Cleaning Business Life
Cleaning Business Life is your must-listen weekly podcast for cleaning business owners who want to scale smarter, not harder.
Hosted by Shannon Miller, founder of Klean Freaks University, and Jamie Runco, CEO of Above All Cleaning Company, this podcast delivers the strategies, systems, and insider knowledge you need to build a thriving, profitable cleaning business.
No matter where you are in your journey—whether you're launching your first cleaning company or scaling to seven figures—Cleaning Business Life gives you the tools to streamline operations, maximize profits, and grow with confidence.
Each episode dives deep into topics like:
✔️ Building scalable systems that create efficiency and long-term success.
✔️ Product reviews & recommendations to equip your team with the best tools.
✔️ Expert interviews with industry leaders sharing real-world insights.
✔️ Q&A sessions tackling your most pressing business challenges.
✔️ Industry trends & strategies to keep you ahead of the competition.
Tune in every week and take your cleaning business to the next level! 🚀
Want to get a hold of us, please email us at cleaningbusinesslife@gmail.com
Cleaning Business Life
CBL # 122 5 IN 1 All Purpose Cleaner- Nicole Cascardi
Nicole’s journey from professional cleaner to product innovator is a masterclass in resilience, reinvention, and real-world expertise.
At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, after years of grueling work in both residential cleaning and high-stress crime scene environments, Nicole reached a personal crossroads.
Sitting on a client’s staircase, physically exhausted and emotionally spent, she asked for divine guidance—and a new path forward.
That moment sparked a powerful transformation.
Nicole began sharing her deep cleaning knowledge on social media, and her content quickly gained traction. As her audience grew, so did her vision.
Rather than simply white-label an existing product, Nicole took the bold step of formulating her own from scratch. Working in five-gallon batches at home, she refined her formula through trial and error—driven by both passion and purpose.
As demand skyrocketed, she scaled up to ten-gallon batches, eventually collaborating with a professional formulator to bring her product into commercial manufacturing. Today, 5-IN-1 All Purpose Cleaner is produced in large-scale quantities and sold in a variety of sizes, including bulk formats designed for both home and professional use.
Nicole’s entrepreneurial philosophy extends beyond cleaning:
“You are capable of doing everything any other human can… somebody invented everything out there. So why should I not be able to?”
Her story is proof that breakthrough success is often born from perseverance, purpose, and the courage to create something new.
Want to experience the product transforming households and cleaning businesses alike?
Follow 5-IN-1 All Purpose Cleaner by Cassell Cleaners on social media and see why this game-changing solution is taking the cleaning world by storm.
👉 Shop now: https://www.bayareadeconfl.com/shop
📱 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/THEGOATCASSELLCLEANING
It can be crowed when trying to figure out who you are going to learn from
Erica Paynter is the brains behind My Virtual Bookkeeper, a bookkeeping firm for cleaning companies, and the creator of Clean Co. Cash Flow Academy and the Clean Co. Collective. She’s on a mission to help cleaning business owners make sense of their numbers without boring them to tears! Erica’s all about turning messy books into profit-packed powerhouses.
Up your cleaning game, join over 6000 Cleaning Business Owners most of whom are located here in the United States.
Questions? Feel free to reach out!
Shannon Miller: cleaningbusinesslife@gmail.com
Join my FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583362158497744
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIjMz_-9YyiFvNVIgb61iYg
See Shannon's latest courses: www.KleanFreaksUnversity.com
Here we go, Recording in progress. Welcome everyone. Today we are visiting with Miss Nicole from 5-in-1 Castle, Cleaner right Is that correct yes. And I'm excited because we've been trying to wrangle her in for a while so she can tell us her origin story, all about what she does, how she does it, how she created her product, why she created her product and all the juicy bits.
Speaker 3:Well how she started. Yeah, so tell us how you even got into this whole, because you're a retired cleaner now, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, actually I've always been like a solo cleaner and a couple of years ago I decided, you know, I was doing crime scene cleaning as well as solo cleaning and I had some maintenance cleaning and some deep cleaning clients, move outs, and just keeping my schedule busy where I'd have certain maintenance cleanings and leave a day open for the fluctuating in and out like move outs or whatever or random tasks. And I loved it, I absolutely loved it. And COVID kind of changed my path a little because my clients at least the maintenance, my bread and butter, the maintenance cleaning clients, kind of some of them kept me on, you know, because they're not home when I clean and actually clean for three nurses at the time who were, you know well aware of protocol, and I was aware of protocol as a crime scene cleaner, and so I think a few of them kept me because they know I have some knowledge about, you know, pathogens and that kind of stuff. Anyway, so, some clients, it just changed my whole dynamic financially, my whole dynamic financially. Um so, um, you know how you're just like, okay, so I'm working my butt off and this many clients and this is, this is as good as it gets, I mean, unless I do, uh, a price increase or, you know, I keep increasing prices or rotating out clients higher paying. This is I've plateaued, you know, and I love my clients, but although after week after week after week and you go, this is it for me.
Speaker 2:You know, as far as trying to get any higher, trying to navigate more business, but during COVID, when people didn't want to hire a house cleaner, I was also doing side jobs like disinfection and I kind of diversified. Personally, I was already a crime scene cleaner for a business, like for as an employee. But I started doing hoarding, pick cleanups and things like that during COVID because people didn't want to mess with that kind of stuff. And also the time I started making videos. You know, a couple of years ago I went viral for a biohazard. It was ridiculous, a ridiculous video and and and then fast forward to like I started doing more on social media and I'm like, hey, maybe this could be a thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and as I'm, you know, I've always like I was in survival mode kind of at that time, you know, just taking jobs and not really knowing I didn't have a plan. You know what I mean. Like right, one of the other. Yeah, I was running on faith a lot I got. You know I was living in an environment with some friends and I didn't really have to. You know, my, my bills are always low, I don't have a lot of debt. So you know, I kind of like that about building from the ground up. I don't have a $700 car payment every month that I have to make, you know. Anyway, growing up like that, so it was easy for me to change directions when I wanted to do this or that.
Speaker 2:And then I got hired for the restaurant cleaning. And then I went viral that summer and I was like like I didn't think anybody would watch cleaning videos because I had a biohazard stuff, you know. I was like that's more interesting, I would watch that. Uh, yeah, I love it. But anyway, because they shut my account off as soon as I posted that, they were like, no, you're horrible.
Speaker 2:And then. So I was like, okay, there went my future. So I made castle cleaning videos and I don't know. Really I was very new to making videos. But I went viral and I was like again, I was kind of in survival mode, so I didn't have to really work nine, ten hour days every day. I was kind of like I took the restaurant job and that let me sit for a minute, you know, because that was a lot of money and I took this job. It was out of the blue. People started reaching out on social media, um, and then another viral video, and then I started growing the platform and then I realized that, like a couple of years ago, when I was on my way home from my biggest client, it was like a two-story townhouse, it was like a four bedroom, two and a half bath, and it was a bi-weekly.
Speaker 2:It was like the cleanest house ever, though, but you know they were retired retired military, so there might be, uh, you know, nothing in the sink when you get there, nothing, not saying anything, nothing was out of place, but they had a robot vacuum on each floor, you know.
Speaker 2:So I mean I had to find things to clean, but anyway I kept that client because they were also very high paying, you know, she actually took me an extra $40 each clean, so that was like almost half my rent, but anyway. So I sat on her steps and I was tired one day and I said can you please help me? I was so tired, my health is not great, my health issues started acting up and I I just asked God to help me find a way to support myself that I don't have to keep cleaning, because dragging this vacuum up and down these stairs it was like the only job I had that week, but it took me three days to recover know what I mean so I could possibly support myself. Like my back hurt, my bones hurt, my everything hurt so so, anyway, that's that's.
Speaker 2:Uh, I started making videos and then, and then Facebook started paying me so I thought that was it, you know. I was like, okay, cool and uh. And then, um, you know, start cleaning, well, I'm still, I was still cleaning and still cleaning, and still cleaning. And then I was like, well, I need content, so you got to keep cleaning, and that that midway between, like you can't make your bill money on cleaning videos, and I, I want to tell people that that, like it's hard to do, it takes, it takes years of people making videos, good videos, not just like like me, like I just get lucky. You know, like every 10 videos I post, one of them's a good one. That's it. It's just the numbers thing, right, but also because I know which ones did well in the past, I just keep doing those same things and if just right, right, but I love making videos, uh, except for, you know, facebook.
Speaker 1:But I do have a couple questions. You had mentioned that and this goes back in the story a bit, uh, because I wanted to see where we're going with this. So, with that being said, you realize, at a point, because we all had crazy times during COVID, yeah, we went from, you know, 400 houses a week down to like two. Everyone was all freaked out about the cooties and I pivoted in my business at that point. I had mostly senior based clientele because I live in a senior community. Yeah, I had to like hard pivot because the seniors were like don't come in my house, I don't want to do with you, we're going to die. We're going to die, we're going to die.
Speaker 2:I remember my mom and the way she behaved during that whole, putting gloves on everything in the grocery cart.
Speaker 3:Right, oh, my goodness, yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you guys have all heard me talk about how, before COVID, I used to lick the handle on the shopping cart Cause I get irritated over on senior day at our local fries, which is our grocery store, because they would like sanitize everything. And then after COVID, I no longer do it. But it's, it's this dynamic of you. Realize you hit the plateau, so let's, let's read what, let's unpackage that piece. So at that time, before covid, and you hit the plateau and you're totally exhausted and you realize you can't make any more money, how many houses a week were you doing?
Speaker 2:um, I had fridays. I had two, because one of them was a small apartment and a commercial, but I only did one house a day. Ok, so, and that because I didn't, I didn't need to do more than that. You know what I mean. The houses I had, I had one small unit, you know. Then I tack them on to two.
Speaker 1:OK, so you were doing two houses a day, so houses a week, hypothetically, unless it was a larger project right.
Speaker 2:Well, most of the time I only did one house a day, so it was like five to seven yeah five to seven houses.
Speaker 1:Right, the daily goal just for the audience, because I get asked this a lot how much money should I goal myself for? I always try to go as high as possible, but what?
Speaker 2:was yeah, it's been a couple of years since I retired, so that money it would be a lot. That amount wouldn't carry over to today's financial situation. Totally Right. But I remember being a server for a long time and saying it's worth going in if I make at least X amount now.
Speaker 2:And that was my mistake a lot and thinking when it didn't translate into cleaning, because 150 is a cleaning lady doesn't cost, is not much, because the restaurant is paying the electric bill and the napkins and the and all of that and the water bill. So as a as a tipped employee, my whole life I was used to getting money every day and cleaning worked out for me great because you're doing three hours worth of side work on a shift, especially if you have a busy restaurant and you're gonna stock glasses and make ranch dressing and all that stupid stuff. So I just, really just when I started cleaning, I was like I'm my own boss and I go here and I just clean this house. And I was referred a lot, I did a lot of referrals. So once my book got full, I was like I'm my own boss and I go here and I just clean this house. And I was referred a lot, I did a lot of referrals. So once my book got full, I was it. I put a little bit out there for pictures and for marketing and when I first got started way years ago, that's how I got my commercial client. But then I kept them my whole time, you know, until I retired. They were one of my last people because they were so easy and they and I love those, I love.
Speaker 2:I miss my clients. I really do. They'll still reach out and ask me for referrals. They're like I know you're not cleaning, but can you please refer me to somebody that you trust? And yeah, yeah, bring them to people and I'm making them. I just had one this week and she did a great job. Melissa and my clients always tell me you know like it's you get nervous when you have a new client. So Melissa came and took one of my clients that moved to a bigger house. It's a big house. Like their house was was a two bedroom, one bath, and then they moved into a larger one and I haven't cleaned it. I was like congratulations on your larger house.
Speaker 2:Looks lovely from over here but they're so wonderful and she came over last night, the people that have supported me, like my clients from the beginning, like she came over last night and I, um, you know, to see the dogs, and we have a friendship, you know, and a relationship, which is nice, right, you?
Speaker 3:know, so do you. So you still kind of refer people to uh for cleaning. I try yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean yeah, it's because they, they, they reach out to me, me, and think I have like some kind of power like, like I don't know, I don't have a. Rolodex. But I do know people in Tampa, but I don't know if they're great cleaners. You know cause a lot of people you know, so it it feels like responsible if they do a shitty job. But I do know a girl, melissa, in in real life that I've referred to a few people, and Sandy as well, and I was surprised to see some of the Tampa.
Speaker 2:Woohoo, melissa, thank you. Yeah, and Melissa and my clients are great people, you know.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:They really are.
Speaker 3:And I've had. We've been talking for some years um, and let me just tell you, this is how me and Nicole met, or how I kind of got introduced to her. It's from Amber, okay, uh, amber of Bubbles and Buckets. Yeah, she's great Amber, our friend, and she's such a sweetheart. I just love her, Me and her are. I mean we kind of talk like you and I do.
Speaker 2:Amber's great. She is such a cool person.
Speaker 3:And I seen her cleaning with a bottle like this and I was like, uh, it was a uh, um, uh workout machine. And she goes I'm using calcium. I remember it by. It went viral and I'm like, who's this lady? And I'm thinking, wow, if she's using it because you know she, she's pretty good at uh, getting the products if she's using it, I let me try this stuff out. And then, as time went by, you know I kept following you and I was just like, wow, this girl, this girl's on fire, thank you. Not only that, I got the product and I'm like my head was blown. I was like no, this is not true.
Speaker 3:Yeah this is not true. This don't work like this.
Speaker 2:It blows my mind that there are people all over the country coming back to me and saying this stuff works great, and I just I know it does, but it blows my mind that you're on the other end of it at your client's house, like maybe my people in riverview, like you're on the other side of it using the spray bottle that I, literally I just got these new labels and they're not on a roll and it pissed me off because they're now stickers. Right, they're now. They're now each and every one you got to peel off like um, yeah, like a sticker instead of no, instead of just, oh, look how many. This is the new one.
Speaker 3:So you pivot it from. Oh, there it is, look, oh wait, let me see. No, yeah, we've, we've gone through some changes.
Speaker 2:Huh, nicole this is a new one. I think this is the old one that you have yep, yep, and this is a new one. I don't know. I I like this one better, but anyway, yeah no, plenty of them.
Speaker 3:You're learning how to grow and I love it. I love watching your success. I was really excited about getting you onto this podcast, especially to share with everybody, because I know that we celebrate a lot of wins behind the scenes. We do a lot of talking, kind of almost like me and you do Shannon, and it just you know, but it's, it's, you have your own, you know there's the influencers group and then we have the, the cleaning group that we're in and you know I just I love it. So whenever you are still cleaning and it was obviously COVID did a lot of wrecked, a lot of havoc on a lot of cleaning companies and people had to learn how to pivot Is that whenever you decided like yeah, you were sitting on the stat, like me too? I? I have a similar story and that's why probably we have something similar. It's just we have a lot yeah I kept.
Speaker 2:I kept that client to the very, very end, the last of the moments, but I had already pivoted like this the last client that I had as of two years ago when I retired after inventing 5-in-1, that's the client that I tried my product out on all over the house. They were super cool. I've actually known her since childhood and she was at my 10th birthday party.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I swear. And then she went on.
Speaker 2:She's awesome. But anyway I said, hey, check this out. I invented a cleaning product product. I know it sounds crazy, but can you? Because she was, you know, retired army. She was my friend too. So I said, listen, can you go around and check your countertops and feel your granite and feel your, you know, your stuff inside your microwave? Check everything, the floors, do they look cloudy? They look because she had tile like 12 by 12 tile like basic florida, you know, subdivision stuff. So her stuff was, um, you know, brand new. But also like she had shower glass, she had fiberglass insert up upstairs. So there was a lot of so many different surfaces. And I said I just want to know. Obviously it works. I've tried it at my house.
Speaker 2:But in those months I six months, I think, it was between her and like two or three other clients. They kept me afloat, you know. But at the time I was also doing the crime scene cleanup, which was part-time and and, yeah, right, that supplemented my income. My boss said to me they were paying me like a foreman. Pay was like 25 an hour, which isn't much, you know, yeah, and she's like yeah, that's what I said after working for five years for them.
Speaker 2:Uh, the boss said so. Uh, I said so I started a cleaning business. He said, oh, that's nice. He was a very, very nice guy. Love the guy. I learned a lot working for him. But he said, oh, that sounds great so you can supplement your income with cleaning. And I said no, sir. I said actually, this job is the supplemental income to my action. And then it really changed. That was like a canon moment where I got this guy who's okay with paying me $25. If you've seen some of this shit I've had to do in my lifetime, I was like okay, so I have.
Speaker 2:I get it as a business owner and as an employee, I was like I'm never gonna go farther here. So I said, okay, um, I got a biohazard permit for my own self and parted ways with the company after a few things. Um, they made up for not giving me a raise by giving me a bonus. So they kind of did a bait and switch which meant that, like, you're not going to pay me more, you have any reason not to you. You know what I mean. So. So I was unhappy, yes, and that that made me go further into cleaning and further into doing like the disinfection doing. Um, in Florida you need a permit, but you don't really need a permit, except for California, I believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course you can clean it up, but you can't move it.
Speaker 3:I think the thing about it it's is it's a transportation thing here, yeah.
Speaker 2:So anyway, it was cool and I've always been just a kind of a wanderer without a plan.
Speaker 3:You know, I yeah, one foot in front of a survival. We're just trying to. We're out here just trying to survive. We're just trying to. We're out here just trying to survive and then, um it, whenever something takes off for us, it's like I, I still, and sitting back like I can't believe that I'm here right now, like I really can't, I can't be talking to somebody like you who's been in the same same kind of lifestyle, that background, that we understand that and to be I'm so thankful and so grateful. The only difference is is I, I just knew that I I knew there was something to this cleaning. I just didn't know how to get bigger, because you can only take as a solo cleaner, you can only go. That's where.
Speaker 2:Shannon would have come in. Yeah, that's when Shannon came in. Yeah, I told you all the time if I had known or been. I did know about some things like this, but heard too many scams are out there, kind of thing. So my bold ass was like, yeah, I don't need to pay anybody to teach me anything. And now I regret that actually, but you know it all worked out. But see what it did for Jamie. Jamie just bought a house. Your husband are now, you know, now they have a new house and, yeah, employees and you have responsibilities yeah, salaries people all that stuff you know and and to think of a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2:We're just like I wonder if I can start a business.
Speaker 3:I wonder how? Yeah, that's exactly what it was, and um now you share your experience with.
Speaker 2:Uh, I'm so, I'm so proud. Yeah, I'm.
Speaker 3:So I celebrate your wins with you too, because, um, recently you although it didn't happen the way it should have, but you just kind of upped where this is going, the five and one is going. Yeah, yeah, the five and one is uh. Uh, you're working with somebody. They helped make you a, a new formula. Um, yeah, we don't need to get into all that, but well, I could, could.
Speaker 2:I mean, I could tell you guys, because I'm sure people are curious on how it happens. And a couple of years ago somebody said why don't you start your? Why don't you sell your own stuff? That's what a lot of people do when they become an influencer. Because I think I was like 100,000 followers on Facebook which I couldn't see a future making videos.
Speaker 2:If I don't have the clients to make videos, there's only so many times I can scrub. I didn't post my own dogs on, you know, and that's where a lot of people get stuck, you know, because now you're like, oh, this is cool, I get to stay home and make videos and then you don't. So I didn't want to get stuck and I didn't want to make videos the whole, because once I got to Facebook, it really started souring me. Um, for the tens of thousands of cleaning ladies I've met and interact with, it's worth it. It's worth all of the hassle and bullying, but still, it's kind of disheartening to see this.
Speaker 2:Many people use technology to to hassle other people for no reason, like a cleaning lady anyway. So the old me and the new me start beefing every morning when I wake up and I'm now going to a therapist because of being bullied online. But I'm straightening all that out and getting my groove back Because I have stopped wanting to make videos and I say it's because I don't have anything to clean. That's bullshit. I have plenty of stuff to clean.
Speaker 2:But anyway I lost my little spark, but I'll get it back. But somebody said you know that's what they do. They just buy what's called a white label and slap castle cleaners on it. And I said, well, I don't have the money for that because I can barely pay my rent. You know you need tens of thousands of dollars or an investor and people like me, and you know I don't have that kind of resource.
Speaker 2:So I started making it and I said, well, if you can make a DIY cleaner, why can't I make a bunch of it? And I'm a restaurant person, my mom had a restaurant business and big mixtures and big everything. So I'm around equipment. I'm not, you know. So I made five gallons. I started making five gallons of it at a time and, and, um, people really liked it and, um, I eventually got too much for me to make, you know. So I got another five gallon bucket, cause I had one five gallon bucket that went through thousands of gallons. I'm telling you this one five gallon bucket. No, you know the tea make. You know the tea thing where you make sweet tea plastic jug with it.
Speaker 3:Oh, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:So I got another one. So I was making 10 gallons at a time, boy, that was a lot Anyway. So I just got busier, busier and and I'm happy and I'm proud, but I got to a point where I can only do so much. You know, I can't offer bulk sizes, I can't offer gallons. So I scraped together and you know, I had some financial resources. Hold on a sec, that's. I got people that walk by and I've got a pickup sitting out there. I just want to make sure they do walk by, indeed, and not slow down. Anyway, whenever I see somebody slow down, I go what are you doing? Get off my boxes, yeah. But anyway, I don't know what I was saying.
Speaker 3:Oh no, you were talking about how you went from five gallons to 10 gallons.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I need somebody to formulate it for me. And I wish, honestly at this point, after that whole experience, I wish I had just white labeled. I wouldn't have had the money or the the following, or the the marketing heat. If I had just gone and bought a white label product, nobody would have been using it, you know, and it would have been. I would have had to try to sell lemonade on a corner like hey, try this. And then people like, try what? We've never heard of it.
Speaker 2:So I guess it all worked out for me because once I paid her to make it, she just had to take the recipe and you know what they call make the make the um formula repeatable. So she, you know, obviously told her what ingredients and how to prepare it and what was in it and she made a chemical formula for it. So formulation, which she did very well, there was no problems or issues with that, although we did later on and we won't go into that. But now that I have a repeatable formula, something on paper, I could go anywhere in the world that manufactures cleaning products and ask them to make it. In other words, it's like a ghost kitchen for uber eats, because now my kitchen is too small.
Speaker 2:So now I'm going to give you the recipe and you guys make it and, um, we're going to have gallons. But also the price for the 32 ounce is going to go down significantly because they don't. Now that we have a bunch of a bunch of it, the the you know the price is going to go down, so the gallons will be cheaper. I mean, the gallons will be cheap. You know you'll be able to buy a gallon and I'll have a warehouse store, that, so I don't have to do that anymore and that's great because you do sell it Click, click Right and you sell it in the 32 and the.
Speaker 2:I'm not carrying gallons around my yard. You know how much room.
Speaker 3:With a dolly trying to push it around.
Speaker 2:But anyway, I, I, I, I'm, I'm out of it. I have three boxes left. Of each of those, the ones I have now, yeah, the unscented that you got big 32s. I have a few cases left of those, but that's okay. I mean I have a sample pending and they're going to make. We have some things to work out with that kind of stuff, but they're going to make a whole bunch of it and I won't be running out anytime soon yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:I just that, to me, is a true comeback story and it's just like you know to watch.
Speaker 2:You know, and all during this we have celebrated together our successes, like you know and you've been there and you've been there to support me and promote. You've been awesome with using the product and telling people about the product oh, you were one of the first people to to send me a before and after picture and all that stuff.
Speaker 3:No, I know, especially in the beginning it was like whoa, I mean I had there was, and I tried to do the whole here. Let me videotape myself.
Speaker 2:I want to thank you. I want to thank you for giving me positive feedback but also letting me know what's going on with either the bottle or I remember I had the pump at one time and you like the pump, but you've always given me feedback which has enabled me to make the product better. You know good and bad and not screw that. I'm never using it again. It's like, hey, this product is. Remember it was like it was like chunky at one time like one yeah, it was very.
Speaker 2:First bottles were opaque and they were like thick looking and one of the things I couldn't get the formulation right. Uh, why I did unscented is because I asked her to make it unscented. In addition to the rest of them, I really wanted the scents and I'm glad I didn't because you know what happened. But right, yeah, but I got back a couple of um samples. I didn't like I didn't care for the um. I gave her my samples of what fresh and let me you know, and um lavender and what was the other one, lemongrass, uh yeah, and I gave her all the scents and to to duplicate, and she it kind of smelled way too fragrancy, like way too dish, like you remember, palm olive hand soap, one of them smelled like that and it was like not really a lemongrass, even though it was pleasant. Right, you're like, okay, that doesn't sound bad, but it wasn't accurate as far as what people wanted. But what?
Speaker 3:what your smell is what your brain's telling you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the lavender was like a creamy purple and it was pretty like shampoo, like I have shampoo that color and it looks cool and it's pearly looking, but it's not five one cleaner ish. You know, I want something clear and blue in appearance and then when I got it back in that appearance, the smell changed. So I was like you know what, screw it, let's just do unscented, right and I will say that, um, it is a little bit more clearer.
Speaker 3:This is the newer. I still have the. I have several bottles, uh, because I I made my church that I was a w2 employee at, I made, I mean, I made everybody buy this stuff. Um, and now it's. I'm like it's not the same as the old formula, which was super blue, right, yeah, and now it's a little more clearer and I'm like, oh okay, so I and you know, I don't know I just love the product. It works great and I know that you're gonna go somewheres with it is it darker?
Speaker 2:is it soapy? I heard um yeah what is more. I wanted to prove was the soapiness yeah, it's.
Speaker 3:Uh, what is that? Whenever it's satisfying, whenever you're cleaning it, what's those hashtags that you use? Asmr. Yes, that's it, it's asmr. Well my son told me that and I said hey, bodie, what does that mean? He's 10. Yeah, you know, it's a satisfying sound or a satisfying oh. Look, that's satisfying.
Speaker 2:I'm like oh, oh, okay the problem I had when I was making it myself, you know, in the five gallons, is that it wasn't very so. So when we started the new formula and I sat down and asked her to improve some things one was I wanted it the clarity. Mine was clear, but it was a little dark blue. It was okay. I actually prefer the darker blue because once you dilute it it looks like something still, but like now it's almost clear.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that's all right, but also, um, yeah, we want to stick with um as little extra stuff you know, preservatives and extra extras um, so far, people are okay with adding their own essential oil, you know, and I'm gonna keep it unscented, but I have another product coming around the corner which will be like a cream-based cleaner. Oh wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I see that you're working on other things as well. Yeah, it's so safe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it'll be a so safe thing.
Speaker 3:Some things in the making of this. That's great. What a great. So what is one of the lessons during all of this that you learned? Wrap it up in a what have you, what do you feel that you've learned?
Speaker 2:Being resilient. Being resilient and being, um, valuing your time as much as even when you're not physically working a job for a client, you have to treat yourself like an employee and study and network and learn and be willing to certify yourself in new things and not just say I want to make more money, that person has more money. No, you are capable of doing everything any other human can well, just about. I mean, I'm not tall enough to do some things. Right, I can't, I can't be an olympic athlete right now, but anyway I couldn't, you know. So you have the power of your mind to do whatever, um, including invent your own cleaning product. Because Cause they're like wait, somebody did it. Like somebody invented, some human being invented everything out there.
Speaker 2:So why should I not be like, no way, you can't do that? Why? Cause somebody else did it. You know, somebody invented this. I mean, I I'm really into real, I'm really into inventions and new things and new ideas and thinking outside the box and in trying 16 times and if it doesn't work, try the 17th time. You know I didn't do it five in one like the right way. The first time it sucked, yeah, and I wish you dust yourself off. Yeah, I wish people had told me, you know in the beginning.
Speaker 2:And that's, that's what I learned about. Just to keep you know, keep being resilient.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 3:You know, and that's what I think I, I really admire a lot. You know, I see that, I see it just. I've seen the resilience, I see it just. I've seen the resilience and really just, I'm always happy to celebrate your successes with you. Thank you, I'm excited to celebrate my successes with you too, because I can, I don't have to hide.
Speaker 3:I, like you know, sometimes I feel a little guilty about, oh, you know, I have, I have employees out working right now, so do I feel guilty that I'm here doing a pod? You know, I just that's, it's just, it is what it is. I love what I do, I love what you do. And, shannon, I'm so glad that you've helped me, I think, which has helped also Nicole in some way to grow the way we have, and I know that there's so many people out there that are just right where we were. And this is, this is proof right here, you're, you're, I am proof that we have all started somewhere. And resilience, exactly Resilience being resilient, and if you don't get it the 16th time, try the 17th time, just like you said.
Speaker 2:What about Shannon? Tell me about your class and how many classes is it and how many classes is it? And, like, I've seen your website but also I would like to, if possible, refer you. You know, people ask me a lot about business advice and I'm going to tell them to just fly by the seat of their pants and just go with prayer, and that's why I don't. That's why I don't teach people, that's why I don't provide eBooks, that's why I don't, that's why I don't teach people, that's why I don't provide ebooks, that's why I don't have a link on my website for any of that crap, because I know what I don't know. You know what I mean and I always thought you would be great.
Speaker 2:Well.
Speaker 2:I mean, I can teach you how to be resilient but also putting the framework to successful businesses is a big deal, is big girl stuff, you know, is big adult stuff that people like you say me and you and a lot of us get into the business because we don't have the time, energy we need to hit the ground running with a business and not a four-year degree. Sometimes If you have kids, you have a busy life. You know we want to start making money ASAP, but also putting those things in place to be successful for years and years by Shannon's classes or, you know, the Clean Freaks University, yeah, how do I connect people with you, like I mean, how do I? It's the best way.
Speaker 1:It's well, I can get you an affiliate link, so we're working on that. Next, jamie actually has some. I have one.
Speaker 3:I was the first.
Speaker 1:I just have started to do that, but yeah, it's. I want to say it's been. We're almost at the 500 marker. I want to say 515 businesses have gone through Wow, extra scale and profit cleaning business Academy. So I know it works. It's like your product right, like you know, is it are they going to crash and burn?
Speaker 1:Works, and I this is the same conversation jamie and I've had over and over again it only works if you do the work and you follow everything. I say I'm not asking you to jump off the cliff at the grand canyon, I'm just asking you to do the work so that you can have the ground system put in place. And then it's tweaking and then coming back and then tweaking some more and coming back and tweaking some more, but it's. I've kept it lower priced for a lot of reasons. There's a lot of behind the scenes conversations that Jamie and I have had over what we see that is happening in the industry. So I'm just gonna I'm not gonna dwell on that too much, but just know that the structure cleaning business Academy does, does work.
Speaker 1:And it's, it can be. It's like a I want to say it's a 12 week program and it's just applying systems in your business to give you the structure that you need to be successful. Does it?
Speaker 3:cover everything.
Speaker 1:No, it does not like this. The structure, scale and profit cleaning business academy covers the solo method. I don't want to teach anyone to work in teams of three. It's not my thing. I've done that business model. It works great for some people, but you have to. You can have maybe a hybrid too, but yeah, people the whole day, when you have a team of three and you're supplying the vehicle, we're solo or not. I, I was a merry made I. I have a similar origin story. I got an argument with my boss who I gave the middle finger to, because they didn't want to give me a dollar raise.
Speaker 2:I was like screw this I can do it myself like I'm literally taking the checks home and I can see the dollars. I remember getting getting like $30 for working this many whole house.
Speaker 3:Oh, I yeah.
Speaker 1:And it happens a lot in our industry. I keep reminding people we are almost 99% woman-based. We are the only trade that is mostly women-based. We have the power to control and pivot where we want to go. We don't have to say you know, in the past the cleaning industry was run and I mean this in the nicest way for those guys who are out there listening to this podcast If you go to the ISSA show which we're going to in November we're still working on that when you go into the house cleaner section, which they just made, it's only like five or six or seven years old.
Speaker 1:Mostly everything is run by men and those guys aren't out cleaning like Jeff Campbell was back in the day. They're just operating whatever, and it's just. You see it in every industry, in our industry, we I and this is what pushes me to go where we need to go I want someone to create something that they can gift to their family or they can sell. So I want them to create a legacy that will can keep on giving for years and years and years. There's no point in doing it temporarily and then your body wears out and then you're like well, that was a good run.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's like some of the people that I've seen. It's like, well, what are what's going to happen? And it's like, well, once I get too old, that's it, that's the end of my business. Okay, and that is that's. There's nothing wrong with that. But I just I've always, you know, and there's several of us out there that think, no, I, I think, and I know that this can keep going. You know this, can, I know it can or you guys want to see.
Speaker 2:You guys want to see my packing area. Yeah, yeah, we're almost hitting an hour, but I organized. Oh see, I don't know if I'm straight, but this is all my essential oils and this is my little bins.
Speaker 3:I know, you know, and this, this is it. This is how you get the five in one cleaner in your home, right here.
Speaker 2:This is where I park, that's. So. This is where the cart goes at night, when I work at night and I stack the boxes, and then in the morning, and then in the morning I'll show you the whole story. This is how it works out okay this is in the morning I take this. I got a porch pop down with me, got my cart oh there's the.
Speaker 3:You got a whole system. You have a whole. Nicole. How much longer do you think you're gonna be able to do this on your own, like this? But you see the cart, yes.
Speaker 2:I do. I imagine pulling the cart. Can you see my arms?
Speaker 3:yeah, well, we can anyway anyway.
Speaker 2:Anyway, that's me, yeah, that's me, and then, uh, that's our pickup today is not much, um, because of the podcast today. I have a bunch of work to do, but I have one been done today thank you so much for taking time out of your day to do this obviously my hair looks great uh today, um, but anyway yeah this is that's it.
Speaker 3:So that is everybody that. That you're uh a one woman working crew, you're have built yourself into a I also make videos. A bear belt. You're your own factory.
Speaker 2:Listen, I don't have to make it anymore. I don't have to make it anymore, oh that's awesome, awesome.
Speaker 3:But you're, you, you're gonna get to the point where you need some some help.
Speaker 2:But what I'm telling you here, uh, once my sample gets here, uh, from our manufacturer, and I put in my order for 2 000 gallons, um which 1 000 it. So it's 2,000 gallons worth of liquid. 1,000 of them are gallon jugs. The other 1,000 gallons are 32 ounces, so they're times four. So this is like 250 cases of gallons. Those are four in a case. So that's 1,000 jugs of gallons and then the rest are 32s, but obviously I don't't have. That's 11.2 pallets, that's almost 12 pallets. So not only do I have to pay for that, I have to pay for the transport of 12 pallets from ohio to here, but also I have to line up 3pl, because they're not coming here with that 12.
Speaker 3:I'm like I can't fit that in my shed.
Speaker 2:So anyway, all jokes aside, I already have a plan in place for 3pl, uh, via ship station. They've all, they've always been very helpful and I've got like a zoom call with them about how to integrate. Um, I think I'll do the 32s here and keep shipping here and then do the, the 16 or the, the gallons from warehouse, depending on what their price looks like. Right, but I have to get a sample before I say yes, I like it, before I purchase it there's some steps that have to go.
Speaker 2:I don't yeah, I don't need a warehouse for it until I purchase it. So, or until I know what I'm purchasing um, because I also have an opportunity to make a cream, cream based, cleaner um, which is in the works now. It's coming around the corner real quick. So as soon as you guys hear about it, it's going to be on the website and maybe I'll have you back on so you can announce the official launch of it.
Speaker 1:It'll be like a stone-safe cleaner too.
Speaker 2:So I believe it's stone-safe. I need to make sure that it's stone-safe, and if it's not safe, I need to make sure that it's stone safe, and if it's not, then I'm not selling.
Speaker 3:We would love to have you back on and do yeah, we would just love to have you back on. I'd love to be here.
Speaker 1:I know that we're probably taking up your time and I know you need to get back to it and um, yeah, I'm so happy that you were here. Why don't you tell the audience where they can get a hold of you at your website and all that stuff?
Speaker 2:social um, yeah, you can follow castle cleaners anywhere on youtube, facebook, instagram, tiktok or google. You can look me up at castle cleaners. Five in one all-purpose cleaner is the product. Also, we have a few new items and working with microfiber wholesaler to do you know, the mop and duster kits and a lot of other variety of stuff coming, uh, in addition to bulk orders and and affiliate program coming as soon as we get the sample, soon as I get a date, then you guys will know more on that because, um, this will be released down the down the way within the next 90 days now, within the next 90 days or so, I'll have an idea of uh, you know what, where you can get your next gallon of five-A-S-S-E-L-L Yep C-A-S-S-E-L-L Perfect, and we'll also put that down in the show notes and Shannon will let you know when this comes out, so that you can also get out on your on your social media platforms and we'll be sharing away.
Speaker 3:so awesome, I appreciate you. Yeah, I appreciate you coming on. Thank you, thanks for having me going. Thank you so much, nicole. I'll talk to you soon.
