More Than A Side Hustle
More Than A Side Hustle
More Than a Mom: Jhanilka Sharing Her Story on Side Hustle Pro Podcast
Today's episode features Jhanilka as a guest on @sidehustlepro podcast " Side Hustle Pro".
This conversation dives into Jhanilkas side of the story on how things started but also about her journey managing the job , business marriage and being a new mom.
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You're listening to Side Hustle Pro, the podcast that teaches you to build and grow your side hustle from passion project to profitable business, and I'm your host, nikayla Matthews-Okome. So let's get started. Hey friends, hey, today in the guest chair I have Janilka Hartsog. She is one half of the dynamic duo known as the Hartrimony over on Instagram and YouTube, and she is a mother of two from Brooklyn living in Dallas for the past eight years. Together, her and her husband, anthony, are certified side hustlers who paid off $114,000 in debt by doing various side hustles after work at their 9 to 5s. They then started exploring different business ideas and they became millionaires by owning a cleaning business without cleaning homes themselves, and they have taught thousands of students to do the same. In today's episode, you'll hear from Janilka who was five weeks postpartum at the time of this recording, by the way talk about a side hustler and she shares how and why they got started on the side hustle path and the real ins and outs of owning a contractor-based cleaning business and how you can get started owning one as well. She talks about so much more.
Speaker 1:I love this episode. It's like a teaching workshop, real deep dive episode, so I hope you love it. Let's get right into it, janilka, welcome. Welcome to the guest chair. Yes, thank you for having me, of course. Now I am so fascinated by your story, both individually as well as with your husband, and the fact that you are five weeks postpartum and doing this with me. I just have to give you all the snaps. So, thank you. Thank you so so much.
Speaker 2:Yes, I could not miss this opportunity, so I'll be there. I'll be there. My husband can watch the baby. It's fine.
Speaker 1:And that's what I love about y'all Real teammates, as well as partners and loves. So how do you introduce yourself these days?
Speaker 2:So how do you introduce yourself these days? You know it's funny that the way I'm introducing myself is going to be different because just two weeks ago I got let go from my job, so while on maternity leave. So my introduction would have been my name is Janoka, from Brooklyn, new York, living in Dallas, texas now for the past eight years, married with two beautiful kids, and we own a cleaning business, and I still work my nine to five. But that part is now erased as I don't necessarily still work it. So that changes my introduction, but it is what it is. We own a cleaning business in Dallas, texas. We teach students how to own their own cleaning businesses as well without working in it, so running a remote cleaning business. We've been doing that for the past four years. We also have a podcast, more than a side hustle podcast, and so that is my introduction at this time of who I am.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, look at the timing on that. Well, you know what. Sometimes we get the push before we're ready, right. But I really admire that about, about you guys. You're a certified side hustlers like you're like we're gonna do this until you know why. If we can juggle it all, why quit? So I have questions, but I'm not even gonna let that sidetrack me about the.
Speaker 2:I feel like that's a lawsuit, right, like you sound like my friends, they're like wait, can we sue? Just take it easy.
Speaker 1:What field were you in outside of? So I'm a mental health therapist.
Speaker 2:I'm a mental therapist, so I'm licensed in New York and in Texas and technically I was doing on the insurance side of things when it comes to mental health. That's what I've been doing for the past nine years. I have done private practice, I have done virtual therapy, but I slowed that down when we had our first baby. But that's my title.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I noticed that you call out that you're from BK, you know how y'all. Brooklyn people do? You just had to let me know that. So you grew up, you were born and raised in Bk. How long were you there before you moved to dallas?
Speaker 2:we moved here eight years ago, so I was there my entire adulthood, if you will. So we got married in like may 2016 and then moved here june 2016 and what made you guys move?
Speaker 1:I have a feeling it's because you guys are side hustlers and the cost of living?
Speaker 2:well, no, it was it was really because of anthony's job and we didn't really start side hustling and the cost of living. Well, no, it was really because of Anthony's job and we didn't really start side hustling and doing those things until we moved here. I actually say that if we didn't move, we wouldn't be where we are today. If we were still in Brooklyn, life would definitely be different, because all of our family and friends still remain there. So I don't think that we would have had a push or need to want to change anything in our life because we would have been comfortable, not in a bad way, but just we were comfortable and no need to change.
Speaker 1:So it's interesting that you say that because obviously you started side hustling. I know a little bit of your journey and for you know listeners, you can share with them, like what was your impetus to start the side hustling? As far as the financial reason, impetus to start the side hustling.
Speaker 2:As far as the financial reason, yeah, so we were side hustling to pay off debt. So we paid off $114,000 of debt in 23 months and that's really what started our entrepreneurship journey and everything like that. So that would have been 2016 Christmas, our new year's resolution. I said I want to travel and save more. And Anthony was like that doesn't make sense, like we can't do both. It's like you gotta, you gotta, figure this out. That doesn't make sense, like we can't do both. Like you got to figure this out. That doesn't really make sense. And so I was like, okay, fine, that was the beginning of his journey of listening to podcasts, and so when I was coming on today, he was like I'm just super hyped because she was one of the first podcasts I started listening to, so I have to give him that shout out.
Speaker 2:So, around the time that he started really getting invested in it and, honestly, what started us on this journey was Dave Ramsey he got obsessed with that and just listening to paying off debt and stuff like that, and we took some of his lessons and tweaked it, because we still had a nine to five and a thousand dollars to save wasn't enough for me. So that was really what started our journey. And we started working at a gym, you know, renting out our car, watching dogs, the whole nine. That's what we started and we started our journey. And we started working at a gym, you know, renting out our car, watching dogs the whole nine. That's what we started. And we started our cleaning business that year of 2017 as a way to pay off our debt. So that's what kicked it off.
Speaker 1:We also do need to talk about the hustles that you can do to help you get into the financial position to while still having a nine to five while still having a nine to five right to pay off, pay down debt and be able to do what you ultimately want to do when you have that freedom, when you're not under the, you know, a debt shadow or what have you.
Speaker 1:Um, let's get into the side houses a little bit before. Can you mention them? But not everyone might know, so you did. I think it's called rover right, where you babysit pets. I know you guys aren't even big fans of pets like that right.
Speaker 2:No, no, no so coming from, coming from brooklyn, dogs are kind of like I didn't.
Speaker 2:Neither of us grew up with dogs and most people in brooklyn you think of them having like pit bulls, so you're scared of dogs. You don't like, you know, don't really like dogs. But one of my stipulations to moving down to Dallas was that I wanted a dog and I wanted an open concept kitchen. That was something that I was like if I'm going to leave, this has to be in place. And so we started watching Dogs on Rovers, kind of like an Airbnb for dogs, instead of taking them to Petco and stuff like that. So I think the fact that we could, you know, say yes or no and we could meet up with the dog first to see if we liked them, if they're big or small, kind of helped us to feel more comfortable. And then we had our reoccurring dogs, so we knew them, we're comfortable with them and stuff like that, and it was in our apartment and no kids, all that type of stuff, so it was more flexible for us at that time it's a very smart side hustle and a fun story.
Speaker 1:So actually my hair. One of my hairstylists, the one who does my crochet locks she does rover, that's the first time I ever heard of it, so I'll. She does the locks out of her hair, so I'll show up for my hair appointment and she's like you're not scared of dogs, right so you have to ask all the time when somebody's walking in.
Speaker 2:I didn't tell you this before, but iauritas before, but I can't knock the hustle.
Speaker 1:I can't knock the hustle. And then you rented. I've never heard of this renting out your car. How does that work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so back in 2017, we were doing it. It was Turo, which is it's still around now, but it wasn't as popular then and at that time, my husband had just got a car, because moving down to Dallas that was like a gift to himself turning 30, all that type of stuff. He just got an infinity and so we rented it out to be able to pay it off. And essentially that's what we did. And so, the same way, toro is where people either pick it up from you or you drop it to them at the airport or whatever. We did that with his car and my car, because I had a Nissan Altima and I was working from home. So I came from New York working from home and so I wasn't really driving it. So we rented out both of them until his car was paid off. He was like, okay, I'm done, no more lending out my car. So that's what we did as well.
Speaker 1:Wow, that takes some trust. I've never heard of that, but that's smart. You get your car paid off. And then what was the other one? You said you worked at the gym.
Speaker 2:We worked at the gym. We work at a gym. We started working at equinox. We're both very big, uh, workout people and you got a free membership. So, uh, my husband actually was working in maintenance at the gym at equinox and I'm like, well, I was getting off at four o'clock. I'm like, what am I gonna do? I want to do something. And I started working the front desk, um, and I was there. He had did it for maybe about seven, seven months, like he was putting in like 40 hours a week on top of his nine to five. I think he got burnt out, but I stayed until, like right before kovit, I became like a team lead and manager of the front desk and everything like that. So much while working my nine to five. Um, I really enjoyed it. It was a way to get out the house as well. We didn't really have many friends or family, so that was just another thing for me to socialize too, okay.
Speaker 1:So I see what you mean when you're like we were in Brooklyn with friends and family meetups and yeah.
Speaker 2:And and Equinox. Really, we started at $9 an hour and so when you think about that, we are high income earners and my husband was, making you know, over six figures. It's like why would you work a $9 an hour job? But we had a goal and it added up over time. Between Rover and cars and Equinox, we were able to throw a good amount to debt every month.
Speaker 1:So that's why we did it. Much respect for that. I like that you did it together, right? Because my next question is just about, like, the time. You know that kind of demand on your time, like how, what did that do for you as far as having time to rest or just having self-care time? I'm assuming this was before kids, right, right? So what was the time demand?
Speaker 2:Definitely before kids, and the biggest thing that I think with any of the side hustles that we did was that we could control it, and that was the important thing. So we can always say no to renting out our car, we can always say no to the dog, and the managers at Equinox knew we worked a nine to five and they were very flexible with us, and so to work there, I think you had to do 20 hours a week really to be part-time, and so they would be flexible in that regard as to what that looked like. So all of our side hustles we had control over, and that made the difference. I think that if we had to like if someone else was dictating our time, it wouldn't be as fun, it wouldn't have lasted as long, and so that makes the world of a difference.
Speaker 1:And how does it impact your main hustle? As far as you know, do you have to? Are you racing sometimes after work to get to the side hustle Like? As you know, do you have to? Are you racing sometimes after work to get to the side hustle Like? How did you so that?
Speaker 2:was something that that was something that he had to face, that he like would hit traffic, like running to the side hustle, but they were a bit lenient with that at the gym. And then the gym was maybe about seven minutes from our house, so if I got off at four I wouldn't start till five, and so I had ample amount of time to do that. And the weekends, you know, were free, so we had the time. We made it work. A lot of times we worked the same shifts, so it didn't feel like you know, like the same timing, so no one's home alone, or if you're home, then maybe you're cooking for the next few days, and so it was just a matter of that. But once again, it was before kids, so it's a different ballgame at that time and you also had a timeline in mind.
Speaker 2:Right, I think this is so inspiring. But, in order to stay the course, I'm sure it's helpful to know, ok, we're just doing this until this date because the debt it started off by not having a timeline, but then we saw that we paid off $12,000 in three months and we're like, oh okay, so we can do this. Let's, let's really get serious about this. And the goal was to pay it off by my 30th birthday, which which we did. We like hit the button on the on the loans two days before, so it could reflect actually on my birthday in in um december of 2018. So that's, that's essentially what it was, and we put like a contract in place. Well, I put it in place because my husband, you know, he would just go straight for it. I'm like I need to live a life, you know beyonce has a concert.
Speaker 2:I need to be able to go so yes, yes, yes, we put a contract we put a contract in place, we had it on the fridge and we just kept going for it and we did it.
Speaker 1:As you were side hustling. At what point did the seeds of entrepreneurship, of thinking about starting a cleaning business, start?
Speaker 2:I always say all of our businesses and I think information starts from my husband and then I agree or don't agree. That's how it comes Like. He brings it to me, I say yay or nay and then we proceed with it. So he had originally heard it on a podcast about like a college student making like $10,000 in revenue without cleaning homes but owning a cleaning business and he's like, hmm, how is that possible? Brought it to me and I shot it down. I'm like, absolutely not. We don't know anything about a business. Why would we start a business Like? This has never been in our discussions as a married couple Like what are we doing? We have no idea what we're doing.
Speaker 2:So he left it alone. And then he brought it back, but with more information and more steps of like what we would need to do to get there. And then I agreed to it. I'm like, okay, sure, this will help with the debt payoff. It's something different, let's just do it. We never, you know, a lot of times I say, when you do a business, look for the future and you know real business. People kind of think like that. But that was our first business and we had no idea what we were doing so it just was us like, let's try it and see. So we agreed in like october and went live in november. Like the day after thanksgiving, we had our first time.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's that's how it went. So many questions. What do you mean? You just started. What were the steps to get started? How did you get the cleaners right, the people, and know that they would do a good job, so you get good reviews right?
Speaker 2:so a lot of it. At that time we were just trying to figure it out. So honestly, we were Googling it or he would listen to a podcast or try to join a Facebook group of cleaners. But the way that we do it is that we have contractors, so we don't work with employees, so they need to know how to clean already. So we run the business model just like a Uber or Airbnb, where Uber doesn't own any cars, airbnb doesn't own any homes, but they just have people that know how to do it. So we vet them out just through our interviewing process, making sure that they have experience, checking their references, making sure they have insurance. They have to have their own cleaning supplies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you are a type A that you feel like you have to know for a fact they're going to be perfect, then maybe it's not for you, but I think our quality control of the vetting process and then we call every single client after every single clean. To this day we've we're seven and a half years into the business and we still do that same process to make sure that you call yourself. At the beginning we did. Right now we have virtual assistants and a manager with that business, so we are not calling ourselves, but for two and a half to three years or so, it was us calling ourselves until we finally delegated that out. So that's how we make sure that they're they're cleaning well, but at the very beginning it was trial and error. There wasn't any kind of cleaning business courses or anything out there where we can just follow, besides just listening to someone give information on a podcast and try to piece it together, and so that was the process at that time.
Speaker 1:So at that point, had you stopped the side hustles so you paid off your debt? Did you just stop them cold turkey and you were able to focus on like nine to fives and the cleaning business?
Speaker 2:It was all part of it. So we started the cleaning business November 2017 and we didn't pay off our debt until December 2018. So a whole year later we were still doing it all. So, like I said, Anthony was doing Equinox but then he stopped it maybe six, seven months in. So all of 2018, he really wasn't working it, but I still was working that. We were doing the cleaning business, had our nine to five the Rover, so we were doing all of it at once and it was chaotic. It was chaotic and very hectic and you would be at a bar on Friday night and a client is calling to complain and you got to step outside and take that call. Yeah, that was what our life was at that time.
Speaker 1:As you're advising people now, right, I think. As you're talking about starting the cleaning business, I'm still a little bit confused because I understand the concept of not having employees, like it's Uber, it's Airbnb, but like, how do you really facilitate us? Like, walk us through starting this business? Like, what does it look like, operation wise and workflow wise, starting it?
Speaker 2:really was. We wanted to make sure we did it legitimately. So we did a LLC, we did the business bank account, we got all those things in place. We put maybe a thousand dollars into the account to start it off. Now this is why I say like we followed Dave's stuff, but not to the T, because how could you start a business while paying off debt? Like that doesn't make any sense. So we did all those things.
Speaker 2:But then we started to figure out, okay, we need a website. So we started to figure out, like, where do we go to find a website? Where do you go to find people? And we started looking on Thumbtack, indeed, like carecom, and these are where we were finding people. Then we're like, okay, what do we ask them? To find out information. So we have to interview them. So when we started, we were interviewing them at a Starbucks, because we're like, oh, we have to see them face to face. You can't do that virtually In the world that we live in now. You like, duh, you could do that on the phone, right, yeah, but we were meeting them at starbucks and doing maybe six interviews between a three, four hour block. So we were doing some of that. And then marketing. Where can we start to market at? Where do you look for people when you want to clean?
Speaker 2:that's google, I'm just yelling, yeah that's, that's thumbtack, um, and so starting to put money into that marketing and that that was our process to then get clients and have people then go out. So to connect, you know, we got a client now. Now we need to have the cleaner go out and do the job. And so it was a lot of phone conversation, it was a lot of handholding to build processes and feel comfortable and know that this can work. But I think when we got that first client on Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, we're like holy moly, okay, we got to get somebody out there now. Yeah Right, and then our first, our very first cleaning that one, we had somebody in the night before they said they couldn't go.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So we're like, okay, we went to Facebook groups for cleaners we just started looking for, like, hey, we have a job, can anybody take this? And we found somebody and they ended up being a contractor that we worked with for a pretty long time, to the point that, when they moved out of the state, we bought their business because they were letting go of their clients. Yeah, so it worked out. But in the moment you're like what? This is your first business ever and somebody is canceling the day before. So you can imagine that feeling wow.
Speaker 1:So if people are looking for cleaners, do they find you? Because you have a listing for your cleaning brand on thumbtack. What's the name of it, by the way? So is it like you have listings? So our cleaning?
Speaker 2:business is maize to match and it's down here in dallas, texas, so we don't really have a listing people. People find us looking for a cleaning, okay, and then we would connect and send our cleaner out to do the job. Right, we don't really host cleaners per se, like we don't really market that. We just market our cleaning business and we send people out to do the job based on the amount of cleaners that we have that we've worked with over the years and continue to gain.
Speaker 1:Basically, yeah, Because the cleaning industry is such a unique thing, Like when I first it starts with like word of mouth, like when I was first starting to like work with cleaning services, and then there comes a time when, well, maybe I'm looking for someone different than who I got word of mouth. So then I'm Googling and it's like sometimes you find companies, sometimes you find a person yeah, on yelp or what have you.
Speaker 1:So that's what I was curious about, like how do people find you, your people, like do they find tom, who's actually one of your workers?
Speaker 2:so they don't find our workers, they find our company, our company. Okay, yeah, that's what they find, they find our company. And so, like those mom and pop shots that you're talking about, are people that we may make our contractor to go do jobs because it's more work for them. And people say, well, why would they work for you if they have their own business? Because there's but so much word of mouth can goes, but so much a small one individual can go. So if they have 10 jobs a week, we can provide an extra 10. Now they have have 20 and so it's more money for them and so that's why they would work for us. Just like, you know, a uber driver, is somebody going to pick him up off the street?
Speaker 1:no, but if he's part of the app, yeah, exactly so similar to that and do you have any kind of like app or ways that you're keeping communications going with people so when the job goes out it's easier to put the feelers out and get somebody?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, we use the app that Launch27, it's a company that's built basically for cleaning business and other service-based businesses. So we use their app and we communicate with them that way, via text and stuff like that. But a lot of them we've built, you know, relationships with and, but we can send out a blast at this point and people accept the jobs and then we just assign it to them.
Speaker 1:Did you have to also do background checks? We do background checks. You do background checks. Good, we do background checks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our full process is really we put out a job ad. Somebody says they're interested, we do an interview If we feel they're good to go, we do a background check, we run references, we ask. We run references, we ask for their ID, we ask them to send a picture of their cleaning supplies. Then we have them do like a test clean, like a one-time job, to see how it goes, and then we would go ahead and hire them. So many people will make it through that entire process because it takes a long time. But that's that's the goal. I don't want everybody coming through. If you're really legit and you do it well, then that's the goal. And we like working with people that own their own business because generally they have their own insurance and they're serious about it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I love that, I love that. And then, like, do you do this process a few times a year Because it seems like you have a core group that's pretty substantial right now. So how often do you even have to go through that process so it can?
Speaker 2:be, especially at the beginning. We all we have a saying of always be hiring, because you think that you got them and you don't. They do well, and then they move or that something happens. So we always say to always be hiring. I think for the first time last year we had put a pause on it the end of last year, so that's what that was. Seven years in the business we were like always hiring, literally because they're the kind of if we don't have people to do the job, then we don't have a business right, because we need them to go ahead and do the clean. So we are always hiring. So we stopped it and then we've started back again and then now we paused it again because we're at a good place so you can turn it on and off as a faucet. That's the good thing about it. But especially people just starting out, I say always be hiring.
Speaker 2:Don't worry that you have five people and you're like well, I don't have enough jobs. Trust me, they'll show you that you need more, because there are contractors and they can work as little or as much as they want, so somebody could work one day. You think you have all these people when you don't.
Speaker 1:As far as the money side of things like obviously you teach a course this has been lucrative for like. Obviously you teach a course this has been lucrative for you, like you. You guys became millionaires, right, like by age 35, you were a millionaire Yep, amazing. But it seems like something that would have a low-ish margin. I don't know, maybe because the houses are bigger in Texas, but I just feel like cleaning services don't tend to be a lot of money. So I'm curious about the money side.
Speaker 2:So that's the difference between a mom and pop in a company, right, Because a mom and pop you can hire someone. Say they steal from you and you got their number. How are you finding them? You're not. Or if they don't do a good job, you want somebody else. You got to go look for another else. You got to go look for another company, you got to go look for someone else.
Speaker 2:For us we have this like 200% guarantee. If we go out we don't do a good job, you can call us and we'll come back and rectify the issue, Right? Um, if something is broken and something is stolen, like, we can rectify the issue, we do the background checks. You know it's a bit more trusting. So a company versus an individual is going to be cheaper, Absolutely, so we do. You know, on average our cleanings are about $250. And then we have a split with the contractors. Either we do a split of 60, 40, where they get 60%, we get 40%, or 50, 50. And so then we have add-ons for things If you have pets, if you have this, if you want us to do carpet cleaning, if you want us to do organizing. So our margins can be between 20 to 30 percent generally, month to month. Obviously that can fluctuate, Seasons can fluctuate, but usually that that's where it kind of lands.
Speaker 1:And then, how long did it take to scale up to a substantial amount of cleanings per day and per week?
Speaker 2:The clean business was our first business, so I was particularly scared. I'm like I don't want to put more money into it. But with marketing, that's the name of the game, right? Any business? I get emails from Target three times a day, right Do?
Speaker 1:they need to, not for me.
Speaker 2:I'm in there two times a week. You don't even need to market to me. But you know marketing is essential to the business. But I think as a first time business owner, that's very hard to wrap your mind around because you just feel like you're putting money out and not seeing it, but it's like if I don't know you exist, I'm not going to purchase from you. So it's a whole cycle, it's a whole mental thing of really doing that and for this business it kind of goes hand in hand with marketing and scaling. So I would say we did it slower than we would now because I was definitely, you know, scared, uh. But it can scale in three, four months. Like you know, we had one of our students hit a million in sales in two years. Absolutely it took us like five or something like that, like we were nowhere near that and you know we have students doing 100k.
Speaker 2:In eight months we did 100k and maybe 14, 15. You know what I mean. We were just not moving as fast, maybe because we have everything else happening. You know, we didn't necessarily need the money, it was just like to pay off debt and stuff like that, uh. But also we were scared, uh, business owners. And so when I speak to people now and I'm like you really want to scale, put the money in trust that it will come back, you know what I mean. And it will, especially with marketing in this business.
Speaker 1:So trust that it will come back. How much money we talking here? What are the startup costs for a business like this?
Speaker 2:So the startup costs are pretty low. We say to have maybe about like 2000,. But that includes getting your LLC business bank account and like having money for marketing to find, uh, contractors and a little bit to find clients. Right, so every month you can. The good thing about running it with this model with the contractors is that you can turn it on and off, right. So COVID, for example right, that would have been a big hit If we had employees would have been like, okay, we lost a lot, but at the time we just turned down our Yelp. We're like, okay, we're not marketing a lot because there's not much business coming in and people aren't working, et cetera, like that.
Speaker 2:So it's always a faucet that you can turn on and off. Now we put in like four or $5,000 into Google a month. You're talking about Google ads, google ads, google local services they're two separate things. But we put that much in. Yelp can be 3000, $4,000 a month, but then we have $60,000 a month, so in 40,000,. But we've built up a clientele, right, we market back, we email, we text, we call. You know we do all of those things on top of marketing on these paid platforms. So somebody hearing this is like 5,000 is outrageous, but if I'm getting a $60,000 return, then that's not outrageous, it's just part of the game.
Speaker 1:That's not outrageous, right? Not outrageous at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because $40,000, $60,000 a month.
Speaker 1:That definitely works out. And when you're marketing and emailing your clients, is it just things like specials or reminders? How do you email them and keep it interesting?
Speaker 2:or reminders Like what, how do you email them and keep it interesting, spicy and interesting? So it is specials, it is reminders, it is tips on how to clean, it is back to school, it is um codes for a back to school 20. So you can get, you know, come back to us and you get this amount off. So it's a combination of of all of that. Yeah, that you would. You know, we see email from a Macy's. We're like oh, how can we adjust this to our cleaning business? How can we make it sound like this what they're saying? Because this brought me in or this subject. I opened this subject because I saw this or this headliner and we just put it into our business. But I think that that comes with time, because when you're starting you're thinking. You're not thinking like that, you're just just thinking like I gotta talk about the cleanliness. How can I get somebody to get in? I just need to give them a code.
Speaker 2:You're thinking literal yeah very literal, like there's everything around you that you can grasp from things that happen and I'm like oh, let me put that in there like right now what's going around, very mindful very demure, right.
Speaker 1:How can I?
Speaker 2:put that in my cleaning business email to say like before it goes out of style too, yeah it's very demure. It'll make you open the the email, right. So just little things like that is important. But I think that comes with time. I don't know that comes with someone just starting out as an entrepreneur or business owner speaking of just starting out.
Speaker 1:So you mentioned where you've gotten to $40,000, $60,000 months. Do you remember how much you made your first month? What was the first month like?
Speaker 2:So the first month probably was small November, because we got it after Thanksgiving. So I think we maybe had like four bookings, three bookings. So eight months into the business we were in the point of thinking of closing it down. It was the summer. It was the summer and that can be slower months. Who knew? Because we didn't know that can be slower months and we're like is it worth it? Should we continue? Does it make sense? And my husband was like let's at least do it for a year, let's just see you know how it works out, and then we can stop it there. If it doesn't work out, we can just stop it there. And that was August. And then September we ended up having our highest month.
Speaker 1:How much was that at that point?
Speaker 2:At that point that might've been like maybe seven, 8,000. That was like oh, wow, okay. And the funny thing was which it's not funny, I wouldn't advise it now was that we didn't really get a bookkeeper until we were about two years in. So we had no idea how much money we were bringing. We just left it in. We just kind of left it in to recycle. The business took a little bit out to pay for the debt, but we weren't even like really keeping track of what it was.
Speaker 2:And when we got a bookkeeper and we're like, holy what, wait a minute. And when we got a bookkeeper and we're like, hold on, wait a minute, we have a lot of money here, a lot of profit that we're making here, and I think that helped us to scale as well. So we definitely hit a bump. Eight months in and we just think about it now Like imagine we actually stopped. Then Life would have been different. We wouldn't have continued our business, we wouldn't have been teaching thousands of students that go on to make millions and change their lives and buy houses and things from the cleaning business. It wouldn't have happened. But that all sales to say we still had our nine to fives right and we still were side hustling, and so that gave us the comfortability to know that we can continue on.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, because you weren't depending on it for your livelihood, correct?
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:What do you think, other than it being summer and maybe you'd be nervous. New business owners what do you think caused that bump? What should people who are starting this kind of business expect as an early bump?
Speaker 2:So I think what's important is something that we weren't doing a lot of is reaching out to leads, right? So you know people may sign up for your website, but then it's like, what do you do with them?
Speaker 1:Are you emailing them? Are you calling them?
Speaker 2:So same type of thing, like even if we didn't close them meaning they didn't book our services, we were just leaving them there. But now we're like you paid for those people and you need to remarket to them. You need to send them an email, you need to call them people and you need to remarket to them. You need to send them an email, you need to call them, send them a text. Because they didn't book then doesn't mean that they're not going to book at all, because how many times do you opt into something you just don't and then eventually you do? That wasn't something we were thinking about at all, like contacting previous clients or contacting people that didn't book with us. So that helped to bump it up already because you pay for it and now I don't have to pay for it again and now they're coming back into me, so that gives me a bump in profit and things like that. That was a change for us, definitely.
Speaker 1:It's interesting that you mentioned people that didn't book. So how did people that didn't book end up on your email list?
Speaker 2:So you know there is a in our system, like you can send the quotes. We have a crm and you can send them quotes. So you don't. Their information can be stored there and then even on like yelp or google, their contact and me, if they gave it to you, their contact information can be stored there now. And so when we have people starting out, I'm like put those contact informations like on excel, like put it somewhere. Now we have a whole like crm that it automatically goes into and we market to them that way, so that's how you would reach them again. They technically stand there. So now I would tell people that aren't paying for a CRM yet, just starting out, just put them on Excel, put their name, number and email, call them, text them, email them.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that reminder. Yeah, and I think getting a quote, that has to be the best lead magnet ever, Because you just want to know, like you know. Okay, I'll give you my email, Give me the quote If you don't know how to get people see what you can give them a quote for, especially for this kind of business.
Speaker 1:You got me wanting to start a cleaning business. I'm not even going to lie to you. When you see me sign up for the course, you will not be surprised, but I need to know, I need to know, I need to know. So you talked about the low startup costs. Do you have to guarantee people anything or what? How do you? What's the incentive for them other than more business? Is there any money exchange upfront, like to?
Speaker 2:incentivize them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the contractors.
Speaker 2:No, there's no money upfront. Um, the money, money isn't because they're getting more money, because it's more than they can do, it's more than they can market. So most of our contractors they go by word of mouth, and so we've had some contractors that they were working for a company and then they all became contractors independently and so it's just word of mouth as far as they can go. But what keeps them around is what we always say is something as simple as just treating them as humans. Like a lot of our workers have told us that other companies that they work for they would yell at them, they would talk down to them, they would allow customers to talk to them, which we a certain way, which we don't play. Like, we don't allow that. Like we say you leave if you feel uncomfortable with someone's doing something. We'll handle the backlash of it all.
Speaker 2:Um, but we have relationships with our contractors. It's their birthday. We will say happy birthday, we'll send them something, christmas, mother's Day, all these things. So we've built relationships with them. It's not just a job, it's like we want you to feel comfortable, it's a partnership. At the end of the day, we rely on them. We say you're the expert, you tell me how much you would charge for this. You're there, we thought it would be this amount, but you can see it and we trust you. You tell me. So the partnership, the communication and just treating them as humans has helped them to stick around. The transparency we pay them every week. We don't play with their money. We say we're going to pay you every week. We pay every Friday automatically. There's no question. That's another thing that they face, that people say they'll pay and they won't. So that is. I think those things like that help us to be different and have people stick around.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, so that's also interesting too. I guess I've never used an official cleaning service, cause I'm used to just paying people in cash right After they're done. Oh no, we don't take no cash. Everything's online. No't take no cash.
Speaker 2:Okay no, we're not even coming to your home if you don't book online, if your card fails we try to put a hold on it before we go out. If it fails, we are not even coming to the house. We are calling you and saying that it has failed. You need to be able to put a hold, and then we'll be there.
Speaker 1:Okay. So yeah, we do everything things online and what about the quote process?
Speaker 2:I'm fascinated by this because, y'all, I'm really starting a cleaning business and I hope you are.
Speaker 1:So we'll get into the course next. But the quote process, right, cause it's a lead magnet, so I'm assuming it has to be kind of a fast thing or like how do you facilitate that?
Speaker 2:they, they can book us online, so they don't even have to talk to anyone.
Speaker 2:They don't have to speak to any of our like. All of our information is online. Like you put, uh, the size of your home how many bedrooms, bathrooms, is it apartment, is it a house? Is a townhouse? You say your square footage. You tell me if you have pet. You tell me, if you want, inside of your fridge, inside of your oven. Is it a move in, move out, meaning that your home is empty? Do you want us to organize? Do you want us to do carpet cleaning? All of that is on our website and you can see the cost of how much it's going to cost you. You can see if you do reoccurring services like biweekly, monthly, the discount you'll get. All of it is there. And so then you put your card information. You could put notes there, like I'll leave the key under the plant pot. We don't got to talk at all.
Speaker 1:Everything is on the computer.
Speaker 2:In that way, do we speak to people? Absolutely. Do people still want to speak and confirm certain things? Absolutely, but we don't have to, and so that's how we're able to be open 24 seven, because we're open online.
Speaker 1:How did you approach other than Google ads and Yelp ads? How else did you approach marketing the business?
Speaker 2:Primarily online has been our thing, because in Dallas we don't, we didn't know anybody Right, so we didn't have a church or a job to really kind of market it to things like that. So primarily online. But we have tried putting flyers under doors. We have tried like cold mailing. You know you get flyers in the mail. We haven't done that consistently enough. But commercial, that's another thing that we do and our students have gone on. We have students that kind of excel in that.
Speaker 1:Oh commercial properties.
Speaker 2:Commercial cleaning, commercial properties. Yeah, we have students that kind of excel in that. We dabble in that here and there. So the marketing really has been online for us mostly, and we're always looking to try to do different things, but that's just where we started and we're comfortable with. In regards to time, like you, either have time or money, and for us, we had the money to put online, okay.
Speaker 1:And the money initially was coming from the business and recycled back into it into the app. Yes, Is that okay and that's the benefit of side hustling. You don't need to take the money from the business to pay yourself. You can put it right back into the growth.
Speaker 2:And eventually we did, though. Eventually the cleaning business. We eventually started taking money from it, but for a good two, two and a half years we didn't take, you know, anything besides like debt. Other than that, it wasn't coming to us.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about, yeah, the shift when the cleaning business starts to outpace nine to fives, at least on your husband Anthony's side, right Like so. When did that happen and when did he feel comfortable leaving his nine to five to do this full time?
Speaker 2:So I would say the cleaning business and the side hustles, the bar, kept moving right. So you say at first we're like let's just be able to pay one bill, right, let's just be able to pay a phone bill or something. And then it was that. And then let's just see if we can get a thousand, and it was that. Then let's see if we can cover our salary, and it was that. But then you're like well, I'm having my salary and this extra money, so let me just continue on.
Speaker 2:And so we've had many conversations of one person leaving the job, both of us leaving the job, who leaves when, who leaves? I'm leaving first. No, you're leaving. We've had those conversations until Anthony, which was it was all crazy to do it at that time anyway, but it'll be three years this december that he has left. So december 2021 is when he left, um, his job, and it really was that he's like I'm just not really happy here, like I'm just existing. Um, he actually was a director there and he said his boss had yeah, he was high up there. So his boss had a conversation with him, like oh, just checking in, just wanting to know if you still want to be here.
Speaker 2:He was like actually, I don't I don't, and I don't even want to I don't even want to, in a respectful way, I don't even want to lie to you guys, and so a month later again it.
Speaker 2:It was an it. So when we moved down here, he built up this office. So he had like 30, 40 people under him and his goal was to really make sure that people were in a better place. So, like, help them to move up the ladder, especially, um, black people in the office, like to really help them, and he's like I felt like I've done all I could do at this point and I'm ready to go all in, but it was crazy because that was december 2021. Our daughter was being born february 2022, so we had a baby on the way. That's very interesting timing Very interesting, and we just had closed on our house and we moved in December 2021.
Speaker 2:So, everybody at work was like you're having a baby and you just got a house and you're leaving. But that's just the power of us, like betting on ourself and feeling like now is the time and we feel that we can make it and praise this to to god. We're two and a half years in to that and navigating it all yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And how well was the business doing like? What kind of revenue were you bringing in monthly at that point?
Speaker 2:so at that point I want to say the business, um, the cleaning business, was doing about maybe like 45 000, but then we also have at that time we had one rental property. We now have three rental properties that we have going. And then we have the coaching side of things as well, that we do with the course and stuff. So that was bringing in money as well. So multiple things and I still had my job, so you didn't have to worry about the benefits part of it. So all of those combined helped us make the decision when did you start start the course?
Speaker 1:when did you start teaching what you know?
Speaker 2:so we started teaching what we knew. July 2020 and I like, once again, I'm always like, if you want to say negative nancy, I'm like. I don't think anybody wants to know about the zoom. It's like I, you know, like most people were following.
Speaker 1:You were two years in at this point, right right, because it was 2018 when you launched 2017. 2017.
Speaker 2:November 2017, we launched yeah. So now it's July 2020. And I am like most people were following us because of our debt payoff, like that's how people knew us. We were on Good Morning America because of our debt payoff, like everybody knew us. Because of that, we paid it off so quickly to young kids, you know. And I was like I think people want to know that. He was like no, every time we post about the cleaning business, people are saying things and I'm like whatever he's like, I think we should do a course. I'm like they don't want to hear it. So we kind of did it. We did a thing. We kind of went on ig live, when we used to go on a lot, and we said that if we can sell 10 courses, then we will do do the course. We didn't have a course.
Speaker 1:We just said that we were selling and we didn't have it.
Speaker 2:We didn't record it yet, yeah, and I think we sold like 12 or 13. I'm like, at what price point? Too low? We were at like 97, 79, something like that. Okay, very, very low, or 120. If you get it now, before we launch, it was like 150, something outrageous. And so we went on and 13 people said they wanted it. I'm like, okay, so we have to record it.
Speaker 1:That night we recorded it was like a Saturday night. I swear, I love this. I love this. It was a Saturday night Recorded in one night.
Speaker 2:I love that we sat there and at our we're in an apartment, I can see it and we sat there sweating hot. I'm like I need a drink. Let's, let's get this go. And we recorded it and if you watch it it's kind of like it's not. And I'm happy we kind of did it that way, because if we did it the way that, what we know now perfection would be the lighting, the look. It's nothing like that, but the information is still the information. Like we're cracking jokes, we still have the information, but if you watch courses now, you know you're not cracking a joke. We're here to give information.
Speaker 2:People want information. What are you laughing about? But it has gone on to make our students 13 plus million dollars. We have students in 42 plus states. The same exact course.
Speaker 1:We've added on to it.
Speaker 2:Those are snaps. We've added on to it. We've added on to it Absolutely. But that same core course is the same information and it still works. So that's kind of how this whole thing came about. His idea and I'm like ain't nobody want that, and people wanted it and people continue to want it because it is something that they can do remotely. You can, you know, you can do it on your computer, on your phone. I don't have to go do the cleaning. Is it work? Absolutely, it's a business I have to put in work, but it's so doable and we've had tons of testimonials that show how doable it is on top of us still running a cleaning business. We still do it. And so that was the beginning of that journey.
Speaker 1:July 2020. And then now with the course, is it more like a evergreen kind of thing where you're not having to do updates as much unless something major happens, or do you do any kind of like monthly check-in or live coaching? So we don't?
Speaker 2:really know we really don't have to do much updates and probably because cleaning is cleaning right. But we do have a community where we kind of talk through I mean, because in the course you can't possibly say every single thing that happens right but we have a community of people that encourage. You know 200 plus students in there that encourage each other. We go in and answer questions because the biggest thing I think is most of our students are first-time entrepreneurs. So the biggest thing is that mindset shift.
Speaker 1:It's not even really the business entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:So the biggest thing is that mindset shift. It's not even really the business. It's that mindset shift that it requires for them to feel comfortable, to take that risk, to have an understanding, to not second guess themselves, not overthink. Yeah, and it's not as hard as it like. It's not as hard. It's not right. You're asking questions that don't even matter at this time. You're not even there yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wait for that to come, wait wait for that to come, wait for that to come. So wow, 13.5 million, you said. From what? 200 students?
Speaker 2:that's amazing well, no, 13.5 million from our students across the board. We have 200 plus students in our community but, um, it's probably 2,700, 2,700 people that have taken of our course.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so now, before we jump into the lighting round, you guys have so many side hustles and businesses. You know we had to go one by one, but we have to touch on the real estate next.
Speaker 2:Now, is that it? Is there another? Is there another?
Speaker 1:That's it. That's it, it's the podcast.
Speaker 2:It's's the real estate, it's the cleaning business, and then our digital digital stuff. Yeah, that's it for now. Okay, what made you decide to do to invest in real estate? Um, I think because we're not really risk takers per se, right, and so this digital space was new, is new, and if it ever cuts, what? What happens now? Where do you fall back on? Uh, so real estate is which that can be choppy too. Let's be clear. You're not always getting rent every month. Real estate is more of something that's consistent in long-term, that we wanted to make sure that we have in place. We continue to want to get more, but right now we're just at three and we will hopefully continue to grow with that. But that has been bumpy and and has its own stories as well. It's not smooth sailing at all.
Speaker 1:Right. What exactly do you do within real estate? Did you buy a multi-unit property and then have renters?
Speaker 2:So we wanted multi-unit, but it's very kind of difficult in Dallas, not as much multi-units that you would find maybe in New York and stuff, so we didn't find that. So we have one in Dallas and two in St Louis, actually two properties, and we have property managers to manage that. We live a very delegate life. Um, we're not those types of people that need to do it all. And you know, yes, we can have more money if we did it all, but that's just not how we, you know we operate. So, yeah, we have, um, property managers that handles all three of those. So we just check in, we answer you know they have to do something, yes or no, and that's how we navigate it.
Speaker 1:And then you put the investment and then the mortgage should be covered by the rent right, and you mentioned that you're not getting rent every month. So what has the real list sometimes. What's the realistic financial experience been like for you guys?
Speaker 2:So with one of our mainly our property out here, out here in Dallas, it's really not in the best area, so we've had bumps with that, with getting somebody out and getting somebody new in. So that was like a nine month process of just us paying that mortgage because we had to fix it up and we had to find somebody else and do all of that. Our St Louis properties have been, I think, better, I would say, probably based on location too. So that is stuff that we face and then, like right now we may be going through eviction process with somebody because they didn't pay rent in like two months and they're like don't have plans to do so.
Speaker 2:So you know definitely it's not always smooth sailing when it comes to real estate, which is another reason that I was like hesitant about it, but I think that there's more ups and downs and that's part of business. Essentially, we're willing to take that risk when it comes to real estate.
Speaker 1:Interesting. I admire your practical approach to risk. I think I'm in that same boat in terms of I want to research, vet and weigh the pros and cons but at the same time, the mindset shift that I have allows me to say, okay, now here's how we can approach it. So I much respect for that. And I'm curious what made you invest in st louis, like, do you have family there or is it just a good price for the place?
Speaker 2:st louis. We met someone actually online that she does st louis properties out there, that she does real estate and kind of essentially holds your hand, like, finds the property rebuilt, like does the construction. So we just had to pay, essentially pay for that um program, and then it became we own it and it went like that. That's really how we did it. But no, we don't know anybody in st louis. I've actually never been there.
Speaker 1:I've actually never been there, so I don't know. No, I've never been there and I don't think we have enough time to unpack all my questions for you.
Speaker 2:Janilka yeah, no, I've never been there.
Speaker 1:But that's how we did those two properties.
Speaker 2:I can give you her name if you want, but yeah, that's how we did it.
Speaker 1:So you have a podcast. You guys have a podcast called More Than a Side Hustle. What's that about? Do you help people manage all these side hustles?
Speaker 2:So we've done interviewing of other people and we've done just us too. Most of it is just us too and we talk about everything from entrepreneurship to our life, to our differences, because we are similar but very different, and so I think that helps our dynamic Also, just managing it all. We talk about that, we talk about our travel, we talk about our kids, so it's everything in one and that's why we named it. At first it was called heart zog hustle our name and then we're like that feels selfish, and so that's why we named it more than a side hustle, because, yes, business is at the forefront of us, but that's not all we do. We have man, you know, we have marriage meetings, we travel a lot, we do content. We go to New York and stand on tables and brunch like we do other things.
Speaker 1:You're multifaceted, you're versatile.
Speaker 2:I love it so we speak about all of that on top of interviewing people that you know it's more. It's become more than a side hustle for them, like they started out in this. So, photographers, we had a doula, we had her come on. So just different things that we've had people speak about in the podcast. So it's a good time. We enjoy it because I think we enjoy just each other and we do everything together, but we enjoy just each other and just chatting and getting the information out there.
Speaker 1:So it's really inspirational. You know what true partnership can look like in this journey of life, marriage and entrepreneurship, and your transparency as far as what you're comfortable sharing, of course, is going to help others and does help others, and I'm curious what the future looks like in terms of what's the ultimate goal, in terms of how many businesses do you want to start? How? Many kind of things do you want to do entrepreneurially and manage your family life as well?
Speaker 2:It was up to my husband would have probably 10 businesses. So that's the balance. That's why I'm here to keep him in check and be like that'll make sense. Let's not do that right now, but I think right now we're in a space of really probably growing our digital side, our coaching side of it, because we've had the course. But we've also realized that a lot of people just want to be around us and just hear more about us, the experience, and maybe it's not just about the cleaning, just more about the inside of us. So that's one part of it. Another part of it which is kind of it's funny how it works out with God, was like, literally, I think the week before I had my daughter just now, I kind of put out there that I wanted to do more things on my own, independently, which my husband has always encouraged me, and I'm like I know I don't want to hear me, it's okay.
Speaker 2:But I like put that out there and then I was able to connect with you. So that was like for me, like a sign of this is my first podcast ever by myself. So I think that now we are, we are going to yeah, you're a sign of this is my first podcast ever by myself, yeah. So I think that now we are, we are gonna yeah, you're part of my journey, so we're gonna focus on, like how I can individually grow and put information out there, um, and just balance it, because I'm, like you know, you feel like I don't want to do a get ready with me. I don't know how to do makeup.
Speaker 1:Well, so like I don't want to do that, or is my life really that interesting?
Speaker 2:I'm gonna be pumping, breastfeeding, going to the gym and coming back.
Speaker 1:You know that is. That is so many of our lives, right right.
Speaker 2:So just figuring out how to showcase that, I think, is going to be a challenge for me now, obviously still having a newborn. We also have an au pair here now.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you know what that is, but of course yeah um, we just came desperately, would like an au pair, and now I don't know if you know what that is, but of course, yeah, um, we just came desperately, would like an au pair, and so when I talk about the delegation on that, like, yeah, my first daughter.
Speaker 2:We had a nanny for two years and now she's in school and so now we went the au pair route, so that's a whole nother experience. So and now I've now I don't have a nine to five, and so you know, it's so many different things happening, I think me. So we are, we together, are going to try to figure out, like, how do I find my way independently, how do I, you know, put content out there?
Speaker 1:Right, like, what do you even want to do? What I want to do, yeah.
Speaker 2:What I want to do next. What does it even look like? Is it just mommy stuff? Maybe on our podcast, and it's a segment part of our podcast. So it's all those ideas that are flowing that we're trying to figure out. So not necessarily starting another business, which hopefully it may become lucrative financially hopefully, but focusing more on my reinvested a lot of your capital into capital intensive types of businesses now, like with the real estate.
Speaker 1:But how does that inform how you move forward, like you've gone from being in debt to millionaires? What's that experience? Like and how is that informing your life? Like, why aren't you just like hell, yeah, I'm quitting my job?
Speaker 2:Which is what everybody has said. I think that and I said that to someone I'm like, 80% of me was like I wanted to leave anyway I've been wanting to leave.
Speaker 2:Maybe God had to force my hand, I probably wasn't going to pull the trigger. 20% of me is like that becomes part of your identity, like I was there for nine years. I got my master's in this, so but at the same time, I can always do therapy. Therapy is always going to be needed. It doesn't need to be in that capacity, I can do it in any way. So that is that part of it.
Speaker 2:And just I think just being confident, I guess, is part of it. Like I am confident in a lot of things and especially just being comfortable in doing things together, cause that's what I've known, that we've done. So now doing it independently is something new, and so feeling confident, feeling kind of cringy about it, figuring things out, is a whole new experience. So, absolutely, I could have quit my job years ago at this point. I just I just did it for whatever reason. It just felt like, well, we're navigating it all anyway, why not continue? So, um, yeah, so I'll be figuring it all out and hopefully sharing as I figure it out Sharing as you go, document, document.
Speaker 1:That is my mood for this current phase of life. Like build out loud, learn out loud. You never know who you're helping. It helps people to connect with you and it's just fun to look back at how far it comes so like look at this, like you ever look on your socials.
Speaker 2:Like look at this video. This is horrible. We're like looking down here and it's gray, it's not clear and, yeah, that's part of it.
Speaker 1:You just grow it's just nice, it's. It's so funny. When I get the flashbacks on facebook from when I used to do the facebook lives, I'm like I'm proud of that girl, right, and I'm sure you're proud of.
Speaker 2:When you guys look back like yeah, I'm proud of you you showed up you did it, you.
Speaker 1:You move forward when you were like I don't know if anyone's gonna care about this, and now you help people start million dollar cleaning businesses. So love that. So now we're going to transition into the lightning round. You just answer the very first thing that comes to mind are you? You ready? I'm ready, all righty. Oh, and before the lightning round, real quick, what's the name of your course, if people want to check it out?
Speaker 2:Clean and Business University, so they can go to cleanandbusinessuniversitycom. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Love the SEO for that. Okay, number one. What is a resource not Google that has helped you in your business that you can share with a side hustle per audience.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say Total Money Makeover, which is Dave Ramsey's book, but it was the start of everything for us with paying off debt and knowing how to budget and we budget in our business as well. So that was a kickstart. Even if you're not following the exact policies, just changing that mindset of money was a big deal for us and helps us in business to this day.
Speaker 1:All right. Number two who is a non-celebrity Black woman entrepreneur who you'd want to switch places with for a day, and why?
Speaker 2:Mia Ray, a glamaholic. She's from Detroit.
Speaker 2:I've never been to Detroit, but I feel like they're straight shooters, like New Yorkers for some reason she gives me that vibe the fact that she's built her business from the back of her trunk, that she always shows to now, to her having a new home and having pop-ups and everything, and she's always setting it straight with people, and I think that she's innovated her ads that she puts out. I just love everything about her. She gives me positive vibes so I really I would love to meet her one day yeah, same, I love me and ray how she approaches business.
Speaker 1:I love that. Um number three what's a non-negotiable part of your day these days?
Speaker 2:These days is different, but working out, um, I haven't worked out like that. I get a six week clearance next week and I should be back in the gym, but, um, working out is definitely a big part of my life. Five to six times a week I would work out, so I really enjoy that. I like to see the change. I like, yeah, sweating. I love it all.
Speaker 1:So Number four what's a personal trait that you have that you think has really helped you in business?
Speaker 2:I would say boundaries. I am very strict on that which is opposite for my husband, Like I have to tell him to shut it off, but like I'm not checking email until I'm sitting at a desk. So, if you like, oh, I messaged you. Yeah, it's not. It's eight, 39 o'clock in the morning. I haven't sat down yet. Like give me a second. Um, I'm very strict on boundaries. I'm very like okay, I understand this is happening for the business, but we can't change anything. Right now. We're at dinner, phones are down, child is asking us questions, so that's something that I don't play with boundaries in the business?
Speaker 1:Yes, and then finally, what is your parting advice for fellow women entrepreneurs who want to be their own boss but don't want to leave that nine to five? You don't have to. That's my parting advice.
Speaker 2:I don't think that you have to. I think you can manage it all. Obviously, it depends on your job, but then I think there's different seasons and there's times where I'm working a nine to five and I got to work a five to 10. Like, it's just what I have to do, so you don't have to leave your job. We've never encouraged and I would never encourage anyone to leave their job unless they want to obviously encourage, and I would never encourage anyone to leave their job unless they want to obviously but do both of them.
Speaker 1:Why not Do both? Do something, do both and with that, where can people connect with you and your multitude of businesses and courses? And resources after this episode.
Speaker 2:So cleanandbusinessuniversitycom is where you can get our course in regards to us, the heartrimony, and I'll spell that. That's for YouTube, that's for TikTok, that's for Instagram, it's the h-a-r-t-r-i-m-o-n-y and that's a play on our last name and matrimony.
Speaker 2:it was our wedding hashtag. And the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts at more than a side hustle podcast, so that would be. And the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts at more than a side hustle podcast, so that would be Yahoo, apple, spotify, any of those you can find it, and the visuals for our podcast is on YouTube as well, so that's where you can find it.
Speaker 1:Well, janelka, thank you so much for being in the guest chair. This was very highly informative, so I am so grateful that you were here and thank you for having me, Of course. And there you have it, you guys. I will talk to you next week. Hey guys, thanks for listening to Side Hustle Pro. If you like the show, be sure to subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other side hustlers just like you to find the show. And if you want to hear more from me, you can follow me on Instagram at SideHustlePro Plus. Sign up for my six foot Saturday newsletter at SideHustleProco slash newsletter. When you sign up, you will receive weekly nuggets from me, including what I'm up to, personal lessons and my business tip of the week. Again, that's SideHustleProco slash newsletter to sign up. Talk to you soon.