Fired Over Makeup to $10K Months — Amanda Stovall’s Journey

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Introduction

Hello everyone, welcome or welcome back to the Filthy Rich Cleaners podcast. I am your host Stephanie from Serene Clean and today’s fabulous guest Amanda Stovall is from Stovall’s Cleaning Services and Amanda joins us. Where are you Amanda? I already forgot, I’m sorry.

Amanda: That’s okay. I’m in southwest Missouri, the closest bigger city that people will know is Joplin, Missouri.

Stephanie: Okay, so nice middle south. I never know how to categorize Missouri. Do you guys consider yourself the south? Midwest, okay. I know. Well, it’s just Wisconsin is Midwest. It’s west of what?

Amanda: Midwest? It doesn’t make sense to me.

Amanda: Yeah, literally, yeah. I’m the it feels pretty south here, actually.

Stephanie: But yes, yeah, I would say Missouri is very Southern, Southern acting, I would imagine. Anywho, so Amanda, you reached out to me via Facebook, and you have been listening to the podcast, and you just, we kind of started going back and forth and really connecting. And I’m you on the podcast because you’re very smart, you’re very driven. And you take action and that is something I really, really love in a fellow cleaning business owner is somebody who takes action because I gave you little advice, you did the thing, the thing worked and you listened.

The Power of Taking Action

Amanda: I have been told so many times throughout my entrepreneur journey that I’m so coachable. I’m the ideal student because if somebody, I mean the way I see it is if somebody is above where I am or I can reach their level, I want everything. I’m yes, teach me. I want to go apply it immediately. Let’s do this.

Stephanie: I love that and I feel that that is one of the biggest traits of folks who are gonna be successful is do you take action or do you just kind of I mean, I call it progress procrastination basically when you just continue consume content and you know, I just need to learn more I need to learn more I’m not ready to take action and a lot of people listening might actually be in that same boat some folks out right now, but

Point being is there’s only so much you can consume to try to make it perfect before you need to try something, right? And then try, you adjust all of that stuff. So I was really excited to hear kind of your experience and then also your backstory. Quick note, your wife is also named Amanda, right? Am I crazy? That’s amazing. Please tell me, do you guys differentiate? Do you go by nicknames or?

The Two Amandas

Amanda: Yes. No, you’re not crazy.

Well, so a lot of people ask us this, it’s so common and we’ve been together, we just had our 10 year marriage anniversary, we’ve been together for almost 12 years. So we don’t really call each other by Amanda. So it’s more babe or you know, so when other people, I mean, I don’t even recognize my name as Amanda sometimes I’m wait, what me? Sorry, I didn’t realize you were talking to me.

So it’s definitely not confusing for us, but for other people they’re, I don’t know which Amanda I’m talking to on social media and I don’t know which one I’m texting and I don’t know which one I’m supposed to meet for dinner. So I always just tell people, I’m Amanda Lin. If you guys go look me up on Facebook, add the one that’s Amanda Lin because my wife is so introverted. She is not going to accept your friend request. She probably is never going to answer her phone. That’s just not her vibe.

Stephanie: Well, no, I don’t any of the same middle name.

Amanda: That would have been wild, right? So, I mean, my maiden name is Roberts. So people from before know me as that. But yeah, whenever we got married, it didn’t even cross my mind, how much confusion this would cause because I never called her Amanda. So it was And then when we get to dealing with financial documents and professional settings, they’re, you both have the same name. Yes, you’re not crazy. Here’s my ID. Here’s my license number. It’s very interesting.

Stephanie: banking and mortgages and all of that. I’m that’s gotta get really annoying.

Amanda: It’s so we just have to vary detail and we initial everything. Any sort of professional documentation, we put our middle initial where most people would just put their first and last name. We just got the extra mile and put our middle initial. Yeah.

The Makeup Mandate That Changed Everything

Stephanie: Well, totally side note, if you’re looking at your Facebook and I’m what? And I was this is amazing. Amanda’s cool, right?

Amanda: Yes, yep. So the two of us are actually nicknamed the Amandas. anytime Gamelea friends are talking about us they’re we’re going to the Amandas or the Amandas and I are going to hang out and I love this.

Stephanie: So cute, my gosh. And as you were telling me, she decorated and did that library behind you, which is beautiful. So both very talented.

Amanda: Yes, thank you. Yeah, she beats herself up. She is very much a perfectionist and so she’ll come in here and point out tiny little things that I can’t even see sitting in here and I’m nobody sees it. Stop.

Stephanie: Does she want to clean? Because that’s a good sign of a good cleaner.

Amanda: Listen, okay, so when I haven’t been an entrepreneur the whole time we’ve been together, this is year six for me. So I have a different background and there was a That’s okay, so well I did a lot so I grew up working in the restaurants side of things And then I got fired from my big money job

Stephanie: What were you doing? Sorry, I…

Amanda: That was the most money I’d ever made as a server for refusing to wear makeup. Yes, so yeah.

Stephanie: What?

Stephanie: Where’s the FEMINISM POLICE? What the f***?

Amanda: let me tell you, that actually sparked everything. So we’re just gonna go on a whole rant here. Okay, so I, okay, so I worked for this company for five-ish years and a couple of years and I started dealing with a lot of inner healing, inner healing from trauma and childhood.

Stephanie: Yeah, tell me everything.

Amanda: And one of the things I decided to let go of was my outer appearance. You know, I was very much, please don’t take a picture of me. My face isn’t done. And so I just stopped wearing makeup to try to support my authenticity. So I had been not wearing makeup at this job for probably around two years. And they decided to make some changes to their policies, which included makeup was a requirement.

Stephanie: Yeah.

Amanda: For females, of course, males weren’t required to do anything.

Stephanie: You guys hired as entertainers because that is the only way I’ve ever heard that that legally can happen. In Las Vegas.

Amanda: No, right, yeah, no. It was just a fine dining restaurant. and they didn’t just say.

Stephanie: I am so disgusted right now. to say that to a woman and My mind is blown.

Fighting Against Discrimination

Amanda: Yeah, so at that time in my life, I was still a full-time college student pursuing my criminal justice degree. I had a kid when I was 19, so I was a mom, a wife, and I’m going through all this inner healing, and then they slapped this on me, and I’m I’ve worked for you. I’ve been so loyal. Loyalty is huge to me, and I’ve been so loyal. I go above and beyond. My work ethic is phenomenal. I have nothing on my employee record, as far as you know, point systems for getting in trouble or anything. And so I fought it with HR and the GM and I was this is so.

Stephanie: This doesn’t sound legal to me. As a business owner, this is wild.

Amanda: Yeah, I know. Yeah, it’s so crazy. anyways, yeah, I fought it for a few months and continued to work there. And then they handed out the policy and required that we sign the new policy and I hadn’t signed it yet. So when I signed up for my next shift, they said, well, you haven’t signed it. I have to send you home. And I was okay, I get it. It’s not your fault. So I went home and then the next day, 30 minutes before my shift, my manager texted me was can you meet me in HR? And I was yeah. Sure the f*** can. So I got fired, then they tried to deny my unemployment.

Stephanie: Just would you I just can’t imagine that conversation please explain to me where should the makeup be applied? What is it that I’m I be

Amanda: yeah. So that was part of the fighting process. The fighting process for me was about three months. So I’m in school full time, mom, wife, working evenings and weekends as a server and also fighting their entire HR team trying to figure out there has to be a way that we can find a common ground here. So their policy listed mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadow, blush, and lipstick. So even when I did do makeup, I didn’t wear all of that. It was insane. And so if you can imagine, I ended up getting fired for refusing and they said, is it against your religion? And I said, well, I’m not a religious individual, I’m a spiritualist. And they were well, that’s the only way we can work around this. So since you’ve already told us it’s not about your religion, then we’re gonna have to go ahead and terminate you. So.

Stephanie: This is insane!

Stephanie: just room for an employment lawyer or something. know it’s a lot I just can’t fathom how this has is not discriminatory behavior. You know what I mean? presentable is one thing requiring specific type of makeup. I I’ve never heard of this. The 1930s. What is this?

Amanda: Anna? Yeah.

Amanda: Yeah, I know. I know, right? So that’s what I actually brought up to them. And I told them, if I show up and my tie is wrinkled or my vest is wrinkled or, you know, I have wine stain on my uniform, something’s dirty, I don’t have good hygiene, you know, I can understand bringing that up. but the fact that you guys are terminating me because I’m refusing to wear makeup is completely absurd. So anyways, the company is a federally recognized tribe, so because it’s a tribal, it’s federal and no lawyers around here are gonna touch it. So they tried to decline or deny my unemployment, so I went through the fighting process of that and was absolutely not. you guys already terminated me when I thought… Yeah, exactly, go ahead and give me that. So anyways,

Stephanie: I’m putting me in the climate, yeah.

The Spark That Changed Everything

Amanda: Finally was able to collect unemployment, sat on my couch crying, huge depression because I was being my authentic self and I got everything taken away from me. It’s how I seen it. In reality, that’s not what happened. I still had a safe home to live in. My wife worked so we were okay. We were surviving, but it was very, a huge turning point for me in my journey. So at that time I’m in college for criminal justice degree and I’m dead set on being in law enforcement.

That fall I started listening to Jen Centero, You’re a Badass book and it changed my fing life. I cannot express how much that book changed my life. It just allowed me to see things through different lens and I can’t really pinpoint exactly what part of the book happened but something just clicked and I was no fing way. I can actually do whatever I want.

Stephanie: Yeah.

Amanda: I don’t actually have to stay at home sad and depressed. I can go make money without being forced to wear makeup. So I started digging into the law enforcement side of things, finished my, or I got a job at a police department actually as a dispatcher so that I could finish my degree. And then they were going to put me through the police academy. That environment did not vibe with me the way I thought it was going to vibe with me in today’s world.

Stephanie: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: So I started feeling very unaligned. And that sucked. It was really hard to get over that because for so many years I was I’m going to be a detective. I’m going to help women in unfortunate situations due to my past. And it sucked to get out there and realize that that’s not actually for me in this life.

Finding Her True Calling

Stephanie: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: So that was hard hurdle to get over and to get over that I started just kind of cleaning some houses on the side because it brought me joy, it relieved stress and it just started feeling more more aligned. So then a coworker at the police department was talking about her husband, he’s an entrepreneur and she was talking about pros and cons and I was no way, wait, what?

I’m going to come over here and figure out what I can do to be an entrepreneur, right? And she goes, have you ever considered starting a cleaning business? And I was what the f***? No. what do you mean? And she was you were literally stressed out about a call and you started cleaning the dispatch area. It’s instinct to you. You don’t even realize you’re doing it and you start cleaning and organized to make the space around you feel more calm. You’re so intuitive about the energy. And I was holy s***.

I think you’re onto something. And so then I started reflecting back through my ears and every time I’ve had an extremely traumatic event in my life, I counteracted that, not really counteracted, but helped myself through that by doing something for somebody else. And I was oh s***, I think you’re onto something. So then that led to spring of 2020, right as COVID’s hitting.

Amanda: put in a vacation request for that August, so it’s four or five months in advance, and command staff says, yeah, we don’t have enough staff to approve this. So my vacation got denied, and I was actually, f*** this, I’m done. I am sick and tired of being told when I can work and when I can’t. And I earned this vacation, it’s part of the job, I have PTO, forget it. And so was I’m going to clean.

I don’t know. told Amanda, I was I’m going to start cleaning. I can’t work here anymore. And she was okay, let’s do it. And I was thank God you said okay. Cause I may have already typed up my two week notice and I have to just hit send. I was just waiting. And so I sent that in, finished my two weeks. We bought a house during the same time, our first house. Yeah, it was big. And then COVID really ramped up and shutdown started happening. I was s***.

Stephanie: Thank

Amanda: I just quit my job. When shutdowns are happening, what did I do? And at that point it was very much you have no f***ing choice. You’re gonna make it. And I’ve always kind of had that, I call it a hustle mentality. Make it work. Figure it out. I’m very good at analyzing and making adjustments. okay this didn’t work out, what can work? What else can we try? I’m actually an experimenter is my human design so it makes sense that I’m very much this did not work out let’s try something else we’ll figure it out. So yeah and now here I am six years later, whole ass cleaning business owner.

The Path to Entrepreneurship

Stephanie: That’s amazing. one, I’m so sorry some of these challenges have come your way. And also noting it’s interesting how you had multiple different places of employment who were just trying to control you so much in really f***ed up ways and just showing almost the clear path for you is entrepreneurship.

time after time we have multiple iterations of, no not that, you’re gonna do what I say, you’re going to, no you don’t get to have the vacation that you were entitled to with the PTO because we are, you know, our s***’s not together. So many things where it’s just oh here’s your path. So I mean, oftentimes I know for myself, and maybe this is just trying to find meaning and meaninglessness, I’m not sure, but I certainly, whenever I look back at the path that I walked and all of this, ridiculousness that happened. It’s well, that all had to happen. Amanda had to go through these crazy challenges in order to be painful enough to cause you to do this because you you start cleaning on the side, nothing was painful enough for you to take that leap until this vacation thing happened, right? And then it’s boom, this is the push that you need it, right?

Amanda: Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah, and I’m a huge huge believer. So when my spiritual journey started when I started reading those gents and chair books That’s when I say that was the start of my spiritual journey. I started digging into more inner healing and Just looking back at my life and all of the things that had to happen to land me where I am and I’m No, literally nobody on the face of the earth can tell me that I wasn’t f***ing born to do this I’m oh dead set

Stephanie: Mmm.

Amanda: This is what I’m here for. And I just, the way that I can pull energy into it, which I know is a little bit woo woo for some people, skip past it if you don’t want to hear it, but the way that I can pull that into cleaning business ownership is incredible. And I know I’m here for that. I also think I had to experience those things, not only to be an entrepreneur, but to be a good leader, a good bot.

Family first is something that you and I have in common with our companies and I’m very, very micro compared to you. There’s four of us right now and that’s including my back end team and one cleaning tech. I still clean throughout the week.

Stephanie:Ccleaning. I’m driving up to Wisconsin to clean my ass off. So don’t worry.

Amanda: Good, I’m so glad that that’s still real. Yeah, it’s but I don’t remember where I was going. What was I saying?

Creating a Better Work Environment

Stephanie: Well, let’s see, we’re talking about family first and that all of, so I think I understand what you’re trying to say is your previous experience have shaped how you then now run your company. And that’s how for me too, I had these s***ty experiences at former employers and I’m wait, I get to completely control the culture and how people are treated here. We’re gonna do the opposite of that.

Amanda: Yes.

Amanda: Yes, exactly. I am never going to have somebody go sit on their couch and cry for weeks and weeks because they feel worthless because they didn’t put makeup on their face. F*** that. It is 2025. We are not doing this s***.

Stephanie: Yes, ma’am.

Finding Your Calling and Creating Meaning

Yeah, yeah. And I really have so much in common, it’s almost eerie because when you say I truly feel the same way that is what I was put on this earth to do. I was born for this, right? And so when you have that kind of mentality about we found our calling of this is what we were led to do. And the beautiful thing is, I love that you said you can basically, input meaning or input the energy behind that into everything that you do. And this is kind of how I see our roles as leaders in our company is okay, you have all these people that are showing up to clean houses, right? That sounds fairly meaningless. But it’s our jobs as leaders to be no, actually, we’re changing lives. And this is so important. And every single day that you show up matters. It matters so much. In fact, that we’re going to do all of these things to show you how much we appreciate you. so I really think that that’s our role is to be kind of the cult leader or visionary in the best of ways. we need to get our people to drink the Kool-Aid, right? And again, probably not literally don’t kill anybody, but they need to be, you know, rowing in the same boat, as I say, and rowing in the same direction in that boat. You have to be a really, really good captain in order to be able to inspire. What a lot of people would say is drudgery work, is monotonous, it is not important. So how do we make them feel that is important? And there’s a variety of ways that we can do it. But first and foremost, we need to feel this is our calling and this is our meaning. And clearly that’s how you feel.

Amanda: Yes, exactly. I really so my spiritual side of things and pulling in energy into it I’m very big into my human design and astro astrology and astro planning and so I plan my business around astrology and people are you do what and I’m no listen when mercury’s in retrograde I will not sign a new contract. I don’t give a s*** I will not do it. I find tooth comb everything during certain times because that’s just, it’s just how my brain works and my soul feels so aligned with that. so backstory, I used to not be this. actually in so 2020 is when I started the business, 2021, end of 2020, I had a helper and 2021 I got five helpers and I ran with a team of four to five.

Stephanie: Okay

Stephanie: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: And we all went to every single house together because I was scared s***less to let anybody else have my baby’s name. this is my baby. I’ve raised it from literally just hours on my days off, you know? So I was scared to let anybody come in and do anything that could ruin it. I ended up running myself into the ground. I lost my ass and money. I was burned so many times by so many people.

And so it kind of feels this is actually why I reached out to you however long ago it was and started following you. It feels I’m at a point right now where it’s almost a clean slate to start growing and scaling, but not do it the way I did it in 2021 when I was fast, warm body, let’s go clean this bathroom. I had to go through all of these entrepreneur struggles in the first five years. to really grasp what the f*** I’m doing. And now I’m okay, I’m here. I’ve learned the hard lessons. I know I’m gonna come across other ones, but I feel so mentally prepared. I have goosebumps. So mentally prepared to be able to handle them calmly without, my God, the whole world is burning down around me reaction.

Ready for Growth and Scaling

Amanda: And now I’m let’s go, let’s f***ing go. I feel it’s scale time because I just have a better mindset now. My mindset game is so much stronger. My work-life balance is on point. Some days I’m working 15 hours, but then I’ll take another day off where I just focus on my home life and myself. So I don’t know, it just feels it’s time. And I’m let’s go.

Stephanie: Yeah, I’m so happy that you said all that. It’s very interesting because, you know, I’ve talked to a lot of our listeners privately, whether that be email or whatever, and obviously you have talked to, but just this week, I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had related to what you just described of kind of rapid learning. And you know, you’ve done this over five years and learning from our mistakes and you have regardless of what everybody’s path is, we have to go through some painful learning. And that’s what I was saying at the beginning of you can’t just study this, you have to be in it because that’s the only way, the only path is through it, not over it, under it, whatever. You have to go through it and depending how fast you learn will determine what’s next. so how fast can we learn from the lessons being thrown at us and staying.

Amanda: Yeah

Stephanie: Encourage not quitting while you’re in the s***hole basically, the trenches as I think of it. also I that you’re you know, I’m ready. I’m, I’m of the mindset now to have the growth and things that. Because if, if we were to, I just had a consulting call yesterday where it was, it was that kind of thing. She’s actually pretty much right. where you are same similar size. And she’s I can’t get past this, you know, and I’m well, you shouldn’t want to because if we if we were to add 10 cleaners to you right now, everything would break because the systems aren’t correct. Right. So we need this stronghold of really foundational systems so that when we do scale, nothing breaks, right? Or little things break, not the damn thing. Right. So it sounds you’re really focusing on on so many things and, and improving a lot of systems. And obviously, we’ve gone back and forth on a bunch of things. I would love to talk about a couple of the improvements that you’ve made just from our discussions in the past couple months. is there anything that stands out with you?

The Game-Changing Impact of ZenMaid

Amanda: Yeah, definitely. to start this year, so last fall, actually, I started following the cleaning business mentor, Carolyn Arellano. Yeah. OK, so all winter I binged everything. was I feel so in tune with this person. There’s golden nuggets here everywhere. And I just picked and grabbed. And that’s how I learned about ZenMaid. Praise be. Holy cow. If you guys are listening and you are not using ZinMaid, please just go use it. Go do the trial. you literally have nothing to lose and I’m telling you. So January our income, our revenue was around $4,000. February is when I started my trial and started slowly integrating, which by the way, integration process is much faster through ZinMaid than anything else I’ve ever used.

Stephanie: Hmm? Hmm?

Amanda: March is when we fully started using ZintMade and our income was $9,872 and in April we hit $10,000. That was my first $10,000 month and I was no effing way holy crap this is incredible the time that it takes some focus to be able to go through all the settings and make sure that it sounds you it’s so important.

Stephanie: Double, hm?

Amanda: Go through those settings and make sure your automation sound you and your company. But once you take the time to do that, I haven’t sent a reminder since then because it’s automated, it’s beautiful. So then.

Stephanie: Yeah, I know what you mean. Is there any for me, I obviously I use it from day one. So I wasn’t doing anything manually to begin with. So I, don’t even know how bad I can hypothesize how bad it would be. I guess what’s stood out for you? Was it the appointment reminders? Was it what exactly do you utilize it for?

Amanda: Yeah, so I mean, we use it to its max and I use chat GPT and I’m can you please analyze any news and made updates and show me how I can. I don’t play I if I’m going to use something, I want to use it to its maximum benefits for my business and my life in general. So we use it for scheduling and for the appointment reminders is the biggest thing that saved me time and it tells me how much time it sent saves me sending that stuff. I’m Hair flip, yes it did. heck yeah, it just saved me three hours. So before this, was literally, so we used Square before this. And before that, I used pen and paper and was okay, on Sunday you need to text these seven people and remind them that they have appointments at this time. You know what I mean? burnout, not reasonable. And I’m such a systems person that I was I can’t.

Stephanie: I got it. Yes. Mm-hmm.

Amanda: function this anymore. there has to be a better f***ing way. Insert square then insert ZenMaid which totally stomped square. was my gosh, this is incredible. And so.

Stephanie: I think it where Oxford’s scheduling, I mean, it’s a payment process here, so I didn’t realize that it would do any of that stuff.

Amanda: Amanda: Yeah, so they have an appointments. didn’t that. So inside ZenMaid you access everything in one hub in Square. I have to have five different apps. Square team for my staff, Square payroll, Square appointments, and then Square for processing. And I was just invoicing and I was my gosh, I’m in the day cleaning 30 houses a week. I don’t have time for this.

Stephanie: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: So I love that about ZenMaid, everything’s all in one place. It’s incredible how calm I feel about running the back end of my business now for the first time in this is year six. And I’m I don’t feel I have to put a lot of energy into it. And that’s great because now I feel I have energy to grow and scale, which is where we are now.

Stephanie: Yeah, taking away the, I don’t want to say nonsense, but nonsense manual labor, meaning sending out manual texts or manual emails or whatever. It’s there’s no reason anybody should be doing that. zero reason at all.

Amanda: Yes.

Amanda: 100 % it’s uncalled for and sure it’s easy to keep track of if you are I’m a tracker I have spreadsheets galore very type a so it’s easy for me to track that stuff but the fact that it took me 45 minutes to sit down every week when that 45 minutes could have been reading my favorite book in my library or having a drink on the the patio you know there’s just different things in life that could have fueled me that wasn’t spending 45 minutes reminding people that they have a freaking cleaning

Implementing Tiered Pricing Strategy

So the newest thing that I started this summer utilizing ZenMaid was the estimate emails. And I was just sending out manual emails to people after they filled out our booking form. And I, you recommended What Should We Do by Joe. And that book flipped how I do everything this summer. I can’t believe. And it’s so crazy because there weren’t even any huge changes. whenever I would give people quotes, I gave them the top tier. this is what we can do for you. We’re gonna get this, we’re gonna get this, we’re gonna get this because people in my area are so used to basic wipe downs. We’ll just that. to set myself apart, I’m we’re gonna tackle that. We got this, we’re gonna handle this. we’ve got you covered top to bottom, left to right, we got it.

Stephanie: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: So I’ve always offered that. And then if people come back and they’re well, that’s out of our price range or we’re not really concerned about our baseboards, then I would kind of lower some things. But often I just didn’t mess with it. So.

Stephanie: So just to give back story, Amanda was kind of explaining her situations with people not necessarily closing. Was that, I can’t remember what triggered me to say this. We were voice messaging back and forth and I’m wait a minute, I read a book that might be something you should try out. It’s not even something I’ve implemented in my business because. My boat takes a lot longer to switch because I’ve brought it up to my managers and they’re we’re not making changes that right now. But for you, this is a very nimble time to make changes to your pricing structures. Or again, I love that you called yourself an experimenter. I literally said that yesterday to Viv, shout out Viv, I know you are. And we talked about see yourself as a scientist and we’re just pulling different variables to see what works, right? And it kind of removes.

Amanda: Yes.

Stephanie: Removes the emotion out of it feeling a failure. It’s that hypothesis didn’t work. Let’s try something else. And so when you were explaining this, I was read this book, see what you think. And so that’s where what should we do by Joe, blah, blah, blah, blah. Joe, I’m sorry, whatever your last name is. I want you on the podcast. Cristaro, Cristaro, think it is. Yes. You’ll see. Great book.

Amanda: Crissara something, yeah. Somebody looked that up and sent him an invite.

Stephanie: So you read it, you immediately start implementing the idea suggested.

Amanda: Yes, I didn’t even finish the book before I started implementing things. It was don’t know, maybe chapter, within the first few chapters, there was a gold nugget and I was no effing way. Holy s***, I have to try this. So I paused the book, I finished my cleaning, I go home and I’m at my computer for two hours and I’m how can I do this? I pull up ChatGTP and I’m pull in Joe’s theories from and practices from this book. Show me how I can implement that today. I want to do it right now.

And luckily, I guess, by the grace of whatever your higher power you believe in, I got a quote request while I was sitting there and I was perfect, perfect, let’s go. So my estimate emails basically went from here’s your option, here’s how much it is, here’s how we proceed to this tiered email that starts out our premium top tier and it’s here’s the price.

Here’s all the tasks we’re gonna tackle for you. Second tier, okay, we don’t have to go that deep. Let’s do this, a middle ground. Okay, we don’t need to scrub that, but maybe we can remove the dust from it at least. Bottom tier, basic wipe down stuff. I have always gone top tier. I never included the middle or the lower options for people, but giving them that option. And then at the end, I used ChatGPT and I said, give me a what should we do.

Stephanie: Yes.

Amanda: Footer for my estimate email. Spit something out. I tweaked it to fit my tone because I’m pretty big on making sure it matches who I am as a person. I want that.

Stephanie: Easy to read it spit out AI so highly recommend everybody tweak

Amanda: Yes, definitely. I tweak it and I’m going back and forth getting it perfect and I add it in and send out the email and they reply the same night and book the top tier. And I’m no effing way. Are you kidding me right now? And so I just keep doing this. And we probably got, we don’t get a ton of requests, which is something that I’m trying to focus on right now. how do we get more requests? Because our closing rate’s awesome now.

The Psychology Behind Effective Sales

Stephanie: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: First I was I don’t want more requests because we’re not closing them and it’s stressful and it’s sad and I’m irritated. So now I’m doing emails this way where they get a tier of different things and every single one that I have sent has gone for the top tier. June and July, every single one. And I’m it’s the same damn information I would have sent you before but something in their brain about seeing a lower option and a lower option.

Stephanie: Parrot.

Amanda: They can see the value that you’re providing in that top tier and they’re hell yeah, I want that. I deserve, I’m worthy of having my baseboards cleaned. I deserve to have clean baseboards. I deserve to have the outside of my cabinets cleaned. Something in that tiered option triggers that in them and they freaking book it. And I’m this is f***ing amazing. I can’t even, I don’t know.

Stephanie: It’s the magic of human psychology is what it’s really missing. I love that, I think that’s what it is. I think you forwarded me on an estimate and I saw that and I’m they’re not understanding the value because we’re not explaining it. And I think right here is mic drop, everybody listen right now. It’s not that people don’t want to pay high prices or what you are worth or X, Y, Z, however you want to phrase it. You’re not selling correctly.

Amanda: Mm-hmm.

Stephanie: You’re not selling the value. And so that’s not on them. Very likely they could go for your top tier pricing, but it’s all in how it’s packaged. And we’re just, we’re just switching the packaging on this present, right? And it worked.

Amanda: Yes.

Amanda: Yeah, it did. It absolutely did. And that’s what Joe really hones in on it on the book is if you’re not a good salesperson, you’re not going to hit the goals that you have. And I think something that’s really hit me this summer is a lot of people want to be a business owner. And specifically speaking to our industry, you know, it really blew up as a low, low cost startup, you know,

Stephanie: entry.

Amanda: But here’s the thing, if you’re really good at cleaning, you might not be very good at sales. You might not be very good at the HR task, running payroll, scheduling. And if you happen to be really good at all of those things, you should absolutely step out of cleaning and do all of those things and have other people help you clean because not everybody can do those tasks, but you can train people to clean.

Stephanie: Mmm.

Amanda: That’s been a big just light bulb on me this summer and I’m right. I’ve been through this for the past since 2020. I’ve learned so much. I’ve changed so much. I’ve adjusted so many things. I finally feel very, confident around our pricing guides. And now the estimate emails are flowing flawlessly and people are booking the top tier every single time for two months straight.

Finding the Right Price Point

Stephanie: means prices need to go up if everybody’s sick.

Amanda: Well, listen, so prices were up and I think I was actually pricing too high for a little while, but I have a little idea to kind of tweak the price a little bit and maybe go back towards that higher end, but put it in this format and see what happens.

Stephanie: Exactly, because it’s was your price too high or was it the format? this again, it’s that whole experimentation mindset of okay, you changed a variable that greatly changed your close rate at this lower price. What happens if we go up a little, little, little, little? Where’s the breaking point, right? And honestly, if you’re telling me everybody’s closing, can we get down to 60 %? Because then you need fewer cleaners to make the same exact amount of money and that’s the ideal.

Amanda: Huh. Yes.

Stephanie: We want to as much money as possible with as few appointments as possible.

Early Pricing Mistakes and Lessons

Amanda: Yeah. And so that’s, I mean, we’re at, I mean, if you’ve seen the schedule and the numbers right now, you’d probably, I don’t know what your reaction would be actually, but it feels very, when I first started my very first client, I literally did a walkthrough at her house, not knowing s*** what I was doing. I don’t know how to do a walkthrough, but I’m going to show up and talk to you and pretend I do. I let her tell me how much she wanted to pay for her cleaning. She was well, how much are you going to charge? And I was well, how much do you want to pay for this work? And she said, 20 bucks an hour for about three to four hours and I said I’ll be here Tuesday what that is not how we run s*** not at all

Stephanie: Yep.

Well, that’s, I most of us, it’s nothing to be ashamed about because it’s how could you possibly know, especially coming from an employee mindset, we all for the most part came from being an employee somewhere. And so it’s really hard to conceptualize. And I remember, I mean, I’ve told about so many times of I started out at 30 an hour and just heart pounding, nobody’s going to take it, nobody’s going to take it. What is wrong with you? we’re in a rural area.

That’s crazy for cleaning, why would anybody pay that? All of this noise in my head saying, you are not worth that, how dare you, basically. And so now learning and doing the, and painstakingly doing price increases for years and years and years, where it’s just gosh, you could have made such an impact if you just were at 40 an hour when you opened, you know, but you live and you learn and honestly.

Amanda: Huh. Right.

Amanda: Mm-hmm.

Stephanie: There’s lot less pressure at those lower prices, because you can fail and it’s not so high stakes. I mean, it’s still a lot of money for somebody to pay. I’m not trying to take that away or anything that. But now that we’re at, you know, whatever, 50, 55 an hour, we gotta be f***ing perfect because people are when you pay more, you expect more, right? And so if we’re gonna be all demanding what we’re worth, you know, whatever that means, that we, the phrase that we all use, but.

Amanda: All right.

Amanda: Yeah.

Stephanie: can’t necessarily explain that. We will, we are all trying to charge what the market will bear. That’s how I see it. And so whatever the market will bear, it’s hard to know if our sales are sty, because our sales skills are sty, rather, because it’s okay, is it because nobody will pay these prices, or because they don’t understand the value, or they are comparing us to individual cleaners. And they’re it’s apples to apples. And we’re no, no, no, that is a that’s a tangerine.

Amanda: Nobody can define that though.

Amanda: Huh.

Amanda: Yes. Yes. 100%. Yes. And I have such a mindset of,

Competition and Staying in Your Lane

Stephanie: We are a honey crisp apple, right? And both are delicious and have wonderful things, but we’re different, right? And there’s a reason you should go for the honey crisp, right?

Amanda: I’m not in competition with any of the local cleaners in Joplin area. I hope you all thrive. There are so many humans in our area. There’s plenty of work and that doesn’t even take into commercial accounts. There’s so many houses that need clean. There’s so many buildings that need cleaned. If there’s a building, it needs cleaned. There’s plenty of work for all of us and I feel that sets me apart because I don’t get honed in or sucked into what they’re doing.

Stephanie: Exactly.

Amanda: I lost a client three months ago because I couldn’t tell them what my competition does and why I’m different. And I was my competition is actually me from May of 2024. right now in July, I want to do better than I did July of 2024. I don’t know what they’re doing. I’m not focused on that. I’m watering my own yard. If you use that saying, I just don’t focus on that. And so it’s just, it’s very interesting.

I guess to see how people can get sucked into comparing themselves, you know? And I think that’s one of my biggest pieces of advice is just stay in your lane and focus on you and yours. Don’t don’t stress about what they’re doing.

Stephanie: Yeah.

And I’ll say just from personal experience of I’m aware of our competition, I’m cognizant of it, more so as fuel of I have to keep improving SereneClean so that you can never get complacent. that, so you can definitely notice them, yep, they’re there. But what else can you do other than control your own business? Are you gonna mail them poop on fire? No. So then don’t worry about them. We’re not gonna do that.

Amanda: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: Exactly.

Stephanie: So we’re not gonna egg their house. So if we’re not gonna do that, then what can we do, which is pour into our business and focus on how can we be the best SereneClean ever? Because if we’re the best SereneClean ever, then competition doesn’t matter. And you said, there’s enough business to go around. And I know a lot of you guys are terrified of your cleaners leaving and taking clients. happened to me, it’s happened, it will happen to all of us at some point. But let’s just keep this in perspective, most likely.

Amanda: Yes.

Amanda: Yeah.

Stephanie: I mean, and some of you have came from this, you are who I’m talking about right now, you’ve done that. And so none of this is said with judgment. This is just a fact of the matter that there’s a lot of times how cleaning businesses start or individual cleaners start, they come from another cleaning business and they sometimes take clients with them. And at the end of the day, most likely that person will not be hiring. And if they try it out, it’s not gonna work out. So say they are full time, they are hungry, they wanna get as many clients as they physically can handle.

What are we talking? 20 clients. you don’t think that there’s enough business to go around to lose 20 houses. If you’re that scared of that, then you’ve got a sales and marketing problem or you again, what can you do about it but control your own actions? So all of this coming back to you said, stay in your lane, focus on what you can control in our little lotus of control right here. So love that. And so you know, you’ve gone through different, you know, turmoil within the business. I know you lost pretty much everybody, right, and kind of had to start over from the sounds of it, right?

Dealing with Employee Turnover

Amanda: Yeah, yeah. And it was kind of a trickle effect and I didn’t just have five. I probably had 12 people over a two year span helping me, but we ran with a team of five and they ended up leaving for whatever reason, usually not on

Stephanie: this a walkout or what?

Amanda: Well, so yeah, most of them were no call, no show, text me and be yeah, actually, I’m not coming to work. I’m done. quit. none of it was a respectable way is what I’ll say. And I even had a family member, bro. I can’t. I had a family member just text me on a Friday night and was today was actually my last day. I’ve accepted another position.

They had been interviewing and never even had the nerves to be hey, this isn’t working out for me. And I was man, you’re peach. That’s awesome. So happy for you. Let me go put out this dumpster vibe.

The Perils of Mixing Family and Business

Stephanie: Yeah, family, guys, don’t do it. Unless you are willing to throw that family member or friend away, I would suggest do not introduce money. I have had multiple friendships ruined. I’ve had family members or kind of family members. Now it’s a very strained relationship because as soon as we interject money into a relationship, there is a power dynamic and there’s a shift.

Amanda: Mm-hmm.

Stephanie: Right? And all of a sudden they’ll see you very differently. And sometimes it feels very unfair because they simply don’t understand. And that’s been some of my biggest personal growth has been being able to be perceived negatively by people who simply do not understand. And that’s such a hard pill for me to swallow. being misunderstood is one of my biggest insecurities or biggest I just want people to understand that I I’m coming from a good place or to not, you know,

Amanda: Yeah.

Amanda: and

Stephanie: not see me as not how I see myself or whatever. And so it’s really hard when people are you know, and again, they’re your friends, they’re your family, and they’re oh, Stephanie, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I’m you don’t know s***, b****. And that’s what I find when happens. And I’m just so I’ve had to grow a lot of you don’t have to prove yourself to people who are so dead set on misunderstanding your intentions. We don’t have to prove ourselves to them. And it’s so hard not to do that.

Amanda: Yes!

Amanda: Yeah. Yeah, 100%. And I think that mindset, that part of my growth happened probably after I lost all those people. So I lost my last one. Let’s see, 20. My ears are all jacked up. Anyways, a couple of years in business, I lost them all. The last one was actually training to be a manager. She had no plans of leaving the area for at least 15 years. So we felt very confident.

Stephanie: Yep. I know.

Amanda: And she texted me on a Sunday and was hey, I’m not gonna make it to work tomorrow. I actually just packed my car up and moved out of the state. I’m done. s***, first, are you okay? Are you safe? Second, what the hell? And they were all just wild. None of them felt it was leading up to it. You know, I’m just okay, another dumpster fire.

Stephanie: Mm-hmm.

Stephanie: Totally out of the blue.

Learning to Handle Crisis

Amanda: f***ing awesome, I got this. And so I just have a moment. I got that text when I was sitting at dinner with my family member who quit the month before that and I my wife. My wife is sitting across from me. I text her and I say, I need to go to the bathroom and cry for a minute. I am fine. Please don’t ask questions. I don’t want to talk about it in front of family. I’m going to handle it. We’ll talk about it tonight after dinner. And that’s actually back to the beginning of the episode when you asked if she cleaned.

That’s when she jumped in and started cleaning with me because I had a full schedule for a team of three humans and it was me by myself and I was I can move fast and I can maintain quality because it’s my business so I’m not gonna cut corners I know how to do this efficiently but I need another human to at least vacuum the floors anybody who can put the vacuum please come help me so

Stephanie: Yep. Yep.

Amanda: She jumped right in and started cleaning our daughters. She jumped in and started cleaning windows. You know, it was a whole family ordeal for a hot minute. And then things, I did some adjusting on pricing, slight price increase to match some more professional things that I did, making sure we were covered on insurance policies and licensing and things that to make us feel a little bit more legit in my eyes.

That I didn’t have previously. Don’t do that guys. And so I did some pricing adjusting to just fit to make sure we’re still bringing profit in and I lost some clients there which is expected every time you do a price increase expect somebody to not be aligned with that it’s fine. So once I lost some people that were no longer aligned with the business I was okay I think I can do this by myself.

Stephanie: Hahaha

Amanda: So I ran solo again for a year and a half. And I was this is fine. we’re doing okay. This is enough money to coast. And then something clicked in me last, let’s see, May, May of 24. It kind of clicked in me and I was this isn’t, I’m not doing this until I die. this wasn’t the end goal.

Stephanie: Mm-hmm.

Rediscovering Her Vision

Amanda: What is my end goal? And I was F this, want a team. I want to be able to provide a job to people who where they feel safe, where they feel valued, where they feel worthy of their work, where they know that they have the flexibility to care for their family. We homeschool our daughters. So that also plays a really big role in flexibility. I want to be able to provide a place for people to make income and still have a life instead of their life revolving around their job. That’s not what it’s about. And so I was okay, well how the hell do I get to that? I’m so low cleaning, all these houses every single week, I’m dead ass tired. And I was I need to hire. That’s all there is to it. So yeah, we’ve tripled income since 2024 with one hire. And I know, and now I’m okay, she’s been with me 13 months and a week and she has never called out.

Stephanie: It’s amazing.

Stephanie: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: hich is unheard of. Please nobody compare that to your employees because that is literally unheard of.

Finding Your Diamond Employee

Stephanie: you got your diamond, got your crystal. that was my you know, my business in place. She’s about to hit her six years next week. And it’s exactly the same sometimes you just get blessed and you don’t question it.

Amanda: Yes!

Amanda: Yes, exactly. And I just feel I had to go through all of this dumpster fire after dumpster fire after dumpster fire, 90, 80 hours a week, chaos to be able to get here. She just happened to be at the perfect place, perfect time last summer and came to work for me. And now so she’s training to be manager to take over so that I can step fully into CEO and focus on data analysis strategy and really tap into those things that I know I’m good at.

I just don’t have the mental energy right now to focus on it as much. So that’s where we are.

Stephanie: Is that an iPhone? Do you hear that noise? What is that noise? just a second. What is a notification that I’m getting? Un momento.

Amanda: I don’t get

Stephanie: Sorry. It’s our phone system. it was going off, somebody’s calling and we just switched to it. So I’m not familiar with the notification. I’m what is that noise?

You couldn’t hear it, I look a f***ing lunatic!

Amanda: So awesome.

Amanda: S***, that’s so funny.

Stephanie: Great software, but I’m not familiar yet with the calling.

Amanda: Yeah. My god, that’s awesome. I’m I don’t hear anything. I don’t know what’s going on. is there a ghost behind me?

Ready for the Next Level

Stephanie: I’m losing her mind. My grasp on reality is completely gone, but we knew that so. Okay, so you have fantastic hire your you’re transitioning into this kind of operator CEO mindset with just this this focus on you want to grow sky’s the limit kind of thing. And I think that you have gone through so many learning lessons that once you get you know, so many things in place that it’s gonna it’s gonna explode and you’re in the perfect place for that to happen. You know, in I can just tell your your mind’s right, you know, and you’ve also got yeah, because you’re not because you’re not new. You don’t have unrealistic expectations as to the ease of this. it’s a b****, right? What you just described, meaning people quitting last minute, that happens every week for serene clean. I mean, Sunday, somebody did that.

Amanda: It feels.

Amanda: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: Mm-hmm.

Stephanie: Somebody else is calling out every day. I said, I’m about to drive up to Wisconsin in two weeks because my call or my, Hannah, my on-call person who does all my training, she’s gonna be on vacation. So we’re all my managers are cleaning right now. it’s an absolute s*** show. And we’ve never had this happen when we’ve been at this size. And I mean, just tanking revenue, all of those things. it’s exactly that pity party of okay, me being, pissy is not going to solve anything, what can I do? And sometimes that means, you know, getting your hands dirty, literally, you know, and going and doing the work. And honestly, I’m actually really excited about it. I’m very excited to haven’t cleaned them forever. And I think it’s gonna be great to not only for your team to see that you’re willing to do that, but also remind you how f***ing hard this is physically so that you don’t ever get too far away from what people are you are earning.

Amanda: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: Yeah, 100%.

The Value of Getting Your Hands Dirty

Stephanie: Money off of people’s labor. I think once and and for all of our, you know, remote owners or people who aspire to that, or who are just using ICs or whatever, I’m not saying anything negative about you at all. I’m just saying there’s a lot of benefit to be had to go in and get your f*ing hands dirty and cleaning the s*ter, right? There’s a lot of benefits to be reminded of what is this work that we are asking people to do? Because it makes you realize They’re working their asses off so I can live in Savannah, Georgia and frolic about, right? So I need to be appreciative. I need to pay them well. I need to give them all the benefits. need to all of these things. just it’s so visceral when I am physically doing the cleaning, right?

Amanda: Yes, 100 % and I love that. I love that energy about you and I think that’s why I feel so aligned because I’m you are where I aspire to be. I don’t want to live in Missouri for the rest of my life. If anybody listening knows me, I hate the f***ing heat. I hate the sunlight.

Stephanie: yeah, it’s in the Pacific Northwest, right? That’s where you guys wanna be.

Amanda: Yes, yes, I’m trying to move to Oregon, Washington. that’s where I want to live. And will I start a Stove All’s Cleaning Services there? Who f***ing knows? Who knows? But I do know that I have to be able to remember that I will be willing to hop on a plane or drive back to Missouri and help Makaya and the team whenever that happens because she is training to be manager and she’ll have a team underneath her.

Stephanie: Who knows?

Amanda: once we start hiring. So I have all of our client onboarding guidelines finished this week. Next is orientation and hiring. I’m gonna take your advice and do group interviews and then I’m super excited about that. But that’s the next thing.

Stephanie: Yay!

Current Challenges and Strategy

Stephanie: Excited. Yeah, so that’s that’s what the focus is on. there anything that I mean, while we’re while we’re here, anything that you’re well, I got you, Stephanie. What about this? What about this? What about this? Anything come to mind?

Amanda: You know, I think so the struggle right now is I’ve been so good at, okay, this is an issue. We need to find a problem. And right now I just feel I’m being drugged seven different directions. we’re in an area where me and my one cleaner can handle the schedule. And we’re also in a space where she can handle probably about 80 % of the schedule solo. so right now, starting in July, so we’re 11 days in,

I’ve scheduled her majority solo cleans and I’m only going with her if they’re a deep clean or a new client cleaning so that I can spend more time in the office trying to nail down the client onboarding and signing up for a sign request and just getting everything systemized because I feel I’ve got to have all of that foundational stuff set before I start asking the universe, please send me 50 clients next month because right now our numbers, you’ll probably die. We’re at 10, 11 recurring clients, 11. And we’re averaging eight to nine one-time cleanings a month. So 20 clients. Our recurring clients are I think we have two weeklies, a lot of bi-weeklies and two monthlies.

Stephanie: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Stephanie: So and again, what your average MRR is monthly recurring revenue or just monthly revenue in general.

Amanda: we’re hitting around 7,000 average right now. We hit 2,000 and we started the year at, what was it, between 3,500 and $4,000. So we have decent revenue for the amount of appointments that we’re running right now.

Stephanie: Okay.

Stephanie: No, that’s what I’m saying is your pricing per appointment is stellar. That’s fantastic. And honestly, you once you get you need to hires and you’re just going to be it’s gonna be crazy. Right now It’s tough when you’re doing initial cleans, it’s always going to take two people deep cleans. It’s always going to take two people because obviously you’re running solo model because that’s that’s the option here. And I still run solo cleaner model, you know, except on those big cleans. But

Amanda: Yeah.

Amanda: Okay.

Stephanie: I think once you get your hiring systems in place and you get, things are about to explode because getting to, as you know, getting to even four or five part-timers, all of a sudden we’re talking significant amount of revenue compared to where you are. And so you’re building a really strong foundation. It’s gonna take off, especially you’re getting your closing really good and your sales really good. So now it’s okay, you’ve got increasing the amount of leads, which there’s a lot of,

Amanda: Yeah.

Stephanie: A lot of levers you can pull for that. That’s not really a problem. So yeah, I’m excited. are, we’re in the precipice. I wanna talk, we’re gonna do another recording in three to six months and s***’s about to go down and I’m so excited.

The Tipping Point

Amanda: Yes, let’s go. Yeah, I literally feel I’ve been on this uphill climb since 2023 ish and I’m right at the tip and I’m it’s just gonna take one push to be let’s go on this roller coaster. Because

Stephanie: You’ve ever heard the analogy, sorry to interrupt, but what you’re making me think of is when I was in middle school, we did this little experiment, I guess, in science class, and I don’t remember what the lesson was at all, but this is what I take from it. So you take a penny and you drop droplets of water on the penny. And you keep dropping, you keep dropping and nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens until finally there’s this bubble on the penny and you finally do that one less drop and it just explodes over the penny and the water just comes out. But the point being is it didn’t look anything was happening until that final drop. And I’ve heard the same kind of thing said about the freezing point of you don’t.

Amanda: Yes.

Stephanie: See the water freezing until you hit that, it took every single step until that. all of these metaphors are trying to say you have been building this thing. It’s hard because you’re not seeing the result necessarily that you are envisioning, but you have to do all of these things first. And then you’ll see it’s not instant gratification. so, you know, motivational Stephanie here, it’s you need to do all of these steps and you will not see a result. But then all of a sudden it’s that you said, a roller coaster, you’re a and then it’s whoa.

Amanda: Yeah.

Stephanie: That you said, a roller coaster, you’re a and then it’s whoa.

Amanda: Yes, exactly. so I mean, I feel right now if I were to hire somebody, I mean, I don’t have the hiring onboarding orientation stuff ready, but it feels I don’t have enough leads coming in to be able to do that. My closing rate’s great, but we’re getting, I think this week we had, we had two leads this week. Last week we had one, and today’s a follow up for our second lead for this week, because I have them scheduled after a certain amount of days to follow.

Stephanie: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: With them. So we just I don’t want to put this out into the universe, but we don’t have enough leads to hire, but I also don’t have, if I get a ton of leads and close them, I’m not going to have enough people to clean.

The Solution: Hire Now

Stephanie: Yeah, so this is, I mean, for me, it’s clear cut, you need to hire a part timer that is very good with flexible hours. So maybe 15 to 30 hours a week, they don’t care or whatever that thing is, you need a very part timer that gets you off of the initials as well. You can load them up in case that influx happens. So I would say you need to start hiring, don’t worry about the leads. Do not worry about the leads because think about training is gonna take a while, they most likely aren’t going to work out.

I’ll put that out for you. They’re not going to work out. Whoever you fall in love with, not going to happen. hire somebody. And again, you don’t, they don’t get hours until they’ve made, made it through training. And then you get a fire under your ass to get new clients. So it’s good to have that. You don’t even know if they’re going to show up yet. So don’t worry about getting, don’t worry about filling their schedule. Worry about getting a quality person more so is, what I would be doing if I were you, especially because you’re one hire

Amanda: Right. Yeah.

Amanda: Yeah.

Amanda: Right. Yeah. Right.

Stephanie: She’s already full pretty much, right? So that, that’s the trigger. If your cleaners are full or say, 80 % full, you need to start hiring now because it’s not you put it out tomorrow and you get somebody, very unlikely that that’s gonna happen. So this may take a while for you to find the perfect person. So because you’re not feeling this holy s***, I got so many leads in panic hiring.

Amanda: Okay.

Stephanie: This is actually the perfect place to take your time and figure it out. So that’s what I would be doing.

Amanda: There it is. Look at that, there it is. Yeah, for sure. so actually we run teams of two. That’s the model that I really. I just have her doing so low so that I can step out and get some onboarding foundational s*** done. So I could even bring somebody on part time to match her hours and just be with her. And then I don’t need any new leads. It’s the same schedule working. It just pulls me out of the field so that I can get this s*** going for sure.

Stephanie: Exactly. And then if one of them has to call out or whatever, you’re not getting pulled in, there’s your buffer. So yeah, you need to hire a girl. Hey, awesome. Well, I mean, I would love I said, we are absolutely going to be talking again. I know a lot of this was chatting, but that’s it’s my podcast. I’ll do what I want. So I made my podcast.

Amanda: Yeah. Woo!

Amanda: You

Stephanie: If I want to talk about nonsense for an hour, I will. But this was awesome, Amanda. I’m so happy we connected. I’m so happy you reached out to me because we’re just, very kindred spirits. You’re doing this for the right reasons. And obviously people get rid off the wrong reasons. But I really talking to people who are wanting to do this for the right reasons and who care very deeply, not only about

Amanda: Yeah.

Stephanie: Their clients, but about their employees and just that this is, they want to make an impact. And the only way we could make the biggest impact is having a team and increasing our reach, if you will. So where can people find you, Amanda, so they can follow along on your journey?

Where to Find Amanda

Amanda: Yeah, so you can follow my personal Facebook. It’s Amanda Lynn Stovall. And then you can follow the business at Stovall’s Cleaning Services, both on Facebook. We have Instagram and TikTok, not as huge a following there. You can check out our website. It’s under construction right now. I’ve taken some of Stephanie’s advice and we are doing a big overhaul. Yeah, we’re doing a big

Stephanie: Yeah, you want me at Lincoln’s. That’s the way.

Amanda: Overhaul there on the website and getting some info there, but it’s still stovallscleaning.com. Yeah, follow along. Come chat with me.

Stephanie: Awesome, everybody, leave Amanda a great big thank you for this awesome episode in the comments. Hit that like, hit that subscribe if you are not subscribed so you can follow along on all of our guest journeys. And we’ll see you on the next episode of Filthy Rich Cleaners. Thank you so much for watching and thank you, Amanda, for joining me. You betcha.

Amanda: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Note: This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• ZenMaid
• “You’re a Badass” by Jen Sincero
• “What Should We Do?” by Joe Crisara
• Carolyn Arellano
• ChatGPT
• Square