 Hey and good afternoon. This afternoon, I am joined with Holly Oldham and we are going to discuss some really interesting stuff that nobody wants to talk about outside closed doors. But today we're going to rip that band-aid off and we're going to have that conversation. We are talking about luxury and home cleaning. Now, there's a myth in the cleaning industry that cleaning for high-end luxury properties is a challenge because luxury property owners are, and here's the myth. It's a myth. Is it true or false? They're high maintenance. They are miserly, tight with their money. They don't leave tips and they stand around all day and looking for dust and things to complain about to their house cleaner. There's a myth and it's been going around for I don't know how many years, but many years. So today we have a specialist with us today. She's going to unwrap that band-aid. She's going to tell us what is the nitty-gritty behind these myths. Is it true or is it false? Please help me welcome Holly Oldham. How are you today? Thank you. Hi, I am living my best life. Thank you so much for having me today. And in my experience, this time around, this is my second cleaning business, and this time as a solopreneur, I'm a solo cleaning, luxury cleaning service and all that that involves. And it's absolutely false. The myth is false. In my experience, I mean, my clients appreciate me and as I appreciate them. You know, as I'm fluffing their, you know, their throw rugs in the dryer every time I go there every week when I'm there, to ironing their pillowcases, to ironing their handkerchiefs and making sure that all of their keepsakes are just safe. Right? I mean, it really just, it depends. I mean, of course you're going to run across people that are particular, but I'd rather them be particular than not tell me what it is they'd like to have done. Tell me what you want me to do. And I will help you as most of my clients are entrepreneurs and business owners. The last thing they want to do is worry about whether their toilet is clean or their fan is dusted or, you know, or, oh my gosh, is there dust underneath my bed? I have guests coming. You know, they don't want to, they don't want to be bothered with that. So I take, I tell people how long it's going to take me. Right? I tell them this is how long it's going to take me. If you want me to do this, I will only do that. However, if you want me to do all of this, then it's going to be that. And they have the choice whether to stay or work with me or not. And either way, I'm grateful because one, if they choose not to work with me, there's always somebody else. I will agree with you. In my experience, also, that is a myth. And I'm going to bust that myth. And one of the things I've discovered is this. People that have money have it because they watch their spending. They know how much money they've earned. They know where it's going. They know where they've invested. And they're being very conscientious with their choices. So it's not like they're just throwing money away, but they're conscientious of their choices. Are they miserly? I'm going to use that and say that they are cautious. Okay. They know where their money is going. Now, I'm going to flip that and I'm going to say, did you earn a tip? Did you earn extra and did they give it to you? Because one of the things that I found people with a lot of money also know how to spend a lot of money. And so you are the house cleaner that comes to their house and you provide a service that makes their heart sing. And you mentioned fluffing the pillows and the linens and things. When you do the extra and when you show them that like, hey, you are important to me and I care and I'm reliable and I'm responsible. I'm on time and I'm careful and all the things, they have no problem giving you the tips and they have no problem celebrating your business. Because one of the things you mentioned was that they are many of them are entrepreneurs. And that is so true. But here's the thing. They get you. They understand where you're coming from because they were once in your shoes. They were once the business owner that was trying to drum up the business. And so when you show up and you're like, hey, I'm doing my best here. What do we have to do? And you mentioned setting boundaries. When you set boundaries and clear expectations, they go, yes. Oh, yes. As a server cleaner, she knows what it takes to run a business. And then they jump through who's trying to help you in your business. So I'm going to bust that myth as well. Yay. I'm glad we could get that out of there. Yes. Yes. I mean, you know, people who value time, they understand that that service needs to be paid for. And I'm high maintenance and I'm high maintenance because I can maintain all of the things that I'm doing. You know, I have to have a quilt and my bed has to have the corner edges. I also dabbled in interior design. I still do. And so, you know, your pillowcases don't have to match the sheets, right? You know, add some fun into your life and your home by mixing and matching. You know, when you mix, when you buy sheets, right, everything's all one color. But basically if you're buying a pair of, you know, a fitted sheet and a flat sheet in the package, the pillows and everything, they all match. Well, you don't have to necessarily do that. Like, for example, I'm in my bedroom right now, right? As an entrepreneur, you know, we work out of our offices and things, right? I'm sure you remember at one point, right? You were working out of your, your, your home office. And in my bed has teal sheets, teal flat sheets, a navy, sorry, a navy flat sheet, a teal fitted sheet and orange pillows with a blue and white quilt, right? So, you know, your home should be something that you love and I take care of my home just as I take care of my clients and they know this about me. So how does your personal flair for home decoration and design and things like that transfer over into the luxury home market where you're inside someone else's home and maybe they didn't make a decision? Do you go swap pillows from bedroom to bedroom or do you do anything like that or do you pretty much play it by the rules? No, I, you know, my clients, I'm always doing something different. For example, the other day, maybe this last week, I have a client I've been taking care of for over a year. We've known each other for like, I don't know, a decade or so. We came friends on Facebook at an event and any who has cleaning her bathroom and, you know, just like any person getting ready in the morning, your bathroom counter isn't always clean, right? And sometimes you get little stains on the counter makeup, hairspray, you know, whatever it is that you're using. And I put placemats there, right? I put little placemats that she had, right? She didn't like it. I told her, I told her through a text message, hey, I added some placemats to your, you know, to your counter and I came back the following week and they weren't there. You know, whether she didn't like it or did like it or it just didn't work, it didn't matter. However, you know, I just gave her another option to do versus messing up her counter, right? And I didn't take anything personal because it's not my home. However, it's, you know, you have to take the initiative. You know, they're paying you to clean. They're paying you to take care of their home while they're not there. You know, I have clients with six animals, great Danes. I have specialty cats that I take care of and turtles named Pop-Tart. You know, I'm a tortoise lover. I love everything and anything about turtles. So when I had a client that had a turtle, I was like, oh my gosh, you know, someone after my own heart. So it's important that as a solo cleaner that you take the initiative. Just because it's not mentioned in your list of things that you're going to do at their home. If there is a weed at their front door, just pull it for them and let them know because they may not notice, but they're going to remember that that is something that you did. Or though, hello, they all have cameras so they can go back and look and see that that's who I did that. The landscaping guy didn't do that. So let me ask a question. Do you, do you then see things that need to be done and you take the initiative to do them, even though it may not be on your cleaning checklist or some part of the expectations that you set? Absolutely. And you have to tell them, right? And have it in writing, not over the phone. This way when they go back through their text, Holly told me what? Oh, yep, she did that. Now they don't always respond, right? And because why? Because they're busy running businesses. They don't, you know, however, they know that I'm there. They know that I'm going to show up. I've been referred more than I've ever advertised in my, in my cleaning career. I mean, I've been in the cleaning industry with both of my businesses well over 15 years. I started in my early 30s. And, you know, it has been one of the greatest journeys. Like I look forward to going to these people's houses every time I'm cleaning. Now I have specialty days where I do organizing and cleaning so people can hire me for two days or four consecutive days over a weekend. And I'll do it with you, right? I desire to be there because I know how emotionally involved it is to let go and grow, which is what PRMF cleaning stands for, right? PRMF is pause, reflect, move forward. And, you know, I show up to work like this in my hat, you know. I love that. I'm branded. I have a tattoo on my arm. Pause or reflect. Ah, can you see? Pause or reflect. Yes, that's awesome. Right. And it's a poem. I'm a poet. I'm a writer. And I'm passionate about the environment and people cleaning up their lives. And whatever that looks like. And if the dog decided to go to the bathroom and the house, I'm going to clean it. I've had four children, a little pee pee and a poopy doesn't bother me at all. I got a question here. Most luxury homes have valuable collections and artwork. How do you approach cleaning those items without causing damage? And I love when you say, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, no, no, go, go, go. I was going to say, I know you said that you have an artistic flair about you. And so there's probably an attention to detail that you have, or there's probably something that you recognize this is super valuable. How do you clean those items without causing damage? In a word? Caution. Caution. Yeah, I mean, and here's the thing. If you're going into these houses with, with antiques and Rolexes and shoes, shoes that could buy a house, right? You have to check your energy at the door before you enter it. And if you're not charging the people, you know, your clients, what it is that their home needs, then that's your fault. I mean, if you're, if you're cleaning these luxuries homes and you're saying, oh, it's only going to take me and my cleaner. But if you have somebody helping you two hours, so four hours of labor in two hours, you get in and you get out and you go to the next house, right? No, you can't do that. These, these clients, they, I'm so grateful for them. I am so grateful for anybody who's hired me over the years and they know it. They know it. They know it when I'm playing with their animals and scratching their animals arses, right? Most of the time, you know, if they, they see me, you know, petting the Great Dane or, you know, holding the, the Pomeranian or you're talking to the turtle and the turtle tank, right? They know, you know, they know me and, and, and I love that. I love me and the business that I've created. I, I believe that as an environmentalist, I believe that waste is good for your waste. And every day for the last three and a half years, I've been doing beach cleanup. It's absolutely changed my life. And, you know, if you're a solopreneur or, you know, a cleaning business owner, get out and do some community service. Because I tell you, as a grandparents, oh, like the amount of garbage that is laying around for somebody to pick it up. I mean, just be that someone. And not only is it good as you age, right? I've built a business model that's keeping me in shape. I look at it as people are paying me to exercise. Thank you. I've had four children. I'm in the best shape of my life. Right? Thank you for not only helping me physically. Let me ask you this as a business owner and you're a solopreneur right now and you're doing a lot of public outreach. Has that happened in a way that it has then given you maybe more notoriety or more publicity and help you get a higher level of client than maybe just an average client that would have two, three thousand square foot home? No. No, I have, I've already built my solo cleaning business to where I like it. Right? Where I'm comfortable. So, you know, what I desire to have to maintain me and my lifestyle may be different from what you require. Right? So you set your prices as to the worthiness that you give your work. And I have found that as I've increased my rates, I attract different clients. I'm not cleaning the people who don't care. I mean, they care about their homes. They desire to have clean homes. They desire somebody to be in there doing the job that they're paying them to do. I can't tell you how many times I've taken over for people and they're saying, I walk in and I'm going, oh my goodness, look at your air vent. You know, I'll take the time and remind my clients that, you know, it's time we move that refrigerator. It's time that we clean behind that stove. And I'm not moving that furniture. Why? I work labor hours. I'm not moving that stuff. If you want it cleaned, I'll clean it for you, but you've got to have somebody come in and move it. And that's where the liability comes in. Right? The insurance. If I don't have the coverage or excuse me, the person that you're hiring doesn't have the coverage and they injure themselves, it could come back to you. So let me ask you about insurance. Let me go back to the homeowner. Yeah. What kind of insurance do you need for luxury property and is it different from a regular average general liability policy? I mean, it just depends. I mean, depending upon what type of work you're doing. Now I've done jobs as a solopreneur, where I go up 25 feet in the air and I clean on a scissor lift. And I'm so grateful I had the insurance because I had at one point had hired contractors to help me do this job. And one of the items got broken in. I tell you, I was like, are you kidding me? It's a 75-hour labor job that I got done in three days. So when you're charging, what you're charging for this, you have to have the coverage. If you don't have insurance coverage, you go in there and something ends up happening. You are S-O-L. Not only is it bad for business, my team broke it. I didn't physically break it, but my team broke it. And the owner felt bad for me because he had to write me a check minus because my insurance company hadn't reimbursed me. I reimbursed $1,500. The item was a $1,500 light neon antique light. What are you going to do? What would I do if I didn't have the insurance? I had to eat from that $1,500. I don't think so. You have to have the right coverage for these types of incidences. They're going to happen. You don't think they're going to happen? Good luck. So when that situation happened, how did you navigate that with the homeowner? Well, this was a commercial property. That was a commercial property. I did 75 hours in three days. So that was a commercial property. And he said to me, he's like, I feel bad for you. Now, at the time I did too, right? Because I was like, oh my gosh, I really screwed this up. I can't believe it. You know, I beat myself up, right? Well, I learned to brush it off, call the appropriate people. Hey, look, what the heck am I supposed to do? Thank goodness I've been networking for years and I know people in the industry who's going to give me, you know, the straight answer that I need and protect me at the same time because my business is important. So is theirs because if they protect me, I'm going to refer them. I mean, you know, networking has, I highly, highly recommend it. And if you're networking in groups where people aren't open minded and you're accepting pay for less than what it is that you feel that it's your own fault. So let's assume that you are accepting proper pay for the job that you're doing and you are hiring other people like you did in this particular situation to bring them in to do a job for a high-end luxury property. How do you train them so that they have the same level of care that you do as a business owner and that you're paying for the insurance to cover? Well, fortunately, I physically made a team to help me. So I had my children help me in my previous cleaning business. You know, those vacuum cleaners, you wrap around your waist, you know, the hip vacuums, right? So my girls, I have three girls and a boy. All of them are adults except for my son now. And each of them have all four of them. My son used to fold towels when he was, you know, when he was younger. He was like, I think he was three or something and he had to fold squares. You know, it was great. You know, what do you call it? Skills to learn how to, you know, maneuver. I'm looking for a word. I can't find it, but you know what I'm saying. Yeah. And the girls, they were there and they did a phenomenal job. And you know, hiring somebody to be on scissor lifts is a huge deal, right? I mean, I'm there, honestly. I did some things that I should not have done. I was on the scissor lift, right? Talk about having insurance, right? On the scissor lift, I have a picture of it. And I have a ladder, a step stool ladder on top of the scissor lift because I couldn't get into this tree this ginormous tree. And he told me, the owner told me it's a $7,000 tree. $7,000 tree. I'm clinging this fake artificial tree. Somebody had to do it. Let's talk about that for a second because you just brought up a really interesting point. Inside luxury homes, there's all kinds of, in the industry, we affectionately call it weird crap. And that means there's a bunch of weird stuff that we did not see coming. And we're like, what on earth is this? And it's usually, like you said, an exclusive item that's a one of a kind, it's very expensive and in many cases cannot be replaced. Yep. And so how do you set expectations with the homeowner or the client in a situation like that where you walk in and you're looking at something that you've never seen before, never cleaned it before and now you're going to have to clean it for the first time ever. How do you have that conversation? Well, it comes with a lot of personal development, right? If you go in there and you have bad energy, right? If you're bringing your stuff, your life to these people's homes, right? And taking care of their things that they were either inherited, were given or worked their booties off for, right? You have to have the right energy. If I have air buds in, right? When I'm working, I only have one in, you know, so I can hear what's going on if there's a client there or their pets or I got to bring somebody out, right? So, you know, not always, but generally I just have one in. I'm listening to binaural beats healing vibrational music. That's a good choice, by the way, if you're cleaning. Right. I mean, if you're listening to Joan Jett or the Beastie Boys or Van Halen or Cardi B, right? I mean, how are you going to approach that with love and care and tenderness? So I want to stop you right there. And I want to stop on this moment because this is a trick question. And I asked you the question for a reason. There are a lot of house cleaners that ask this question every single day because they show up at a customer's house and they see something and they're like, I don't know what I'm doing here. And I want to freeze that moment in time because that's okay. It's possible that throughout the course of your career and I've been in the business for almost 33 years and there are still things that I run into and I'm like, whoa, that is not something you see every day. And so I like to honor that moment because if I'm seeing something that I've never seen before, chances are it's a one of a kind. Why? Because we've seen everything before. So I like to stop and I'd say, whoa, I've never seen this before. Tell me more. And they go, oh my goodness, this is a multi-thousand dollar this, that or the other. And it's so rare. It was created out in whatever country. And there were a million people that had to come together and bring little bits of this and that to make it happen. And it's so expensive. And I said, whoa, how do you clean it? And I just ask because I've never seen it before. I've never cleaned one like this before. They're telling me that it's an original. They're telling me how rare and expensive and whatever it is. And then I say, whoa, can we agree that I don't clean that when I met your house? Because that sounds really expensive. And it sounds like it's never going to be able to be replaced. And they start laughing. They're like, I know. And then I say, OK, so if you don't know how to clean it and I don't know how to clean it, let's agree that as part of this job, I don't clean it. Because I would hate for it to bust. And then you're really sad and I'm really sad. And it can never be replaced. Or if they say this is how you clean it. Oh, it's really easy. You do this, that and the other. Do you want me to clean that? Do you want to add this to this bid? Because when I come to this item, I'm going to freeze. Like every time I see it, all my, that energy that you're talking about the frenetic energy of cleaning, it's going to come to a grinding halt. And I'm going to say, whoa, all the millions of people that brought the little bits of this and that brought it together and it's all expensive and it had to come through 40 countries and all the things. I'm going to clean it with my utmost care. So my question is, is that where you want my energy and my focus when I'm here on the job? Or can we leave that out? And then we know both you and me that I never touched it. Are we good with that? Right. And that's how we handle that situation. And on a couple of rare occasions, the client's like, I have to break it or whatever you break it. But yeah, please clean it. And other times they're like, oh, yes, let's agree. You don't, nobody on your team, you don't, nobody cleans it. You're like, oh good. And then we work that off. So there are no surprises because I as a business owner don't want that on my insurance either. Right. That's right. That's right. And I had a lady that I cared for and oh my gosh. She taught me so much about business. She had a crystal chandelier that's been in the family for generations as over her glass dining room table. I helped her for two years. She never let me touch that crystal chandelier. Now I had the insurance. I call that a win. No, you know, you're right. However, if she asked me to, I would have done it with TLC, Tender Loving Care because I know how important it was to her. You know, you can't leave these items undone. You can't. It's one of those things where you got to, you know, strap up your boots, put on your suspenders and be like, I got this. I'm going to handle this because it's my job too. And that's why you have insurance coverage. And yeah, the light that I broke or, you know, my team broke. Sorry. I'm having challenges with this pillow, my lower loan bar. You know, you. Well, let me. Right. While you're on the chandelier topic, let me jump over real quick. I'm selling my home right now and they had a stager come in and she said, I don't like your lighting. And she replaced it with this really gaudy chandelier. And so the guy that installed the chandelier has all these little tiny shards of crystal that you have to hang individually and he did a magnificent job hanging it. But when he hung it, I don't know what was on his hands. If it was just packing or if it was, they were just dirty or whatever, but every one of those shards had smudges on it. And he's like, doesn't this look beautiful? And I looked at it and I was thinking in my head like, no, it does not. And then I didn't want to become one of those homeowners that we talked about at the beginning where you're like, I'm standing here looking for smudges, right? I didn't want to be one of those. And I really appreciated the fact that as an electrician, he came into my house and he took one down and he hung the next one, but I was just floored that here's this brand spanking new chandelier. And every one of those shards had to be hand cleaned. So how do we do that? And so in this particular scenario, and you mentioned never in the years that you cleaned for her did you, but I'm looking at that going never in a million years where I have that thing in my house. And so when I called my mother, my mother and I have this standing conversation every week, I scheduled as if I would have scheduled a special project for that client. I scheduled that during the time I would be talking to my mother and my mother and I have an agreement that we can be multitasking while we're on the phone with each other, we can be cleaning the house or fixing dinner or whatever. And so literally I pulled up the step ladder and I cleaned every one of those shards on this elongated conversation that I had with my mother. And then when I got done, I'm like, yay, it's done. And my mother's like, send me a picture of the finished thing. And I sent it to her. She's like, oh, that's gotty. You guys both have the same taste, right? We have the same taste, but it looked amazing because I had spent the time not doing anything else, no other distractions. That's right. That's right. Focused on cleaning that one item. And if you are inside a luxury property and there is a specialty item, what I recommend doing is not just saying, I'm going to try to fit it in during a regular clean, but schedule an exclusive time. And these are great to do during cancellations. Like if you have another cancellation, I got a three-hour window. And you say, you know that wine rack with a hundred wine bottles in it that has dust on it in that one house. This would be a great time to go do that. And then you just call up the room owner and you say, hey, I just had a three-hour window that has your wine racks name on it. Do you want to take that right now? And they're like, yeah, come on over. And so it's not- Then with silver, when you're polishing silver, you can't fit that into a regular cleaning because why? If you're doing laundry, I do laundry for everybody. Do you know how many loads of laundry I do a week? Oh my gosh. I mean, it's well over 50 and that doesn't even include mine. And every time I fold these shirts, now some of my clients have me put their clothes away. Like I have a client. I put her husband's items away. However, I don't touch her items and oh my gosh, you should see the shoe collection. This is incredible, right? So her closet is just an art form. And she enjoys doing it. You know, she enjoys putting away her items as I do because the items that I've worked for, that I have in my home, I appreciate them. You know, and if you have something in your home that you don't appreciate, you should get rid of it because it's taking up space in my opinion. Well, you brought up a really interesting point because some of the celebrities that I've cleaned for and some of the luxury property owners do have a collection of something. And it could be a collection of shoes or handbags or trophies or wards or whatever it is. And when people come over, the first thing they do is like, hey, did you see my new shoes? And then they drag them into the closet that has like every shoe on a stand and they're all lit up and it's beautiful. But that is a showcase for them. That is a moment of pride. And so that entire closet becomes a special project where you go in and not just run your Swiffer Duster over all the shoes, but you literally hand wipe down each of the shoes and the heels and the tops of the shoes and the straps of the shoes. I wouldn't use Swiffer though, myself. No, no, no, I'm saying this is beyond that. This is a special project that you would deal as a special project and you would block out time on your calendar only for the shoes or only for the shoes. Only for the shoes and then, you know, because my clients are so regularly scheduled. I have people that have already reserved the day before Thanksgiving in advance. So when you deal with certain clientele, you're telling them that you're going to take extra time. You're going to schedule. This is the time you have on your calendar. You need a minimum of two hours, probably a maximum of four hours. You want to give them a time of how long it's going to take to clean this closet. And, you know, with the understanding that if it's less, they'll only be billed accordingly if you're billing hourly. And if it's more, you're going to bill them accordingly. And it's going to be that. And that's just what it is. So I want to say hi to all of our, all of our listeners that are joining us here today. Hi, and thank you guys so much for joining us. Lisa Farron says, Holly cleans my home. And I'm not the only person, I'm not the person she mentioned. However, it's the same in my home. I like to put my own things away, but my husband is good with her putting things away. And I want to bring that up because every home is a little bit different and every homeowner has slightly different rules. And so when Holly says she customizes her approach for that particular client, that is paramount because every client, just as Lisa mentioned, is slightly different in the way that they feel about their own things. So Holly, if you will tell us, and thank you Lisa for the comment, Holly, if you will tell us how you customize your approach for your clients. Well, I've heard a lot of cleaners and, you know, I used to do this when my, when I had the 309 clients about a decade ago, I was the one to do the meet and greet. Right. And then, you know, I had transitioned from solo to, you know, having other people due to a surgery that I had had because I was like, well, I have to have this surgery. You know, I can't not help my clients. I have to adjust, right? So I adjusted and I like to be there with them, especially the first or second time, because if they don't know who you are, right? I mean, because a lot of people, you're just a referral, you know, and so taking the time to get to know them and getting them to know you and being yourself like, I, Lisa knows and any of my clients know that I am bringing good energy to their house. And we have wonderful conversations. I help people do things so they don't have to and they can focus on their families. You know, I'm my family, my children are older. My son lives with his father and I have the time to take care for them. You know, this isn't where, you know, looking back in my 20s, I, you know, or actually looking back to when I cleaned my mother's refrigerator. I grew up at three older brothers and there was no internet and, you know, there's MTV, but I wasn't allowed to watch MTV because Madonna was on there. Gosh forbid I watched Madonna, which by the way I bought myself a Madonna ticket for Valentine's Day. I'm so excited. Anyway, that's how I self-loved myself for Valentine's Day. I'm ravelling against my mother, even, you know, she's no longer with us, but I'm sure she's, I have a picture of her. She's looking at her, my grandmother are looking at me right now and they're proud of the adversity that I've overcome. It really is what Pause Reflect move forward is about, you know, overcoming adversity with unwavering positivity, unwavering gratitude. And, you know, we talked about me writing books and may I share, is this a good time to share? Yes, tell us about your books and how as a cleaner you ended up writing your book. I'm interested in that. Okay, may I show you the books now? Yes, absolutely, please. Okay, so these are my books. 30, oops, 30 different microphones in 30 days is a self-loved journey that I wrote. It's a book of poetry and it was really about personal development and me moving forward from a toxic environment and I felt it was relatable. So that's that book. This book, I was given a diagnosis of having bipolar. So I wore that idea for a bit and this one is a bit, it's age-appropriate for everyone and I talk a lot about, you know, healing music and things and how I was able to become this solopreneur at this stage of my life back then. So I started this particular cleaning business in January of 2021 right after COVID. I was driving for Uber and Lyft post-divorce, right? I had planted myself on an island and I was driving for Uber and Lyft. I'd already sold my cleaning company post-divorce and I was making wonderful living. My birthday is December 30th. Because of COVID, I started my cleaning business. You started the luxury cleaning business, okay? Yeah, the luxury cleaning business in 2021. Actually, I didn't know it was the luxury cleaning business until a little bit later on and then the word luxury is a Google search word, right? Luxury. So I was like, okay, I'm going to call it a luxury cleaning business, right? It worked. So, you know, I started this business without a vacuum cleaner. Would you care to know what the conversation was with my client of how do I got around not using a vacuum cleaner at that time? I'm curious, sure. So that's all how you presented. I've been in sales since I was a Girl Scout, right? So I told the lady, which by the way was a referral from someone I used to work with in the previous cleaning business, right? He'd referred me and I said, well, let me get on my professional voice here. Well, because of COVID, my clients prefer using their own vacuum cleaner. That's true. That's true during COVID. That is exactly the truth. That is what happened. And I think it was the COVID pandemic era that changed pretty much most cleaning companies around where for the very reasons that you mentioned, many cleaning companies will provide vacuums. And I recommend that every cleaning company have a vacuum in your car as a backup in case the whole house vacuum cleaner breaks or in case the vacuum that they have is broken or something when you arrive. But we've been teaching house cleaners everywhere, literally use the vacuum of the client so that you're not running that over all of the surfaces of the floors and then not having time to clean it and going to another home and running it over the surface of all of their floors because there are a lot of families that don't have pets that have allergies and things like that and they don't want you running your vacuum with that faceplate and the bars on carpets that have multiple dogs or things and then bringing that pet dander into their home. And so if you don't have time and you don't have a process in place, we've been doing the exact same thing, but COVID was the era in where the awareness became heightened and people are like, yeah, I don't want that cross-contamination in my home. So how did your clients take it? Were they like, yeah, okay, that's cool. It worked. I mean, I was like, oh my gosh, that's perfect. And so then I did clean and everything, and at the time I was working for very much at the time, I had an opportunity to be on Martha's Vineyard for three weeks cleaning all these homes and these luxury properties that are just unbelievable. One of the houses that I cleaned at one point before the gentleman moved, it was a $10 million house. It was eight bedroom, seven baths. It's sold for $60 million, right? I mean, this property was just incredible. And I'm so grateful for my clients. I tell them all the time how much I appreciate them. I mean, because they might have a home. If I didn't have, it's the only income I have. I have other things, books and merchandise and things people can buy. But I mean, this is my steady income. And if I don't love what I do, I'm not going to do it. I'm not putting my name on anything that I don't believe in. And I believe in your podcast. I believe that the janitorial industry isn't getting the respect that it deserves. And also I am, I'd like to clarify, I am. But the majority of the people that are cleaning, they're, you know, whether, you know, I'm a minority business owner, whatever color we are as women, we're minority business owners, okay? So we still have a long way to go. And if we're not here supporting each other and patting each other on the back every once in a while, instead of being, you know, I was in a group and I was telling them that I was going to be on your podcast in Facebook. And I was sharing, you know, information about my business in not of bragging at all. Just of, hey, look, you know, this is what I found out and this is what you can do. And she's like, none of your stories are believable. And I was like, oh, wow, I feel bad for you. Like if you can't be open-minded in this business, full of literal crap. I mean, you have to be open-minded. You know, it's going to happen. You're going to have incidences. You're going to lose clients. Excuse me. Let me rephrase that. You're going to open up space for new clients. And if you desire to learn how to build your business online, I can teach you how to do that. I've built my business and I am standing on the foundation that I built, which is why I desired to be on this podcast because I know that you have a wonderful variety of people that are following you. Homeowners, they desire to know how to hire a cleaner. How to hire somebody to help you. I can tell you how to do that. Well, that brings us to an interesting point. Let me ask you this question. Let's say that there's a luxury homeowner that's watching this podcast right now and they want to hire a cleaner. What are some of the things that they should look for that are above and beyond just a regular cleaning company that they're going to find on Google? Well, first of all, the very first question that you must ask this cleaner is one, what insurance do you carry? Well, before we get to the question to ask the house cleaner, how do they find the house cleaner? You mentioned that you work by referral. How does that work? Well, I mean, if you do good work, they're going to tell you about it. However, they're going to tell people about it. However, I've run into the point of you're so good they don't want to tell anybody else about you because they don't want to lose you. So that's a good problem to have. If you are a cleaning company and you're trying to bridge your gap into the luxury market, how do you go about finding jobs? You network in the right areas. You know, when I had my first cleaning business, okay? And it's important that I share this with you because, you know, at the time, my children were very young. I had three under five and one was nine at the time when I started this cleaning business. My husband at the time, he was unable to manage all the things. You know, when I had signed up as this wife, I, you know, said, I'm going to be a stay-at-home mom. Right? And he was like, okay. Well, after the four kids, you know, it didn't go that way anymore, right? It was like, oops, you know, we got, we got toys, you know, motor homes and, you know, properties and all these things. Somebody's got, you know, something's got to change, right? So I, you know, I worked three jobs when my children were little. I had a paper route. I had, I worked as a hostess at night in my early to mid-30s at the time. And I started this cleaning business and I resented it. I resented my first cleaning business so much. Because I started at the time, at the time now, okay? Now this is going back, I married the second time when I was 25. So, you know, this is going back over 20 years. And I said, I'm going to, you know, is there a right, you know, stay home with the kids. I really would like to do this. My mom did this for me, blah, blah, blah. Okay, fine. So I did it. And it was the most incredible, you know, the time of my life. And with my children, to clarify my children. And, you know, if you're a stay-at-home mom looking for this job or you're looking to hire a cleaner that was a stay-at-home mom, hire her or him. They have organizational skills and time management that you don't have, especially with multiple children. I mean, I had laundry for days. I've been programmed and conditioned to do laundry every single day, you know, because I had children. They were active in doing all these things. So if you're looking for a house cleaner, one... Hire a busy person. Oh, yeah. I mean, if you have... Did you have your manage tasks? Yeah. I mean, you know, I have, if you desire to work with me, you can hire me to work between two to four days over a weekend. I no longer have weekly client availability because every week I take care of the same clients, you know? So if you, you know, I travel, I'm nationwide insured and I have testimonials from almost all of my clients. Still working on that. Those reviews, they really matter. So, you know, get them up and put them on your website. My website that's there, it's like under construction and I remove the luxury cleaning for the residential because I really don't have a lot of time because of the business endeavors that I do have. However, the people that I take care of, I get 150% of my time and energy. And when I'm done, because as an empath, right? You know, there's a lot of us that are empaths that we absorb other people's energy. Well, if you do the work on yourself and you, before you walk in, like I was saying earlier, right, Angela? You know, you approach the property and you say, okay, I got to get this bad energy off me. Sage yourself, whatever you got to do, right? And then go in there and tackle the job. And then when you're done, do the same thing because you don't want to take that stuff with you. You got to go home and do whatever it is you got to do prepare for podcasts, right? You know? So let's talk about that for a second because I know that there are a lot of cleaners that are in the luxury property market that do exactly that. They have a routine before they get to the house where they put their head in the right sphere of I'm ready for this job. I'm worthy of this job. I'm qualified for this job. I care about this particular customer. And even though there may be a discrepancy between the monetary incomes of the two people, they say I'm in this space for a reason and I'm grateful for the opportunity. And I want to show up as the best version of myself so that I can take care of my clients and I can do the best for them. So share with us just a little bit about that process because I know that there are a lot of house cleaners that have heard of these types of routines but don't know exactly how to execute one. Well, you know, it's not just like a cookie cutter thing. This is what you do. Because we all have different experiences that we've had. We all have some sort of trauma that we've dealt with. You know, sometimes you walk in and there's, you know, let's say cigarette smoke, right? There's cigarette smoke and you don't smoke, right? Because of, for whatever reason, right? And you can't be judgmental. This is how people are choosing to live their lives and whether they're happy or not or whatever, those are their choices. However, when you show up to these houses, if you show up with a chip on your shoulder and depending upon what type of relationship with you have with these clients, okay? So it really matters the relationship you have. I mean, I was told once that I was in the relationship business and I didn't quite understand that in my early 30s. I understand that now, especially with husbands and wives and families and stuff, you know? You have to approach it tenderly and cautiously and be yourself. I mean, if you tell people where you're at, like, look, I had an off day. I had an off morning and I just wanted to let you know that I'm, you know, maybe gently telling them that you either need a mental health day, right? Like, life is so busy. I'm managing the marketing, the social media, you know, the emailing, the reminders, the scheduling, the cleaning, the cleaning, all of the things as a solopreneur. So if you're out there and you are cleaning, I'm telling, I'm here rooting for you because if I can do this, I'm telling you, anybody can do it. I started it without a vacuum cleaner. I'm ready for this? You ready for me to tell you how much money I had in my account when I started this business? This cleaning business in 2021, I was living on the island. You ready? Go ahead. Or do you want to take a guess? $41. I had 68 cents. Oh, wow. In my account, I could afford to buy a vacuum cleaner. I had to go back to the people that I knew were good networkers. If you know how to network, you're going to learn how, you know how to put food on your table. If you know how to sell, you'll never go hungry. So selling is a part of all of the things, too. Right? I mean, you have to sell, you market, blah, blah, blah. You wear lots of hats, right? Oh, goodness gracious, this hair. But you know, people who aren't entrepreneurs, they don't understand. What I hear you saying is you had a passion and you had a dream and you believe in yourself and even though you were at a time when you were broke and I want to say broke, broke is different than broke. I think poor is a state of mind. And I think broke is a temporary situation. And what I hear you saying is that you were broke in this moment, but you had the passion, you had the drive and you had the confidence of knowing that I can get out there and I can start over again because I've done it once before I can do it again. And if it's to be, it's up to me. And you took the responsibility to say, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to make this work. And I love the fact that you brought that up. I love the fact that you brought that up because there are a lot of house cleaners that get into the house cleaning business for the reason that everybody goes into business, which is to make money to pay bills. I mean, I don't, I don't know any other way of saying most people don't clean houses because they're like, I just love to clean and I'm willing to do it for free forever. They're like, I need money to do this because it's a skill that I have. I know how to do it. I'm good at it. And I need to pay bills. And that is the reason many people go into business. And I want to start by celebrating the fact that instead of saying I'm broke, the end, and I'm just going to sit around and wish for something magical to happen, you were willing to take the tenacity and put that to use and get out there and go start negotiating even with no vacuum. Okay. That's right. I want to, I want to reach out to every house cleaner that's on this call right now or every house cleaner that watches the replay of this call. And I want to share a message with you that Holly just shared with us. These are not her exact words, but Holly, correct me if I'm, if I'm wrong. Okay. I want to make sure I got this correct. Sure. Everybody starts from zero. When we start a cleaning business, we start out from zero. There are no clients. There's no equipment. There's no whatever it is. And we have to start there and go, what are the skills that I bring to the table right now? What do I have right now that I can take and make this happen? Did I, did I kind of get that right? Absolutely. So if you're a stay at home parents and for any length of time, even if it's six months, okay, you've already required, you've already acquired business skills. You know, I, you know, I'd also like to put out there for the mental health community. Okay. That if you have a, you know, whether it's anxiety or depression, bipolar, PTSD, OCD, whatever, whatever diagnosed the category, they want to put you in that particular day. Cause I think we all experienced those days, those days at some point or other, when we're overthinking or not overthinking, it's an up and down thing. You know, however, the people that are telling you that, Hey, you know, look, we have something that other people don't have. We, we, we have that ability in our brains to be like, yeah, this, this, this, this needs to be done. I have to put food on my table. You know, for example, last week, last week, I'm almost positive. My clients vomited after I did what I did for her. You want to hear? I don't, is it appropriate? I don't know. Of course it is. It's relating to the toilet. Okay. So, uh, all right. So things happen in the toilet. And sometimes paper towels go in. Well, and sometimes they have flushed or not get flushed and they get clogged, right? Well, I didn't have a glove at the time. So I'm very good at improvising. It's, it's a skill that after having four children, you learn how to flip an improvise, right? So the closest thing that I had to me was a plastic bag. I put my hands in the plastic bag, covered it up, went in and grabbed it. And I swear to you, she vomited after, because she's like my toilet's clogged and, you know, and there's a parent towel and I go, I got it. And she, well, she's still looking for a glove in the house, right? To go because I was like, I'll get it. You know, I didn't have one. And, you know, I just had the bag and shouldn't. And so as much as I don't agree with using plastic and it's the stuff that I pick up after, at the beach every single day, right? It's overflow of plastic, the ocean anyways. I'm grateful I had it with me that day, right? Well, and that's, that's a really good point because many house cleaners that are, especially ones that are new to the business, think that there's only one way to do something. They say, I don't have the gloves with me. I've run out of gloves for the day at the end of the job. And here's this weird thing that I've run into. And I don't know what to do. Therefore I can't do it. And what I'm hearing you say in that moment is you were resourceful enough that you said, what do I have? What are the resources available to me? And then you used one of those resources to do the job. And that is key, that is key because that goes back to what you said earlier in the conversation about you see something that needs to be done and you figure out a way to do it. So I love that. You know how grateful she was? You know how grateful she was? I don't. How grateful was she? She didn't have to do it. She didn't have to call a plumber. It wasn't the fact that she couldn't afford to call the plumber. You know what I'm saying? I was just, she's just like, Holly, I, you know, I accidentally threw paper towel down to the lawn. Okay. However, the point that I'm trying to make here though is when you do these things and take the initiative, like, you know, we've been talking about, they're going to remember you. They're going to remember that. And if they don't, you can remind them. Hey, remember that time when I did this for you? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. In a casual conversation, right? I mean, again, it depends upon the relationship that you have with your clients. You know, I, when I had the 309 clients, I spoke to everybody. I had been to everybody's house. I knew that there was a wall vacuum. I think it's called something else right now. I can't think of the name right now. You know, one of the vacuum, you know, the vacuum's just put into the wall. What's it called? I can't remember. And, you know, I'm like, okay, you know, behind the grandfather clock is this vacuum cleaner. You plug it into the wall and it's not going to stuff up, but you got to be careful because the grandfather clock is there. So, you know, I have notes on every home, every single home. I have notes. And if you don't follow those notes, especially if you're like working for someone else, like say you're working for another solo, solopreneur, right? And she decides that, or he decides that they want to transition and they'd like to hire somebody and they're going to send you to do the job. And Holly's not going to be there. Well, guess what? I'm going to make sure that they're trained that is, if Holly is not there, this is the job that's going to be done. You know, what Holly is talking about for those of you that are just joining us or those of you that are watching the replay art systems. If you have systems in place and they are able to be duplicated, then you can hire someone else and have them duplicate that system. And you may not be able to replicate Holly's personality, for example, but you can replicate that system. And then anybody on the job that's tasked with that job can read the notes and they can look at the work order and they can follow that job to the customer satisfaction. And when we're talking about high-end luxury properties, that is mandatory. It's not optional. It's not a suggestion. It's mandatory that you have systems in place so that a particular thing that they describe to you on the walkthrough. Like this is really important to me that that's communicated with every single person that crosses the threshold at their door. And so there is a level, it's a heightened level of awareness not saying that lower price homes or smaller homes don't deserve that same kind of care and attention. But there is a very specific set of rules that go with cleaning a high-end property because many of the things that are there cannot be replaced. And so there is a level of not just I want to be on my best behavior because we should be at all of the homes that we clean, but they're paying a special fee for a special service. And I think that what we're getting from Holly today is bring that best version of you to every job. Holly, we are out of time for today. I hate that. Please tell our listeners where they can go to find you and also I've left links to her books in the notes below. Oh, thank you so much. So one, if you read the book, especially the first one, have an open mind and be prepared to giggle and you may pee your pants. Okay. And then the second one is more of a bit of healing. You can Google, pause, reflect, move forward, right? And you could look up the hashtag, where'd I go? All right. And it was this, I believe it was a tax write off, right? I'm a walking advertisement. I mean, being, being your own business already got tax benefits, right? So pause, reflect, move forward, personal page on Facebook is Holly Oldham. I'm holding a toilet brush and I'm reminding people to not use it as a microphone when they clean. And then Instagram, TikTok. I mean, I talk about exercise and health. I'd love to connect with you. So friend me and we'll be friends forever. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Holly. This has been an enlightening hour and I really appreciate your time and attention. I want to say thanks to all of you guys that showed up. We've had so many people that made comments and we had a couple of comments that came in that were things, please help me with cleaning flooring. We didn't get a chance to answer that today, but I don't want you to think I forgot about you. So I'm coming back to the comments and I'm coming back to the notes below and I'll be answering those questions. So I want to say thanks again for joining us today and thank you, Holly, for your expertise and your wisdom. And we'll see you guys again, same time, same place next week.