 Hi, good afternoon everybody, Tom Stewart here with my partner Liz Trotter. Hey Liz And I've got a really special guest today a good friend Alonzo Adams We go way back to like the really early arcsy days We were part of that core group of people that kind of got that ball rolling and You know, we could do a whole whole hour talking about that, but we're not gonna inflict that on you today Alonzo you're currently the chair of the I guess the committee for for residential cleaning house cleaning committee for ISSA formally known as arcsy Yeah, how exciting is that man? You know a lot of things going on I'm a real interesting time to be the chairman, you know So never a dull moment never boring a lot of excitement a lot of activity and Alonzo is up in the Philadelphia area his company is a busy be Cleaning how long you've been in the house cleaning industry? Man, you're gonna make me give up my age here I know that you were an entrepreneur from a very very young man like a child Yeah, one of those young kid entrepreneurs that got out there when I was you know six and seven years old Started started my hustle young but a busy be now, you know, we're gonna we're at 28 years So it's 28 years in the game. I've been in a cleaning industry itself Man, I've been in a cleaning industry ever since I was 13 And I got into the cleaning industry with a large commercial cleaning company So my background is actually commercial cleaning, but I I flipped over and started, you know Jumped into the residential space and took off in that area I mean, we still we still have you know our division here with commercial Not as big as when we first started busy bait The reason why we're busy be cleaning company and we don't have like made it in our name made service or anything It's because we were we were going to really just take off in the commercial way and the residential residential was just like full steam ahead and Just it just seemed more interesting the commercial thing I guess because I was in it so long I just gravitated more to the residential And 28 years later here we are, huh? Yeah, so it's a long time in the game, you know, of course I do other things, you know Busy B is one of my main focus But you know, I have I have other entities that I'm in and that that other entities is also Taking care of our property management of my one company, which is uptown venture group and then I'm the investor, you know I'm a big investor into real estate as well as into the stock market itself and You know, and I do my thing with the speaking Speaking No, I'm making money I'm all in a green Gotta make gotta make money somewhere Because it's been a little tough in the in the house cleaning business here recently hasn't it? Yeah, you know, it's been tough because um, you know When you look at when you look at what you're making last year in his business And you look at what you're bringing in now There's definitely a big difference and when you look look at being down 50 percent So we're down 50 percent right now when we when we actually got out of the game When we took that brief pause for like two weeks at that point. We were down 35 percent So we have, you know slowly worked ourself up to 50 percent and that was built off of Building trust so it's so funny that you know when you start this business Everything's about building trust trusting trusting the customer to let you into their homes Trusting that, you know, you're gonna do things right you're gonna you're gonna care for their home and you're gonna be a professional It's the same thing. You're actually, you know You're actually looking for trust from people you already earned the trust from because they want to know that you know What you're doing and your people are training. They have the proper equipment the proper PPE they really want to feel that they can trust you to come into their home because as much as your staff is scared Some of the people with some of the cleaning owners are scared the customers are scared You know because just so much uncertainty and a lot of fear and it's trying to really Diminish that or like I like to say, you know, I spoke in Vegas and so many people should have been there they really should have been there the topic was being fearless and unstoppable and The one thing about fear is this fear, you know, I hear these things where people say, you know Fears only in your mind fear does exist. It really does fear is true But you have to learn how to move with fear. You don't let the fear paralyze you you keep going forward You keep doing what you need to do with the fear and that's what owners are not realizing you're gonna have fear You don't feel it in your stomach. You might not sleep Well, whatever you got to find a way to move forward with the fear and so so this that the public the customer consumer Is that this thing is not going away tomorrow. It's not going away next month. We don't know but we have to move forward And the fear is going to be there but operate and succeed and win And when I keep telling people all the people that I'm talking to is listen if you're not afraid If you're not feeling at least a little bit of fear That way with you There's some fear of course your nervous of course you're uncertain who cares You what are you gonna do, you know, it's gonna be there and you just gotta operate But you know, here's the thing we got so conditioned for so long things been going great This has been a perfect time to be for nor or I should say I want to be for more, you know If you're true entrepreneur, you've had to go through all kinds of different ups and downs and Circumstances and people thought you're crazy jumping into being a entrepreneur You could have settled for a paycheck and got a job and got a nice retirement plan But you decided to be an entrepreneur act like a entrepreneur Understand what a entrepreneur is get that fire back See some people lost that fire a long time ago and all they are that is business owners That's what they are their business owner. They're not an entrepreneur at all They're just someone that owns a business an entrepreneur and a business owner is two different things two different animals And if you can go back to that route that really got you fired up and got you excited to get in business Look out, you know, you're unstoppable It and I guess one of the things that we've been doing on this Facebook live every day is talking about how You know, this is this is the time, you know, everything's kind of a reboot So we got an opportunity to reinvent our businesses. So if we've lost that fire, we got to get it back I mean, you know, this isn't just gonna fall in our lap We've got to go out and get it But you know the opportunity, you know, we have an opportunity to be some place much better than when we were before You know, this whole thing happened if we make that happen for ourselves. Oh, I love this environment I do remember this this this right here. You're you're in there You're in a safari right now and you got to decide what you're gonna be or you're gonna be that that lion Are you gonna be the gazelle? I'm a lion. I hunt, you know, and that's And if I smell blood with my competition if they're wounded, I'm attacking, you know, because I'm And I don't and I understand what Simon says about, you know, the leader eats last but the lion eats first You know I'm not gonna see my Competition over there with clients because someone's cleaning houses right now, you know Competition is still out there and I gotta come get the clients now So, how do you See this all playing out Alonzo. I mean, obviously, you know, the competitive forces are different now than what they were Say three months ago moving forward. Do you see things changing in the marketplace? Consumer preferences? You know as as cleaning business owners who have game who want to take advantage of opportunities. What do we need to be doing right now? I think we got a change for so that's the first our point when we changed and the perception changes and I mean, we have to be like like artsy We have to be unified We have to get on the same page and we have to have a message and that's when we're Perfect because let's say for instance if we say that artsy is the true professional Representation this is where the professionals are at Then we need to have that message wherever plastered on the websites on the cars on the vehicles But we all have to get involved and really do this and be and really be a part of the industry By putting it in the best way possible too many people are jumping into artsy and saying what what can artsy? Do for me, you know, I'm gonna cancel my membership if it doesn't do something for me But what are you doing for the cleaning industry? And that's why I'm a part of artsy That's why I've been a part of artsy is because we have to unify and in numbers That's where our strength and our power comes from because you're not gonna think that somehow the consumer just because this happened This is a foolishness of all this just because this happened doesn't mean all of a sudden you become relevant You become relevant because you have that type of influence and that power unified You know, you have to represent this industry not by Individually being fragmented you have to be unified to say this is the industry. This is the place to be So it's a shame that you just don't have any passion around this subject Alonso that you're just so milk toast around it So we need to do the thing we got to do things within our own businesses We need to be the leaders that you know our companies need us to be but I'm I'm here a higher message here as well In addition to that we have an obligation to to the industry. Is that what I'm hearing? Absolutely, we do you're gonna say you're a part of it. You're gonna say you're your professional company What makes your professional company? Yeah, what makes you essential, you know, just because your state said you're essential. Are you really essential? Are you doing what's essentially needed? And you know, I guess the part that's that you know, a lot of people have a hard time getting their mind wrapped around is there's no Immediate gratification for going that path. I mean, it's a long-term play, you know, it's long-term money too We're not just going to be seen by the public as okay now all of a sudden you are Professionals we still have to make those steps to get there but This environment right now is great for the opportunity for people to really take a look at us and say Wow, I didn't even realize how important they are and how much they actually know and What a difference they're actually making in my life in our community in the world really so, I mean This this is this is our time there is never from what I've I've been in business 27 years and Looking back. I've never seen a time like this before where we had the this huge opportunity to be not Individually better but to make our entire industry better So there's a crack in the door, but nothing happens unless we push it open and walk through it We got to earn it. We got to take it because see we're sitting back and thinking just because this happened, you know We deserve it. You don't deserve it. You have to earn it and earning it You know what go get certified go go go take some classes get educated To be able to say you are professional and that you did earn it Yeah, I love that. Yeah, Marsha's She's clapping she's saying. Thank you. Leslie's agreeing Yeah, and Leslie's like me right the virus has really invigorated her I mean you gotta be careful where you say that but this group it makes sense But a lot of people are like what Industry this is amazing Here's what happened is because their business is caught the corona You know and so you said you catch it as as an individual you catch the corona, right? Here's the thing that one your milk your immune system wasn't good, right? So as a business your immune system wasn't good That's why you caught the corona and the other side of that is what what is the actual? Survival rate for you once you catch it as a business if you're not really in a position you're gonna die You're gonna die you're gonna get taken out You have to have yourself Fundamentally in your foundation correct to be able to survive and withstand this Alonzo, I know you hear from a lot of cleaning businesses from from from all over the country North America, you know even other parts of the world. Do you see many? Businesses are you hearing stories? Or are you being shared stories where for people are struggling going out of business? I mean actually Having some people some people's fears. I'm afraid are actually the coming reality. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Are you seeing that? People for I'm seeing people that actually forgot the locker back door And when I say they forgot the lock the back door is that they didn't have things properly in place when this happened Now this surprises all you know You can't say we were prepared for this to that degree But you didn't do the necessary things you needed to do to deal with a uncertain time And what is that uncertain time? They always said you know what? You should have at least six months saved up at a minimum to be able to handle your payroll to be able to handle expenses And people don't have reserves in their businesses They don't have reserves in their personal lives as into savings because I was just so So shocked when I when I when I just saw the statistic that when this happened the average person only had $500 in their savings to deal with their emergency. That's it $500 in their account to deal with emergency And so what I saw with with with these business owners in this industry Oh, man, it was from payroll to payroll And if something like that was going to occur they were not prepared because some of them were just over leveraged and The money that they were bringing in was just not enough So therefore some of them didn't even price their services, right? And they were just sinking so far ahead that they never properly laid their foundations And what I always say if I'm gonna I build my kingdom and my kingdom is built with bricks So you're gonna try to come and come into my kingdom is built with bricks other people is built with sticks And it's easily to collapse As three little pains, right? That's right Well, I can tell you so I was one of those people that was not as prepared as I should have been When when this whole thing hit I was like, well, okay, okay I really should have been more prepared. I got complacent. I'm not gonna lie And you know, this business is easy. It's easy to do it, but it's easy not to do too And so I got caught into in that And I know a lot of other people did as well Uh, what I want to say to that is hey, don't throw in the towel just because you weren't ready and you weren't prepared You're just gonna fight a little bit harder. Yes, come with me I'm just gonna fight a little bit harder because I'm gonna have to catch my little self up now So what? It doesn't mean that you're down and out. You're not you're not you're not it's not over But you know what if if some people do find themselves that You know, there was some skills that that they were lacking or some things that they need to strengthen This is the time, you know, because we we've all got our butts kicked in things, you know, we we do So what we do is we go back and we say I need to work on this I need to strengthen myself in these areas because you took you got your butt kick You took a butt whooping, you know, and I saw this happen as we say with owners. I saw owners that Started to not be engaged anymore And you know, Liz, you know this from what employees we're always on my employee engagement That's the biggest thing business owners want to talk about. How about owner engagement? How about that? You know why because the owners the owners are disconnected your staff sees it They feel it. They know you're not engaged, but you're worried about them being engaged You know I think that's a tricky one though Alonso because people get they get confused they think Owner if I'm more engaged. Oh, I don't want to work that hard. You don't have to work A week to be engaged. You just got to be paying attention You just got to have your your thumb on the pulse of what's going on and Engagement isn't doesn't equate to time You don't have to be afraid of of being too engaged in your business because you don't want to work that hard I just know what it's about And some people just disconnected from it or they they've been in this for a long and you've heard this time you've heard this You know, I just don't want to be involved with like that You know, you know, they just don't they're trying to find every way possible to escape it to run away from it To just put it in the back, you know And at the same time though, there's that low level of discontent. They're not happy with the outcomes that they're getting Here Yeah, they got that low level of fear. We know a few people that you know can't even think about looking at their finances That just gets a little little scary there I love what leslie's got going on here She added a full page on her website with all her new credentials and certifications Including the copic class arts membership. Awesome. I love that smart. I'm doing it too You're on the spacebook live jump on that for me. All right And the neat says we're in the same room. Um, she's been saying for the prophet first method. Oh, you know what? We can just In our mma groups We are we read a a book and we implement the book each month and this month's book is Prophet first. We had a different book on the agenda, but The things you got a you got a strike while the irons hot right right now is the time First if you're not doing it. So both my groups Prophet first Everybody's already got their banks account set up. You know, you know, I know why that's so important because here's the big thing And in our scene has always been that Someone gets impressed because someone's a million-dollar business I'm never impressed I'm never impressed. You know, I'm not impressed because just because the business gets to a million dollars That does not mean you're making money. I've seen so many of these people They're not making any money, you know, so Honestly, I I I love the prophet first thing. I love about profit But you know, I go to the I go to the all the way to the extent cash I love cash cash Can't Someone can tell me about their cash That's to me, man. You're in a whole different universe when you can say I paid for that with cash That's money in a bank to me, baby. Yeah, you paid. I think we had somebody down here. Kimberly Ann She's she's a cash gal, right? because you know Have you gotten back from your CPA and you hear about, you know, all this profit you've made but This balance sheet type stuff and you're looking at your bank account. It's like it doesn't look like I made any money So at the end of the day, if it's not green if you can't hold it and put it in the bank and buy stuff with it You know, that's that's uh, that's the ultimate test, isn't it? But everybody's trying to look at the bank account and the bank account is not what you should be looking at Because majority of money is already already is you know, it's called for you already know Towards sorry for taxpayer or whatever. So if you start to gauge by looking at your bank account, man, you're already losing But you know what the reason why that happens to people Is because when you're small you can look at the bank account because the cash is flowing and you don't have all those big expenses And there is money you you you haven't you haven't grown to a place But if you keep doing that as you grow pretty soon There is no money in that bank account that number's red more than it's black And that's not not what you want to be doing. Yeah, but even if it's green the only problem is is that it's accounted for You know so much of that money is accounted for We track uh, we have a cash flow tracking in our MMA accounts And we don't push it in the beginning. We just have these five measures that we track regularly And the first biggest profit Um, and but everybody's tracking cash flow about a month two months in people are like Hey This cash flow thing That actually is showing me something way different than I thought Yeah, you got to watch that that little graph right there. That really matters. So Yeah, you're right. That just came That just came big time I also love that about the profit first method though. I do love that they say income Minus profit equals expenses. I love that right you got your income take out your profit first What's left over that's what you have for expenses Don't spend more than that because you don't have more I think that's great. I mean, it's so simple, but so powerful And yeah Yeah Uh, Leslie debt-free savings is baller. Yes. Yes, it is. I agree Leslie I Honestly you spent some time on a uh, uh, I guess it was a webinar earlier today with with some of the, uh, arcsie partners Yes, we actually had uh, Elena Lado on and we had Carrie night and um, it was it was it was a heck of a call You know Well, you had some power players on there and we basically again we discussed, um, you know Pre corona and post corona and moves that we were all making in our businesses As well as how we're dealing with all the different challenges and uncertainties And just really just had the right mindset because mindset is so powerful and We spent time on it because some of that mindset thing it frees people and when I looked inspire people, you know Um, and I'm not this motivational guy. So that's not that's not what I'm about I'm not into trying to motivate anybody. I'm inspired people but fundamentally I'm a powerhouse as an entrepreneur But I do understand that the mindset thing is what I need to attack first, you know You can have these other skills and everything And you can know how to market you can how to sell and that's why a lot of people do they come to the convention Or they're looking for how do our market better? How do I do this better? Or how about I bring my staff where they can learn this? No, how about you get your mindset right? You know because if your mindset is is is powerful and it deals with all these challenges uncertainties Employees quitting customers scare You have the ability to weather the storm and deal with what has to be dealt with right in front of you And blow it and blow right through In the people Go ahead Tom. No, I'm just the people who weather the storm There's not gonna be as many people on that side as it was before the storm started So there's a lot of rewards to be reached by by you know sucking it up and fighting through and making it to the other side That's right That's why I had to be right because you got to be careful what you're feeding it You know, you got to be careful of that that mental that mental talk, you know My mental talk is always I got phrases and I live by those phrases ever since I've been younger This is like, you know what phrases like it is what it is You know phrases like I got to do what I got to do Just little phrases like that and I just go through anything or deal with whatever I have to deal with just by those simple phrases You know, it is what it is, you know, this isn't going away and I got to deal with this You go take me and you go put me in a in a third world country. I'm still going to find a way to make money You know, I'm still going to find a way. There's no way I'm going down. I'm I'm I'm that type of person I'm built like that. That's my DNA And you know, it's true about mindset because you can see two companies in the exact same city One company is saying there's no No work here. My clients won't pay me more than 30 dollars an hour All these trunk slammers are killing me. I'm never going to be able to do anything Three miles down the road. You got another company saying, uh, this is bullman. Are you kidding me? I raised my prices twice in the last six months. I got to do it again. I don't even know Well, what's going on? Where's the boom coming from? Right? It's all mindset You guys know from whenever you consult them with people you can teach them everything You can teach them how to do all do this business, you know from top to bottom But if that mindset's not right, they don't have the right They're uh, the right, um tangible tangibles. They need to be that that power player be resilient Then it doesn't matter what you what you know. It just doesn't I'm gonna be to hold up So and I have I have a secret phrase that I listen for When I'm when I'm coaching with somebody more than when I'm consulting but when I'm coaching with somebody I listen for this phrase I already tried that Or I already did that And those either one of those phrases is my clue that We got a heavy lift here We got a lot of work to do because until you change that Nothing else is gonna change You got to change that first the the one the one all of the most is but you don't understand my situation You know, you've seen my little my little pig butt, right tom So I got a little I've got a little card that has a pig butt on it. It's like on a card stock I have a few of them and somebody says, yeah, but you don't understand. Yeah, but I fling them the card You keep your butt I know all about the buds, right Um, let's see. There was somebody Lesson wanted to know was that a hot topic Tuesday call that you're on today awanzo Yes, and it's actually is it was recorded. So, um, uh, she can Recording and it was it was a great recording That's great. I'm gonna go in and watch that too. I was tom was working me like a dog all morning long I didn't have a chance to I'm gonna go watch in that you know I don't think I have worked as hard as I have Since this whole coronavirus thing started in such a long time and I've worked hard. I mean, it's not like that. I ever like goof off, but I mean, this is true Me too. I mean days are moving now. You know, it's just like wow what day? No, I mean daylight's going on. We gotta be now's the time to be making it happen There's uh, you know, we'll we'll we'll rest and you know have some fun a little bit later But right now we gotta we gotta make it happen. Oh, this is all offense man. You know, it's offense You know, that's where you know, I was in a defense when things were going great I'm on the offense now. You know, I'm just looking to score You know, everybody needs to listen to that too if you're out there still Thinking how am I gonna handle this? What am I going to do? How am I gonna respond? How am I going to react then you're in defense and while you're there You're you're getting trampled people are walking over you. You don't even see it But other businesses are taking over your market. You got to get yourself out of that mindset You got to get out of defense and you got to go forward. You got to get into offense. So that's You're so right When I when I used to do music, you know, I used to produce that's what I was a music producer So I'll produce songs and you know, I was young I was a young man doing this in my teens And I always thought about I was working two three or four o'clock in the morning creating songs But I was like, you know what? I gotta do this because there's somewhere someone somewhere in another state That's up Doing 10 songs and I'm just doing Someone's always looking at how she I'll hustle you and take what you got or get what you're after You gotta push. Yeah, that's very true Uh, we'll let you we've got a couple of things here Uh Linda posted some information if you are Needing more information about your ppp forgiveness Check out you're gonna have to do a search But there is a webinar on the ppp in Richmond, Virginia. So do a search for that Um It looks like blesses and the lessons working 10 hours straight so far today Uh sarah looking forward to some downtime, but never been so busy playing games. Yep. Good job I I think everybody's just you know working it and a lot of us Are working it and enjoying it and the other group is working it and being Rags down Come on. Get on this side y'all. It's much better Get on the side of looking for the future and what's going on and that's the trick if you're looking for how to shift your mind Right if you're struggling you're like yep, but there's all this stuff all this things Here's the trick. This is how you do it Think about the future the future can get you there faster than thinking about the past I haven't said it to do haven't something Bayless. Can I can I say it? I'm ready Tom This is an unprecedented event. We have never seen anything like this in our lifetime Nor will we ever see anything like this again in our lifetime Don't miss it. Don't miss this opportunity Yeah, I don't miss it. I love that. Don't shut the door Right. Don't don't just close the door on this opportunity Like take that door down and don't You know It's the one thing is that you know what has happened is you know it's been a been a tragedy for for lives that were lost and You know, we hopefully our hearts go out to those people and their families But as this thing was happening, you know, I'm just thinking about some of the things we have been through You know, we've been through the housing crisis. We've been through 9 11 You know, I've been through the dot-com crashes and all these different things But I know there was always people that were Were sitting in a position where they could have capitalized And could have made enormous amount of money or found enormous amount of opportunities If they would have just put their best foot forward and got Got stuck out of the place that they were in because so many people got their heads down It's time to get your heads up. You know looking down. It's nothing down It's time to look up, you know, and it's time to think about what's my next move And the next move has to be the right move because there's some people just make a move to make moves And I'm not one of those people that just jump out there to make a move to make a move It needs to be strategic. It needs to be calculated. It needs to be thrown out when you make that move So I'm not gonna Everybody's drinking Yeah, Alonzo, you gotta show us what you're drinking. Everybody wants to know what's being done right now What you drinking? It's supposed to look like a margarita That's right. This is It's a little darker. So what it really is is a kombucha. This is what it is. Is a natural Yeah, I don't drink so, you know, this is what it is. I've never never been a drinker But you know We've been through, you know a lot, you know all those, you know events that that Disrupted the the economy and created problems I mean, this is an unprecedented event in a lot of ways a lot of ways None of those other events 9 11 dot com crash The housing crisis did small businesses like ours Even get a nod from the federal government Think about the money that they give me is like ours You know, there's a lot of people out there, you know, the government wants us to succeed. I mean I've never experienced anything like this Yeah, because I think we missed I wanted to make one point real quick I just want to make one point real quick. We are talking about what a great opportunity This is and how you gotta move forward and push and it's great and blah blah blah Um, all of that stuff and all of that is true But we're not saying take advantage of anybody else. They're not saying Take advantage of this but we're not in a bad way We are saying take advantage of this opportunity to do and be The most the best that you can But it doesn't mean step on other people. That's not what we're saying. We're not we're not recommending We're not saying this is the time to crush everybody now Run the competition moving forward at the maybe not even front but you know It there is some competition in our industry. Yeah We're not we're not saying that this is awesome that this happened and who cares about all the bad stuff We're not we're not about that. What we're saying is Sometimes when you have lemons, there's no discounting that they're lemon But you have a choice when you have lemons If lemonade or just complain about Sour they are so we're not saying they're not sour. We're not staying there lemons, but you got to do something So go with the lemonade You gotta How long you want to stay in a certain location? You know at some point you got you got to move on from that location You know and some people are are finding ways to stay there I'm looking for all the ways to move out of that You know I gotta be around the right people I gotta be around the right energy and these things I just got to shut down That media That's a bunch of noise if you stay you stay locked into that you get a lot of mixed messages And in that message changes on a daily basis on a weekly basis I see people That has said i'm gonna shut it off for a while and people that are Careful about how much they're engaging into their investing their time into social media They're moving forward. So we got to understand. What are the things that will really take us down or keep us from moving forward? Yeah I don't need to see that that that body count ticker. I really don't You know because if you're gonna put that ticker on there put that ticker on there all year long You know when this goes away keep the ticker up there Why is the ticker up there and some people are fixated on this type of news that I understand is reality But I do understand that there's things that drag people down and it doesn't uplift them or help them move forward No, yeah It's um, there's some value in just Having an awareness as to what's going on in the world. I mean because we do as ceos We have to we're the t strategists. Okay, so we have to develop a strategy and we need data to do that But what Alonzo is saying is you know, you don't have to live it all day long No, stick your head up every once in a while. Don't get hyper focused on that Right, right. That's not where you want to be putting your all of your focus Keep an eye on it. You need to know the number is getting more numbers getting worse. What's happening in my local community What's happening in dc? What you know? You got to know that but that's a small part, you know, that's that needs to be a What you're doing with your time if that's all you're doing with your time you're waiting Yeah, it's gonna paralyze You know and then you just looking for more of it and then you're looking for more validation Then you're looking at the sources. Is this true? Is that true? Maybe this is happening and then one one one one week you're doing one thing the next week You're doing something different the next month you're telling your staff this then you're telling we're not doing that It's like come on. What are we doing here? What are we doing? I saw I'm gonna point something out too So for those of you that are finding yourselves you like you keep getting sucked into this thing Go out there. Get yourself some help. So I have always had a business coach I know Tom Alonso both of you guys also have always had a business coach But you might have noticed me talking more about my business coach recently on these calls. That's because I kicked it up. I'm seeing my business coach every week right now Because I need to stay focused on the big picture I need to make sure that I'm working for what I want to be working for and I'm not getting sucked in To this stuff all of the drama and all of the rhetoric and you know Just there's so much You know keep yourself on track. What's it going to take for you to make sure that you stay on track? Um, we have a lot of great comments on here marsha. Also, don't bring yourself out It's a long haul in front of us be strong be too slow and be resilient. Yes Hallelujah right there, right self care right now. You got it. You got to take care Our richard is saying Alonso nailed it. Absolutely Alonso always brings it, you know, we did not plan on this Uh, facebook live going down this path y'all, but I mean we should have known because every time you're talking It goes down this inspirational path And we're really lucky to have Alonso. I mean he's uh, he's got a lot going on and A lot of times for for these facebook lives. I'll reach out to somebody and yeah, you know, I'll be there at five I ask Alonso. You want to do one of these things? He'd like lips on his caliber. I asked you what like two three weeks ago Dang I was kind of thinking Yeah, I've been I've been so booked up was like again, you know, I was at one Uh at one o'clock with arcsy and then yesterday I was on another one with issa and It's just you know You're pulling in so many different directions But it's just giving back and you know what just makes us feel great in this time is when we're dealing with all this And what you guys are doing is is phenomenal It's just giving back to to help other people feel good and let them know is that you know what you can do You just got to find a way. You just got to settle yourself down You got to have the confidence the confidence is key You got to lead your people your people are looking at you They're looking to see are you shook to just shake you? I mean, are you standing tall? Are you standing standing on your morals? I mean and your family's looking at you your kids are looking at you How are you coming home? Is your head down? You know, you are you? Are you a person that's given the right energy? You know, you got to really think about these people that need you so this is more of a time of giving And that's what's in is giving and just a gratitude because I am very thankful that you know Again, I was in a very good position when this when this happened and I'm just I have gratitude But I want to give back on our help others I mean I took phone calls from all over the country and some people were shocked when I said call me Because I could I could I could get the fear they they DM me on facebook or they reached out with a message I could just sense the fear And and I call them and they're shocked that there's like I can't believe that that that you call me It's just the things that we got to do for each other And help each other build each other up and help each other Know that you know what things are going to get better things are going to get better It may be a slow process, but they're coming and just be ready and set and have yourself set up to succeed Be the leaders that be the leaders that your people need you to be Because everybody's looking for help everybody's looking for for leadership The door is wide open unprecedented event. Yeah, the opportunity I know you have some stuff that you need to be sharing, but I also wanted uh, I wanted a daily call Who's get fireworks today who got their ppp money or who got their idle money? Come on Tell us you've got some money. Let's get y'all some fireworks going on here And now I know that um, we're talking about oh good. Oh is lenio opening back up again Or is this just info? Well, this is the The question has come up, you know yesterday it's like well, what can I do with my idle money and The rules for idols a lot broader than it is for the for the ppp because I mean it's alone it's not going to become I mean After the first $10,000 the rest of what you're going to have to pay back over 30 years at a at a relatively little interest rate The best deal you're ever going to get in terms of borrowing money by the way But uh, the link that I that I shared in the chat goes over, you know, what? They're sharing with us here that you can do with your idle money and basically, um It's Help, you know to support small business during the disaster funds to cover necessary day to day expenses uh payroll Counts payable. So if you think about what what's it counts payable? It's anything that you normally write a check for that you pay out of your business. Okay sick leave to employees Uh Increased costs to obtain materials I guess during a time like your ppe stuff like that You're paying a lot more for that now that than what what you used to because of supply chain issues Your space costs It sounds like reading this as long as you aren't like jamming in your pocket or spending it on yourself personally You can spend these monies on just about anything that you would normally spend for out of your business which Is a pretty good deal. I would say no kidding Hey tongue who was the who was um Um, let's see. There was somebody that people were Applying with and they were getting approved for their monies within 24 hours. Do you remember who that was? We had some good luck with cabbage over the weekend That's who it was cabbage. So rosemary. Um, I know you're still in waiting mode with chase But hit up cabbage if you get that faster you can just Not accept anything coming through with chase But if you're sick of waiting, especially those of you with the big banks Cabbage is is good. I've also heard. Um, hey, uh, hey pal Hey pal wait coming through for a lot of people square Yeah, I have heard about squares. So So don't don't just sit and wait if you if you want your money Take take another step do something more, you know, given another shot. By the way, rosemary I saw you not last night. Not sure what night it was On dubby's event. You rocked it lady. Great job. And you look good too Uh, that was that was a great event Uh carol Got your ppp in your idle advance. Good job carol. I know you're happy Um, can I expand my business by buying cars marketing or acquiring another business? Sarah wants to know tom Certainly you can Now are you asking that in the country using idle money for that or just as a strategy as a strategy? Absolutely um I would Talk to my accountant before buying automobiles because that's not an expense. That's like a capital investment and that might not I I don't know from from reading what's up on the screen here. I wouldn't be comfortable Saying it that's uh, that that would be within the in the rules. I would I would talk to my accountant about that Now if you went out if you if you went out and Maybe leased a car or went to a dealership and financed a car and you were making the monthly payments against that car Out of your your idle funds. That might look a little bit better You know if you got a chunk of money and go out and drop, you know, 30 grand on a car out of your idle money that might not Fly but I don't know. I don't know. I'm Just sharing with you the the the rules that that that we were able to find That's why you have an accountant. You know how to answer those questions better than we do Hey, leslie has a question it's a little off topic, but she says it's important to her and you know what? I don't know anybody that's been more supportive of us than leslie. So let's help her out here um Let's see. Is there any official recommendation regarding wearing a mask while doing house cleaning or janitorial work She's hoping that she can cite info to not wear a mask. They're so hot difficult to work in We got anything tom. Is this something we might have to tell like it is or Oh I guess for a lot of a lot of the stuff that we did telling it like it is a lot of the a lot of the Information that we share are is coming from the recommendations of the center for disease control and the cdc Is recommending that We wear masks when we're in public For the benefit and protection of other people a mask doesn't really protect us that much like a cloth mask, but if we happen to Uh have have the infection but for asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic Then the likelihood of us Infecting someone else is diminished by wearing a mask. So that's the the reason the logic and the and the recommendation behind that. So um Sorry leslie. I don't know You know Yeah, I don't know if there's anything out there that contradicts what the what the cdc is is saying or not Let me take that back. I'm sure there is but from a credible source I think most credible sources are saying that the responsible thing is for us to Wear masks in public for the benefit of other people You know the one thing about the mask It's about it's about What type of masks you're actually dealing with as well because some are heavier than others So if you can find like a lighter material, of course, that's not going to be as as much as um As hot as it would if you have heavy material Also, if you have it not smushed against your face if you have a little bit of a gap there is much better as well right, um Are your cleaners wearing masks to work? ours are How about y'all are you guys cleaners wearing masks to work? Our step is When when when our you know when we show up at the office we need to be wearing a mask and You know, it's till till your day is over and you're in your car going home. You need to be wearing a mask. That's our so pay Yeah, us too and marsha. Yeah, plus be an example Yep, we we do have to be an example for our people, right? Don't walk out into a meeting and you're the only one not wearing a mask and telling everybody else They got to wear their mask That's that's not going to get you where you want to go and you know you can't skip your coffee when you're wearing a mask So But you can lift up take a sip look back. I know done it And they got these dancing little straw things. They work really really well Uh, yeah, also kevin says they are um to help you with touching your mouth and nose which would you know the entry points? Yep, they are for that too. That's a good point. No one comes into a rosemary's place without a mask That's great gloves washing hands. Absolutely. So tom. Um, it's getting kind of late I know that um, we need you to talk a little bit about the Um program that we're putting on right now the phc program I know that you guys need to know about this because today is tuesday The big discount and tomorrow at nine a.m. Pacific standard time, which is noon each turn So very little time today is the last day really I mean you have less than 24 hours at this point in time to get this program Tom can you give us a quickie? Yeah, real quick just modern clean dot com professional house cleaning program uh It's a seven class program each class is roughly an hour the first class is gonna go live tomorrow at noon eastern nine o'clock Pacific The other six classes will be coming out over the month of may So by the end of the may all seven classes will be there. There's a 50 question exam at the end once You know the student passes that 50 question exam. They get a certificate of completion showing that they've passed the professional house cleaning program um We've talked about professionalism and professionalizing the industry You know, we've been about that for for a long long time. That was really all three of us At the all of us have I mean that was what our key is about back always has been and professionalism is for the benefit of Of everybody your your your your clients when you win as a business as a business owner Your your your cleaning professionals when you've got better jobs at their professionals and you know, we talk about how Typically we hire people to fill jobs and and your your your technicians start off with hey and I got a job and The bar for that job is usually relatively low But there's an opportunity to grow from that with developing skills and knowledge and understanding the why behind We do certain things and it's a lot more important than just teaching somebody how to read a label on a bottle I mean, there's so much more involved. I mean you've got surfaces You've got certainly your chemicals. You got the soils that you're you're removing in a home You've got the pathogens that that live in those soils that you've got to deal with You've got various types of equipment and all of those entities when you start mixing and matching I mean you think about how complicated it really can be to clean a home And this is the kind of thinking that a true professional would have with with that knowledge and once you have that You know, you've got more trust with your clients. It's not just a job anymore. It's a profession your your your cleaning professionals Feel completely different about their job. I mean, it's a it's a virtuous circle I could go on and on but the whole program and the exams probably Eight hours, but it's all going to be online. Are you learning platform and it's going to be awesome It's one of the most epic things. I think that we've ever done And it's got bulk discounts. So if you're buying groups of of seats You can get anywhere from 50 to 15 to 50 off depending on how many you're getting And like Liz said between now and noon tomorrow eastern time, you can get an additional 50 off of that The rack rate for the class is $99. So if you get a bunch of seats between Before noon tomorrow you can get them for for less than 25 Dollars a seat and you just go in here to PayPal and I mean go ahead here to This link here and click the cart Sign up and buckle up and get ready to to to get started tomorrow afternoon I wanted to talk about something. I haven't talked to you about this Tom. So I hope this doesn't um Um, I hope it's not a problem All right, so yesterday we had somebody that reached out to us It was not happy with the certificate that she received on our COVID-19 program And I I wanted to just be really clear for everybody here that the certificate is not the offering For us this program the education is the offering The the certificate is just something to give you a a little bit of a personal feeling of okay. Yay I did it. Uh, it's not meant to it's that's not what you're buying. That's not what the $99 is The $99 is for your peace of mind your education your confidence Your ability to go out into the world and make a difference But it's not that it's a paper for the people for the people that are cleaning home for your businesses I guess it's really important to point out this class is designed for the people who are cleaning homes every day And do you want them to be looking at it as a job? Or do you want them to be looking at it as a profession and as professionals? And it's a journey. I mean this class was a great start, but you know, it's not the destination But it's it's it's a big big step in the right direction And if we do things like this and invest in and in our team members in ways like this You know, we're building that future. We're pushing that door open and taking advantage of the opportunities And so you need time, you know, a lot of us have ppp monies and You know training, especially the the idle money you could pay for all of this At the very least you can use the ppp monies to pay for the salaries for the people that are would be taking the program And that's more of an investment than the class itself by a fair amount. So um Now's I have to say too that we had a lot of people tell us You guys, why are you pricing that so cheap? That should be a five to six hundred dollar program It's it's too big to be so cheap. Why is it so cheap? People have money now. They're getting their idle. They've got their ppp. You need to be charging Our our thought was the opposite Our thought is we need to cover our costs. We need to be able to make this Um, something that everybody has access to remember we really want to professionalize the industry And until everyone has this information this education The chances of that happening are slim. So this is our opportunity also the opportunity for us Get that message out widely to all of the the technicians that are out there the cleaning professionals, right? So again, sorry soapbox was a soapbox right there, but Ah That's why it's so inexpensive You don't get don't get sucked into the idea of you know, you get what you pay for in this case You're only giving it to you at this price because we want everyone to have it everyone Uh, well an email was sent to To you before the class starts tomorrow our robin. Oh, yeah robin already bought um His seven classes. So robin. No, they're working email sent out. Um, because it's not a live class It is online. How exactly will they know when it goes live town? How how is that whole thing gonna work? There will once it's up and live Uh, you'll be getting information on like your your login. So at that point, I guess if you've done the bulk if you if you've Self-enrolled then you log in the way that that that you normally do and then the class will be there If you do it afternoon tomorrow and if you've done the bulk purchase You'll be getting information tomorrow with the information you need or your your people that that you signed up That will give them the ability to uh to log in. They'll be getting an email Uh, so if you registered you are going to get an email if you didn't register We're not gonna say last chance five more minutes one more hour That's not happening y'all You're not gonna see us again until tomorrow at our normal time five eastern two pacific And it will be too late for the discount. Okay So we have to cut it off at some point in time because the resources have to be there This is a lot more work than it seems like All right, tom, um, perfect. Yay. Who do we contact with names and employees when you register? A list that will populate that you fill in is that right tom? Yeah part of the part of the purchase process The instructions will give you a link. You'll click on that link. It'll download a template It's an excel spreadsheet and I'll tell you basically you give people's names and their email addresses And you'll send it back to us to the email that we we give you and and we upload it from there And then everybody everybody on that list will get an email to the email that was what was on that list Um, yes to your question. Leslie. It is like the hct, but it is directed at Um, what what we call cleaning professionals professional house cleaners and there is um um I would say it is presented more directly to your cleaning professionals so that it's Because it's directed to them and not going through the owner to them. It's More easy to absorb Easier to absorb. I know there was a better way of saying that it's much easier to absorb because it's coming directly to them The message is designed for them Uh Robin wants to know so I need to register for the class So I guess yeah, you do if you want to take it Yeah, that's that's how you pay for it when you pay for it you register The whole thing happens at once Debbie is asking about um poison bulk Didn't that see There's a spreadsheet That uh, was part of the instructions that that you would need to download and if you uh, Didn't get that send us an email. It's uh, basically mail at moderncleaning.com and and we'll get that to you Or you can hit us. Let's we know this I'm sorry. Tom. I thought you were done. No, you're good Okay, um, Leslie the focus is not on covid for this. This is definitely uh more more in general if you go to Uh moderncleaning.com There are two boxes that are going to pop up the one on the right if you click on it Don't worry. You're not going to pay right there, but it'll it'll show you what's on what's in the program It'll show you everything a lot of people are signing up for the the covid class as well it's a three hour class and it's Focused on one thing and one thing only things that cleaning professionals need to know to clean in the covid 19 world and uh, we've got a lot of great feedback for this and You know, I think that we've tipped past a thousand people that are taking this program Yay Bridget wants to know tom she hasn't turned in her list yet. Is it okay to wait for all seven to be out before registering employees? That's that's that's fine. The uh, the seats are are good for for for 90 days Once you once you've purchased so you've got 90 days to get them to sign or used to to get their names and give us the The template and we'll upload it and you need to get them through the program within 90 days, but you know 90 the 90 days doesn't start till tomorrow. So you've you've got time Just make sure that you purchase them by then you guys that that's the part that i'm really You know people are going to be mad people are going to be mad at us when they come back You know the following day and find out that it's going to cost twice as much and you know, you're gonna get grief I'm going to get grief We're going to get grief because i'm going to pass all my grief on to you tom I can take it Thank you for For joining us. Um any any last words you want to share with our group? This this was fun, you know, and um, I enjoy, you know our collaboration together This is the first the three of us have done something In the collaboration like this. So it was fun and Definitely, you know, anyone that was on that was on, you know, a part of this is just you know Keep moving forward, you know Stay strong and be resilient and um, you know, just keep hope and and and believe You know, you gotta have something that you believe in and um, you know Find a way to give back and and and help others and that makes you feel good about yourself and Feel good feel good about what you're doing. Just like what you guys are doing with this program I think it's I think it's it's huge. It's great. It's needed and um It's generous that you're giving it at that price and I mean, you know You're not looking to make anything off of this and if people can take advantage of this It's a huge benefit to their company and to their staff and this is the things that we should be doing at times like this Let's take advantage of the slower times And let's educate ourselves improve ourselves and make ourselves better and strengthen our business because You'd be nuts if you're not thinking about how to make yourself a better business owner and make your business a better business Well, check your check your calendar Alonzo and let me know the next uh five o'clock slot you have open and you can come back and join us again Cool. We're looking forward to it as well Thanks again for having me and hey, keep it fresh What are we not? Also, you guys I promise that I would show some share something that we're doing in olympia So tell them i'm going to share that real quick. It'll just take a second. Okay, maybe share screen so Okay, so this is three powerpoint slides that came out of our meeting um We got our we got our ppp money on sunday Your entire screen Maybe application window There should be a button that says share screen and you click on it It'll ask you to pick the screen you want to share and you select that screen. There you go bingo It's okay. So this is this is our um eight week pay for performance plan And it's point pay So if they earn 15 to 19 points, they'll earn a hundred dollar weekly bonus. You can see the different points Um, and they can earn all the way up to 500 dollars per week on this plan So this is how they earn points Um, how many hours did you work this week? If you earned 40 if you worked 40 or more hours You're gonna get five points. I want people working a lot I need to fill up my schedule. I got a lot of work. I need to get done This rating here this s e rating. This is just my internal Lexicon you guys so if I actually think of this is like your quality driven score So what what's your score if you get a hundred percent in our company five points? If you remember, it's only for a week. It's not hard to get a hundred percent score in a week, right? But any of these other scores you're also going to get points. What's your ppr? So our teams all track their payroll percent to revenue on On a daily basis. So what what was your payroll percent to revenue? If you average less 40 or less for the week, you're going to get five points Did you lead a team because we're in a Crazy time right now. We're having all sorts of people help us with leading different teams If you led a team, how many days did you lead a team? If you led for five days five points Training did you take training? Were you in training? Did you train somebody else or did you take one of our training courses that's available? If so, you're going to get five points. So this is what we are doing to Really motivate our people to work more work hard and to do a heavy push For the next eight weeks the same thing that i'm talking to you guys about that i'm doing right push push push hard right now Just for your own Information. This is what we're doing in the office. How many hours same thing with that quality work Um nominations how many nominations do people write? This is our version of like, uh, oh gosh, what we call it our most valuable player Thing if you write nominations for other people over 40 You're going to get those five points. We worked on a scrum. We work a scrum board here It's just a system of getting projects done if you get more than 10 points done on the scrum board five points Um sales how many sales did you book for the week in the office? If you get 16 or more five points and then same thing with training So that is it. I said I would share I did And I wanted to make sure let me stop sharing here. Just wanted to make sure that everybody had a chance to see that real quick That is Okay, so Five o'clock tomorrow. We'll be here if uh, you want to come up for the professional house? Cleaning training now's the time to do it. Don't come back here tomorrow and say it costs more and be mad at Liz because she told you Don't be mad at me Great shame you guys today. We'll see y'all tomorrow Bye. Bye