 Hey, good afternoon Tom Stewart here with Liz Trotter today our guest today is Dean Mercado, and this is smart businessmen Oh my gosh, that's crazy Dean. We haven't seen you in so long. You know, it's been many many many years We're overdue. Oh way over there. So buckle in buckle in everybody. Yeah, we are overdue A lot to cover. Absolutely. We're trying to figure out how long and right You know, you know always like when I think about how long has it been? It all starts at like March 2020 It's like is that pre-covid or post-covid? Pre-covid how many years prior to cove it because cove it kind of messed up timing for everything. Yes Probably four or five years before cove it was a thing, right? More Tom you're always you always underestimate the amount of time when we go back and look for like It's more it just shows you how everything happens in a blink. It's just insanity and I feel like the older I get the faster It's moving That's just me It's insane it's insane slow down slow down We got a lot of things to do still It's gonna be worse when you get grandkids. Oh my goodness. Gosh That's like that speeds everything up even more. Absolutely. Oh my goodness You're depressing me. I'm sorry. What you're depressing me It's all we make of it just trying to enjoy every moment then and these moments are great When we get a chance to do this and just have great conversation. So well, I like I like your optimism there Dean's great conversation, right? You know after after what I saw happen in the state of New York after the last couple of years All I have is optimism. I have to be optimist and optimist. Otherwise forget it. I'm done So I'm gonna roll the clock back a little bit. I was introduced to Dean I didn't want to guess how long ago this was this was was a good while ago Yeah, my Teresa Ward Bill Teresa Ward's website and did SEO work for her and it may be other things as well, but yeah she Teresa owned Long Island and Dean was was a big part of that recipe, and I Remember, you know, she brought you to some Arxie events you spoke and you were talking a language Most of us didn't really even understand at that time. This was was all kind of new We were kind of coming out of that age when marketing was, you know, buying a big yellow page ad You know, maybe doing what is it? Val pack? Internet stuff, how's that work? You know, yeah, I mean that's going back here in Teresa's name just in itself, you know, wow Teresa and I had a lot of history. We did a lot of great things together. I remember the first time I met her It was at a networking event here on Long Island We were both big networkers at the time and she just comes up to me in her way and just like How can you help me? And just kind of like that and I'm like, who the heck are you? But it's like there was something about her that we just instantly clicked, you know We both have a little bit of that New York brashness to us. So we just clicked and Yeah, and we just decided, you know what let's dominate Long Island. Let's own it Let's see what we could do. Let's see how far we could push this thing and we did, you know With with the help of her husband Kevin at the time and she had a great team that she was assembling around us and Wow, and that's that's you know That's where it started morphing from not only the marketing but into the coaching side as I mentioned Tom prior to the call You know how the coaching side of my business started to take off and a lot of that started with the Teresa thing back then Where it was like, you know, we're looking for more more than just can you do more for us? Then just build us a website. What else can you do for us? That was her mentality, you know So here we are in 2023 for for those in our audience that that maybe don't know you or know what you do Could you kind of just kind of walk us through your background and in the services you provide? Sure. You bet I came out of big corporate America many many years ago. I spent about a dozen years there Running very high-profile teams and and projects around the world Did some phenomenal things However, I was an entrepreneur at heart. I always was I was the kid running around washing all the cars mowing all the lawns shoveling all the snow Once you once you're that guy There's no shackling you down in some corporate America cubicle just didn't work. It didn't fit so About 12 years into corporate America. I said, you know what I got it give this a shot before I get married before I have kids I have to Satisfy that in or something that's bugging you know what out of me so With the permission of my fiance at the time it was like, you know, I'm gonna leave corporate America And it was kind of like are you crazy? You know, I was making great money in corporate America I had high position and it was like I'm miserable I'm just miserable and it's like I have to go after what I I feel this something there. There's another gear So I broke out left that behind went from making beautiful six figures to making zero Got my rear end kicked all over town thinking that I had the old college degrees. I thought I knew everything I needed to know I Didn't know what I didn't know I didn't know what it was really meant to be a true entrepreneur How to be a true business owner so I got my butt kicked everywhere For a couple of years. I went through that had a couple of companies up and down Finally, I got some help got some coaching myself. I said, you know what this can't be this difficult It just can't be right. So I got a little bit of help All my marketing muscle was fired up at the time. We just got it started It's going back to 2004 all my peers laughed at me They made fun of me. I was like, you got to be kidding me. I thought you were smart Why the heck would you start an internet company? Internet's just a fad. What are you crazy? What's wrong with you? And I'm like, all right. Okay, no problem. Whatever you think that's you know Almost 20 years later. Who's laughing? Right? I think the internet kind of wasn't a fad. It's still here. Yeah, maybe not Right, yeah, it might hang around for a while Online marketing muscle was was started up. We were doing a lot of web work Most companies did not have websites yet at that time as crazy as that sounds Most of our marketing efforts trying to convince people that they needed a website We did an internet presence. Oh my gosh. It's so crazy, right? Yeah I was doing events all over trying to tell people. Hey, you need a website So we had a lot of web design going on a lot of SEO going on That is morphed over the years online marketing muscle has redefined itself several times as you both know You have to do with companies. You have to always reevaluate. What's working? What's not working? Where are things going? You know, so that we're not stuck in something that was so yesterday These days we're into a lot more sales and marketing automation We're in a lot more systems development Bigger picture marketing Big picture lead generation bigger picture lead conversion What we were doing I just building websites. We still do websites, you know, it's not a problem We still do a lot of SEO and content creation But sales and marketing automation is really the big side of that But somewhere when you say bigger picture, can you can you illustrate for us? What you mean by bigger picture? Well, it was more about it was more about really looking into What your buyer's journey was what your customer's journey is what what stages and phases they go through What do they need from you at what time during that? cycle that they're going through through that journey. So it was a matter of really Personalizing the experience all the way through Whereas maybe 20 years ago it was more about if you just had a website and you threw something up there You could sell it a lot easier now With global competition. It's just not that simple anymore. You have to really stand out in a big way Yeah, to your peers your competitors and whomever you're up against right so marketing has grown And leaps in bound from where it was when we were going with Val pack as Tom and I were alluding to earlier With the Val packs of the world. That's not a knock on Val pack That's just where things were 20 years ago things are a little different now. Does that mean that won't work anymore? No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that things are different So now it's about looking at that journey and saying, okay, what marketing do I need through what stage of that journey? What do I need to be how do I need to be communicating with my audience throughout that process? So that's kind of where mark online marketing muscle is now now during that Process during that span of 19 years. I think it's been now At some point it started coming out where our clients were asking for more. It was like, okay This is great. You could build us a website. What else can you do for us? You know all this is about all of this. Can you help us with strategy? Can you help us with planning? Can you help us with this? They were asking for coaching is what was coming out of that? So we thought of finding That we were doing much much much more and more and more coaching than we were even doing agency work So Dean was getting in the way of online marketing muscle and online marketing muscle was getting in the way of Dean at that point so a Couple of years back. We figured you know what we need to just split this out I didn't want an agency that depended on me solely. I wanted the agency to have its own identity Beyond me and what I do with my coaching and my speaking. That's me. That's on me Right. So we physically split the two companies apart Life's been better since Lot less complaining from everybody until I clear what we do So you have you have a team that that's doing the heavy lifting on the Online marketing side and you're spending more time coaching. Yeah, pretty much so That's the way I wanted it that's the way I wanted to create it, you know the online market muscle I don't know if I'm gonna still be running that company in a few years I wanted to leave that option open when I became an entrepreneur It was about creating lifestyle business for myself. There were certain things that I wanted for myself I wasn't looking to become a billionaire. I wasn't looking to become the next Elon Musk or any That was not what I was looking for I was looking to be able to create the lifestyle that I wanted for myself and the family that I wanted to create And that's what I wanted so we could live the life we wanted in New York, which is not you know necessarily the easiest thing to do But but I knew what I wanted. It was just a matter of dialing things so that they were congruent with that and That was a long time growth Process for me, you know, you have to get the ego out of the way you have to get In alignment with so many things. I went through a lot of coaching myself Hiring coaches to coach me never hire a coach people who doesn't have a coach So I always say that right so so doing a lot of work on myself through the process to try and figure out What I really want to do and how I want this thing to show up and how I want to show up That's that's really good advice because I know a lot of people and you know the time when when I thought that way It's like I don't need a coach. I can do this right on my own and We all need a coach and if we don't think that we need a coach We just that's just another data point that you need a coach. Absolutely. I tell people all the time I'm like just because I'm coaching you doesn't mean I'm smarter than you Not at all as an entrepreneur means nothing It just means that I have a trained eye and I have a trained ear I'm looking and listening for certain things in your game and When I see those things I know how to point them out to you I know how to possibly help you navigate those because I've done that with others It doesn't mean I'm a better entrepreneur than you and that's what a lot of people get stuck on that It's like, you know, you just got a you got to get past that and that's why I said it sometimes It takes a lot of work on yourself Yeah, you're only you go out of the way And to make a sports analogy, you know, a lot of times the better coaches aren't weren't really the the best athletes It doesn't matter, you know Why you'll set right? Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is different skill set. So it's you know, it's You just have to know the game well enough you have to be in and around the game long enough at this point Yeah, this point. I've logged well over 10,000 hours one-on-one coaching people. So I've been doing this quite a bit and Well, hey, I learned I learned as much from the people I coach as they learned from me And I've coached a lot of smart people in your industry. So so I've learned a ton from some of those folks Well Well, tell us a little bit about your coaching Dean, what is your You know, what's your strategy? What's your methodology? Like what what's your philosophy? Tell it and tell us about it. Sure We we have two big philosophies two big Methodologies we work from About about 10 years or so ago. I put out a book called the mind stretch it was became a best-seller On Amazon this was before everybody knew how to cheat Amazon to become a best-seller. So we actually sold the books back then But the mind stretch is one of one of the methodologies I stick by which has everything to do with At the core of everything we do is your vision So a lot of it starts with what do you want? Why do you want it? And I can't tell you how many very smart entrepreneurs cannot answer that question properly They clearly do not know what they want and why they're doing what they're doing All right, so the vision sits at the core of everything with the mind stretch methodology around that Is our what we call our 90-day sprints. We operate in 90-day sprints Everything is a 90-day sprint and we go through a process of planning Taking action and then reflecting on that we plan we take action. We reflect and we work in these cycles so that we're nailing Big rocks big things for the companies that we're working with Every quarter we're nailing at least three big things and that's what we focus on if we were to take care of those three Big things this quarter. What might your business look like? What might your world look like? How could you better serve your audience if we were able to handle that? So, you know, I mean one of the problems that we've dealt with over and over again was hiring Hiring how many times in the cleaning industry people coming? We can't find talent. We can't find this. We can't find that, you know So that was one we dealt with a lot in the cleaning industry another one was systems We dealt with systems a ton in the cleaning industry Because most of the time we had owners who were owner operators and they couldn't get their way out of the field Or they couldn't get their way out of the way so that their people can actually solve the problems that there were better suited to solve Right so and then there's an out-of-bend to this methodology the mind-stretch methodology which has to do with mindset and That really revolves around your business will only grow to the degree you do if You do not work on yourself and you do not grow yourself as the owner of that organization Your company will always be stunted in its growth. It will only grow a certain amount So when we alluded before to everybody needs a coach everybody needs a coach And that's one of the reasons why is to help you think bigger to challenge you to step out of your own way and get out Of the way sometimes and let your team do their thing Right, so that's a little bit of the mind-stretch methodology. So when we're coaching that's really the predominant methodology that we work from each element of that methodology Whether it's the vision the planning the action the reflection or the mindset each one of those has a framework that we work within and tons of templates that we work or we work with So if somebody comes to us, and they just don't have any of that we got it start with what we have and then adopt and adapt it to you and then it's yours You know, but we we try and get people to just to focus more on the now How do we how do we change your world right now? And that's why we run in these 90-day sprints Because most people are thinking they're either thinking way too far out Right or they're thinking way too short term You know, I love the 90-day Sprint, you know, there's you know a lot of other, you know business methodologies I mean every every great idea was built upon great ideas that that preceded it Thinking you mentioned rocks, you know Rockefeller habits, you know, right You know picked on some of that and then that was like put into EOS and you know, there's there's Others, but there's something magic about 90 days. It's there is a long enough time frame where you can actually get something done But it's not so long that you're gonna procrastinate and wait to the last minute It creates a sense of urgency, but still gives you a chance to do something meaningful Spot on I 100% agree with that and if we learn to just Chunk it down like that. It simplifies business so much Because we stopped thinking about the 9,000 things on our list that we want to get done And we put our focus on three big things that if we were to nail those three big things this quarter What might business look like and then over the course of a year you've now nailed 12 big things so instead of focusing on Those 12 things at the same time and getting nowhere with any of them You're nailing three at a time. So this way come the second quarter You've already got the first three things done in the first quarter your business is that much better in the second quarter And then you're nailing three more things. So by mid-year, you've now really tackled six huge things And your company is now functioning and operating so much better six months deep in this So it's about getting the wins Get out there and get the wins Because there's nothing more demoralizing than when it seems like nothing's moving Nothing's changing. Nothing's happening. I'm running. I'm running. I'm running. I'm running. I'm killing myself here And I'm not seeing anything Does that resonate? Right. We've all been there. We've all done that Absolutely One of the one of the things that that that we talked about that we wanted to Touch up on and in this discussion is how to clone yourself I mean, I guess part of how to get out of this You know, whirlwind this this this just you know, groundhogs day thing is to build a team and You know, how you want to speak a little bit about how to clone yourself. Sure Our other big methodology that we have besides the mind-stretch methodology is the colonial and methodology and That one came out of coaching cleaning companies a long time ago That's where that spawned from because I was coaching probably about a dozen of them at the time Every week working with at least a dozen and these you probably would know all of them We won't mention their names for their own privacy but you know, these were all heavy hitters in your industry and we were I Was hearing something show up over and over and over again and again with the trained ear. You listen for patterns That's what we do as coaches. We listen for patterns and when we hear the patterns We look to sink our teeth into those patterns, right? So we were hearing over and over again If I just had ten of me Life would be better. I can't seem to get so-and-so to do this I can't get this done. I can't get if I just had ten of me if I just had ten of me and we kept hearing that from so many different owners That we started we went back and we took some stock and we we sat back and thought about that and we said okay And out of that came our concept of cloney owner So cloney owner was all about leverage was all about Helping business owners get leverage on their business again helping them get out of their own way long enough so that the business could operate without them and That was a hard thing for a lot of business owners Especially in the cleaning industry a lot of them didn't really want to let go They love the thought of delegating but they really didn't want to let go They were holding on to it and they were fighting kicking and screaming the whole way as we're trying to just let go Right, so the cloney owner methodology is very similar to the mind-stretch methodology at the center sits the vision The core is the vision we always have to be clear on what we want and why we want it if we're not clear All the marketing you do is not going to achieve what you wanted to achieve All the sales you try and do is not going to achieve your net because you don't know what you want When you when you concretely Pin something and say this is the number. I'm going for this is what I'm going to accomplish exactly It's so much easier to hit a target when you know what target you're aiming at The problem is most are just like we hear somebody else in the industry say well I want to run a seven-figure business right and I would often ask a question right back at clean company owners and say Do you have any idea what it takes to run a seven-figure business in the residential cleaning space? Oh, you don't maybe you ought to talk to somebody who does You know, do you need me to facilitate that and introduce you to a few people who have so then maybe you could get some perspective number one Do you really want to do what they do? Because running a seven-figure business is very different than running your own one team business You know, I'm very different animal And you've got to be careful what you ask for Yeah, and do you want to do the things that you need to do to get there from where you are bingo And that's we were bumping into that a lot. So at the core sits that vision Right. So again, one of our frameworks and biggest processes is let's take a step back and let's make sure that we're clear On what it is you want and why so when they hire online marketing muscle I push back immediately a lot of times And people used to think there was something wrong with me back in the day because I wouldn't let people just hire us Because if we weren't a good fit, I don't want your money Remember, I created a lifestyle business. I wasn't looking to be Elon Musk So if I can't help you I'm gonna tell you I'm not the right guy Right, we're not the right company for you. If I know I can help you. I'm the first one to tell you I'm from New York. I'm brash. I'm gonna tell you straight up. Let's go We got this. Let's do it. But if I can't I'm telling you that too. So the vision Once we're clear on where we want to go and why we want to go there Right and for us a vision consists of three main components just for your clarity It consists of your purpose or your why why you're doing what you're doing It also consists of your mission. I call it your what by your when What by when your mission is kind of like a big hairy audacious goal But with a because statement at the end of it telling us why you want to do that Why is that important to accomplish that and then the third element of our vision is our our core values That's kind of like how we conduct ourselves how we behave how we go about doing things And for us we we look at core values critically important We we allow people to hire us when they have similar core values We hire based on core values. I could train anybody who has the aptitude for the skills I can't train you to have the same core values. I can't train you to respect our value system You either do what you don't and I don't make you wrong if you don't you have your own set of values and that's fine right, so it's again when you When you come from a space and it's it's a space of I look at it as a space of love not a space of cockiness or Trying to be something that i'm not i'm in my mid fifties now. I don't really care anymore in that way I really don't I am what I am you know, so When I get the opportunity to work with somebody I'm always trying I'm coming from that space of love and I'm giving everything I got You know, I become part of your team. Let's go. Let's go get it right So that that's the vision part then around the vision we have another wheel that circles around vision at the core This wheel consists of team Systems and controls Team systems and controls Now your team If you want to grow and you want to scale Once you've got that vision established you better create a rock star team You your number one thing or one of your top three things as the ceo of your company my opinion Is building a rock star team you've got to have that ability to pull together a rock star team if you don't Again, that's gonna it's gonna hold you back. It's gonna limit you. It's gonna make your life miserable Right, so the ability to build a great team Some of our frameworks within that component are like we we promote like a seven step hiring process And and I know you both have been playing in this field for a long time You know, you have your own hiring processes. You do it well um So we're a big proponent of that you got to have a process for You know recruiting for hiring right even for firing You've got a process for all of this stuff Right, so building a great team is one of the big cores of this wheel around your vision The second part of that are your systems You've got to have great systems and processes if you don't Right, your business will always fall back to Whoever you have working for you and they're not thinking at the level you are as as a business owner so I use an example all the time many years ago I hired somebody to help us with social media So I hired this this woman to help us with social media And then I took my eyes off of it And with the lesson I learned back then in my own business was If you if you give them no instruction you give them no guideline, they're going to go by what they think And if they haven't been part of your company or your industry or whatever They have no idea all they have is what they know And that may not be consistent with what your expectations are or what your desires are So we learned that hard lesson as this person was putting out all kinds of crazy stuff and When somebody brought my attention to it. I was like wait a minute time out. No good. This isn't working for me, right? But I didn't make that person wrong. That was my fault As the leader of the company at that time I just threw the the ball over the fence and said go get them You know without really having a process for her Not really giving any proper training Setting any proper expectation Right so what what do we expect of that person they're going to do the best what they think Now you're talking about the difference between a business owner And this is not to knock people who might do social media work or somebody who might work for you But they were a $10 an hour person at that time So I'm entrusting my PR With to a $10 an hour person who's never run a business before Shame on me You know lesson learned Right. It was painful lesson, but it was a lesson learned so The team the systems right And we have frameworks for systems how to build a system and and this is where I love that because I came from big corporate America I took a lot of great stuff at a big corporate America I was doing a lot of stuff in in like ISO 9000 a lot of stuff in big process improvement My master's degree was in process improvement So I had a lot of that knowledge that I was bringing it to the small business arena for the first time It seemed a lot of small business owners didn't understand that language back then So then the third component of that wheel Are your controls Your controls those are your measurements those are your metrics. Those are the numbers the numbers never lie If you don't know your numbers you don't know your business Period end of the story Folks you have to know your numbers and most business owners hate going there They don't like it And no, you know what too bad That's the new york and me too bad. You want to run a business. You want to run a great business Remember people depend on you People who work for you depend on you the clients who are hiring you are depending on you If you don't know your numbers and you don't know your business How are you doing the right thing by those people? Who depend on you? You're you're you're taking a chance. I mean there are people who Make it work but without without having the numbers but You know, I think of them as being lucky, you know, you know, sometimes you just you act you're accidentally or successful We have the numbers then you can get the predictable outcomes. You can make it work Even the lucky people they only get luck only takes them so far And at some point in time it's like stuff starts breaking down and they don't without the numbers They don't even know how to fix it. They don't know where to look. They don't even know what the problem And this is a lot of times as a coach we bump into ego It's not me. It couldn't be me Couldn't be me. You know, I got a billion dollar business. Really couldn't be you, huh? And then we start digging and we see what we find You know, uh, I remember in the cleaning industry and this is not a knock. I remember Very few people knew their numbers a dozen years ago 15 years back when when I was coaching somebody's back in 2000 earlier 2000s And then I bumped into a couple like we mentioned Teresa already and I'll throw a shout out to our friend Bruce Vance too Who's another guy who just knew his numbers And I was really impressed I was like, this is great You know, I would I would ask a hard question about the numbers and they'd come right back with the numbers And I was like, all right. Now you're helping somebody like me help you If you lie to me, I can't help you or if you have no idea Then it makes it harder for me to help you. But when you really do understand your numbers Boy, you make it really easy for people to rally around you and help you get what you want It's like going to the doctor and telling them that everything's fine when it really isn't exactly Now you said something huge before Tom. You said predictable The word predictable and I love that word And I and I challenge everyone out there to create Predictable revenue streams in your business to create to create this predictable business Right. That's why in residential cleaning. We're always going after the recurring cleanings, right? We want those recurring cleanings. These one-timers are nice But if we don't have the systems in place to try and convert those one-timers into recurring at some point Right, then business becomes painful The churn is painful No, you know, we it made central introduces professional management tools So the residential cleaning industry and Professional management is about getting predictable outcomes public traded companies, you know every quarter It's like this is what we did the last quarter This is what we're going to do next quarter and more times than not they do it and right It's not an accident. They have the tools They have the numbers and they manage their business based on the numbers and that's key Right, that's key and it starts with the knowing And that desire to know when you get clear on what your numbers are you could do some miraculous stuff But the thing is you're doing it on purpose Yeah, I do love the on purpose thing But you know, one of the things that we've found dean is that in our industry A lot of times people can know their numbers, but they really don't understand them They don't know They can give you the answer But how to move forward with that right kind of you remember tom when we did that entire month about KPIs and We thought that so That was every day We were doing smart business moves back back during covid we're doing it every day And we decided that there were just too many people out there that didn't know their numbers We're like and mostly tom when I say we mostly tom was like we're done with this, right? We're we're gonna understand these numbers And so we spent An entire month every single day for an hour Breaking down every tiniest thing that you could think of about every one of the numbers that we could think of at the time and Still at the end of that month we still I would say the people that went through with us for the whole entire month. They got it all those people got it Right, but there were people that came in here there saw maybe 10 10 of the of the airings and It was hard. They just continued to say so hard. I I know what those numbers are I know I kind of know where to get them. I mean it's different now, right? The mullet made central and a lot of the scheduling programs make it so much easier now To get your to get your numbers get those reports. Well, maybe not a lot of the scheduling programs, but You know, there are it's a lot easier to get reports than it was, you know, even five years ago Right, so that's helping people But still getting the numbers and I know this Because of our circle work. So we we have a coaching system called strategic success circles and we bring people in and We give them a tool that they use the growth execution tool And they have to put all their numbers in there on a daily basis for the first month and then weekly after that and even after doing it For every single day for a month Sometimes there's still a little struggle. Yeah about what this number is. What is what does it mean? they won't even notice Some number that is just You know way out of whack like your payroll percent revenue Is 512 percent. Do you see why that's a problem? No, how do you know lis? darn Right This comes back to the the concept we learned from the book the emith from michael gerber Most people in the residential cleaner a lot of them anyway started out as technicians They started out cleaning A few of you didn't and that's great but 20 years ago When I first started meeting cleaning companies A lot of them were technicians in their business and they were learning how to be an entrepreneur how to be a business owner and One of the things I fell in love with with your industry about 15 20 years ago and one of the things I loved about it was how So many of you Took it to heart to come together and do something about it to grow together to change the industry Right when when arcsy came about it was like okay now there was a platform For people to come together and seeing folks like you folks putting together programs that it was that was so critically necessary The more people stay in conversation the easier these concepts are to understand It's like you were teaching them a foreign language. That was the problem It was a foreign language to most of them because they were technicians Now all of a sudden you're talking to them about Concepts and numbers they never thought about they never Thought that they would ever have to think about and most of them were in denial That they would ever have to think that way Right. I was coaching somebody the other day when I when I called them out on that concept. It's like hey Your way of thinking is what got you where you are You're telling me you want something different and i'm telling you you need to change the way you're thinking You need to change the way you're looking at it. You need to change the way you're understanding your business Because what got you to this mark is not going to get you here And it's certainly not going to get you there If that's what you're saying right, so It's a harsh reality. Yes You know, however, it is doable and in your Community the cleaning the residential cleaning industry. I love what I've seen there in the last 15 20 years It excites me more and now the people i'm bumping into are way further down the path Then they were when I was bumping into them 20 years ago and I love that because it means we could do so much more There's so much more possibility now. I mean think about your system. Tom made central Putting that tool in people's hands Now there's no excuse not to have the numbers the numbers are there now the next challenge is helping them interpret the numbers right And how do you how to use the numbers to grow and to to to generate profit and that's that's what we do and You know, we've noticed like over the years go back to when you first got involved with the industry It was rare to find a residential cleaning company that was doing a million dollars a year now Now I think last time we looked like 54 of the companies are using made central or north of a million dollars in in in revenue Bravo You know love that and in some of them Meaningful amounts higher than that numbers that you would not have even considered 20 years ago. Yeah So the so the industry is growing. It's evolving Right and and thankfully And it's a wonderful thing to see now It's like, you know, you've got some entrepreneurs in in this industry now That can run any business in any industry And that's awesome Maybe that wasn't such the case 20 years ago, but it is now It definitely is now and that That stems from all of this kind of conversation all the masterminds all the coachings all the seminars all the webinars And to see as many cleaning company owners active participating in those Is amazing because you don't see that in a lot of other industries A lot of people do the talking But then when it comes time to show up at the event so that they can learn something they don't show You know Hey, hey Dean Christian's got a got a question in in chat and based on on on your coaching and working with cleaning companies Uh, could could you give us, you know, what what you see as the biggest struggle when it comes to operating a cleaning business? right, oh It's a tough one because the biggest ones the biggest ones we see and have seen revolve around A couple of those things I have mentioned already one of them being team building the right team Without building the right team We always looked at the seven figure mark back in the day With cleaning companies as that glass ceiling most couldn't get past that and a lot of that had to do with the lack of Proper team and the lack of systems those were the two big things the two big thorns that were destroying a lot of these Smaller businesses couldn't they couldn't just get out of their own way And you know when I say team that also includes the leadership being willing to let go Willing to let go and delegate Right, so those were big Vision I think is also big Right, so could I name one thing? I don't know that I know so many cleaning company owners now that for many They all all of those pieces kind of fall like this your systems your team your vision it all kind of falls like this I think a lot of it has to do with Your strategy. What's your strategy? What do you want it? What do you want? Why do you want it? What are you willing to do? What are you willing to let go of? You know Get out of your own way long enough Right, so I mean you got a big event coming up in st. Louis. There's an event If arcs he's got an event coming up in st. Louis, I believe right Yeah, they're gonna get up people get an opportunity to go walk through a rock star owners facility Are you nuts? Why wouldn't you be there? Why wouldn't anybody be there? Two rock star owners right across each other. Oh, I love that There's nothing better Than seeing it in action and being able to pick the brain of somebody who's doing it Right, I think it's just incredible. So I hope I hope it's a full packed house. I hope those of you who are still on the fence Uh, book your ticket the for the regional event for arc see I saw the numbers last week And I think it was like 47 48 people had signed up so far for a regional event That's uh, it's a it's a decent number and for regional events a lot of people are like traveling You know hopping in a car and going somewhere and registrations come in, you know, last week or so So they're they're they're doing well. That's good. I'm glad to hear that because those are the kind of things that Make the difference that are gonna get us past These big stumbling blocks these big rocks like building a great team and having great systems there's another thing that I see a lot and I think going to the arc see regional event is a good first step and that is that Get so caught up in the whirlwind They work and they work and they work and similar to the emeth story, right? But they're not working on the right stuff. Yes, and they just they're you're too busy Stop you have to slow down Stop doing the things that you're doing today and you need to do new things And probably fewer fewer things You need to be working 60 hour weeks because you're you're not you're not getting the results that you want So I see that a lot as a bit one of the things that really holds people back to Just too much spinning spinning spinning that holds companies back. Yeah Yeah, this you said a magic word. That's the second magic word. I heard today and that's fewer And one of our concepts is what we call the fewer better And in 2023 it's one of our mantras focusing on the fewer better Stop We're going we're trying to get people to stop the clutter. Oh my goodness people are so busy doing everything All of this stuff and it's like stop You know, do you even know if any of this stuff is working for you? You don't have to market yourself on 90 000 platforms. You don't have to do all of this stuff Focus on the fewer better Right. So magic word fewer, right? Really hyper focus You know, you you you mentioned, you know having processes and You know, I see I see companies developing very complex processes for simple problems and you know They can get to the same outcome if not a better outcome and a fraction of the time and Effort and just because you're making it as complicated as as you can imagine Does it mean that you're necessarily going to get better outcomes? Fantastic, I absolutely agree with that brilliant, you know, so Complex does not mean better It certainly doesn't you know, I'll oftentimes get a lot of pushback From cleaning companies in particular When I talk about creating systems And and you know, they know I use certain tools when I create systems I'll use automation and those things but I use I use a tool called the sauna a lot You know, I use a tool called keep a lot All right, when I'm building systems, these are just tools I use it does not mean you you need to use them You know, and they'll oh, I can't I can't learn this I can't learn the tool I can't learn this I'm like, you know what no more excuses just get a pencil And a piece of paper and write a damn checklist. You can't do that You can't take five minutes. You're complaining to me that you've got a quality issue On site when you're doing these kinds of jobs, you can't take five minutes and write down a checklist That your team can use when they're on site performing that task What's stopping you? Really you can't oh, okay. You have a problem with your hands right now You just dictate it to me and I'll write it down And I'll send it over to you. So we try and remove all the excuses There really aren't many when it comes down to just start with simple checklists Right, don't complicate it. You don't have to cross every t and dot every i and make sure every possible scenario in the world I use a framework That I said get to 80 percent get it to 80 percent Where it needs to be and when you get it to where at 80 percent where it needs to be Then we'll look at the next 20 percent and we'll take that 20 percent. That's still lacking and we'll get that 80 fixed and We talk about the Pareto principle where you can get 80 percent of the value with 20 percent of the effort and Do that, you know for starters, you know a lot of people kind of Freeze when you start talking about processes they get stuck in the weeds and it's like you know Pages and pages and pages of stuff that's not useful that nobody is going to read just Start out real simple real exactly Exactly and that's that's a big breakdown that we've seen over the last 15 years 20 years is that is that They want to do it. They say they want to do it. But when it comes down to it, they don't do it Right, but yet they're complaining about the outcomes that they're getting Regardless of what it is and this isn't just the cleaning industry Um, so don't worry folks out there that are listening. This is every industry I've coached some of the best best and brightest is across Numerous service industries I've seen the same problems Across the board. So we're all human. We're all entrepreneurs. We're all small business owners We all have the same kinds of problems. It is what it is Get out of our own way Dumb it down focus on the fewer better look at your business and say, okay These are the big problems I have right now So when we're looking at what are the three things to attack this next quarter? Let's say in q2 What are the big three things you can attack they come in one or two classes They're either something that's holding you back Or something that can propel you forward Right, so something that helps you scale or something that removes a rock that's holding you back There's a rock in your path. Let's talk about removing them. So the three out of the three things you pick Two of them might be rocks that you remove that that allow your business to move further faster And one might be a way of scaling your business Right So it is about looking at the business and and taking a little bit as tom you've mentioned a simpler approach It doesn't have to be this complicated Because it's not We the humans we complicate it. That's us We're we're the ones creating that problem. Yeah, this is why everybody needs to coach Right, and if you can't afford a coach if you think you can't afford a coach Get a mastermind partner an accountability partner call up another cleaning company and say hey look I really like the stuff. I hear you say on linkedin or facebook. You know what? How about we play bookends with one another and we just have a quick 15 minute call every week And we talk about moving each other forward You could find 15 minutes. Can't you It's not that complicated So again, it's we we tend to make excuses on why we can't have and why we can do And i'm telling you and i'm giving you permission if that's what you feel you need Step out of your own way for a second and just allow yourself to succeed. It's not that hard It does require you to do the right things in the right order at the right time in the right way though If you're not willing to do that or you're not sure how to do that pay attention to Conversations like this. You guys run this program. How often? Weekly I mean It's a college education And then some think about everything we talked about already today I heard the one the last one with debbie sardone that you guys did that was phenomenal That was phenomenal between what all three of you were saying and sharing in that that was an education If you do not know what to do To elevate your business and your game go back and listen to that Where I think the other really awesome thing is If it's you That's the best case scenario. You can fix you If it's if it's the world you can't fix the world right next you Right, bro. That's the first place to look. I mean if we're talking about KPIs, guess what? Right here start here Easier you got control over it. I might why not start there even if you're sure it's not you Right exactly, but that's a hard place for a lot of people because ego We don't want to admit a lot of times that it's us The reason I I mentioned early in the call today in a conversation today that I got my butt kicked all over the place Early on in my entrepreneur career That was because I didn't know what I didn't know and my ego was totally in the way I thought I have the college degrees. It can't be me really Well hard, you know, that was a harsh reality. That was a you know, when you finally figure out that you're the problem Wow, that sucked. I wasn't happy about that You're right. It's not a pleasant place, but you know what I had to learn the lesson If I didn't I wouldn't be able to become who I am today and that affects not only how I behave in my business But it affects all my clients it affects my kids It affects who I am how I show up for my wife It affects everything in my world So allowing myself to be a little vulnerable allowing myself to do that introspective work To figure out and realizing sometimes it does take having an outside person look in and see We did uh, we did a workshop in charleston back in march Did several of them actually and I introduced liz to to my business coach Going way back. I've worked with uh with with with dan and uh, he spoke And and did some some workshops for an event that that liz was leading and I remember way back when he was trying to help me see that it was me and I couldn't see it I couldn't see it and then eventually it was like Oh crap, it is me and it changes it changes everything Right, it's powerful and empowering all at the same time And once once that ego gets bruised like that and it gets crushed Yeah, it hurts and it stings a little bit, but you know what the growth that comes because of that Oh my goodness If you really truly want more You have to be willing To allow yourself to be vulnerable like that. You have to be willing to entertain that possibility that it could be you Like we have this question. I see on the screen here. Hopefully Right, hopefully as you're pointing out is you're right. Hopefully it is. Yeah So I would ask sweep home As we see on the screen finding the right people and going to be dependable and reliable Right a lot of that that I found over the years and this may be hard to hear A lot of that is because the owner themselves wasn't clear on what exactly they wanted in a team member They may not have had the right training in place. They may not have had the right systems in place They may not have had their core values laid out And identified when they were going after and and I know I know people are going to come back and say Well, it's so hard to find people willing to clean these days. We'll take anyone and I say don't Why would you want to scale your business or grow your business with people who don't belong there? You're better off running a better more profitable company smaller more profitable better with better people That fit your values then you are trying to scale to be something with people who don't belong there Eventually that roller coaster is going to get out of whack. It's going to get out of control You're going to have the inmates running the asylum at some point because they don't buy into What you're what you're proposing So sometimes You have to realize it's okay to run a smaller but better company Right. I remember coaching a Cleaning company many years ago that they were right on the brink of a million and then you know They hired me to help them get through the the glass ceiling. We did we got past it Then we started talking about their profitability once we got Their ego boosted by helping them get their revenue up Then I I hit them with their issue with profitability When it came down to it, they were making so little money That they could have made more money going to work for a local um convenience store as an employee Then all the stress and pain they went through in the past year To run this million dollar company. So I helped them achieve what they Wanted first and then we talked about what they needed You needed better profitability You know so and that was not easy for them to swallow But it's like, you know push comes to shove if you're not making enough money to survive I don't care how much money your company's making Right. What are you in business for? Yeah, you need more. Hey tom. Did you check out the time tom? Yeah, you know, we started we started the show talking about how fast time I think that we just proved it We are at the top of the hour We weren't even paying attention. We're past Dean if if if You know our audience if it's everybody in our audience is thinking that well, you know, maybe this makes sense Maybe I should explore, you know getting a coach What's the best way for for them? And if they wanted to have a discussion, I'm sure you'd be glad to have that, right? Oh, absolutely. I I grant my cleaning company friends as a lot more Uh, leniency and good things that I do most of my others because I play so much in this industry I have so many friends in this industry. So yeah, reach out to me. Let's talk You can go to dean mercado.com right on the homepage. There's a link right there to my calendar Get you on my calendar. I will not hard sell you That's not what I'm here for if we're meant to work together. You'll know I don't know quickly. Yeah, you know there's you know, this is There's people that are meant to work with me and there's people that aren't and that doesn't mean that I'm bad Or you're bad or anything like that. But yeah, dean mercado.com right there. You could see it says let's talk Right there on the screen. Click that button Oh, yeah, and I love what sweet home says Sometimes we need people to tell us what we are doing wrong to make us realize what we should be doing Yes, we can't see it ourselves for us for the trees, right? Love it. We can't see it. We need somebody with that That big view that bird's eye view that can point out. Hey, look look here. Absolutely. Absolutely Agreed and if you're going to be in st. Louis next week or if you want to go to st Louis next week, we've got several good reasons for you. We're doing a made central discovery day on the 27th, which is a thursday office tours we have two cleaning businesses in St. Louis and they happen to be right across the street from each other one is matt's business, it's a better life maids and Green angels is the other one is right across the street actually Um and on Saturday, we are uh, shan tinsburg is doing a training session on cleaning techniques, so You know three full days if you want to do it if you're only in town for a day You can can pick your event if and all of them you can find arcsy.org forward slash regional and register for any or all of them Wow Thank you. This is it's been way too long. We we can't let we can't let that Happen again. It was fun having you appreciate your help Oh, I appreciate being here with both of you. This was a lot of fun And i'm sure it won't be this long between our next visits with one another So I look forward to it and the channel is open feel free to reach out to me as well Anything you want to talk about let's talk, you know Yeah, absolutely So we're going to go ahead and call it a wrap for today. We'll be back next race. We'll be back Easter. Take care. Take care buddy