More Than A Side Hustle

Reflections: Post-Pandemic World Shifts

April 02, 2024 Anthony & Jhanilka Hartzog Episode 123
Reflections: Post-Pandemic World Shifts
More Than A Side Hustle
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More Than A Side Hustle
Reflections: Post-Pandemic World Shifts
Apr 02, 2024 Episode 123
Anthony & Jhanilka Hartzog

Explore how social media rules might change and celebrate a new family member! Learn about a possible TikTok ban in the US and how it affects creators and users. We'll talk about what Congress decided and how it affects digital culture and data privacy. Plus, find out how COVID-19 changed our lives, from remote work to new norms. Discover how it all impacts our world today!

🌟 Don't forget to drop us a review to support us!
Leave us A Review

---Resources----

Learn how to start and scale a cleaning business without cleaning ANY Houses
Cleaning Business University Course

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Podcast Sponsor:
If you are interested in a spot shoot us an email at info@thehartrimony.com

Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Explore how social media rules might change and celebrate a new family member! Learn about a possible TikTok ban in the US and how it affects creators and users. We'll talk about what Congress decided and how it affects digital culture and data privacy. Plus, find out how COVID-19 changed our lives, from remote work to new norms. Discover how it all impacts our world today!

🌟 Don't forget to drop us a review to support us!
Leave us A Review

---Resources----

Learn how to start and scale a cleaning business without cleaning ANY Houses
Cleaning Business University Course

Follow us on Social Media:
Instagram | Youtube | Facebook | Twitter

Podcast Sponsor:
If you are interested in a spot shoot us an email at info@thehartrimony.com

Speaker 1:

What's going on, guys? Welcome to another episode of the More Than a Side Hustle podcast. If you guys are new here, my name is Anthony and I'm Janoka.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for tapping in week after week, either on YouTube, Apple, Yahoo, Spotify, wherever you listen to us at.

Speaker 1:

We help non-to-fathers create more impact, income and influence outside their jobs.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and if you are following us in any capacity on Instagram or even on YouTube, that you're subscribed. You did see that we recently announced we have baby number two on the way.

Speaker 1:

Yes, you guys got it, you had a delay.

Speaker 2:

You're not clapping, you're staring at the camera. I wasn't sure, and we posted a video about family reactions, so be sure to check that out as well. But what are we talking about today?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so as we're recording this the last couple weeks, congratulations To me To us To us.

Speaker 2:

Okay, why are you?

Speaker 1:

looking at me and we spoke about this in one of the last episodes as well but it's super dope that you're able to see what's happening in our lives real time. You're able to see the growth, the trajectory, things that are changed. Things are getting different. Whatever, it is Like something changed the lighting. Again little bit on mine but I think I still look fine all right.

Speaker 1:

Well, we're just gonna rock out this time okay, you're watching a video or something, just flick or whatever. No idea what's happening, but you get. This is one of the things about a podcast, like, we record these live, so there's not gonna be me sitting here editing this out. No, you get it live direct. The mistakes, the challenges, whatever happens, you get it.

Speaker 2:

So wait, before you go into that, I gotta read my uh review of the week. So thank you to chow. Q090875 continued on. She or he said great podcast. Thank you for sharing and teaching us how to be better. So thank you for writing us that review. We appreciate that. We want to continue to get more of those. Last one was december and then this one popped up like early march, so appreciate that. What happened january, febru?

Speaker 1:

I didn't ask for many reviews.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm asking here, so thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 1:

This lighting adjustment is really bothering me. It did adjust again Because it got brighter outside.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's what it is. It's adjusting with the. It's like you know how the TV, when it's dark, it bright.

Speaker 1:

You know All right you keep the podcast going. I got to fix this.

Speaker 2:

Well, we were going to bring up the fact that TikTok is possibly going to be banned from America and recently the vote was a landslide, with Congress voting in favor to ban TikTok. They basically said that either the company sells it, I guess, to us us being America or it will be banned on all, like Apple, google Play. You won't be able to purchase it anymore. So I was saying, well, I said to Anthony, well, why would they sell this to us? Like how does that, even, why would that make sense? Are we the biggest consumers, we being Americans? And like, maybe that's a good, good question.

Speaker 2:

I have no idea of the stats, of the numbers, because, as we know, tiktok TikTok is a worldwide thing and the impact that that has. I know a lot of people were speaking about the impact that has on creatives and people that have blown up from TikTok and that we know from TikTok. What does that do to them and their following? The hope is that they have built things outside of that or that they at least have a YouTube or Instagram or just other ways email list, that type of stuff that people can tap in with them. If they do not, oh yo, what's going on, guys, did you?

Speaker 1:

know we own a seven-figure cleaning business and we use that business in order to pay off 114,000 dollars of debt. We use that business to help us travel more, save more money and eventually become financially free. If any of that sounds good to you, check out Cleaning Business University, where we teach you how to launch and scale a six now seven-figure cleaning business, and the best part about it is that you do not have to clean homes yourself. I know that sounds crazy, but check out Cleaning Business University. We give you more in-depth information about that. Check it out and we will see you on the other side that's kind of like a full change in finances in life.

Speaker 2:

I saw a creative say follow us on snapchat, which snapchat still around well, I've seen people coming back on snapchat. I was gonna say I saw people coming back on snapchat so I think it's becoming a bit more popular again, but I don't think it compares to instagram and tiktok at this point.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, that's's. So you asked why would they sell? So one of the reasons if you're so my thing is, I think we don't want TikTok in the US unless we own it, because you said they want the data.

Speaker 1:

Like we have the meta, we have, like we have everything essentially that we need here and we don't get any data from TikTok, us being the US. So the way they built the tiktok platform is that they were like I, just like most platforms, they go through these cycles where they want to get as many users on there as possible. So, like when you first got on tiktok, you know, a couple years ago, you post something and you go viral like that was the thing, like they wanted. Oh, you could get easy credibility, you get easy fame, you know insta stats, whatever, and essentially people get on tiktok like yo, I'm gonna blow up on air. So a lot of people kind of create their name from tiktok.

Speaker 1:

So the problem is that we don't have, we don't own any of that data in the us. You know, we're all about data. We want to control it, want to manage it, we want to essentially use it for whatever we're going to use it for. So if china did, or the owner of tiktok or whatever, whoever owns it, whether it's a personal, individual, team, company, whatever it's out to sell it to us, they would need to decide, okay, well, I'm selling it to them because yeah, I'm selling it because us is my biggest market.

Speaker 1:

If I can't be my biggest market, I'm wrapping this thing up, and that would be the only reason they would sell it, or they would just say f off us and keep this thing pushing now I I don't know that I feel like tiktok should oh necessarily be banned completely.

Speaker 2:

However, I think there should be some regulations around it, simply because I feel I think I've mentioned this before me as an adult, I indulge in tiktok a lot and it is very, let's say, addicting. You can be on that thing. If you not on tiktok, stay off. You can be on that thing. If you're not on TikTok, stay off. You could be on that thing forever because it just keeps going. It feeds to you exactly what you want to see and read and engage in. So I think that there should be some type of limitations, particularly with the kids, because I'm like, as adults, if we're doing this, what does this do to our children, teenagers, et cetera, et cetera. So, in some form, there should be, I don't know, a cutoff, something to control TikTok in some capacity, but I guess, because America doesn't own it, they can't control anything. So they're like let's just ban it altogether.

Speaker 2:

On top of what you said with the data part probably.

Speaker 1:

So why would it be up to TikTok to regulate your children's behavior? Wouldn't that be?

Speaker 2:

on you? Wouldn't that be on you? Wouldn't that be on you as a parent? Yeah, but how much regulating are people able to do, really, when your kid may be at school at 8 hours a day?

Speaker 1:

There's not much regulating.

Speaker 2:

Take it off their phone, block it Right. There's options there. There's options, but how much people one are really doing that and how much kids are actually sticking to that?

Speaker 1:

I think that if Alani got to the age where we had to regulate her social media, we would absolutely do that. I wouldn't expect TikTok or Facebook to put something in place that says a kid can only be on here eight hours. It would really be on us as parents to regulate that.

Speaker 2:

Some type of limitation. I mean, that's the same thing with YouTube, right? I mean, people say that they're watching YouTube kids, and then the commercials are what you call it. The ads that come up are not for kids, technically. Who are you blaming then? You blaming YouTube or you blaming?

Speaker 1:

yourself. I'm blaming me because if you do, if you go to YouTube for kids, youtube is kind of regulating a little bit, but you could set parameters on if you want to pay for not having commercials, you want the YouTube premium, you want all this other stuff. So I think, as parents, we would have to regulate that more than the application itself, cause things are still going to slip through. Are you going to sit there and blame TikTok?

Speaker 2:

Not forever. I don't agree that it's all on them, but I feel like, because of the way the platform is set up, it still should be something in place for kids, cause that's of stuff. So that's just a conversation. I don't feel like they should ban it because I actually love the app. I find it to be one of my favorite apps. It's basically Twitter and TikTok for me.

Speaker 1:

But that's where we are at this point. I actually hate it.

Speaker 2:

Well, you don't, you don't watch it, you don't hate it, that hate it.

Speaker 1:

That's a strong word, you don't hate it.

Speaker 2:

I don't enjoy tiktok at all, but you be on it.

Speaker 1:

What do you mean? I don't send you tiktok. So I'm on tiktok because you send me videos, but I'm not on tiktok because I'm consuming content. I I really, if you look on my app, let's actually pull it up right now.

Speaker 2:

Well we can't tell we're signing on to the same thing.

Speaker 1:

No I could go to my app screen time, oh, and see how long and see how long I actually spend on on tiktok I go through waves.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes it's like, oh, I'm over it, and then sometimes I'm like on it, on it, this week I think I'm on it.

Speaker 1:

I go through waves of a website and activity instagram messages, mail x, youtube, nike run slack, facebook safari podcast photos, whatsapp settings Google Maps week or in general, threads this week music weather, my weather app. I'm on there longer than I'm on TikTok my weather app, so whatever that gives you any indication on my time. On TikTok it says about five minutes a day.

Speaker 2:

That's you, but the rest of the world is on it.

Speaker 1:

I'm not everybody. I'm on my weather app longer than I'm on TikTok.

Speaker 2:

What are you doing? Checking just to run, probably with the weather app. But either way that is what's happening in the world on TikTok and let's see, let me go. What are we talking about today?

Speaker 1:

So we were going to be talking about March, march, 12th March, something. 2020 was the time, the year, the month, that everything changed the date. The date everything changed for the world, the entire world.

Speaker 2:

So we just wanted to discuss what has changed in our lives or the world since the pandemic started. You were like what happened in March of 2020?

Speaker 1:

The pandemic happened.

Speaker 2:

The pandemic happened. We are four years after. It's kind of like at least for me, uh, similar to like september 11th, like you won't forget it ever. You remember where you were when they announced it, so on and so forth.

Speaker 1:

So and what reminded us of this? Well, what reminded me of this was, if you guys watch the NBA, rudy Gilbert is always the, the, the dog, the, the taste, the, the, the, the monkey, whatever you want to call him, the test dummy, and for this month, for the rest of his life. So he was, he got injured and it was like march is just not his month. I was like, wait, what? I didn't have to do anything. They went back and I said, oh yeah, so if you guys don't know, um, he's a, he's a player in the nba and this month he was literally the indicator of the pandemic. Now I want to give you guys some context.

Speaker 1:

So the pandemic in the US was not a real thing. Quote, unquote, because everything was still happening. So the NBA sports, everything was still going on. Right, rudy Gobert, excuse me, he was on an NBA stage doing his interview and it was about the pandemic and he literally coughed on the mics. It's like a joke, like, oh, pandemic, we're all healthy NBA players. He coughed on the mics as like a joke, like yo, pandemic, we're all healthy NBA players. He coughed on the mic like literally as a joke.

Speaker 2:

I mean, it's just nasty. First of all, number one nasty.

Speaker 1:

He's also not from here, so his sense of comedy might be a little bit. Last name Gobert.

Speaker 2:

I mean people have last names that are born here, like Hartzog right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he literally coughed on the mics and that next week the nba was shut down in march. That was when we said, okay, the, the, the pandemic is real and he was like the indicator of the pandemic in the us because the nba shut down right after that well, I, I just think about he.

Speaker 2:

I think we'll always look at, well, who didn't get COVID right? I think we'll always. It has changed how, maybe, we view people coughing. It has changed how we view sickness. It has changed the conspiracy theorists went crazy. It just has changed how we operate, I think, maybe being a bit more respectful of people's space because we're mindful the conspiracy theorists went crazy. It just has changed how we operate. I think, maybe being a bit more respectable of people's space because we're mindful to wear a mask. I think we had a doctor's appointment and Tony was asking did doctors always wear masks? I'm like, yeah, actually they always wear masks when they're doing certain things. Yeah, because that's how they protected themselves. And Asians, they wear masks because that's what they know. That's what they do back home not every asian country, obviously, but that's what they did. So now it's like a cultural thing that we wear a mask, maybe if we're not feeling well or in different settings where we're hesitant about things. So that was a shift.

Speaker 2:

Um, seeing the world actually shut down, I think was nothing that anybody has ever imagined happening. I mean, yeah, what does that even mean For me? I felt like it was serious, which is, I think, march 12th, 11th, whatever the date exactly was when New York shut down, because, if you didn't know, we're from Brooklyn, new York, but we live in Dallas, texas, and to me, new York, but we live in Dallas, texas, and to me New York doesn't shut down for anything. We always make those jokes, or you see those memes, that we was going to school in six feet snow, there's nothing shutting down, so the school is shutting down and sending their teachers home.

Speaker 2:

I'm like this is maybe bigger than we think and they thought at the time, well, it would just be maybe a a few days, a few weeks, and so on and so forth. So I think those are some of the major or the indications of the change when it was all kind of happening, or it was happening pretty quickly, to be honest, in other countries, and then the first person in seattle had got it. We were actually away, we were in morocco for a wedding at that time and the only english channel was cnn and so I had it on and he used to be like you have to turn this thing. I mean, it was, it was all they were talking about, so we're like dreaming about it at this point to the point. They were like, should we go back home earlier?

Speaker 1:

and I think four days after coming back into this country, the world shut down yeah, while we were, while we were in morocco, it really wasn't a thing over there. While we were in Morocco, it really wasn't a thing over there yet, because we were at a wedding, we was having a good time. But we knew that the shift was happening, because the only news station we got was CNN. But we just saw little dots popping up on the map. First case here. First case here. People were like it's nothing more than a common cold. So what are we really going crazy over?

Speaker 1:

But the challenge was when you saw people getting hospitalized and it really got scary when hospitals were overran with patients who have COVID it's like, okay, what is this? Number one Is it a cold? Is it not? Is it respiratory? Is it stopping your heart? Is it stopping your heart? Is it stopping your lungs? And then we had some cases where in the US, it was like, oh yeah, now athletes are getting COVID. So first it was like old people, overweight people right, it was just people who were on the extreme spectrum You're extremely overweight or you're extremely old, your immune system's low. And then we saw athletes getting it. So when we saw NBA players, we saw soccer players getting it and they were becoming sick, we was like okay, anybody can get COVID.

Speaker 2:

It doesn't just impact Because you know, I think in America you put athletes and celebrities on a different pedestal. I don't know if they do that everywhere, but it's kind of. They're not untouchable, but they have means to more things than we do. Yeah, you see a celebrity, yeah, so it's like if a celebrity could get it, then what's the whole WA? We're just waiting for me. Exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1:

So when we saw, when we saw that shift start to happen, then we're like, ok, we're taking this more seriously Because for me, I'm like oh, I run, I work out, I'm healthy.

Speaker 2:

Like I should be. Football players. They run, you know, all these players, all these athletes are getting it now. Okay, and then I think it became. It also felt like, like you said, it felt like, well, it's not going to happen to me, I think at the beginning and I'm like, well, I still have a gym class going on, I still got some appointments. And you're like I think you should cancel that. I don't know that you should be going out based on what they're saying. So it took a while. I don't know.

Speaker 2:

This is for everyone um, to kind of catch up and be like, okay, this is real, this is not a game. You need to keep your butt inside. And part of the change for us that happened with that is we started doing grocery delivery and to this day, we still have our groceries delivered, not necessarily because of covid at this point, but it's just been more convenient, things like that. Like we started it then, um, I'm sure instacart blew up then. I don't know that. I mean people were probably using it, but I'm sure their stocks and everything else went up then because people did not want to go out and do it themselves, because we didn't like. We're like, oh, we have to go walk the dog, make sure you have a glove on to touch the doors going outside.

Speaker 1:

All those things you guys remember that and we're sharing this because this was our experience, but we know that there's so many people out there that can relate to it, because we all went through the same exact thing in this month.

Speaker 1:

In different ways, in different ways and the groceries would be delivered. And you're sitting there washing the bananas and oranges and you're using scrubbing your boxes and I will never forgive you guys. I will never Anyone who's listened to this podcast. If you ran out and grabbed toilet paper. I will never forgive you for that.

Speaker 2:

No one ever told us.

Speaker 1:

Why did we go out and grab toilet paper in the midst of the pandemic? I will never forgive you guys. Maybe that was just absurd. Did you just need to hoard? We're not talking about milk. We're not talking about bread. We're not talking about groceries Meat.

Speaker 2:

We're talking about toilet paper.

Speaker 1:

Why are you running out and grabbing toilet paper? That pissed me off? Maybe you can tell us your reason behind it. Drop your reason. If you're one of them, if you went out and the pandemic, and then we would go.

Speaker 2:

If we did have to go grocery shopping, we would go like seven in the morning or six and like really early and there was a long line outside the grocery store. I guess other people didn't want to re-interact. Thankfully, we didn't face major family changes in regards to people kind of dying from covid. Uh, people we had people that got sick we eventually had gotten, so covid started what in 2020?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I think we both had gotten covid eventually, like december 2022 uh, and I probably had it before then well, okay, well, when we knew was then, when they had the official test down and everybody could get it at their home that's when we really started testing normally yeah, also a big texas that's

Speaker 1:

also a big thing that changed for a lot of people was remote work we talked about oh yeah, we talked about the rise of remote work. But when you were, when you become exposed to something and now that's a normal way of life, you can never go back to seeing the way things used to be. There was this young lady who was. She said she visited a luxury hotel and she was telling her story. I don't know if you said this it might might've been on TikTok, actually but she visited a luxury hotel and she was like I would have never visited this luxury hotel but I decided to splurge on myself. But what came of it was she was sitting at the bar and she overheard a conversation about a, a two gentlemen that were going through a sale of like a, a $4 million asset or something like that. And now she's like I'm tuning into that conversation. Now I can hear it. I know what's possible, you know, because I I hear somebody doing it.

Speaker 1:

So I've never been close to somebody talking about something like that a day in my life. Say, I don't come from money. I know you guys see social media influences. I am not that I just happen to go into this hotel because I had a little bit of extra money in my pocket, um, and then also she sat down with a guy who owned a attractor, something like that, and he owned a multi-million dollar tractor company or something she's like.

Speaker 1:

I am now exposed to these conversations and I'm like my mind is boggled because I've never been this close to someone who's done these things. I can never go back to unhearing it. So during the pandemic going back to what I was saying about remote work, that was something that changed. Everyone's life is like. We are now in a remote world, world where we don't want to go back to the office, we want things delivered fast and we want convenience. And if you want to do some extra credit, take a screenshot of your phone. Or if you're driving in the car, take a screenshot of your, your dashboard, tag us tag us on instagram.

Speaker 1:

Let us know you are tapping in so that we can repost you and show you some love too you can tag us at more than a side hustle podcast or at the heart your morning.

Speaker 2:

We have two ways that you can tap in with us we appreciate it, thank you um. The other thing I think was different was depending on where you lived. So we live in texas and things weren't, as I would say, strict and stringent, as maybe it wasn't in northeast um, definitely not so we were texas and alana were like we were open a bit earlier than most people were right, Most states were, so I think the pandemic started in March.

Speaker 2:

By May things were opening back up, if you will, a bit more restricted. I know changes that happened in New York was the restaurants now were outside, even though it wasn't the warmest they were in the wintertime and all that. They went outside because they wanted to still.

Speaker 1:

That's the most ghetto thing I've seen in my life.

Speaker 2:

They wanted to still operate or they were losing so much money to still operate, and then a lot of them kept it that way, in so much that, so that some streets you can no longer drive down because the restaurants have an extension. So now it's like, oh, now we have more room. So that has been a big change in the world. Here in Texas that wasn't a thing. But I'm trying to think of what other major changes I think that we faced. But I think it depends on one what life was like for you? Maybe for some people, people being in the home setting wasn't a good experience, right, you know, some kids, some people it wasn't good for them to be home all the time. That was another thing. Uh, we didn't have kids at that time, but if you had to be home with your child all the time and remote learning became a thing, that was a mess because no one knew what they were doing.

Speaker 1:

Colleges have not gone back to being normal Universities are not normal today. No college experience, all these things. So you went through. We had a whole generation of kids who didn't go through graduation.

Speaker 2:

You paid the same amount. Who didn't?

Speaker 1:

live on a dorm, who didn't live on a campus, who didn't even get to experience what they went, essentially what the college for. We had a whole generation of people who didn't even walk to the stage and then now, post-pandemic even colleges are not the same today. Like even you know, I went to university at albany and we're still seeing the the effects of that. Like our student life, our greek life. They're like yeah, students are now opting in to live off campus or live remote and not being on campus. Like the campus.

Speaker 2:

Campus life has changed tremendously since then I think this past school year that just started I know a school in new york because my friend works there they just fully became like fully back in in office, in on campus just now last year, like starting september 2023. So when some people are going to listen to this, be like COVID ain't over understood. At this point they are saying which they've been saying for a while it becomes, it has become like the flu. We will see it, probably forever. It will change, it will fluctuate and you kind of deal with it. You get a shot or you don't a vaccine to kind of deal with it. It we understand that and we ain't here to talk about the politics of covid. Just make mainly just how has the world changed? How did our world change the past four years? I think in general, life changes in the past four years, but specifically, how did the pandemic affect things?

Speaker 1:

the pandemic affected um mortgage rates right, yeah, interest rates, people moving interest rates. So we went through two different, two different cycles during the pandemic as well. So we went through the scared cycle. So no one wants to buy anything because no one knows what's happening. So it's like I don't know if I'm going to be able to go back to work, I don't know if I'm going to get fired. So no one is buying anything at the beginning of the pandemic. So interest rates were at 3%. That's when we bought our house during that time. And then you got the end of the pandemic when it's like, okay, things are back to normal. Now we have to make up for the lost revenue, lost income that we had. So now interest rates are a lot higher. So we went through two different phases. We went through a few different economies during this pandemic where you know no one was buying anything. Everyone's fearful for their lives. And then you got the greed cycle, where everyone like oh, we back now we have to make that we lost and now we want everything.

Speaker 1:

So we um, we went through that as well, so we got our house and we got some real estate during that time and then at the end of the pandemic, okay, we slowed down. So that was a huge shift for a lot of people as well. Just that, that fear cycle and then going to that greed side of things where it's like we lost out a lot of time, and then travel is not the same today.

Speaker 2:

Oh, travel, travel is different. A year after the pandemic, prices were really really high at one point and prices were really low, sorry, I think, because they wanted to get people back in. And then it became like whoa, this is the highest we've seen it in years in regards to airplane flights and things like that and hotel. So all of that, I think, impacted us. So I wonder now, inflation and things like that and a hotel, so all of that, I think impacted us.

Speaker 2:

So I wonder now Inflation, inflation. I wonder now, like for our kids, how do we, how will it impact them in the future? Or just has it impacted them now and I think for the past two years? So, when I was, we had Alani in 2022. So when I was pregnant, going through the whole process in 2021, you couldn't go to all the appointments um, only like what they consider major ones checking it, 20 months, scan and delivery. Essentially other than that, I had to go by myself. Um, things are are different now, but I'm just wondering how else would it impact? It impacted how many people could be in the living room in 2022. But four years later, how would it impact our kids? I'm wondering at all.

Speaker 1:

I think especially for kids that will be a history lesson.

Speaker 2:

They'll know that were raised during in the beginning. Oh, they call them COVID babies.

Speaker 1:

That's one of the things. They might have learning challenges or they might have speech challenges, because they weren't talking to anyone Attachment issues, sleeping issues there was a bunch of challenges there. I'm really hoping that this episode doesn't get blocked on youtube.

Speaker 2:

they'd be blocking stuff? Who knew?

Speaker 1:

if you say something, if you use a word too much, that kind of goes against when we use the word. We use a word here a lot, so you should just say vid, yeah, I'm 25 minutes into my podcast.

Speaker 2:

You're telling me this now just thought about that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I'll just save it, if we say so yeah those are some of the changes that definitely and I want you guys to think about that for you know, for your life as well I mean, how else would you say that our life is?

Speaker 2:

you know we spoke about the world changing, but any other way that our life, like like our business, kind of fluctuated during that time but never really took a big plummet, just based on the way that we run our business essentially, and so cleaning businesses were labeled as essential during the pandemic, so we were able to still clean houses.

Speaker 1:

People became germaphobes as well, which is actually a good thing. So the cleaning business, the cleaning industry, took a huge boost. It was a huge boost, but then a lot of people who couldn't adjust to clients canceling or not having clients on the books or having cleaners they had to, you know, sell their businesses or close down a lot of businesses during in general during the pandemic closed down because they couldn't sustain during that time, but we were fortunately enough.

Speaker 1:

We were fortunate enough to be able to sustain through that we just cut back on some expenses.

Speaker 2:

Like we had a va service at at that time where, like we can get the phones, it's not really ringing, the phones aren't really ringing as much, and so we cut back on expenses in some places marketing that type of stuff with the business. But it was able to sustain and kind of take off once we I say open back up, because whatever that really means here Any other way, you would say that it impacted us, I guess in the past four years I just think it's one.

Speaker 1:

I just think one of those. I just think with the uh pandemic it just changed my mindset for everything. It's like you know, working in an office now it just seems like people just want us there. Like I knew for a fact that when, during the pandemic, when we were closing down our office and our teams, when I was working at my job, when our team stats actually went up, meaning we were doing better, and they were still trying to find reasons to come back in, I'm like, oh, it's not even about working remote, it's just like you want us to be physically there.

Speaker 2:

Well, cause, remember a lot of companies. They were losing money on the real estate, that they were money, but they're like come back in to make me feel better.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you're trying to fill an empty void because this building is empty. But at the end of the day, the stats are better. We proved it and it was like, anthony, you still got to get your team back in. It was like, okay, here's what it is, so that would be a major thing too. So, yeah, for us, like we said, the big, uh, we bought a house since then, that type of stuff. So yeah, um, that's it on my part then.

Speaker 2:

All right, guys, well, use this month to just kind of reflect on changes for years is a long time.

Speaker 1:

We are out of it at this point, but I think march is always just that reflection moment where we're like damn, the world really shut down yeah, oh, that was gonna say.

Speaker 2:

That was the last thing that I've seen people have said you know about doing things and moving forward, either in business or in life, but what if the pandemic, something like the pandemic, happens again? I've heard people kind of use that as an excuse but something to stop them. I don't know that we can ever guesstimate that again. So I don't know that I would ever try to operate my life in that way. I mean anything can happen, right, earthquake fire, I. Anything can happen, right, earthquake fire. I mean we don't know. So if you're thinking of life in that way, I understand to be hesitant, but more so, maybe be more prepared if anything like if I didn't have an emergency fund, then maybe I'll know I need to have one because I didn't like that feeling of not knowing what was going to happen with my job, economy, so on and so forth. So maybe being more prepared versus like I'm not going to do something because this could happen again, that would be my only thing.

Speaker 1:

So keep pushing in your day, keep pushing in your life and keep pushing forward.

Speaker 2:

Have a good one, thank you.

Speaker 1:

All right, guys, appreciate you guys tuning in, make sure you like, subscribe, but then, more importantly, share this episode with one person, because the more people we reach, the more people we could teach and help.

Speaker 2:

Take care.

Speaker 1:

All right Later.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for tapping in with us again. As you know, we always ask if you guys can, please, please, go ahead and leave us five-star review. Go ahead and write something if you're enjoying what we speak about, if you listen to us week to week, please be sure to let us know that helps us to continue to grow and for other people to listen to our show as well.

Speaker 1:

We appreciate it.

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