 Hey, good afternoon everybody Tom Stewart here and I've got a bunch of awesome people with me today. I have Jeannie Henderson. I've got Gosha Baron. I've got a holiday. I've got dr. Gavin McGregor Skinner Hey, dr. Gavin. I've got Lillian Lima and I have RJ Patel And this isn't smart business moves by the way, it's Very special though. We're gonna be talking today about and I want to almost at AR CSI and I SS a residential The association formerly known as AR CSI or RC regional event That's going to be in Rockville, Maryland coming up April 9 at Lillian Lima's office Lillian, are you excited about this all coming up and visiting you in April? We are super excited. We are honored to have the regional event here It's always fun to use that office to learn about Other companies operate and this is our turn. So we are ready to have a bunch of business owners here and share about Culture those we use, you know, our operations. So it's gonna be a lot of fun for sure well And I know that I SS a residential has been picking up the pace a little bit on regional events and We had one not that long ago. What's in it just a few weeks ago in Austin, Texas? Some of some of y'all were at that. I believe how did that go? It was amazing, right? That's right. Yeah, thanks, Kosha. Yeah, it was great And the every one of these events seems to be picking up steam and more and more people want to come Eventually we might not be able to actually hold the event in an office we may have to rent a space because of How large these events are becoming but they're a lot of fun the Austin one who had a great turnout over 70 people I believe we had in attendance. So, oh Yeah, it was amazing so Tell us a little bit about what a regional event looks like is it? You know Education is it networking is it like getting together and having fun? I mean, what's it like? What do we do? I can take that one so The goal of regional events for ISSA residential is to give people opportunities to Interact with our community in person We we get to participate in a lot of webinars online through ISSA And we have our monthly coffee and conversation that goes in RJ host But this gives us an opportunity to interact in person to we bring in some industry experts To present at these events. So it's education Community and then we get to learn directly from a business owner how they have achieved success and so this last one we were at maids and more in Austin, Texas and Learned so much about how they have built a thriving and very large successful cleaning business and they shared they opened their doors and shared all their secrets and Those people out there who are thinking about, you know wanting to grow their business. This is a great opportunity to like peak behind the curtain of how these how successful thriving businesses get started and how they grow and There's a educational component to it as well. We're going to have some speakers at the one that we're going to be doing up in Rockville Dr. Gavin, I don't know if all of our Residential members know Maybe some of them we haven't even really done and you know talked about G back a whole lot Could you maybe take a minute and explain? What G back is your role and what you're going to be doing at this event? Yeah, thanks, Tom. This is such a great opportunity is is genie was saying to Share experiences tell some stories, but also focus on what works and And how to ensure that again now our whole mission here is how to clean for health and how that applies to Residential buildings, which is why home is a residential building and it's really interesting Tom to think about You know the nut. Oh, I'll throw this at you. How many buildings do we have in the US? You know, we know that number Wow, what what is it 140 million holy cow how many of those buildings are homes Tom Most of them Yeah, you're right 90% a hundred million of the 140 billions in the buildings in the US are actually residential spaces They're homes People's homes and so when you look at the eyes to say Residential community. It's so critical to create healthy safe indoor spaces for nearly every American and It's that critical mission that we need to focus on and so what I wanted to emphasize and then I'll talk about this in my workshop is They're where did you spend most of your time today or even yesterday Tom? Well, I Spent most of my time indoors You can see over the shoulder. There's my air purification system up here in the attic because that's where I live and that Keeps me safe and secure from whatever else is Healthy for me else going around me, but it's really important that as cleaning professionals We learn that again cleaning is the removing of dirt It's we've got to remove something but we need to also remove the dirt the contaminants the germs the bacteria the virus is You know We're gonna talk about some stories. I'm gonna bring some toys with me Tom I'm gonna bring actually some stuff with me Show you how I measure cleanliness in certain different buildings and the way that we might be able to leverage some of those tools equipment technology in In people's homes and because we know that every home is different. We know that people who live in homes could be a You know a whole plethora. It's so many different situations that we could be facing They could be healthy. They could have cancer. They could have underlying medical conditions They could have other conditions that we need to clean for and that what that's really important that that education that training that Continuous improvement Ensures that we meet what the customer requires in their home and it's just it's just I'd even put this up there Tom This is a national security issue. I just said it's a national security issue if we can't clean homes properly well, you know and it's it's interesting because You know Going back to the AR CSI days that we just had our 20th, you know anniversary and you know the industry has grown It's evolved and there's been a greater sense of awareness of you know cleaning is like the Front-line of defensive in healthcare. Okay, and we do we have a responsibility as professional house cleaning companies Employing professional house cleaners to do something more than just make the house look good And we're all looking for ways to compete in the marketplace and differentiate ourselves from all the people that are out they are just trying to clean homes at the you know the lowest dollar and Everything that you're explaining here seems like it is the opportunity to Accomplish so many wonderful things at the same time cleaning for for health creating a better environment Not only for the people who live in these homes, but for the people that are cleaning them being more competitive in a marketplace and you're going to be bringing tools, so I'm assuming this is Denysine tri phosphate meters and they're all all kinds of neat stuff that we can play with too, huh? Yeah, I think it's it's important Tom a lot of the the the cleaning professionals in our isa say residential community that I've worked with over the years Really haven't had that access to those tools We need to sit down and work out how we make that part of the business so that there's a return on investment It's it and so it's not like you must do this and be prescriptive. It's like no How do we bring more value? How do we define ourselves? How do we ensure that what we do is considered essential? You know my house has been cleaned by Maria and her company now for 18 years And they're all really nervous when I try to start on this on cleaning day in my house Because I really want to know what they're doing because I know who I am and I guy's coming But we have we have so much fun just going around my house with my tools God look at that. You did an awesome job and I can measure cleanliness I can show them how effective and what they do follows science and evidence-based principles. It's it's so awesome That's gonna be so much fun. I have to say that would be nerve-wracking I'm with you. I'm I'm told my family stay in the attic. Just say where you belong But but we do we do we do have fun we really do so looking forward to your presentation though We I think I agree that we do need to learn more about this and I love the statistics that you share. That's great Right and we'll bring a personal note Tom You know my mum had cancer and I am so grateful To the the cleaning staff that clean my mum and dad's house for many years and just made it safe for her Why she had cancer her immune system was low. It was diminished She was on chemotherapy and I I know exactly how they cleaned that house and I just appreciate the fact They took the time in the effort to meet my mum's needs You know Tom who else appreciates what dr. Gavin when he brings his gadgets are the people at the hospital in Fiji The three of us went there About six months ago and our goal was to teach them some cleaning methods and tools and ways But we realized quickly upon arrival that they didn't have anything What they were cleaning with were old cut-up bedsheets So Gavin's talking about cleaning for health and not just the appearance is absolutely true when you look at that So these these kids are having open-heart surgeries Over here in the theater and they come to this initial recovery room To the eye it looks absolutely clean It is it is very clean until dr. Gavin takes out his Gadgets and starts measuring the touch point high touch point which in this case we the lady chose the bed rail and He measured it to begin with and anything any number below 200 is safe considered safe and This number you guys want to take a guess what it came in that. I know so I cannot say you already I already heard this from you Oh, Asia gets to guess What is it 700 It was over 9,000 Wow, I thought I was being ridiculous with 1400 So That 9,000 it gives you an idea of how many germs how much like dr. Gavin says making the Invisible visible now. We're showing them. Hey look what exists on these surfaces and If a kid who is immune system is down just like his mom was at the recovery period Are they susceptible to catch something and our goal was to go in there show them give them the tools and Gosha and I had taken To suitcase full of microfiber towels brushes sponges you can you name it whatever we could fit in a suitcase we did okay, and We used to have any idea that they were truly cleaning with rags. I They didn't know any better. No, I guess that was all they had, huh? Yeah, that's all they have That's that that's the knowledge base. Yeah, but I take how much how much scrubbing and elbow grease did we put into those bed rails? We didn't put any effort into them except used the right tools and by the right tools. We took 400 GSM microfiber towels and Dr. Gavin we have this on video. Dr. Gavin had the hospital staff doing the cleaning with a dry microfiber towel with a 400 GSM count and Then we retested it again, and she did the entire exercise and Guess what that number dropped to with a dry microfiber towel from 9058 to Haja Lily. What do you think Tom? 10 Good It was 30. Okay 30 So diseases you know infections that are contracted in the hospitals are really a nasty thing and you know Infection control is such a huge part of it. So what you guys were doing I'm sure truly will result in saved lives over a period of time Yeah, but not only that Tom. We showed that again that service was dirty Um because of the the the number we got from the ATP meter and we showed that with the right Tool which happened to be microfiber in this case and it was and we didn't wet it with water We just used a dry. We could have put you know again the electrostatic properties that that magic magnet Of microfiber works even better when you just moisten it with a bit of water This is not even using we haven't we've even spent money money on chemicals yet. We haven't spent money on solvents We haven't done we're just using a piece of microfiber cloth And we showed that we could we could meet the definition of cleaning remove We removed what was on there to go from 9 000 down to 30 And that means that it's not just the say the bacteria that removed all the other contaminants The dirt whatever else is that was removed as well by that microfiber? and that's what we were trying to show because um again Come to my house one day genie. You'll see that I've got all these indoor air quality monitors that go off every time They spray stuff and I know when my wife's downstairs cooking, you know, and I'm up in there Yeah, there are things indoor air quality is also our responsibility So what we were showing here tom was that again using the right tool in the right place at the right time Is going to save you money give you a more return on your investment as a clean professional Absolutely You guys come to that event. This is what we are going to learn is that right? Right we're gonna play Genie you're going to be doing a presentation at this regional event as well. Aren't you? Yes. Yes Yeah, I'm really excited to share my presentation with everyone who's coming and uh, I also am a Madecentral user so it kind of ties into my use with madecentral but my presentation is called fortunes in the feedback and So we really focus on feedback on my team at genie cleaning And we have learned over the years how important it is to our growth to Not only respond to feedback but to get as much of it as we possibly can To analyze that data and apply the information that we learn in our business. And so I'll be talking about The importance of feedback how to get more of it and then How to treat every piece of feedback as a gift And how to then respond properly to that feedback and use that feedback 10x your feedback To grow your business so you can use feedback from the client side and from the employee side And so I'll be covering that that topic from beginning to end, but I'm really excited to share it That sounds awesome feedback is important important data. And if you're able to collect that Organize it find trends in it You can improve your business in so many ways get better outcomes Oh, I love that approach genie that you've taken because I've been trying to work with residential Cleaning professionals all going do a survey ask four or five questions. Well, no, we can't do that You know, we go in we're we're we're sort of We're silent we walk through we do our job in a couple hours and we leave and we get paid No, no do a survey Get get some feedback on on your professionalism get some feedback on on what people Are looking for when they go. Oh, wow. My house is so nice and clean Right. Well, and that's the thing is people think that feedback always means a negative thing And so they're afraid to ask for it and they treat it as like no news is good news And and so they don't want to ask for feedback But it's actually the positive feedback that acts as fuel for your team to get them excited about doing what they do and doing it well And most of the feedback Last week, I think it was 96 percent or 97 percent of our feedback was like 100 positive And three percent was constructive, right And but all of it is important and we learn from all of it and uh, and if and I recently consulted with a janitorial team in a church nearby where I live And they were not getting any feedback and they were having rampant turnover on their team And I said well, you need to change the fact that your team is never hearing from the end user That they're doing a good job You can tell them all day that you think they're doing a good job But if they don't hear from the person whose lives they're impacting by the work that they do That they're doing a good job. They're going to lose their passion Right. So I will tell you this exactly to what you're saying We are using made central as well and actually we had an employee come in yesterday and she was asking my general manager What can I do to get more feedback from clients? I want to know how i'm doing They want to know Every day how they are making a difference in people's lives, right? Yeah Excites them to see the good feedback because they are putting so much hard work to it Yeah, see how they are doing. So yes, that's that's priceless. Absolutely. It's a human need to know how what we do Makes a difference and so feedback is such a big part of that and um, I bought my business actually back in 2015 2016 from some friends who were getting out of the business And they had 50 clients at that time. So I basically bought their client list and I said so tell me You know, what kind of feedback are you getting from your clients? And they're like, oh We never asked for feedback And she literally said no news is good news I've heard it described as like bowling with a sheet in front of the pins Where you're rolling the ball down the lane The ball goes underneath the sheet you hear things rattling around but you really can't see what you did without feedback That's really what you're doing. So you don't know how you how you're doing. You don't know how to get better And it's not very satisfying not being able to you know get You know that type of feedback on your results. So what you're doing is a win on so many fronts Yeah, no, I'm excited to share it with everyone. So That's one of the many reasons to come but we have several we have Gavin speaking. I'm speaking Aja will be speaking. Aja. What are you speaking of? Yeah, I'm doing my my all-time favorite topic always But really how to unlock some operational excellence with the right software and kpi management. So I'm kind of going into it's not just about how many homes you clean Nobody's in this business for you know to clean the most homes. I mean it that could be part of it But also, you know delivering the best You know service that you can and how to how to manage that on the on the operational side There's a lot of different ways to make sure that you're giving the right value of service for what they're paying Just really embracing technology understanding that there's lots of ways to get this information and It's important to have and it's important to track ongoing um, you know, if you if you test something and it has nine thousand germ molecules on it at one time and then 30 on the next But you don't keep testing it and that nine thousand comes back. You're you're missing out So it's the same idea of what we're doing within our businesses making sure that you're bringing You know your nine thousand things wrong down and knowing what to look at and when to look at it and just really really You know pushing forward your technology into your operational ability So i'm very excited. That's one of my favorite things to talk about. So i'm pumped There's a lot of different ways to get feedback and your kpi is the data that you collect from running your business is very important feedback as well And knowing what to do with it And it's sometimes something that people get a little scared of too It's the same idea of asking for feedback. You know, if you don't know you're not doing anything for it um, and it was really funny when we were talking about that genie, uh With them saying oh, we don't ask for it and there's a there's an element of that in in business operations too of Oh, we don't ask for it because we don't think it's going well That's what I feel like is the unsaid portion of that statement of Well, we don't look at that because we don't think it's going well And it's like okay. Well, maybe it isn't going well But if you don't know what you could aim for or what things you could do to improve that Just ignoring it doesn't mean that it's going to get better So, um, there's lots of ways to make really good data data driven decisions Um, and if you just hide from your data, then you're not you're not able to to do anything with it So, um, it's the same kind of idea that if you don't ask you you can't do anything so Can't hide from it. No no being fearful of your of your data So lily and you're going to be hosting us at this event. We're going to be meeting at your office Um, I know a lot of a lot of our issa residential members know you you've been a Active member for a long time But just take a moment and tell us about your business and what we're going to see when we're at your office Okay Yeah, I started with my SSI years ago. I love it back then was air CSI And love to be part of it It was in one event that I met RJ and super cool person says very Um, very nice every time. So I have learned a lot with with our members from the industry So we are located in Rockville and Like I said, you know, we are honored to host the event I have been in many, um regional events and every time I learned a lot So this time we are welcome everyone and we don't have a huge office, but very functional Uh, because we have everything that we need in the building So this is like an idea that's like going to have a really cool office Um in a smaller space. So we have everything that we need um space for meeting and where we meet with our employees and we where we have our meetings and um, you know, we have like our kinds of Who is tough in our office that we would love to share And also we're going to be meeting on downstairs. Like it's a huge area there like lots of space for to hang out and happy hour And then the space where we're going to be learning about all the topics And it's a it's very central area here. So we are close to Um Eating out I'm going for a walk. You need a break. So it's it's a really pleasant space outstanding We're really looking forward to this and we're really hoping that A lot of people here in the residential cleaning community will come out and join us if you want to know more about the regional event I'll see if I can share a screen here. I'm sorry. I'm sure pulling up the screen um Dr. Gavin you live in washington lily. You're in washington Tell us about the weather that time of year Well for me rj. I should have bought shares in Allegra and clareton years ago. It'sology season I'm taking my Allegra twice a day right now. Otherwise just to survive It's a cherry blossom season, but it's beautiful. I grew up there. It's beautiful this time of year. You're gonna love it Absolutely gorgeous weather. Um cherry blossoms are incredible And any masses it's very very special tom You're you if you if you're in this area and you're visiting for the first time even the second time Make sure you see the cherry blossoms there. They are spectacular. There's there's over 3000 cherry blossom trees here in dc How long did they bloom for? Very quickly. They uh, they have a six stage bloom. They're at stage four. They are expected to peak in the next 10 days or so and then we'll get a storm in the little drop But they are something else. I'm really excited to see them And there's a few other things I dropped a link. I'm at the residential dot ssa.com I'm gonna tell you a little secret if you go to arcsi.org. It will redirect you here as well Um, but this is how you register for the event and there's also Issa clean advocacy summit that follows this regional event a couple of days, you know All contiguous for that week. We're also doing an mca live Event wednesday thursday friday at this week and we're doing it lily ends office as well So why don't you go ahead and plan on spending the whole week with us and and uh, I'm saying, you know rockville. It is maryland, but technically we're we're in a sub over dc It feels like a cheer in washington Um, I think one just came out today for for the assi regional Very good Well, I think that we're seeing everyone at the event We're all going to be there and um, we're pretty much uh, at the end of our time here So we're going to go ahead and and call this a take again. Um Residential dot issa dot com if you want to learn more about it if anybody has any questions Feel free to hit up any of us. We're all kind of hanging out in facebook We'd uh love to answer questions and and get into more details if if that would be helpful Everybody thanks so much for uh participating in this look forward to seeing you a few weeks Up in dc y'all take care