More Than A Side Hustle
More Than A Side Hustle
Remote Riches: The Cleaning Business Playbook
This was a feature on the Melanin Money Show, We unpack how a “boring” cleaning business completed 11,000+ jobs without the owners lifting a mop, paid off six figures of debt, and turned into a remote, systems-first company that funds family time. Along the way, we dig into marriage dynamics, boundaries, and building a community that creates $18M+ in student results.
• owner mindset over operator mindset
• validating demand with pre-sales and lean startup costs
• hiring pipeline, vetting, and paying contractors on time
• pricing, upsells, and managing two customers with empathy
• turning mistakes into trust through fast, professional responses
• CRM automations, reviews, and sticky recurring revenue
• working with your spouse: roles, rhythms, and boundaries
• buying back time with help at home to protect family energy
• Cleaning Business University: community, coaching, implementation
• expansion into commercial and thoughtful legal lines on contractors
“Clean your business, clean your house, clean your finances.”
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Our cleaner business has done over 11,000 jobs. We've never played a lot of I've never played a countertop, never watched a disc. We got multi-million dollar, billion dollar CEOs on their dev and they're like, I'll just wish I had more time, more time with my family. We say we're doing all these things for our family. We will work for our family. We will live for our family. Yes, I want to create freedom. I want to create options, but our kids are here today.
SPEAKER_05:What is it like with your spouse?
SPEAKER_04:I think don't do this, but people need to be intimidated or inspired by what you do. Neither is your father.
SPEAKER_03:Let me give you guys a fun example of that. I thought your car is a good idea. It's a beautiful car. And then oh you bragging, you got this, you got that. Like, no, that shows you what's possible as being a black man in America and show you what you can do in this world.
SPEAKER_05:What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Melanin Money Show. We got two special guests, maybe uh partially responsible for recruiting us to Dallas, Texas. Yeah. Um, and so it's gonna be really good episodes. Matter of fact, I've interacted with their company more times than I've interacted with them since I've been here. So we're gonna talk about it on today's podcast, but why you should potentially consider getting into this business for that very reason. So we're gonna talk with two people who went from nine to five resturns, seven-figure entrepreneurs, co-founders of Cleaning Business University, marriage first mindset, paid off$114,000 in debt to now having over 18 million in student results. With no further ado, hot dogs. How are y'all? What's going on? What's up? What's up, the intro? Absolutely. Oh, absolutely. Long time coming, right? Long time we do, right? Right. So I mean you before we moved here. You spoke at our event that we had here. Killed it, by the way. April of last year. April of yeah, yeah. Yeah, like before we moved here. I was working, yeah. That's why I couldn't come. Yeah, so she can she can come. So we said, but we had to had to get her on the show, the the better half. Absolutely, right? Um on the show for the year. He did shout you out on stage, too. He did, he's a good man right there.
SPEAKER_02:Good man for me. I know.
SPEAKER_05:I mean, what the lady's saying now, my man, my man, my man, my man, my man. But now, all jokes aside, man, it's amazing having you guys on the show. Um, as most people should know by now, I'm very intentional about um, you know, the businesses that I support, right? My home is a black builder, um, you know, the guy who just got us the new cars that we got, black car broker. So any anybody anytime I can find and support good business though. Right. It's not gonna be. You know what I'm saying? That happens to be owned by black people. Yeah, there you go. Um, and so when I came here, I was like, I knew I was gonna need, you know, somebody to um clean the house. Now that they don't clean houses, yeah, but they own a business where people do it for you, right? And I thought it was so cool because y'all don't, y'all don't clean, I mean, not at all, y'all don't touch a mop or a rag or nothing, right? So cool. So anyway, so they own um a cleaning matter of fact, literally, I don't even think enough today uh I have my house cleaned by their company. So let's talk about how you guys even got into this, why you got because I mean cleaning business of all things to choose. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It sounds boring and dirty, yeah, right, but obviously y'all came in looking clean like money. So I you don't you don't have to. I think the biggest misconception with this business is that you have to be in the trenches when you don't. So can you just like let us know what made y'all get into this business? And then we talk about like how y'all got got out of it.
SPEAKER_02:So the business started because of Anthony, and when he brought it, I thought that he wanted us to clean. I'm like, absolutely not. I know who you're talking to, but not me. We're not doing it. Yeah, um, he was like, no, we wouldn't go out and clean, we'll get people to do it. I'm like, how the hell are we gonna find people to do? This doesn't even make any sense. Yeah, so that was like early 2017. Um, and then he brought it back again in 2017. He's like, All right, yeah, I got a plan. This is how it's gonna go, this is what we're gonna do. And then I was like, okay, we can do this. And we were paying off debt at that time. And so who starts a business when paying off debt? I don't know. But that was part of our process like this can help this to pay off debt. Yeah, and that's essentially what started um our cleaning business.
SPEAKER_03:And looking back, looking back now, if you think about any business owner, I worked in IT for 15 years. Yep, and the CEO of my IT company didn't know anything about technology. He barely knew how to use his, I would look barely known how to use his computer. And how do you start a multi-million dollar IT firm without understanding technology? He partnered with a person in technology, a CTO. And that's the way true businesses ran. He didn't have he didn't have to say, I'm gonna go and learn technology to start this business. Right. He's if I find the right partners, I can go the business, right? So he's working from an owner, a CEO mindset from the very beginning. But we think local service businesses like this that we gotta be in the trenches doing it day to day. Looking back now, I didn't have that mindset, but now I understand exactly why and how he was able to do that in his IT firm. Yeah, so exactly.
SPEAKER_05:So for the record, since the inception of the business, you y'all never cleaned a countertop, never washed a dish, never mind.
SPEAKER_03:We've done our cleaning business, has done over 11,000 jobs, and we've never cleaned a single home.
SPEAKER_05:11? That's that's that's crazy. That's a hook. Yeah, over 11,000 jobs and never, and again, I'm a living testament to it. They got there, they just left. Like I saw the second.
SPEAKER_02:We had no idea either. One time I had to intervene and like text your wife, and I'm like, uh, because the cleaner reached out to me, I'm like, I usually don't do this, but she was asking me to come a little early. Is that okay?
SPEAKER_05:An amazing, amazing team. Uh, you know, matter of fact, uh, I so we switched the lighting in our house. Some of so some of the like the chandeliers and stuff we took down, and Anita, she actually was like, uh, is that for sale? Now I was gonna sell it to her because we got like a wholesale relationship with the um where they basically will take your lighting and sell it wholesale. But I'm just gonna give it to her for first. She's so happy. She's like, I can't have it for birthday. Let's go. Yeah. So but that just that just speaks to how satisfied I am with the service they experience, right? She's done a great job. So now let's talk a little bit about okay, so you guys started the cleaning business. Obviously, it went well. It became a vehicle or instrument to not only help you get out of debt, I'm assuming, but also now fund your freedom, right? Let's have two beautiful little daughters came to the birthday party earlier this year. Legend had a blast. So, how did it go from okay, we got this cleaning business, we got a dialed in. Nobody even knows we own it. It's like a little secret mystery to now we want to help other people do the same thing.
SPEAKER_03:I think for us, this happened right at the top of the pandemic. Everyone was like, I'm going to teach, I'm going to educate. And Janoko was like, nobody wants to know this stuff, but we were fortunate enough to be sharing our journey on social media since 2016. Yeah. We had our wedding video up there, we had our anniversary, we had our what was the name of the event we did?
SPEAKER_02:Where?
SPEAKER_03:Where they were, we would we were doing a Beyonce and Jay-Z thing.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, our engagement.
SPEAKER_03:Our engagement video announcement going back to 2015, 2016. So we've been sharing our entire journey on social media. And during this time, we were kind of talking about the cleaning business a little bit. And we're always speaking about paying off debt.
SPEAKER_02:Which he actually did a course on paying off debt prior to.
SPEAKER_03:So we just got on IG Live and we just mapped out the whole thing, how we were able to build this cleaning business. And we said, if anybody's interested in learning more, yeah, you know, because this has been a vehicle for us, you know, tap in. And that's when you recognize, okay, well, the debt freedom stuff is cool, but people want to learn how to make money. Yeah. People want to be able to create options for themselves. And I'm like, all right, let's do it.
SPEAKER_02:Because he said that we should do the course. And I'm like, if you get 10 sales on this IG Live, I'll I'll do it with you. So we didn't have a course, we just went on and sold something.
SPEAKER_04:We all sold it before.
SPEAKER_02:We sold it to the pre-sale. There we go. And if you guys are interested, so we got like over 10 sales. I'm like, okay, I guess we gotta record it. So like that night, we're on Zoom at our counter.
SPEAKER_04:That's a lesson in business. You sell it before it's ready because if nobody wants to buy it, then don't make it.
SPEAKER_02:Right. That was my thing. I was like, I don't think anybody's interested. He's like, I promise you, let's just do this RG Live and let's just see. I'm like, okay. So we went on and pre-sold it, and people were interested. I'm like, okay, I guess people gotta record it now.
SPEAKER_03:A lot of people talk about giving value up front, and we were giving value for so long, we didn't realize there was any interest in a thing. Right, yeah. So we would just drop little, oh, we got a cleaning business. Oh, we got 10 cleanings, and yeah, people was like, What the hell? Like the debt freedom, but what is this other thing you guys are doing? Yeah, yeah. So when we we was when we was on Good More in America, they they talked about the cleaning business for maybe about 16 seconds out of a three-minute segment. And people was like, wait, wait, what's that? What's that thing? What's that thing? What's that? What's that? Yeah, and we was like, okay, I was like, there's something here, we just gotta explore it. And that's how we've been able to help over 2,000 students make over$18 million just from just putting it out there and seeing what, you know, seeing what's stuck.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. No, that's that's that's super dope. So let's kind of take a slightly different angle because I mean, obviously I'm friends with y'all, so I kind of understand the dynamic. It seems like the dynamic is you cut you have all these bright, amazing ideas. That's a problem. She's like, she's like, oh like, sit down, relax. So what is it like to truly work with your spouse, right? Because I do a lot, almost everything together. I mean, we care, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? So look, look, break down like the the highs, the lows, the challenges, but ultimately it works, right? So, like, yeah, because I know there's some there's some couples watching this right now that's like, I want to work with my spouse, I don't know if it can work. So, like, give us some some lessons learned that you guys have learned throughout this journey working together.
SPEAKER_02:So, I would say I don't think every spouse should work together. That's the first disclaimer. Yeah. I do feel like personalities matter, and I do feel like you have to like the other person. Now, that's not shady to anyone, but I'm gonna say that's a is that not a man requirement.
SPEAKER_01:Y'all see social media, it's like 50-50 or 10-0. I love you, but I don't like you, baby.
SPEAKER_02:That's and sometimes that shows from people. So I feel like to be around someone all the time, you really gotta like them. So that's one thing. And then we do pour into like strengths and weaknesses, right? So um he was in IT and he knows all that world. That's not my world in any capacity. Yeah, I could use the iPhone and stuff, but I'm not into that. Um, I'm a mental health therapist, so when it comes to communication with customers and just different things, I would be a bit more level-headed and a bit more like, this makes more sense, this doesn't, and you're too giving that way. I'm like, yo, here's your money back and leave me know. I don't need it. Yeah, that's like take it easy, let me handle it. So the strength of weaknesses was a big thing for us, and then I know it's cliche, but really communication. Like, communication is very big in our house, you know, when we were paying off the debt, and even in general, it was like, okay, we're having monthly meetings, weekly meetings of not just money, but are you happy this week? Like, how's things going with us? How's things going with the kid? Did I say anything recently? Um, and so that's big for us to really nip things in the bud almost immediately if there's something that like I don't like the way you're looking this way, or I don't like the way this is going. Yeah, those are huge for us. So that communication, liking each other, weaknesses, those are a few things that I have that we're doing.
SPEAKER_03:When sure everybody knows we're married, so when we hop on our team calls, we try to let the marriage dynamic hop out on the conversation. So even this week, um, like you know, pretty honest conversation. Jinoka's like, I'm not feeling your energy this week. She's like, you're not leading us right now. And I'm like, whoa. Yeah, I was like, she's like, something's wrong. It's like you're not, you don't have that. You have decision fatigue. She's like, you might have you might be making too many decisions that you don't want to make a decision.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And I'm like, okay. As I had to step back a little bit, I had to get back, you know, get back in my bag, as we say, right? So it took me a couple days, like, what's going on? Let me figure this out. Where now I'm coming back on me as like all right, here's a decision I'm gonna make, here's how we move it forward. So those are business conversations, but those are family conversations because I'm not feeling confident in my business. I'm not gonna be feeling confident in the family, I'm not gonna be making decisions. Right. So I had it took me a while to step back, like a couple days, and figure out, all right, what's holding me back right now? Why am I not making decisions? And we had a conversation, and she's like, Yeah, you're making too many decisions, and that's the problem. So, going back to the not the cons, but some of the challenges that those things spill over on a daily basis. So a business, marriage, family, it all comes out. So we got a team, and they're like, You guys good sometimes? I like let me let me fall back a little bit. So that's fair.
SPEAKER_05:But I think um even within that, there's a lesson because I think people like have this idea that there's a business life in a personal life. No, it's not how it works. The personal life ain't going well. You're gonna you're gonna see it and it's gonna show up in the business. It's just understanding that, and um, I guess give yourself grace in that process. But I was interested to know like what that dynamic was.
SPEAKER_02:And then like stopping it because he doesn't stop business. I stopped it. I'm like, it's four o'clock, I'm out. Like he's like, Well, you entrepreneur, it doesn't end here. I said, today it does. Like, all right. My shit just came over and ends here, and many times I'm like, I'm talking to you. Why are you picking up your phone? Like, what's happening on your phone right now? He's like, You're right, let me put it down. Yeah, and so it was kind of like those reminders, but I think when you're the person he brings all the ideas, like it doesn't stop for him, right? Right. So a lot of times I gotta like bring him in, like, all right, we're at the table or we're going here. Like, I don't know if you noticed we was at that party for an hour, you had used on your phone for 40 minutes. Like, what was happening? I know nothing's happening on Instagram, like right, right? Everybody okay? So some of that definitely still happens. So, like you said, business and personal, it just kind of overlaps all the time. Facts.
SPEAKER_03:And that supposed gotta be able to do that. Like, yo, aunt, tone, you good, cut it off, right? And that's that's in challenge sometimes.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so I think one of the questions I want to ask in that in that regard, do you all, because you have business together and you have personal time, do y'all have to schedule out like personal time to make sure like business doesn't come in in the in into this area? Or because I see what a lot what happens with a lot of couples I know that work together, they end up letting the business consume their personal life. And it becomes more about business and they kind of lose their marriage in the middle of that. Yeah, how do y'all avoid that pitfall?
SPEAKER_02:So I would say definitely scheduling it is important. I would I kind of take the lead in that more, I would say. That definitely just with the date nine, so times we're going out. I'm like, we ain't talking about business. I me step in the car. I'm like, don't talk about business. We're not hearing this. Leave the business phone at home. I'm not hearing it tonight. And he was starting, he's like, You're right. I'm like, yep, you don't want to hear it. So yeah, it is kind of that being cognizant of it because your life is the business. So it's like, what else are we talking about then? It's like if we ain't talking about this, what else are we talking about? But like there is other things happening, there's other stuff that we can look forward to and kind of just leave that behind. So absolutely, scheduling does become a priority. Like we say, like, if it's not on the calendar, it's not happening. So specific things like it needs to be on the calendar. No, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_03:You got multi-million dollar, billion-dollar CEOs on their deathbed, and they're like, I just wish I had more time, like more time with my family. It's like we as entrepreneurs, we say we're doing all these things for our family, we'll work for our family, but we live for our family, right? That's real. So this, and I gotta remind myself, like, yes, I want to create freedom, I want to create options, but our kids are here today. Yeah, like if my our daughter just started walking, and it's like if I would have been on the business meeting and she called me, Tony, he she just started walking. I ran out of that meeting like, oh, I'm gonna go see my daughter work walk. So we gotta be mindful, like we can work work all we want, but we gotta live for our family. Because the reason we're running, we gotta live for our family to enjoy it.
SPEAKER_05:And keep and keep that reason at the forefront. So what allows you guys to do that, obviously, you guys built a business um that you can own but do not run in the sense that you're not like you know cleaning the houses. So obviously, for somebody who's watching, I know they can they're not gonna be able to get every nuance and every detail, but if you were to explain to somebody on this podcast, like if you want to start your own cleaning business from A to Z, what does that process at a high level at least look like?
SPEAKER_03:So I would call it the remote method, right? If you look at multi-billion dollar businesses, it's Uber, Airbnb, DoorDash, Amazon. Uber does not own any taxis because back in the day, a traditional taxi company, back in New York, you say go on, you have to go in a corner, raise your head, taxi pulls up. Very um chaotic. Or you would call a company, yeah, they would sell a black taxi for you. Airbnb is the largest hotel company in the world, and they don't own any hotels. How is that? All they do is connect you with people who already have properties. Right. And then DoorDash doesn't own any restaurants, right? They do the same exact thing. So that's exactly how we run our cleaning business. Very similar to like Thumbtack. You go on ThumbTech, you can hire literally any service provider you want. That's exactly the same way we run our cleaning business. So be the middleman, right? The middleman operator. So you're running the marketing, you're running the sales, you're running the hiring, the operations. The only thing you're not doing is the physical labor. You're doing everything else and managing it, but you're not doing the physical labor. So that's why we call it like the remote middleman method.
SPEAKER_04:So my question with that is because I I hear a lot of you know, the be the middleman business, right? My concern with being the middleman is I now have two customers. Yep. I have the like it's for Airbnb, I have the guest that's trying to book, and I have the the the renter who I have to deal with. How do you manage having to deal with both parties? Because if one person messes up, it's your fault. Uh-huh. You know what I'm saying? So how do you balance both? Yeah. You want to take that one or you want me to take it?
SPEAKER_02:So I think the one side of it when it comes to like our contractors, like the betting process in it, right? So background check. And we like contractors that have their own business because then you're more like you're not in and out, right? So you take this seriously. This is your craft. You love to clean. We like that. Yeah. And then on top of that, just making them feel and know that it's a partnership becomes important. Like, so your voice is as important as mine. And like, we're not gonna tolerate people talking down to you or doing negative things. So showing up for them to let them know that even though you're just a contractor for us, we still gonna respect you and show you that type of thing. Because in this industry specifically, they don't get that, you know, they don't get that level from even people they've worked with in the past and customers, they kind of look down on them. So that's another help, such as help. So that's another like important piece just with the contractor side. So we tend to not have many conflict with them at all, really. It's more of like, you know, I'll do it for you guys because I'm working for you guys, but this customer is not being nice, or you know, so they would go the mile for us because of the relationship and rapport that we build and set from the very beginning, paying them on time, like we said we will, because they've dealt with that. People saying they're gonna pay them and they don't. So that side we don't find much conflict with. Now, the customer side, people are gonna be people, right? And you can't please everyone. And we've just learned sometimes like we gotta bite the bullet and reimburse them, or you know, you know, that review they less is gonna hurt us more than just giving them back a hundred dollars. So that over the years we had to kind of learn that and suck it up, even though we don't believe the customer is always right, let's be clear. Absolutely not. But sometimes you just can't rationalize with certain people. I've tried, and most of the time I can, but there's some that I can't.
SPEAKER_04:Trying to be rational with it with the irrational person, isn't it irrational?
SPEAKER_02:Right, right. A recent thing like that, and I told him, I'm like, it doesn't make sense to call this person, they're not in that space, so don't even do it. Um, so that's how we kind of manage it. Not really with the con not many conflict with them, but more with the customer and just trying our best to please them because there's always something that somebody wants. Like, what do you want, really?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:At the end of the day, there's something that you want, that's why you're complaining. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So kind of picking it up. George has this analogy. Should I let you say it? Because I might butcher it. Give it a try, give it a try. Um last name, people say, Should I say it? So it's like a restaurant analogy, right? Like if if you're if you order something at the restaurant and they bring you the wrong thing, you're not mad about them bringing you the wrong thing. You're mad about how they react to bringing you the wrong thing. Right. Right? So it's like if I say you, you I ordered a steak, you gave me chicken, and it's oh my god, sir, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna fire the person that brought you. Like, no, no, no, no, no, worry about it. Just like, just bring my chicken, I'm all good. But they kind of, so what you're like, well, this is all we got. You're gonna be you're gonna be mad. So it's not about doing something wrong, it's about how do you respond to that and how do you fix it.
SPEAKER_02:And we say that with reviews too, right? We tell our students, like, respond to all reviews, like people look at that. Like, no one's saying that you're not gonna get a negative review, but how you respond to the review may make a difference of how if I go with you or not. If you're like, oh yeah, you're crazy, I told you already. It's like, okay. You still gotta remain professional even if this person is wrong. Like, even if you know that you did everything right, you still have to remain professional. So I agree with that. How you respond to things make a difference.
SPEAKER_03:You as a business owner, that's one of the main things that you can control is your communication.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03:So let's say you do have that angry customer, how are you responding to it? Are you communicating with them with empathy, right? She's like, all right, I'm gonna call them, I'm gonna calm them down. I'm not like, no, refund their money, let's move on. We don't need it. But it's like, how do you handle that communication? If you're running late, just like you guys have employers, you guys have team members, right? If they do something with a client, right? How do you guys handle that? It's the same exact thing. The only difference is we didn't we didn't train these people from day one. Yeah, they had a skill set and we're just working with them as a partnership.
SPEAKER_02:And then I think also recognizing generally, I would say when things go wrong, there it's something that we did wrong too. There's something that, like, okay, so what can we learn from it? What did we do wrong in this situation as well, as well, even if it's just 20% out of 100, like that's important too to identify. So that's how we manage it. Just kind of being real and up front with the customer and and trying to meet them where they are.
SPEAKER_05:Okay. Um, you know, you know, people, and I know y'all experienced this with especially with cleaning business university problem, people who are interested or intrigued by it, is like people will talk themselves out of opportunity, right? Like, oh well, I would start this, but it costs too much, or it's like, so what are if someone were to start, like what is the kind of the rough startup cost? What are some of like the systems that you would need to be able to run this business, uh, this remote cleaning business?
SPEAKER_02:So startup, we tell people they need like$1,500 and that's it. They only need$100, not thousand.$1,500 to start up because we don't, it's not a brick and mortar, right? So to start, right? I'm not saying that's all you're gonna spend. But to start, yeah, that includes like getting an LLC, starting your business bank account, um, starting some marketing to get the clients and marketing to get the contractors. And the good thing about it is it's not all in one shot. It's not like Monday now, I'm slapping down 1500. I gotta get my LLC, and then maybe two weeks later, like I'm building as things happening, the website, that type of stuff. That's a place to start. Um, obviously, the more money you have, I think the further you get quicker, right? When it comes to marketing, because a lot of this is paid marketing online. Yeah, um, so the more, the merrier. But in regards to just starting the business, roughly about 1500, and I'll have some students argue in the comments, like, well, I only started with 600. Sure. Yeah, I'm just trying to buffer. I'm just trying to buffer people. Yes, it can be cheaper, but just trying to like let people know.
SPEAKER_03:So when it comes to like some of the systems that um that 1500 includes, like, so like our CRM, we built our own in-house CRM off of high level. So it comes with our automations, comes with our templates, comes with our systems, our emails, our text messages, everything else. So those are some things that they could get from day one. But if you like, one of our clients, one of our uh students, she built her cleaning business to like$400,000. And she's actually located in in Texas as well. She's like, Anthony, I didn't want to tell you guys I didn't have an LLC, I didn't have I didn't have a website. She's like, I didn't do nothing.
SPEAKER_02:She's like after, like she did all that stuff after.
SPEAKER_03:She's like, I got it, I got a cleaner and I got a client. And that's how I started my business, right? She's like, I'm right there.
SPEAKER_04:She's like cleaner, the client. So I need to take all you need.
SPEAKER_03:In order for a business, you gotta make money. She's like, I just needed those two things, and that's what I did it. She's like, I went back and backtracked and did those things, but is that from everybody?
SPEAKER_05:But that but that's what we tell. That's even like when people ask us all the time, right? You know, like in the challenges or whatever, they're just like, like, we show them the whole the way your wealth should be structured. Yeah, and then they're like yeah, and then and then they think, okay, well, I need the trust, I need this, I need that. I'm like, you gotta pass what to put in that thing. And so, like, granted, yes, if you talk to the attorney, they're gonna tell you you need all these things, but like, it's okay to get a little traction, get a little momentum, and then you know, double back, right? Is it the perfect or right way on paper definitively to start your business without the trademark? Probably not, but I'd much rather you allocate time and resources to making the money, yeah, right, and validating the idea than spending money on things that don't matter yet. Right. So we we agree with that wholeheartedly for sure.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, so they have the LLC in the perfect world. Um, they have the CRM set up so they can understand how, you know, and get the templates. Hold on, I'm gonna cut you off. I I I won't if I know if I don't say this now, I forget.
SPEAKER_05:So when people work with you guys to clean a business university, they get access to the CRM that you guys have built on top of Go How Level or whatever, right? Or they get access to the templates. Yep. Y'all leave a lot of money on the table. Um we got we have a conversation offline. Well, get they'll leave it away.
SPEAKER_02:It's a separate payment.
SPEAKER_05:It's a separate payment. Yeah, it's not included.
SPEAKER_02:And the funny thing is, then like what is we don't get this included? We have to build that out.
SPEAKER_04:We have a team that builds it.
SPEAKER_05:That's not an MMR to me. That's not an MR. It sounds like a franchise model where y'all push out updates to the C. Anyways, that's another conversation.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but if you're any in the room.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he's a good one.
SPEAKER_04:Um But that was that was that was a good point. So I'm thinking of the listener right now, right? I got my LLC set up, I got the$1,500 set aside, I get your CRM.
SPEAKER_03:Who do I market to first? All right, so chicken or the egg. Yeah, same exact thing. Okay, the question is are you going out to clean houses yourself? Probably not. So the first thing you're going to do is probably want to get your your um cleaners, right? Some places you can find your cleaners as we tell people to go on Facebook groups. It might be a little outdated, but it still works today, right? People are posting every single day. You got this platform called Next Door. Like, oh, my cleaner is amazing. Working with her for 15 years. Yeah. She's looking for more clients. You hit up that cleaner. Hey, I'll sell your name in Next Door. My name is such and such. I just started my cleaning business. Okay. Would you want to operate with me? Here's how I'm running my business. You can go to Craigslist. You guys don't know what Craigslist is, it's a directory page. Um be outdated, but it still works. Go to Craigslist.
SPEAKER_01:So Craigslist is still there. Craigslist is still there.
SPEAKER_03:It still works, right? Um, indeed is one of the platforms we found that if you don't want to go out and hunt for people, they are looking for jobs, they will come to you. You can post your job ad on Craigslist, have an extremely uh we have an extremely detailed job ad because we want people to see them like, whoa, they're kind of strict about this cleaning thing. We might not want to work with them because we don't want everyone into our business because our hiring process is extremely, extremely thorough. So you got the job ad that you start posting on these platforms, like I just mentioned. And then from there, you find somebody go through the interview process. We do a background check, we do a reference check, we make sure they got insurance. They don't have insurance, we make sure they're willing to get insurance. And then and only then we do a um we do a phone screening with them. And then from there, we might do a first job or a test clean. Uh, first job is like, all right, we got a client, like, hey, you know, we're gonna give you a free cleaning in exchange for some valid feedback from you on what happened. Things go well, things didn't go well. After that, it goes well, and after that only goes well, and then we start marketing to our clients. So that's why I say the chicken or the egg. You're going out and clean yourself, absolutely do it. But if you want the uh you want to get the cleaners first, that's how I would recommend.
SPEAKER_05:Okay. What has been, I mean, obviously you guys have over 18 million in student results, which is amazing. Um, what has been one of your favorite or best, I guess, like client testimonials?
SPEAKER_03:My favorite would probably be um Alex. And I'll say Alex. Um, Alex is actually in uh he was in Houston at the time. Oh he's in Dallas now. Uh young dude, he was doing trucking, he was doing real estate, he was doing stocks, he was doing options. I'm gonna do trucking, I'm gonna try this cleaning business thing. I'll say, Alex, please do me a favor. You're very brilliant. You got a mastermind ability. Focus on one thing. Can we just do that? He's like, all right, he started selling off some real estate, started selling off um his trucks. He's like, I'm gonna focus on this cleaning business thing. And two and a half years, two and a half years later, he hit a million dollars in the cleaning business. Wow. And he was like, eh, I'm good. He's like, that was it. And then after that, you know, he he did what he had to do with his cleaning business. Um, and that was my favorite testimonial because I told him from day one, I was like, you are very talented, just focus on one thing. Whatever you want to do, yeah, just focus on that one thing. I promise you could do great with it. And uh he's probably been one of our favorites. He was one of our earlier students. He was like, I'm gonna take this seriously, and he he dove in.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he followed it, and that was one thing because we get students that kind of like, and I'm like, well, who told you to do that? Yeah. I'm like, oh yeah, well, I came back around to it, but he was like, I follow what you guys said and execute it and and it worked, yeah. So that's dope.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Ask it for a friend. Um, let me ask for myself. What is a this is probably gonna be a uh a question that the question that needs more context. What is a good clean, what is the average cleaning rate that you can get for cleaning somebody's apartment? Like, like in this, is it does it depend on square feet and all that stuff like that? So let's say a 1500, 1600 square foot apartment. What's a good, what's a good cleaning rate?
SPEAKER_02:Um, a one bedroom, one bath.
SPEAKER_04:Two two bed, two baths.
SPEAKER_02:Oh. Well, maybe it's close to like two, two twenty-five.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:On the earth clean, maybe around there, depending, because a lot of the first cleaning you try to add in, you try to upsell and do like a deep clean.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, yeah, that's what the Listen.
SPEAKER_02:Holiday text. Y'all coming next week. So yeah, so you try to upsell on different things. And so maybe 225, 250 is just dependent. That's actually the feedback right there. Yeah, why are you getting the holiday text? So, yeah, yeah, just depending. Um, yeah, that's why that's where I would land with it.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, I would see how much I was paying if it was in market race. That's about right. Um, but what I think is uh dope about the cleaning business for anybody who like is skeptical about getting in, two things. Number one, it should have a high stick rate because I don't trust that many people in my apartment. Like, same. We have really expensive stuff in our apartment. So once you find somebody you like and you trust, the the switching cost is is is high. So once you get a client that knows like and trust you, you should have that client for a long time. Number two is that usually, y'all can correct me if I'm wrong, cool. People who get their house or apartment clean tend to be people who are fairly affluent.
SPEAKER_02:Right. So it is a luxury to get your house cleaned, right? Um, and you spoke about like if they like you, they should stick with you. Like we I could think I'm I'll use his name as his name's Roger, let's say. Yeah, we've been cleaning his house every single week. So we've gotten like$70,000 from this one customer.
SPEAKER_03:We cleaned his house$139 times.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, knows the space.
SPEAKER_01:$339 times. So that's our cleaner.
SPEAKER_02:That our cleaners, Anita, has the key to his home. He's in Italy. He's like, I'm not gonna be just let her know the alarm's not on. I, you know, she has the key. She goes every week. Yeah, she knows, like, she's like, yeah, he has a big home, he's by himself. So, yes, you're right. When they when they love you, they stick it through. So sometimes we see people fall off just finances, because like you said, you know, it is a luxury to get your home clean. Um, but we find finances, but then you do find people that just like, well, I just want my window clean. Like people do call, or I just want the flow of mom. Yeah, we're not coming.
SPEAKER_01:We're not the third, we have the wrong company for that.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I find a mom and pop for that, you know. But that's why I think there's so much, we were talking offline before the cameras won. Well, I think it's so much opportunity in which y'all was doing y'all doing because the level of MRR that comes from the stick rate of that, right? If you have equity in those cleaners' businesses or decide is a million ways you can go about it, right? Like you can package that. That's so easy to sell.
SPEAKER_04:Private equity will gobble that up because it's it's a what a boring business that has high reoccurring revenue, sticky client retention. Yeah, and um, this is something I want to ask y'all um as well. So when I moved to Medellin, Columbia, I was introduced to this concept of a house manager. I didn't know that was a thing in America, but apparently it's like what super effluent people have, but it's way more affordable in Medellin. So when I came back home, I couldn't unsee it. So a house manager is not just somebody that cleans your house, but they go through your cabinets and they restock everything in your house.
SPEAKER_02:It makes sure the house functions.
SPEAKER_04:They make sure the house functions. So like my question to you all is have you all thought about adding that to something like that? So you're service not.
SPEAKER_02:We've added things like organization to our cleaning business. We've added things like carpet cleaning, but remember we work contractors. So whoever we work with gotta have it. They gotta have it before we start marketing it. So unless we look for those specific people that organize it.
SPEAKER_05:I'm gonna challenge you on that though, right? So either, you know, Dan Martel. Y'all know Dan Martel. Yeah, yeah. So he's the guy who I got the house manager concept from. And basically what he's saying is like they might have started out like he's like, if your person can clean your house, they could probably fill up your gas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So even if they're not like doing it, it's not a part of the job description, yeah. You can expand their mindset and they can make more money. Like, hey, would you be open to doing this? If you can, if you can, I saw your people today, they was cleaning the floor, right? If you can do that, surely you can restock some cabinets, right? So is I mean, is it a risk to like take that on and make them like wonder if they can learn or teach that? Yes, but it's a high probability that they can do it.
SPEAKER_04:I would I would host a class and charge them. We're real talking if I'm from now, this is the master class. If I were you all, I would reach out to my cleaners and be like, hey, we have this program, you know, it's a thousand dollars, whatever. We will teach you all how to upgrade your skill set from cleaners to house managers. If you do this, you can go from charging$200 a house to$600 a house. It's a one-time payment. So now you're getting paid from the contractors for you all to create the SOP that you want them to follow anyway. Yep. And then they pay you, and now they become a certified house manager, and then you bring it to your clients. If my cleaners right now told me they had the ability to start managing my house, I would give it to them. They haven't reached out to me, so I haven't said yet. I'm I'm trying to fly my old person from Columbia to get her visa to come here because I don't know if they can do it, but they if they said they can do it, I would give them a, I would give them a try. I will add this RT house business. Y'all give me some.
SPEAKER_03:Y'all let me let me give you a legal standpoint as well, because we've gone through this. Um, yeah, we've gone through this a few times. So the way we run our business model, we try to we try to maintain a a reasonable distance from all the tasks they're doing because you once you support once you pass a certain employee showing employee, yeah, you're right. And where it's hard of labor. I don't want to get into the conversation too much because I don't want it to come back up again, God forbid. But we've gone through this process, and they were like, you guys are good. Everything you guys are doing, basically, once you cross this threshold, yeah, uh, we're gonna have some problems. So we wanna so we if we did, that's absolutely a great idea, but there's certain legal, legal, legal at it, legal, legal legally that we try not to cross because we've came to that line a little bit. So people are like, oh, how can you do this? Like, we've gone through it, we've proven the model, we paid to prove the model, so you guys can't tell me otherwise for now.
SPEAKER_05:So understood, and everything has its has its pros and cons. And you can do you can do everything, right? So it's not a so it's not another.
SPEAKER_03:But one of the things she's like, you know, have we ever thought about going to employees? Absolutely, but it's like how much what's the time commitment that we would need to present in that side, and what's the opportunity cost? No, for sure, for sure.
SPEAKER_04:The grass is always greener. We just we just spitball, we gotta do the work.
SPEAKER_03:I can sit here and argue all day about it, but I there's definitely opportunities there, but we have to choose which route we want to go. But once you play that, once you tiptoe, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yep. No, I I got I think I think my personally, I think the biggest opportunity is getting equity stays in the contractors that are that y'all are already working with. And and instead of it being like, and so now that all the technology that y'all are using, they already have access to it. Y'all, y'all still continue to create more distribution. I thought that that's I think that's the biggest opportunity. Because now you still are able to teach people at SKO, right? And do that, but now you're getting equity in these businesses, and then you're able to roll them up into one entity, increase enterprise value, exit, whatever. I'm happy to, you know, that conversation arm of your business, you know, since it's since y'all not doing it anyway. But anyway, yeah, yeah. Um so let's let's swing the pendulum back uh a little bit different. So um, as I mentioned earlier in the episode, you guys have two beautiful kids. One's about to turn one, and one's three, turns four in February. Okay. We right there, so yeah. Um, I knew it was right after legend, that's how I remember. Um, so let's talk a little bit about balancing as a married couple is one thing. That's a whole dynamic. Right. But balancing like business and motherhood as a woman, because you're involved in the business, right? This is your business too. Like, how are you able to navigate, you know, raising these two young kids, still showing up as a mother who I know women oftentimes deal with what is it called, mom guild, because it's like I'm balancing this business that I'm building. How are you just navigating all those things, um, you know, as a mother and as an entrepreneur?
SPEAKER_02:So I think the important piece of it is like your spouse as well, right? Like, so how do they show up for you? How do they kind of support you to not make you just feel like you're in this alone? So I don't ever feel like I'm just parenting alone, right? So a lot of it is both of us together. Like from the very beginning when uh Alani was born, it was like, okay, we had shifts at night. Like you're getting up first, I'm getting the first. You getting up first, I'm getting. So it's a lot of that kind of, it's not just me getting them dressed in the morning. He'll get them dressed in the morning. So it's kind of that that balance that's provided. But then on top of that, we're the only ones as family that lives in uh Dallas, all of our families back home in Brooklyn, New York. So we do hire help, like we pay for help. That's something that we don't shy away from. That's something that I had to like let my mom know, like, this is what's gonna be. Because you know, like they're like, well, why are you having somebody and run my grandbaby? Yeah, and where are you? You were in New York, right? So from the very beginning, we had like a doula, a night nanny, and then we had a nanny for two years, and now we have an all-pair. So the hired help helps me to show up as a better mom, as a better wife. Yeah, and so the support of my husband and then the hired help helps me to not feel so kind of alone, helps me to not and feel like I can do other things and do the things I want to do. Like, okay, I can go out at night with friends because things are settled. And it's not like, oh, my husband don't know how to put down his child at night. You know what I mean? So though that those are two things I would say helps me to kind of balance it. Gotcha.
SPEAKER_05:Gotcha. Yeah. Random question. Are you so uh last year, what was it? 2024. Yeah, I took six months off from drinking and he he inspired the journey. So are you still having having drunk since since we went to USAP?
SPEAKER_02:I haven't drank in three years now. Yeah, Alani is so December 2021 is when he started. So do you still do you still drink? Absolutely. You deal with that. You run that race, man. The reason he stopped drinking was like a lot of because I was pregnant. He was like, All right, I'll go to the end with you with this because she was born in February. He's like, all right, we got two, three months, we can stick this out. I'm like, okay. Seven weeks later, I was back drinking. After she was born. Like, I'm like, okay.
SPEAKER_03:But that's one of my challenges. Like, I go from one extreme to the next. It's like, all right, let me see how long it'll go. Then it's like, eh, do I really need it? Now it's not like I'm I'm anti-like 40th birthday. When that comes up, it's like, okay, maybe I go back at that time, you know, when we're celebrating.
SPEAKER_05:When is your 40th birthday? Because you're 38 now after 39.
SPEAKER_03:Just turned 39.
SPEAKER_05:And 40 next year, man.
SPEAKER_03:40 next year. So it's like, all right, maybe at that point, you know, our 10-year anniversary, maybe I go back to it. But it's not like I'm anti-we got a stock house right now. Yeah, I got you. I got you. It's Friday. I'm gonna have a journey.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Like I'm in there. How has do you feel like, you know, a lot of people have different perspectives on it? How's that influenced, you know, you just, I guess, your journey as a father, as an entrepreneur? Like, has it has it changed, or has it just been, I'm just not drinking anymore and it is what it is?
SPEAKER_03:I don't think it's changed much, honestly. I think from our perspective, or at least from my perspective, when it comes to drinking, is like we're at the point where if we do drink, we got kids, we know we gotta wake up and they're gonna wake up at six o'clock every single day. Yeah, we can't handle hangovers, right? That's the thing that we want to do that we didn't want to do with. So for me, it doesn't, I don't think it's changed too much. Um, I think now I've adjusted so much better to it. But when I first stopped drinking, it was it was definitely a challenge. We go out to the club, we go out, whatever we're gonna do, and it's like uh it's kind of it's kind of challenging, but everybody thinks that something is like what happened, why don't you drink? And it's crazy.
SPEAKER_02:I think it must have been a rehab. They think something is wrong. They're not saying it, but they're like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_04:I just don't want to poison my body today.
SPEAKER_05:Like, is that unreasonable?
SPEAKER_01:It's like if you don't smoke, nobody asks for if you don't drink, it's like, what happened to me?
SPEAKER_05:Do you think?
SPEAKER_01:I tell them my story is like, oh, that was boring. It's like no reason. I thought you had D UI.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, like no, no, no. So Cleaning Business University, right? Because a lot of people listen to this episode right now and they're like, shoot, I need to start me a cleaning business. Right? Um, tell us a little bit about it. Um, if someone wanted to get started, what does it look like? You know, what can they expect? All the things. I let you go.
SPEAKER_03:So Cleaning the Business University, way it started and where it is to now, before it was just a course, like a step-by-step module program. Um, now we built an entire community of over 2,000 students, and we literally give you the step-by-step modules. That I think that's that's not as important right now because information is so abundant, right? Give it the information away for free. But the implementation and the community is what we built over these last, probably we've been focused on a community huge for the last like two to three years. We just had our first in-person community event. Um, and that's been Was it here in Dallas? It was actually in Atlanta. Atlanta, okay. Because we were going to Atlanta and uh our coach is like, you should do an event. It's like, whatever. Uh so we did it in the event. But our next one is in Dallas, actually. The next one is gonna be in Dallas. If you guys want to speak, absolutely. Yeah, say look. Yeah, give us some game, but um clean your business, clean your house, clean your finances.
SPEAKER_05:There it is.
SPEAKER_01:Let's go.
SPEAKER_03:So it started with just step-by-step modules, then it turned an entire community. We do live coaching calls, we bring in guest experts to come in and share the information. So that's what it's really turned into.
SPEAKER_02:And you can kind of sign up and everything at cleanandbusinessuniversity.com. That's where we market it at. And it's become its own thing. At first, people knew it was just for paying off our debt, and now, like, some most people don't even know that part. It's just like the cleaning business coaches, is what they say. Or yeah, if we see somebody somewhere and I'm like, oh, hi, like, do you just randomly run into people kind of just talking about that specifically? Like, oh, I've seen your ad before. Like, like you the cleaning business people.
SPEAKER_01:I was like, Yeah, we own a cleaning business, but we got stuff happening.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So more than that. I know, I know more than a cleaning business. I know we've uh ideated all sorts of potential ideas for you guys' business, but like when you guys think about what's next or the evolution of whether it's the actual cleaning business that you guys own and operate or cleaning business university, what are some things on the horizon that you guys can share?
SPEAKER_02:So the actual cleaning business itself, I think we were like, we have never really tapped into commercial. And so many of our students like explode on commercial. And it's so funny because people are like, um, you know, is the course for commercial just residential? I'm like, it really focuses on residential because that's what we did, and that's an easier way to get in. However, many people will go on and do commercial. So for our actual cleaning business, I think the commercial side is something that we're starting to explore more and see like where that goes. And then cleaning business university, uh, I think more in-person events because we've never, it's funny, we've had it now for five years, and we've never done in-person events. And so we're like now getting to that connecting with our people and finding just making sure there's other ways that we can assist them. Because generally, like you said, it was the course and community, you stop there, right? Um, but there's so much more within there that on a higher level and a lower level that we could be doing that we're focusing on now.
SPEAKER_05:Remind remind me off-camera to give y'all some insight on how to make those community that's profitable.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, yeah. I think the biggest thing is when you speak about community. I think when we were talking to our coach, it's like, I don't want to leave my house, man. I got the two kids, we're good. And I think for me, the the older I get and the more comfortable I get with my family in the ways, I just I would rather be around the people I do know, but I know there's a big component, right? Um, we didn't know that people would travel 11 hours to come to Atlanta when you did the event. So now I was like, okay, I'm okay with you know getting out of my comfort show a little bit, uh my comfort zone, but you know, at the end of the day, I'd rather be in my house, like with the family. So getting out there, getting uncomfortable, um, introducing ourselves, reintroducing ourselves to the world because we've done events with you guys and we've gone out and we've traveled and stuff like that. But I think the last probably two years has probably been a lot very difficult for us. And it's like, I'd rather just stay home sometimes. So reintroducing ourselves and re- I think me relearning myself, what I want to do, what I don't want to do, um is super important.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, because y'all started this well before y'all had kids. Yeah. Right. You know, now you have two. Yeah, two voting kids, right? And so it's just like, you know, and I think we can't underestimate the power of representation, especially amongst you know, us in the culture, right? So it's like, yeah, we don't have obligation, right, to go to be outside and be and be that representation, but we do have a responsibility, right? You know, to present, or you can't be a healthy, happy, married couple with kids, run a business together. Like there's something to be said about because that's I feel like what people always like, anybody can do a cleaning business university, right? But like y'all are doing it as a married couple, right? Who has kids. And so I think that level of representation, I think, is powerful. You don't have to do it, but I think I'm glad you guys are open to you know doing more community stuff because you'd be surprised of the power of representation and and and how someone is willing to do something. They might have seen somebody doing something similar, a middle-aged white guy teaching about cleaning businesses, but now they're doing it because oh now that makes sense. If they can do it, I can do it. They were in corporate, they have debt, they have kids now. So I think it's it's something to be said.
SPEAKER_03:And as he's growing involved, our branding changes too. So when we first started five years ago, like you said, no kids, we was outside. So our demographic was probably a little bit younger. Now we're getting people, you know, they're like, oh, I'm near retirement. It's like we ain't near retirement. Don't get me wrong. We ain't we ain't we ain't gonna be able to get it. Like we we still outside like that, but our branding has changed a little bit where you know, people like I got kids, I got family, I want to grow this business. So I think we also gotta be mindful of that too. Um, so as we grow and expand, our brand changed a lot too. The evolution, the evolution.
SPEAKER_05:I love it, I love it. So, um, if you guys have helped your students achieve 18 million in student results, my my my gut is telling me, you know, actually I already know this the truth, but y'all uh y'all have been fortunate enough to uh cross the the million-dollar net worth threshold yourself as well, right? So, my question for you guys, we ask every guest is what does being a melanin millionaire mean to you? We just talked about representation, but I'm curious, like what does that mean to you?
SPEAKER_02:I feel like you like with life, I think that it feels like just another thing. You just kind of keep moving. And it's unfortunate because I think about like when I got my master's, I'm like, everyone's like, oh my god, and I'm like, yeah, it's something that I had to like I was supposed to get, like I was supposed to get it. Not that I was supposed to be a millionaire, but it doesn't necessarily feel different until you're like speaking to people that maybe not are as close to you, right? Because they're like, wow, you did all this, or like a parent saying something to you that obviously traditionally you would be at a nine-to-five, you know, or like a cousin or something. So that kind of I feel like hits a little different sometimes. But when you're in the motion of it, you don't really recognize it and sit in it. I recognize, you know, just all the good things that you're doing and the way that you're showing up for people, you don't really sit in that until once in a while you see somebody or somebody write something to you, like, yeah, oh, you don't know how much blah blah blah, you changed my life. And I'm like, that's a big statement. Like, but usually you just kind of keep it moving, you just keep doing the podcast, keep doing the things that you know that you can do it.
SPEAKER_04:The number keeps moving. Yeah, yeah. The goalposts, the goalpost, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:The goalpost keep moving, and you know, we have those conversations like when does the goalpost end? Like is it enough? When is it? And is it enough? And it was like, I don't know. I don't think I've ever, I don't know if I'm at that point that I feel like I've had enough. Like, I'm off Jeff Bezos. Like I said, there's some room. There's some room in there. It's like you know what I mean? So that it's just it's hard because like you know you hit it, but then sometimes you just keep moving, you don't sit in it and kind of run it.
SPEAKER_03:We got that message literally, coincidentally enough. When you're as you guys know, when you're running ads on social media, you get randoms from all across the world. Right. And I'm the type of person where unfortunately I want to see what's going on. I want to see what people are saying about my name, even if they don't know me. Yeah, and sometimes that could put me in the fun. I'll I go block and delete. I'll I try not to respond to them. But I saw some negative comments. I go and delete them, but I'm like, Joe, this person said this. How can you believe this? And she's like, You don't even know. They probably didn't even read it, they probably never looked you out. They don't know you from a hole in the wall. This we got the same message three times this week from different people saying, You guys changed my life. And going back to the, you know, what does being a melanin millionaire mean to us? I think that's what it means. And it's just about you sharing your story because we recognize at this point that it is almost our obligation to start sharing our stories, letting people know what's possible for them and being a representation of the greater good in the world and our people. So that's what it means to me. And uh and that's been his message.
SPEAKER_02:Let's remind me at the beginning, just letting you know what's possible. I ain't gonna tell you to leave your job, I ain't gonna tell you to just take it in. Just know that there's something, there's other options out there. You make a decision on this is where I want to go or or not.
SPEAKER_03:Let me give you guys a prime example of that. Um, I saw your car. You post about your car. It is a beautiful car. You growing up, I've never seen anybody in a more beautiful car than that, right? It's not just about the car, it's about the representation of the black man getting out of that car. And then I saw this man's car. Okay, okay. And I'm like, these are two young brothers. I told you no, but there are levels that people are at. And I'm like, you think you at somebody's level? Then you realize. But it's like, it's not even just about being at the level, showing you what's possible, right? And people are like, oh, you bragging, you got this, you got that. I'm like, no, that showed you what's possible as being a black man in America and showing you what you can do in this world, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:One of the best lessons I learned is that people either be intimidated or inspired about what you do. Neither is your problem. So post your story, your wins, your car. Now there's a difference between posting and flexing, but when you tell people what you've achieved, they either get inspired or intimidated.
SPEAKER_05:Neither one of your problems. Absolutely. No, that's that's the fact. And I'm glad you said that because um I was more on the reserve side. I was like, oh, I don't know if I want to, I don't know if I want to post it, right? But but it's like, will it do more good than it would got that from Dan Martel as well, because he's a supercar god, and he was just like, he didn't want to post his cars back in the day. But there was just his men's, his mentor was just like, how much good can you do with it? Like we were driving, we were downtown 4th of July, whatever it was, little kid was so excited, and he was like, you know, trying to take a video of the car, and he'll never forget that moment, you know, like in that that might been been the seed that was sown one damn I had that car. Absolutely. It's not about the car, it's about what who is the person you have to become to get. To get that car, right? And if that's the good that you can do by showing up, telling your story, not flexing, not stunting on anybody, right, and showing what's possible, I think that that outweighs the the naysayers, it outweighs the haters, it outweighs the owe your lifestyle more, or whatever it is, whatever assumptions people want to have, because the truth of the matter is those who truly know you, right, you're right, they'll know. They'll know they'll they'll know your they'll know your intent. They'll know you're not flexing, right? Or if y'all are on vacation and uh uh some payments come through from the cleaning business, it's not to flex, it's to show. Like we're telling y'all, yeah, I'm with my family right now, and somebody else who is also getting fulfilled and they're getting their fair wages, are able to do, are able to do honest work, and everybody's able to win, and I'm able to do what I do, but somebody's gonna look at that same post that I saw that thing was dope, it's gonna be like, oh man, they stunt in there on some island in Mexico, and everything's a stripe screen. Stripe screen side. I see, man, that's dope. Yeah, when are they gonna let me add this acquisition arm for their business or we can read it? Um, so I'm just I'm so glad you said that because people need to hear that. At the end of the day, all that matters is intent. And if you're a believer, God knows your heart, and who can you inspire? And I think that's what matters most. So we appreciate y'all for what y'all do and what y'all represent. So glad to finally get y'all on the this a shade of melanin, I said the melanin came.
SPEAKER_01:We did it, we did it right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Um, we uh we appreciate y'all. I'm actually glad it worked out this way because the first time I asked, I think it would have been like we didn't have a studio, so we'd have been like in Atlanta. We both were crossing paths in Atlanta. Yeah, this is right. This is right. You both in Dallas, make it happen. So appreciate y'all. Keep killing it, keep crushing it. And um until next time.
SPEAKER_03:Now I want to give you guys, I want to give you guys your flowers, man, because y'all been playing out game, y'all been sharing it, y'all been giving everybody so much hope, so much inspiration. So I definitely want to give you guys, both of you guys, your flowers because you know, you guys coming up from where you come from and sharing your story and showing us what's possible, that's the only way we all get ahead. Because if we only see back in the day drug dealers doing this type of stuff, and you guys are able to take it from a serious level, showing us how to run businesses, showing us how to run families, showing us how to grow our teams, right? I see Carter and in Columbia, and I'm like, what is he doing? Oh, he's running his business from Columbia. I see you with the family, and I see you with the cars, and I see you doing these things, it only makes us grow, man. So I appreciate both of you guys for sharing your platform and just sharing your journeys along the way.
SPEAKER_05:Appreciate you guys, man. Well, again.