? We all know that or the military wouldn't be using them, right? So pins pins work, but the the problem with pins Is where do people put them? Because they don't want to trade out all their pins on their uniform every day So they have to have so, you know, tom at castle keepers. We've got the lanyards, which is a great spot for them Aprons aren't our aprons are not half aprons are not real good For pins. Some people have hats Um jackets can work for pins, but they don't wear their jackets inside all that much. Oh, we lost Stacy got Come on. I don't know Do you have a full aprons to meet? Leslie you guys both are saying aprons Are those you could tie the modules with mastering tasks? Like dusting bathrooms, etc. Yeah, absolutely To align your level two or three and when you complete and pass you give a pay raise Or pay see that's what I'm thinking to Shannon I'm thinking that and a small a very very small bump because people remember if you reward with money You gotta be careful when you reward something externally That is supposed to be an intrinsic Um motivator you you dampen the the motivation but If Then the amount of money that people are going to be earning is set in advance So if you reach this level you can earn this amount of money That's different So because then they've earned it it wasn't given to them as a reward, which is way different It doesn't seem different, but it really is So I I like that too Put pins on a ribbon to attach a tote It would be nice if you could put the pins somewhere that you aren't having to take them out every time you have to wash something and Right Even the aprons have to be washed I don't know how frequently but fairly frequently, right? Yeah Otherwise they start looking like the ones at home depot that They've got all their pins and stuff on there That's why they switched over to the badges where they're just on a a big pin, right? And then they hooked the pin to their Oh, that's what Danita's saying. Yeah Yeah, you know what we had to google this I'm sure somebody's come up There's probably two or three really Good solutions to this problem where that could be on a ribbon something where You're just taking one thing off as opposed to a bunch of that's why the lanyards are good So our uniforms have a lanyard and then at the bottom of the lanyard can't really see is the name tag So the lanyard and then a name tag is attached to it So you can put all the pins on the lanyard because you take your name tag off every day You know what I grew up in a military family. I should know the answer to this You know like with the little ribbons that you know that they're associated with with metals Yeah, they don't pin those on individually There is a like a block card That all of those are arranged on and they're on in some particular order because they all You know mean something different But that whole card is what they take on and off not each individual robot But those Even though that card that has all of those ribbons on it They don't they don't clean those uniforms every single time they wear them No, which is different. So like with our uniforms, you pretty much have to clean that every single time you wear it All right, not going to be able to stand cup of pins buying stock and giving so I think that one I don't have so much of a problem with buying is easy stocking is kind of easy You just know how many you need You put them in there when you use up five you order five more whatever the giving piece somebody has to be responsible Whoever you have that's responsible for all of your hr stuff. They they just Doesn't look like the lanyard getting the way of their clothes cleaning. Okay, so this is awesome We have the best lanyards ever linda. I can't believe I never showed these to you so it's a lanyard and then um The the name tag is magnetic So you have the clip of the lanyard is attached to the top of the name tag But it's magnetic So you put the name tag on and put a magnet on the back and then the lanyard is just basically Around your neck. It's not even it's not really what there's no No weight on it or anything But it keeps it there and it keeps the lanyard in place It looks like it's on the lanyard like it's being held on by the neck That's really not by the magnet and because it's in the middle. It doesn't do the thing. So i'm sure that at least 50% of you guys out there are like all those magnetic Name tags don't work because they constantly get flicked off. They don't in the middle They do on the side, right? But they don't in the middle if they're down low. They don't get caught on everything under the sun Yeah, that's what we do. Lastly, we change the color of the lanyard So we have blue and we have red. We used to have white and that was don't ever get white later in the job But I had another idea and I don't you know amazon Yeah, go ahead So I have this wall that's employee of the month wall and You know, there's a lot of pride to be on the wall. You get your picture taken. It's in January and people go around and I mean sometimes they have a goal of getting up there twice, right? So what if you had another wall where you had a plaque We have plaques made for our ski school and we give out different awards So you can have a whole bunch of plaques made and then you just get the name plates that you put in there Yeah, while they're employed with you their name is on the plaque on then On the wall and have a wall of professional house cleaners Yeah, I like that idea we talked about that earlier But the problem is people aren't coming into the office like they were before that's what i'm trying to find a better Yeah, we can put it pictures of that wall and and post it up and our crew does come Into the office to pick up stuff and they do That wall where those pictures are our front and center of our main room I mean, it's right next to our announcement board Yeah, and even though they don't come in and hang out like they used to it's still there Um, people do orientations and they sit on the couch and they're right at that wall Right, right, right And I do and we all know the value of pictures people love to get their pictures up there And so there's that picture then they're featured in the newsletter on facebook And then that plaque then you can show your plaque wall wouldn't that be great if you had 20 plaques professional house cleaners Yeah Then you just you could order from an awards company say 20 plaques that say the same thing right and then you just Have a picture place on it slip their picture It's just a matter of the little engraved plate because we recycle our ski school plaques all the time and we That we just get um, it's really not expensive either these these plaques. No, they're they're cheap It's just a time consuming thing So what you would have to do is like maybe order 20 of them And which goes to leslie's point Yeah, then he I get the lanyards on amazon. Yeah, I can share Um, but they're cheap and easy to find You do have to make sure that you get a decent quality or they fall apart though I made that mistake You know what go ahead come do you get the ones that have the clip in the back? So if they get caught on something they they they come apart Those I don't have those I know but mine don't really get caught on anything because remember they're They're magneted to Is that a word? magnetically attached to the to their shirt So they don't really ever catch on anything. You know me. I'm a safety nerd when it comes I do know that. Yes. All right, you guys. So this is a really cool idea that gavin's company my son's company does he works for portia and he is a um Technician and they have different levels of technician You have to go through all of these different to become a master technician, right? And they have a ton of different Education's they fly my son all over the country to take these different Education trainings and so the the plaque is cool. I have a big plaque And it's kind of like those ribbons that we're talking about the military ribbons time Where it's got little spots that are open and then this little bar goes in this spot You know depending on when you get it the plaque is like that and as he earns a different class He'll earn that spot on the plaque And so once he has like four spots on the plaque, he's silver Once he has eight spots on the plaque. He's gold once, you know That's an awesome idea because the the the the plaque kind of sets the expectation of I need to fill that in I got to fill the whole thing in and it drives him crazy because he wants more Like and and little things will make him crazy like he has like fuck. There's six spots in row. There's a lot There's like I think there are 30 spots On here like six down five across something like that so when he gets like six down when he has five He really wants that six training in that line to be able to get to complete it Like awana when my kids were little what's what's that? What's awana? Do you know what do you guys know what that is? Like awana when my kids were little I don't know. I wonder if that's an autocorrect or if that's a real thing. I feel like awana is a real thing it is yeah, it's it's uh It's like a girl scout thing, but with a christian twist Oh, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's that's how we started doing the Initially, that's how we started doing the um back in the day our our badges Was around this idea of girl scouts because I loved the you know the sash and Sewing on all the badges boy. I really hated sewing on those badges And so that's why I really like the pins because you don't sew them on You just you won't you know that same thing with home depot They get all those badges that they're supposed to sew on and they don't So then they just hook them on a hook and then they attach them into their apron And Or boy boy girl scouts. So when you said awana for some reason I was thinking moana that I was like, oh, I don't know what that is all right Yeah, all right. I really do love this idea though of Using the education as More than just giving people information because information is not the same thing as education and training We all we all know that You know, we're always looking for More than what we already know and how many times have you taken a class and you already know all of that stuff But if you don't do anything with it, what good is it? And that's that's what I think happens a lot of the time with In our industry is yeah, we tell people how to clean stuff But we don't create cleaning professionals Which is why I really love this program and the way it's designed That you complete this entire module and so if we can tie that into the growth ladder I love the physical piece of the badge or You know something else plus the permanence of the wall You know showing that I also have have you guys seen So it's an idea I had a while back and I haven't been able to figure it out. I think I've seen those frames that they have where They're usually like for weddings or or funerals or something like that And you'll fill in like a heart And you write your name on it or whatever and then you'll drop it into this frame like it's called a drop frame Have you guys seen those? Oh So think of like a big I can't show you guys, but think of a big picture frame, right? And There's a slot at the top. It's glass on the outside and there's a slot at the top So what I want is, you know, america made is stars and stripes. I want stars that are like this big this big stars And when you complete when all of your training in your professional house cleaner You write your name on this and you drop it into this frame So it's permanent it hangs on the wall And your everybody has their name and the date on there when you become a professional house cleaner So it would kind of be a permanent thing. Do you go in there and pull their star out? No, because they're still a professional house cleaner. They might not be working for you for you That's true. You're a professional house cleaner forever That's right. And that's the message I want to send Is that when you have this training you are now a professional house cleaner whether you work for me You work for somebody else. You don't do this at all You're you're still a professional We could put the certificate on the cover of their binder right now. It's just our logo on their name Yeah, I agree. That's a great idea, right Well, why not use that in a much we need to use this stuff in a bigger better way to really impact our people That's why I really like the idea of putting it up on the wall and having the pins and I don't know the plaque to I think probably the biggest problem is just deciding just pick one. What am I going to do? I just do that Instead of just keep talking about it, right and then being consistent. I mean, I can't tell you after being in business as many years as I have You know, I think that we're doing something. I'm not paying attention and then somebody stopped doing it And it worked. So I don't know why they stopped And I preach right there Stacy preach Tom how many times have we talked about this right? And then and then something will happen. You go. Hey, wait a minute Didn't we used to and why did we ever stop doing that even? Yeah I had a situation recently that was about training and we have, you know, we have good training systems that we have developed over the years and You know, through some turnover and co vid I don't know. Anyway, long story short. They quit using the system And so I went to one of the training meetings and it occurred to me that Nobody was filling out these these forms about the new people coming in that we And I was like, I don't think we're they're using the system and And I didn't have a my system check wasn't working and Some and it all came because one person said to me. Hey, we need to have a system that does such and such and Like I'm not gonna pay somebody He admits something that we've already invented We just need to find where it is In our google docs and start using it again Yeah, you know and so then it took like four different training meetings to Get everybody new and up to par on the system. The great thing is it's a great system And we had to do it. We had to read We didn't have to reinvent anything. We just had to retrain but I just you know Years and years of the same thing you stop using the system You stop in the plaques on the wall. You don't update things Morale goes down And actually you can make it worse Yeah, it really cuts into it. It makes it worse. It's demotivating that Yeah, single is stress free my criteria for change. That's great. Oh, I'm getting some feedback Some how do you have two? Screens up. Oh, I see that's down below Yeah Yeah, I agree Stacy that um But there is a piece. Okay, so we do have to be consistent, but we do also have to be looking for When the landscape changes So we're reading a book right now This is a book actually right here Which if any of you haven't read it how to change things when change is hard if you haven't heard of chip and dan Heath they also Wrote made the stick Which is an awesome book we're reading that in book talk right now and They talk a lot about how important it is to be paying attention to the landscape and when things change and when When have you said seeing bigger changes than now with COVID? I mean the landscape is different The what what we're dealing with is different. You can't keep doing the same thing And it's unprecedented That's right. It is unprecedented And so we have to be making changes it's really easy to want to keep doing the same thing and You're right consistency matters consistency is so important But we have to be consistent consistent consistent make a change A solid change and then be consistent with that new change. So We've got to be looking for those changes though and right now is the time that we have to be Really, I don't think there's ever been a better time for phc. That's why I'm super glad that Arccy is Putting out this deal. I want everyone to take advantage of this special. I I think it's I think it's time is now And I know people say well, there's a lot of different trainings. There isn't there really isn't other training that is this simple this cost effective and Okay, stop preaching this no, but you're you're right now love stacy's idea even If you've already invested in the program and you have seat licenses you haven't used hold on to those By this Train everybody you can over the next four months and say those seat licenses for for you know Four months down the road I just have to say one thing tom. There's a reason why we are sitting in stacy's vacation home Because when ideas pop up about money, she's always like bam She's always figuring out how to save a buck how to how to best utilize money How to how to make the most of money? She has a vacation home That's right. That's right And for those of you that don't know stacy she's been a single mom for how long stace Uh, I was single parent for 15 years. Yeah, she I mean she's remarried now, but she was a single parent for 15 years She raised her children on her cleaning business and bought a vacation home so paid for college Yeah for two kids two kids so You know not everybody is wired for money tom. I know you are really really wired for money too and understand about profit Um and and just the way that numbers work But for those of us that are not wired that way we got to learn from the people who are You got to take take the lean from the people who are saying hey do this Leslie same thing right? Yeah, and you have a very similar background to state very very similar Yeah, and some people are wired that way Wow, but this is a heck of a deal and you we're we're moving in a direction where the labor market's going to get tighter and tighter and You have to you know, you have to We all should be striving to be better employers and creating better jobs because it's not just a matter of recruiting You can't you can't hire you way out of the situation that we're in and the situation we're moving into There was a time And you guys have some of you have heard me talk about this before where I went and visited a couple different companies and one company Their whole model was churn and burn. It was just there are so many people out there I'll just hire more people and I'll just burn through them Oh Sutton her last name is Sutton Oh, no, that's my name now Yeah, that's what she said she wanted to know Stacy you Yeah yeah So she um, anyway, that that was a model you guys um 15 years ago That's what people did. Oh, there's so many people out there that I'll just bring them in. I don't care I'll just burn through them right. I'm not even gonna why am I gonna spend any time training on I'll give them two days of training if they flame out in a month. I don't care. I just hire somebody else I don't want to train them. They're gonna leave Who has that idea now? I mean gosh get just getting people in the door I was talking to somebody on one of the MMA calls just today She's like she hired four people this week. None of them showed up. They all said yes None of them showed up for the first day This these are different times y'all. These are different times Yeah, and then we gained wisdom Yeah Yeah, and you know, we're gonna So these are different times it is going to be more and more real as we move forward, you know, it's It's a confluence of things. I mean They announced the marshal jobs numbers last Friday and they created like over 900,000 non-farm, you know payroll jobs and That number was over 50 percent higher than anybody's highest estimate. I mean The economy is on fire everybody's hiring. There's not enough people out there to hire There's still a ton of people that don't want to be in the workforce a lot of A lot of people are still at home with their kids because they aren't in school. I mean, it's just a whole confluence of You guys know the story The unemployment benefits are so great. You know, there's a lot of people that really don't have any economic incentive to go back to work No, but then not everybody needs the economic incentive either. We really do have to tap into this idea that leslie's talking about right this Being a professional and and being better and more than I aren't too. Sorry, Amy. I know So sorry everybody's dealing with it right now. So looking for more ways tail though There's a long thin tail of things that we can do and none of them's a silver bulletin of itself But things like phc program is an example of something that you can offer new hires that is just different and few jobs in any industry offer training like this to You know Hourly hire workforce that that we're typically hiring from Right and the other companies that we're competing against are not doing the things that we have the ability to do Like the phc program like leslie was saying she's going to take just that certificate and put it on the outside of their Bander You know that now that something you're already going to have it anyway Use it Right, you already have a wall if you already have a wall. How can you better utilize that if you're already doing a blog? Awesome. You're already doing reminder call or a reminder emails. Great. Use those take what you already have and You know up at a notch Yeah All right. Well next is Next tomorrow tom Is wednesday do we have a plan for tomorrow that we want to announce? Are we gonna keep it as a secret for tomorrow? It is a secret It's a secret. It's not a huge secret y'all. It's just we're not sharing today Because we're working so hard on what we're doing next week too My idea that is bent towards non economic benefits and we that's the way we pay 17 dollars now We don't focus on that see that I love that Leslie So you're paying above that 15 dollars 17 especially in california, right? That it's hard to compete in that market So you can't be focusing in on the dollar and then you're giving them the other stuff That's like yeah, yeah, yeah, we pay the right amount of money, but look Look at this other stuff We're not doing deal days anymore leslie. Um, it was um Uh, it was it was too hard really just to heavy lift. It was a heavy lift and so We're not but as deals come along As we're doing our different presentations and we bring on our different guests over the course of the next few months Those people will many of those people will have have specials that they'll be offering But right now the best the best one is the the arc see learning You love the old days Oh, you know we can always dust Stuff off Maybe once a quarter or something like that Right, right. What do you think time? Maybe we could do something like deal day once a quarter or something Yeah yeah I love that but I get I know I love getting the deals too I'm a huge deal fan, especially if I know that I'm being pitched. I'm all about that. Yeah All right. Well, sorry y'all, uh Top of the hour See you guys tomorrow Stacey, thank you for joining us today. It was awesome. I always like to pop in and see my fellow cleaning peeps It's good to see you. It's been a while. Yeah Not for me