Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #314 - Voda Cleaning & Restoration Of Fort Lauderdale-Miami with Gabriel Nerys and Brittney Fennell
When disaster strikes your home, who do you call? Gabriel and Brittany Nerys transformed an unexpected career setback into an opportunity to help their community through Voda Cleaning and Restoration of Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Their story reveals how sometimes life's greatest challenges can redirect us toward our true purpose.
The couple shares their journey from a decade of working at a car dealership to running their own restoration business after being uprooted from Maryland when their employer sold the dealership. "It's time that we determine our own future," Gabriel explains, capturing the entrepreneurial spirit that drove them to choose a business where they could genuinely help people during their most stressful moments.
Beyond their compelling origin story, the Neres provide alarming insights about common household misconceptions that could be affecting your family's health. Did you know bleach doesn't actually kill mold? It merely removes the stain while potentially spreading dangerous spores throughout your home. With South Florida's notorious humidity creating perfect conditions for mold growth, their expertise couldn't be more relevant to local residents.
The episode delivers practical wisdom for homeowners, from the ideal temperature range to prevent mold growth (73-75°F) to understanding why DIY water damage cleanup often leads to bigger problems down the road. Gabriel's advice to "not be dollar wise, penny foolish" serves as a powerful reminder that cutting corners on home maintenance can result in costly remediation or even health issues.
As a family business involving their four children, the Neres have created not just a service company but a community resource offering free inspections and emergency 24-hour response. Their commitment to eco-friendly products and proper IICRC certification demonstrates their dedication to providing the highest standard of care for their customers' homes and health.
You can reach them at 1 (305) 834-3014, visit their website at myvoda.com/fort-lauderdale-miami for more details or to schedule a service, or connect with them on Instagram at @vodafortlauderdalemiami and Facebook at facebook.com/ftlauderdalemiami. Next time you spot a suspicious stain or experience water damage, remember that professional help is just a call away. Your family's health—and wallet—will thank you for addressing these issues properly the first time.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Well, hello, hello, friends, family, wonderful community. Welcome back to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I was recently at or I should say we were recently at the monthly Davie Cooper City Chamber of Commerce luncheon and it was over at NSU and we were there to tour the media facilities. The event was sponsored by Mako Media. It's the media arm of NSU. Shout out to Mako Media. We had a great time. Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2:Question was asked of the group how many here wanted to do a podcast or have thought about doing a podcast? And some hands went up. So naturally I went over and I invited them on the show, and we have a couple of those hands here today. So I'd like to welcome to the show our guests. Notice, I said guests, that's right, we have a husband and wife duo, so, who knows, this could get spicy, we'll see. I'm here with Gabriel and Brittany Neres and they join us from Voda Cleaning and Restoration of Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Guys, welcome to the show, thank you. Good morning, good morning. Yes, good morning, good morning. Okay, so let's get into it. Why don't you tell me a little bit about your business Voda Cleaning and Restoration Fort Lauderdale, miami and then we shall proceed from there.
Speaker 3:So Voda Cleaning and Restoration of Fort Lauderdale, miami. We specialize in commercial and residential carpet cleaning, tile and grout cleaning, upholstery cleaning, odor removals, we do bio cleanups and on our restoration sides we also do the water mitigation, mold remediation. So we are kind of the emergency services 24 hours. We do our cleaning on our daily ends and we do our emergencies for our restorations. To all of our customers we're trying to use nothing but the eco-friendly products. We like to try and create that warm welcoming and a healthy environment for all of our guests or all of our family members. Wherever we may be our clients. If it's business and we're pretty much, you know we try to go all over the place and help everybody anywhere that we can.
Speaker 2:Very cool. So how does one get into this type of business? Is this something that I know you mentioned? This is a franchise and it's, I believe, also recently. You guys started this down here. Talk a little bit about the journey, like your guys' background and what led you up to starting this business.
Speaker 4:Well, I've been looking for franchising or looking into it for the better part of two to three years, and then I went in depth in the past two years. However, what prompted this is I'm very local to the community. Both Brittany and I worked at University Dodge in Davie. I was there for 10 years, she was there for about five years and we were there. A lot of people know us in the general area and I got promoted. They gave me a promotion that same place and we went to go run a dealership in Maryland.
Speaker 4:So we moved our whole family for four years up to Maryland. We ran the store. I was the general manager and she was my right hand in my business development center. Um, and after four years of being there by surprise that you know, we the store appreciated in value. They decided this is the only store in maryland, so they sold it. Um, and when they sold the store, we were like all right, so we're gonna go back to florida. So we just had to up and root, sell the house. It was a lot of challenges that we overcame, which were great challenges, and I'm glad we came across them, but that put us in the position today to be able to say you know what? It's time that we determine our own future and we establish something for ourselves and our family, and let us be the ones that give it to the community and not hide behind somebody else's name or their brand. I want our brand to be the brand, so we looked into it and be honest with you.
Speaker 4:We uh with with franchises. There's a thing called discovery days. So you got to travel and you got to go check out discovery days Discovery days, yeah, okay.
Speaker 4:So before you, before you sign a franchise agreement, they want you to go and check it out physically. So we, we traveled the United States looking for franchising different options, you know, uh, cookies, ice cream, acai bowls, um, and we opted for this because this is one business that we can 100 help everybody that calls us. We're helping you, we're we're matter what. Because it's in those dire situations that are very, very horrible for for consumers to deal with. You know, when you have mold in your home, when you have a water, you know all of a sudden you walk into your house and you open the door and poof, water gushes out. We've already experienced that and we're like all right, we're here, give us one hour, you'll be fine, it's okay, we give them a hug, let us do what we do, and you know, we extract the water, we dry out the property, we make sure that we leave it at two dry standards and we are IICRC certified, which is what the franchisor wanted us to do, and I'm glad we did it, because now we have the experience and the knowledge that others in the industry may not have. To this day, I still have customers asking us if we are ICRC certified. I sold certification. Boom, we're hired. So some won't hire because they don't have those certifications.
Speaker 4:So yeah, because somebody determined our future. When we went up there with our family, they determined our future and our next path. We were like you know what? It's time we build our own path and we're local in the community. A lot of folks know me in the Davie Cooper City area by seeing me, you know. So hopefully you know once they be like oh, you were that guy, you sold me that truck 10 years ago. You know you were the finance and it helped me out and stuff like that. So you know it's very common and familiar to both of us. So you know I'm glad that we're part of the community now and it's just us, it's us 100%, that are going to be the ones showing up.
Speaker 2:I love it, and that is often a common story for the entrepreneurial journey. It's right, you're working for somebody else many years, in many cases your whole life, and then something happens like that and it motivates you to say you know what? I want to be in control of things. And then you take the entrepreneurial leap, as they say, and the rest is history. So I want to ask you both, because you're coming from that background and start your own thing what was one of the biggest challenges that you faced in starting the new business, going out on your own, and on the other side of that, what's been one of the biggest rewards since you started?
Speaker 4:on your own, and on the other side of that, what's been?
Speaker 3:one of the biggest rewards since you started. You want to take over. I'm not going to take over, but one of my biggest challenges I would say I've been in business development. I've been the one to take on all the phone calls, a mirror. You know and understand what my customers needs were, whether it was buying a car or their home needs, right. So I kind of try to utilize that.
Speaker 3:My challenge is kind of just navigating and learning all the new systems, the new marketing strategies that I didn't have to worry about before. So my biggest challenge was knowing not knowing how much in depth that we had to go as far as marketing and getting the name out there. I've always worked for someone that their name was already out there. All I had to do was assist everyone coming to us. Now we are going to them, we are telling what our services are, but it's very rewarding at the end of the day because we're able to help people in need, and I was one of those people that would do it myself. And oh, we had a leak, don't worry, let's just wipe it up with towels. It doesn't work that way. It really doesn't, because the longer that water sits, it can create that mold, it does build those bigger problems. And now in this business I'm able to recognize when something isn't right in my home or a certain odor, and I know the right way to take care of it, and I was doing it wrong the whole time.
Speaker 2:So yeah, my biggest.
Speaker 3:My biggest challenge was just learning all the new marketing strategies and and how to get my name out there.
Speaker 2:I guess it also. It's also got to be a little bit helpful that it is a franchise, because there's clearly it's a proven model and there's other businesses that are kind of doing it now. So you could, I guess, in many ways, lean on the franchise for guidance on where to go with that. I wanted to lean a little bit more into what you were just talking about. I think that was a good point. You said a lot of people want to DIY. When it comes to this type of stuff, and when you're talking about mold and water damage, that's probably not the best place to DIY or DIY Do it yourself. Yeah, so one of the reasons that we do the show obviously there are so many different industries out there and everybody knows so little about all these industries and anytime I have a professional in an industry on the show, it's good to clear up some confusion, misconceptions, myths. So, aside from that everybody wanting to DIY these things what are some of the most common misconceptions that you see from your clients? Misunderstandings people have surrounding what you guys do?
Speaker 4:The biggest one, which is a huge issue, is mold, obviously in South Florida because of the humidity. Now, jeremy, if you don't mind, could this be interactive and I could be like, can I ask you the question what do you think kills mold?
Speaker 2:What kills?
Speaker 4:mold. Yeah, here's the thing. Does bleach kill mold is my question. Does what? I'm sorry, bleach kill?
Speaker 2:mold. I mean I want to say, yeah, it should, but I don't think it. I don't think it does based upon the premise of your question, so I'm going to go with no, If you just asked me straight up.
Speaker 4:I'd probably go. Yeah, of course the majority, the majority of homeowners, believe when they see a mold stain that they go ahead and go wipe it off with bleach. Bleach will only get rid of the stain, it does not kill the mold. So mold is, I think is, one millionth of a micron and just super, super tiny. So those spores, when you go ahead and you spray it with bleach and you wipe it, guess what you just did?
Speaker 2:We just spread it. Now it's on that, Now it's on that towel. Can I answer again? I know the answer to this question. Now you know what kills mold. Voda. Cleaning and restoration of Fort Lauderdale.
Speaker 4:Miami Boom Nailed it.
Speaker 2:We neutralize it. What do we have for?
Speaker 4:the winner. But yes, there's a huge misconception that bleach does it. And then here's what's really interesting about it. So we have antimicrobials hospital grades. What we use gets used in hospitals when they're cleaning up blood when somebody diseases. That's what we use for our bio products to go ahead and clean up. So it's very, very safe. However, let's say we're on a mold job and it's a small job and all we got to do is a wipe down. So we put that into microbial, we wipe it down with our antimicrobial and we go that same towel that we use. We discard it. It goes straight to the trash. But a homeowner will go ahead and put bleach on it, wipe the mold and then stick that same towel in their washing machine and wash their clothes or something else with it. And what did you just do?
Speaker 4:You're just you're spreading you're spreading and spreading and spreading it. You got rid of the stain, but you did not kill it, you did not neutralize it. And the one thing I can say to any and all homeowners if you see mold, just make a phone call. We do free inspections, we don't charge for anything. Don't touch it, cause when you touch it you agitate it, and now it can become airborne. When it's sitting somewhere, it's there, it's just. It's basically it's there, but it's dormant. You don't want to agitate it, you don't want to touch it, you don't want to rub it, because it'll go from this wall to that wall in a matter of days or in hours. You know what I mean. All of a sudden it's like oh, why is it over here now? Uh, you messed with it. So that's why it's very important. I mean, when we do mojo, we have build containment, we have to encapsulate the entire area. That's why you see the plastic sheeting. We have to go in with Tyvek suits, we wear our masks. You know, and I've done already a few Mojobs and the one job we are dealing with is a very, very large job of a celebrity and for his privacy I won't say the name, but it's really heart-wrenching because you know he cannot sleep in his own master bedroom because his entire master bedroom is full of microbial growth.
Speaker 4:And the process for that the truth at the other side is, for mold there's a process. It's always suggested to get a mold hygienist to get you the mold count, the mold spore count. So, in other words, everybody has mold in the state of Florida. Let's talk about a specific mold stocky botchers. They're going to do an air quality sample outside the home. There's 550 spores of stocky botchers outside the home and if you have it outside, you're going to have it inside because of the air exchange when you open and close your doors. However, when you come inside the home and Stachybotrys is 20,000 spores, you're growing it and it's just simple air quality. But then they come inside the home and there's, you know, very low Stachybotrys. But then they find Asperilus penicillin, which is another common one, and then, okay, so you're growing this one in the home and then that mold hygienist will give us a protocol. That protocol is crucial for the consumer to be protected because it gives every remediator, whoever you decide to go with, it gives them a protocol. This is what you need to do to eliminate the source and the growth we go in. We follow that protocol when we leave.
Speaker 4:Now that same mold hygienist is going to go in and do a post-test to make sure we did our job. Ta-da Consumers protected. However that cost, it could be anywhere from $800 to $1,000 pre-test and post-test total. So $400 and $400 or $500 and $500, however it is wherever it is that the consumer chooses to use.
Speaker 4:In the state of Florida, the mold remediator by law, because of conflict of interest, is not allowed to perform the test. So I can't do the test, we can't do it. Somebody else has to perform that. The mold hygienist has to go on site. That has nothing to do with us. They have to do it and then they give us the protocol or they give it to the customer.
Speaker 4:So I do want to mention that that consumers will be protected when you get a mold hygienist involved, because it gives us the protocol, because when they do that post-test, if, for whatever reason, the air quality still has elevated mold spores inside the home, now the homeowner and even the mold hygienist can tell the remediator hey guys, you didn't do your job right, I need you to go back and we have to do it. And we have to do it. We haven't had that happen to us ever because we follow the protocol. So yeah, that's a little spin that maybe I can help homeowners out on. I mean water damage. I mean you have to dry out the property and make sure you have the right moisture meters and everything to make sure your walls are dry, because the majority of homeowners they dry out their own property. When we remove the baseboards, let's say we go back, or they have another water loss two or three weeks later, or a month later or a year later we remove the baseboard, that it oh microbial growth all over it.
Speaker 4:It's like what happened here and they're like oh yeah, I dried it out like two years ago and you know, and and mold.
Speaker 4:Listen, it doesn't affect me, but it could be others in the home that it affects them. It just depends. It's one of those things that you know depends on the me. Right now I'm good. It doesn't affect me, supposedly, but and I'm saying this because I know a client of ours that he is not, that he's not able to take the medications. The doctors are not giving him the medications that he needs for himself because they found aspirin, penicillin in his blood. So you know that's something he's been trying to remediate and remediate and remediate.
Speaker 4:um, he, he called us uh recently, recently, after other companies have gone out to do the perform the work for him. So right now we're we're talking with him and his doctors and stuff like that to try to see what the best course of action is for this specific client. So this is it's. So it could be something very serious for some.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mold is no bueno. I think most people that are dealing with these issues are dealing with them because of some kind of flood or some kind of issue. But what about those that, like you, can have? You could not have a major issue like that right, like you could have? Maybe your roof is leaking, you don't know it and it's seeping into the walls and you could have mold buildup, but because it's out of sight, out of mind, people aren't really looking to get that. Do you recommend as a homeowner or not just a homeowner or somebody do you recommend getting an inspection done every so often just to make sure that there's no dangerous levels of mold, or is that something that's not typically necessary?
Speaker 4:it can't hurt but when the time comes, you know, when this and I'm saying this because it's happened to us already oh, I'm not spending the 400 for the test, is all right? Uh, I don't get it, you're.
Speaker 2:It just seems like it's such, it seems like it's such a uh, it could be such a common occurrence, especially somewhere like south florida, where it's, you know, so, so humid and rains all the time that many people can be living with levels of mold that are elevated and really affecting them and affecting their health. Maybe it's not like a serious thing, but, you know, mildly affecting them and they could wonder why they're not feeling great, and maybe that could be the issue. So you know, it can't hurt.
Speaker 4:That's all I'm saying I I would say I mean for 400. I threw 400 at my health all day, every day you got me thinking here.
Speaker 2:I'm like looking around my house. There's a spot on the ceiling. Uh, maybe I should get something checked out here. So you guys go ahead, you can be in your air handler for your air.
Speaker 4:It's just, that's how you know it's common yet. And it's not common because we don't know any different. But your AC handler, that's one of the things that you got to get it clean constantly and that's an eight hundred dollar fix so to get it clean and take out your coils and acid wash it and stuff like that. But that both makes sure that you have clean air running through your home. Think about it. There's condensation. All mold needs to grow is dirt and water. If there's humidity and dirt, boom, you got mold.
Speaker 2:So it's just you know, or dust. Oh boy, Gabriel, you're starting to worry me here. Oh man, how quickly do you think you can get over here? Let's go me here. Oh man, how quickly do you think you can get over here? Let's go. You guys had mentioned earlier that you had taken the family and moved up to Maryland for four years. Tell me a little bit about the family. You guys have kids.
Speaker 3:Yes there's four all together. One's off to college and on his own. We have two high schoolers and one elementary schooler.
Speaker 2:Um they had such a good time with them, you, you wanted to do it all over again. You had a.
Speaker 3:That's right yeah, college and I have to have an elementary I. I have 24, the other seven god bless your soul.
Speaker 2:I was just talking to my wife about this the other day. We have 11 and 13 and we're like no mas, por favor, we don't want any more. I, I love my kids to death. It's fun, but to go through the whole process all over again at the age we're at it's like no. Thank you, I'm good.
Speaker 3:No, it's fun. The kids have come to work as well.
Speaker 3:I mean we like to involve them. We let them know what we're doing. We have them get the name out there. We've sponsored their sports. We have our banners up on their schools, like that was part of a marketing strategy. But also, you know, the kids are involved.
Speaker 3:I have right now our daughter's working with us for their summer job, which is great experience. You can never really go backwards Once you get good experience working with people, having a customer service. Our other son has worked with us. The little one has come in and played around a few times to try to help clean a carpet or two. But you know they are very involved in what we do and what the company does, what we stand for, the cleanliness and them also being just very educated in regards to certain things that they see. I mean can't go anywhere without him looking through an air vent to see if there's mold growth in anybody's house anymore, you know. So the kids are kind of following those, like, ooh, there's a spot on their rug. I think I could fix that, mom, and I'm like, all right, it's fun times.
Speaker 2:Very cool. And what do you guys like to do for fun in your downtime? And I mean gosh, if you have any with the business, I know you're running around all over the place Easy to do. But, when you do have some time. What's on the agenda for the family? You guys like to travel. What do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:We travel down to Miami Beach and we go on the boat.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 3:We go fishing, we hit the sandbar, we enjoy just a good time out on the water with the family and friends.
Speaker 2:Good old South Florida life, love it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, You're welcome to come if you want man.
Speaker 3:For sure.
Speaker 4:Let's go Coming up for 12.
Speaker 2:Bring the kids, bring the kids, let's go, let's go, good deal. So okay, before we wrap up here, I want to ask both of you to leave our listeners with one thing. It could be about the business, or just a wisdom, a little nugget, some lesson of life you learned along the way.
Speaker 3:I'll let each of you answer that as you see fit, go ahead.
Speaker 4:I would say don't be dollar wise, penny foolish. And that applies to everything and anything in our walks of life, from buying an automobile to the current scenario that we're doing right now. Um, it's just because I I have already experienced, uh, you know, a customer ended up growing mold in his house because he went on vacation, because he wanted to turn off his AC, you know and then you're going to save.
Speaker 4:You're going to save. You know what is it? A hundred bucks a month, or $50 a month, and all of a sudden now you have a thousands of dollar remediation bill because your entire home, your entire closet Louis Vuitton bags everything is full of microbial growth. Your entire closet Louis Vuitton bags everything is full of microbial growth, green, nasty mold, because you wanted to turn off your AC. Oh you know. By the way, one advice I would say please, if you ever leave your home, make sure your temperature inside the home is between 73 and 75. That's a good temperature for to to help in not having more microbial growth in your home 73 to 75.
Speaker 2:That's the sweet spot. The Goldilocks zone Correct.
Speaker 3:I agree with that. I would agree with that and say that would be the same thing. I speak with a lot of customers that want to hold off because they think maybe $200 was too much and then it turns into 2000 because we waited or we wanted to get other opinions, which it's fine, grab opinions but it only takes 10 minutes for us to come out there and do an estimate. Whatever it is to assess the situation, we don't charge. It's a free estimate and if it's only a couple hundred bucks, do it, because it can always get worse. Whether it's a water damage, the mold mitigation, the odor, you have to attack the problem.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That's actually one of the things that I've gotten a lot better with as I've gotten older. Obviously, there's a balance in life. You need to. You can't just spend money completely willy nilly because you got to save as I've gotten older. Obviously, there's a balance in life. You can't just spend money completely willy-nilly because you got to save. But I've gotten a lot better at making sure that when I need to do something, I'm not trying to cut corners and I'm just paying, whatever my goal always.
Speaker 2:I say this all the time and I love doing this show because I get a chance to meet the owners of various businesses and I always strive to have somebody in every industry that I know and trust that if I have a problem, I'm not like going to Google and calling three companies and quote shopping and dealing with all that insanity Like I want to, just like now. You know, having you on the show, it's great I got a chance to meet you. You're very knowledgeable. If I have an issue like this, I know exactly who to call. I can pick up the phone. I feel like I'm comfortable with you guys. I feel like you have my best interest at heart and I'm not going to even question what the price is, you tell me it's $400, $500, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:I met you through the chamber. It's like, yeah, get it done. I don't feel a need. And what are you comparing? When you get like five companies, you're like, oh, this one does this. You'll drive yourself mad. It's just so much better to have somebody, and that's the goal and that's what's great about this platform. I've interviewed over 300 businesses and there are countless businesses that I've met that are doing great work in the community, and you guys are no different. So I appreciate you coming on the show. It was a lot of fun getting the opportunity to meet you both and learn about all the great work you're doing in the community. So if you're out there listening, obviously if you have a flood or some kind of natural or unnatural disaster, you know who to call now. And if you're curious about maybe you do have some kind of mold issue or something in the house, reach out, get that free inspection. It can't hurt. It really can't. So, guys, thanks again for joining us. We appreciate it. Yes.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much.
Speaker 4:Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2:Of course, and thanks as always to our listeners for tuning in, and we will catch everyone next time on the next episode of the good neighbor podcast. Everyone, take care and have a blessed day.
Speaker 1:bye-bye thanks for listening to the good neighbor podcast, cooper city. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to, that's GNPCooperCitycom or call 954-231-3170.