Ricky: Hey everyone, how are you doing?
My name is Ricky Rigolotto, the founder of route the service platform.
It's a sales platform for the commercial cleaning services industry.
I am also the owner of Rosato services, a family owned commercial cleaning company,
so welcome to clean it and cocktails.
A show where I get the opportunity to sit down with cleaning industry
experts and share stories, talk shop about the industry.
So grab your cocktail listening, and I hope you guys enjoy the show.
I have myself, the honor of having some, some great individuals in
the cleaning industry, if that's a great software solutions.
You guys probably know their names already and know the
brand, but I've got Mike Brown.
I'm from sweat.
I have Katie munchkins intelligent, so I wanted to really just kick
off the conversation with Neil.
Thank you guys for joining me.
I don't know if this is a really big w, you know, some people would say
competitors, but I definitely don't think that we're all something that
we can collaborate with each other and the users and the audience.
It's going to see the benefit.
What did the three of us together like talking shop?
So I'll start with you.
Why don't you start
Mike: off with, introduce yourself
Ricky: and tell us a little bit about clean, intelligent, um, and take it away.
Mike: Myth
Caden: for sure.
So, um, I'm not the founder of clean Teligent.
Uh, that is, uh, definitely a long before my time actually going to clean.
Teligent uh, I've been with clean towels for about six and a half years, so.
And, uh, our founding group, the Jenkins family there, um, the parents
and the two brothers, Joseph and Mike, um, they started a cleaning business
back in the seventies and eighties.
Um, and there are still a franchise actually that exists today,
um, in the mountain West area.
But clean Teligent was born, uh, about 2003.
Um, and actually we went to market and trade shows and things
like that starting around 2006.
Um, so.
This year, this summer actually will be 17 years in business.
Um, so it's been a, it's been an interesting journey.
Um, as for myself, um, I definitely, uh, my route coming to clean Telligen
and to the position of president is very unique and a little strange,
actually, I would openly say.
But, um, at the same time.
Um, it's been a truly rewarding experience.
It's been super fun, uh, to just jump in from a technology
standpoint in an industry.
Um, honestly, to this day that is still very far behind.
You know, you can compare, there's three of us right here on this call.
Um, and we represent a good portion of just even technology
that exists in this industry.
You know, compared to.
The payment processing space where you have like 1500 companies
in the United States alone that compete against each other.
So, uh, obviously, you know, here we are, as evidence is very small,
uh, technology usage and adoption in this industry to begin with.
Uh, but clean tech isn't really, uh, um, through the years has gone through
many different, uh, focuses actually.
Um, and as of recent, uh, just kind of pulling the reins back and making sure we.
We may remain true to kind of what our core foundation is that we
decided to focus on back in 2016.
That's actually when I first stepped up into an executive role at
clean, intelligent, and, um, I said we're focused on too many things.
Um, and we can actually follow the pathway of a couple of other softwares,
not even in our own industry.
And if we're going to focus on just a bunch of different things, we're
not going to do a single thing.
Well, um, we're just going to have.
Things that, uh, we keep, uh, doing everything, a customer requests.
And so I pulled the reins back and I was like, we are the quality control
platform and let's stick to it.
If it doesn't follow our, our scope of what our job family is meant
to be solving, and then that's someone else's issue that they
are more than welcome to solve.
And so.
We pulled some things off the market, we decided to get really focused.
Um, and, and honestly, the last like four or five years, we felt, um, and it, not
that it didn't move out of this phase, but getting right back to the gritty
startup mindset phase, the blood thirsty entrepreneurial mindset has been awesome.
And, um.
Among that conversation, you know, we started a, you guys started popping up in
the space and I was like, how finally, you know, more software that's out there, the
more people will actually get it because before software comes around, they're
sticking to manual processes, pen and paper, uh, which is still a fight today.
I know that sounds crazy to modern technology businesses, but
you know, um, but yeah, that's, that's clean tells its history.
That's our brand.
Something we focused on as of late is just what does it
mean to be clean intelligence.
And that's kind of where we've been focusing.
So awesome
Ricky: man.
Thank you.
We're going to, we're getting to get to get into a lot of
that throughout the program.
I got a funny story actually, the lab, like you get into everything first,
but um, I remember Cayden's name when I first got into actually using
technology for rules, a lateral side.
And it's crazy cause at that point I want to say you were the customer success or
account executive or something where.
I definitely want to hear a little bit about that story of how you moved up
the ranks, because you're right, you're younger, you know, we're all here.
That's crazy, right?
Take it away.
Mike: Yeah.
So, um, basically I built and sold a few service companies, so like a bit about
me before jumping into sweat, but, um.
One of those was a cleaning company.
And that's really how I kind of got on this journey.
So,
Caden: um,
Mike: what we're really trying to solve is kinda like what is swept?
What do we do?
I think the best way to understand it
is like, what are we solving for?
And so when I owned my cleaning company, uh, I would go in and sell a contract
and I put my name on it, my word, I tell them we're going to do a great job.
And then, you know, a few months later they call me because our cleaner wasn't
showing up and I didn't know about it.
And that made me sick.
Like I just, I was embarrassed.
I hated it.
So I really set out to.
Build something that would allow me to understand and manage my business, my
cleaning business when everyone's remote.
So, you know, I remember waiting and you know, just kind of at 10, 11 in
the morning, like if someone to call a complaint cause we didn't, you missed
a garbage can or something went wrong.
And so like swept.
Yes, we have check in, checkout, geo-fence, uh, inspection,
supply management, scheduling, all of these other things.
But at the core of it.
I wanted to be able to look at my phone at any point in time and know did someone
not show up or my contracts, you know, at risk is there's something going on.
Do I need to action something like, where are the fires so I can put them out.
And, um, that's really what we've, what we focused on.
And you know, I went from one city to a second to a third as a
cleaning company sold that cause I realized, um, the software is
really what this industry needs.
Like it didn't need another cleaning company.
It needed the cleaning companies need help.
And you know, as you guys mentioned it, it is kind of strange.
You know, people at first will think like, Oh, there's three software companies.
They compete.
Well, I don't think we do in a lot of ways.
In fact, at the end of the day there's more people on pen and paper.
We need to educate.
We need to be thought leaders and bring people and show
them there is a better path.
Um, you know, yeah.
In years from now, either we're going to be partnered and we'll
be working against each other, you know, in terms of competitive.
But.
They need us to be competitive.
They need us to be growing and be out there, the whole industry.
So I think it's awesome.
So just thanks Ricky for putting this together.
I
Ricky: am, and I just, I like talking to you guys.
I like talking about technology and there's just not a lot of,
there is got a lot of assumptions.
Katie, you nailed it.
You probably know more than both of us here.
There's been, in the seven years I've been in business.
I could name on one hand the software companies that I looked up research
and figured out, Hey, I need that one.
I don't need that one.
I'm too small for that.
I'm too big for that.
But like in a quick, like in a one sentence description, I could tell people
is we are, we truly are not competitors.
Because if you look at it, I saw the sales, right?
Front end.
Caden, you guys do quality control on a whole nother level, right?
Mike?
I use swept right now, right?
For the main reason it's communication, but also like, here's three elements
right here in this conversation though, you know, we're all solving a certain
solution that, and there's probably four or five other ones still in.
The day to day business operations, all cleaning companies.
It's crazy that people think cleaning is so easy.
Once you get in the thick of it, man, there is a lot of
moving pieces to own a click.
So let's jump to, um, and you guys kind of touched on it.
I don't like you really gave us a good story.
Both of you guys said too, is what made, you know, Michael served with you.
What made you.
Truly say, I'm going to develop a software.
I want to get into the technology solution space.
A, did you know about engineering?
Did you know what a startup was?
Did you know when you were getting yourself into.
Mike: I had no idea what I was getting myself into to be quite honest.
Uh, I'm nontechnical.
So we really built this product around me because, um, people are
scared and concerned, you know, is it going to be complicated?
You know, I, you know, is it going to slow me down?
I don't have time to learn cause I'm trying to put out fires and, and so for
me, it was just, it was really that, that idea, I want to make an impact.
More so than on my, my city.
You know, I wanna, you know, Ricky, you and I did a webinar recently and
at the beginning people are tuning in and saying, hi from South Africa.
You know, there are people in Europe.
And I think for me, there was this kind of twofold I'd already
built and sold a couple companies.
Um, I was seeing the success from using software that nobody else had.
And so for me, it's like we were already kind of building that
technology so that the shift from.
Switching from a cleaning company over, we are already running it.
And I was already seeing people, competitors calling me and saying,
you know, what is this software?
You know, it's not fair.
I lost a client to you.
And I was like, this is bizarre behavior.
And I just realized that the industry was asking for it, basically.
So I feel like in some ways they didn't really have a choice once
it was kind of uncovered, you know, we had to just run with it.
Ricky: What was your first job?
What drew you to technology space or technology company in the cleaning space?
Give us a little bit backdrop.
Caden: Um, well, I, growing up, I loved the blue collar work.
I just loved getting my hands dirty, whether it was construction
projects, whatever it was.
And so.
Going into the technology space.
And I actually started as the executive assistant to the CEO of clean Teligent.
And, um, I was doing a lot more, uh, personal things, things related
to, um, his agenda, but also as he would involve me in business.
I was like, man, technology is just the place to be.
Now, a clean Teligent nestled right in the Silicon slopes
of, uh, Utah with, you know.
Four or 5,000 tech companies here in Allen in the Valley.
Um, and so I was just like, you know, this is a space to be in and
to get used to and to figure out, uh, some problems, um, to get into.
So it necessarily wasn't, uh, perhaps cleaning, uh, the cleaning nation
and technology focused on that.
I just loved the opportunity to understand technology better from product
management and all of those things.
So I decided just to, to jump in.
And, uh, I was the executive assistant for about a year and a half.
And, uh, Mike, who was the CEO at the time, I was just like, look,
I am so much more invested into the actual product instead of just
supporting you as an executive, which has been great, cool opportunity.
Um, and so I actually became the director of sales and
marketing after a short while.
Um, and I just dove right in and learning about the industry.
And I was just like, man, this industry is old school.
Mike: This is the coolest opportunity to
Caden: bring technology, um, to, to light.
Um, when, um, you know, there, there's been moments, honestly,
straight up, I felt like Einstein,
Mike: some of the solutions, you're just because they're just like, what?
And it's just,
Caden: it's one of those things that, uh, just puts a smile to my face.
You know, I often think about technology companies.
You know, when Apple started.
Uh, decades ago.
Um, and you're just like, man, what it would have been like, or for Google,
what would have been like to be at the beginning stages of their industry.
And, uh, so I just ate it up.
I was like, but that's exactly what technology is for the cleaning industry.
You know, they're 10, 15, 20 years behind in some aspects we may think.
And, um, it's great to be a part of.
And so, you know, um.
That's, that's really what kind of got me super excited about jumping in.
Um, and you know, putting blood, sweat and tears against becoming
the best leader I could be to become the best a tech leader in the sense
of understanding how it works.
And.
Uh, how to work with development, um, developers think very differently
than typically divisionary executives.
And, and,
Mike: you know, it's just,
Caden: um, kind of going on both levels of, um, finding out how to fine tune
that make that work has been such a awesome roller coaster to be on.
So
Ricky: I gotta say, I know I share your sentiments.
I'm sure Mike, you do too.
It's been crazy.
You know, I haven't think back when I went to the first, I had cessation when I
took my team to the show here in Chicago.
They could not have believed how big the show is, you know?
And how many different, well, more so manufacturers coming from companies, you
know, they, they, they definitely spend the money to, to make a big wall factor.
Right.
Yeah.
But I, so a lot of the purpose of the show too, for you guys, I'm
assuming you guys really understand, is the small business, right?
We are, we are looking to empower a small business, a medium sized business, that
to say that we can't be a solution for large business businesses out there, but
it's the small business mom and pop shop.
It's the small business.
10 employees, 1550 100 employees.
Right?
They are still just catching on the technology, right?
They're
Mike: just
Ricky: just turning the time sheets into actual, you know, using
ADP, struggling with QuickBooks.
But I feel like that the more modern we can make our software and we develop it.
Everybody's going to use it, they're going to see the need for it.
Right.
So the question I wanted to ask you guys is, do you consider yourself white?
We'll start with you.
Is do you consider yourself a visionary or pragmatic?
Mike: Um, that's kind of an interesting question.
So.
When swept was founded, it was kind of backing off what Kayden was just
sharing, like the initial reaction to technology, uh, and especially with
swept where you can communicate with your cleaners in a hundred different
languages and stuff like that.
People were like, I don't want to talk to my cleaners.
It is only four or five years ago.
And I remember we went to ISA, um, and it was the first time as the plane was
landing, I downloaded our app for the first time in the Apple store because
we've been using our own version.
It wasn't the Apple store for our cleaning camp, and so it was actually
live and where we were in our booth at ISA, and everyone's like, yeah, no,
I don't want to talk to my cleaners.
And, and I'd ask them, what software are you using?
Well, we use QuickBooks.
I'm like.
I get it.
Like accounting is important, but how are you like managing your team?
How are you connecting quality control, all these other things?
Like how are you doing it?
Pen and paper.
Now, a year ago at IMSA, people were walking up to me and
saying, I've got five apps.
I've got this one to talk to people.
I got this one for inspections.
I got this one for that.
And so now, in such a short period of time, people have just flipped.
And so, you know, kind of getting back to your question, am I visionary?
Like I.
It's a weird thing to say that, but realistically, what we created
disrupted, like the industry, people were not ready for it.
They were not even willing, and now they're just starting to catch up.
So I feel like we were, we were a couple of years too early, to be honest.
Um, there's stuff we're working on now that I think is going to
have the same kind of impact.
Um, but I think people are more ready.
The other side of it is you have to have.
The nuts and bolts for the business.
Just having something that's like super fascinating or interesting or different.
There needs to be meat on it.
So these small businesses, they need to
Caden: have a
Mike: solution that allows them to do a number of things, um, at least
in a specific area of their company.
Right.
It can't be a bell and whistle.
It has to be.
There has to be some meat to it.
Ricky: Great.
That's awesome.
That the fact that you can do multi-language and think,
yeah, you're nailed it.
You don't think it's possible, but nothing is impossible.
Right?
I mean, gated you guys.
I mean, 2003 when we got ahead of the curve, a lot of the things
you guys are probably marketing.
What, so I can say this for you and for the founders of the company too,
or just the company culture as a whole.
Cause I gotta say I love the name right.
They always stuck to me.
Intelligent.
It's like a perfect name.
Um, but how do you do, maybe not just yourself, but you the core
executives of the company in that the founders, you guys gotta be
consider yourself missionaries, right?
Cause you gotta be one of the verses that were out there.
Caden: Yeah.
Um, and it's really fun to live in the visionary space, and I think it's
more often not that our development, uh, department and teams pull us
to the pragmatic side of those things and just like, okay, maybe
that's a few years down the road.
Um, so yeah, I mean, especially our ownership group.
And myself is just, it's fun and it's, it's a great space to be in.
Um, for myself.
I love being that visionary and trying to build up the mission and how it ties in.
Um, and yeah, I get pulled back to reality, uh, probably daily by
my development team, but, um, no, there's moments where they've taught
me how to be a better at, you know.
Let's be realistic.
Let's understand strategy and purpose and, you know, clean, intelligent.
It wasn't just about, uh, having an idea as the leader.
It was, um, I don't know if you guys have ever heard of the book.
It's called multipliers by Liz Wiseman, and that's a leadership book.
And it just, it really talks about, um, not always being the idea person as one
of the things that a diminisher does is always come forward with the ideas.
And in the beginning stages of being a leader.
Um, I was full of ideas trying to execute that vision.
And then I realized that was the totally wrong way to go about doing it.
Um, and the team needed buy in and to help understand, uh, principally
what we're trying to accomplish and to focus on the job to be
done, not the feature to be built.
And, uh, that's, that's kind of where now it's a, it's a mix between the two.
Ricky: That's a perfect segue to.
You know, Mike, you come from owning a cleaning business.
You know, Katie, you've been in this role so long, they own, you know,
the founders of the Korean business.
I feel that, that, that's gotta say something for our, our companies and our
solutions in a place that we're really trying to innovate this industry is we,
we talk to talk, we can walk the walk.
We've been in your shoes.
We know what your paying points so, so very well is, you know, why not us?
Why not?
Our companies would be the companies that create innovate innovation.
Maybe not necessarily disruptive all the time, but improve because there's
a lot of businesses in our space.
I've noticed when I'm talking to them, you know, especially me with, you know,
Rick, what the hell does it digital walk?
What are you trying to digitize?
What the hell am I?
I know I need pen and paper.
I need pen and paper.
So it's like they're so used to doing certain things.
It is going to take awhile to educate.
It is going to take a while to say, you know, you can text him one format and then
pops out another language back to you.
Right.
I control like there's so many things we're innovating right now.
What?
What do you want some number one thing that either pops off in your head, Caden,
or that you say, this is why I love doing what I do in this innovation space.
Caden: One thing I love about innovation is you can't just do it once.
It, um, you know, clean Teligent, uh, looking back at times where
we won, I say innovation awards.
Some of them are for products that no longer exists and it's,
it's really interesting, um, to be in that position then, um, cause
innovation is a constant evolution of.
Uh, the next thing, um, innovations never done.
Um, cause once you, once you start it, um, you're, you got a journey ahead of
you to constantly listen to users, gather feedback, innovate on the next job to
be done that they're trying to solve.
Um, and see if it fits in within the, the mission that you're
trying to solve and to promote.
So.
I just love that innovation is, is never a one stop shop a one time deal.
It's a constant, every day a new idea that technology can come out and in
a day that completely wipes out a need for another industry or service.
You know, you can go all the way back to, you know, CDs used
to be a thing when I was a kid.
I still remember cassette tapes, right?
And you're just like both of those MP3 players, all those ground, and now
it's just, Oh no, it's your cell phone.
You know?
So, yeah, innovation is a constant.
Mike: I think for me, what I love about innovation is, is the aha
moment watching an experience.
People who may have been kind of concerned or scared, uh, that success.
So I view.
Software solutions, regardless of what people want to use,
like it's an equalizer.
So as you said, this is about, you know, our business, this
industry is about small business.
You know, the top five companies are only taking out 6% of the total revenue, which
means this industry is all mom and pops.
So you have someone sign up and they go out and they win an RFP because they
use technology to look more relevant and more professional than the large company.
That to me that when they're like, Oh my goodness, so you, you can help them win
a contract and you help them maintain it, it changes their entire lifestyle.
And for me, um, it's kind of, you know, it's, it's innovation.
It's about the user.
It's what the person experiencing that innovation to me is the most exciting.
I've watched you grow.
I'll just say again, like you, you have your cleaning company
as well, and you guys have grown.
At such an incredible rate.
It's like, it's insane.
I mean, and it's because of your mindset and you, you've leveraged technology to
you, correct me if I'm wrong, but maybe you probably were kind of like hitting
above your weight at first and then you grew, you literally grew into it.
Oh yeah.
I felt that
Ricky: pain couple times, two times over.
I felt that when I got to you guys, it's.
Innovation is just, it drives me, right?
Like I got two stories or two stories or two points is, you know, I came,
I think I touched on this when we talked at one point, but it was,
it's crazy to see what that was.
I think it was like six months, nine months ago.
I fill out an RFP for this large retailers, a client, and I have done many
of these before, but as I'm going through everyday, I see crew intelligence thing.
I'm like.
What does this have to do with this is I'm putting a cleaning thing and here,
what does this have to do with this?
There they were telling me that I had to use intelligent in order to
perform the, you know, to win their contract and perform services because
intelligent for them was a parcel of the business for them and their clients.
Right.
Yeah.
Amazing.
That's innovation.
Right?
And then one of our largest clients, you know, this is probably been the
third facility manager, comes into the role, and then he comes in and
he's been around, he's been around the block, he's been in the industry
for a while, and he's like, Rick, how are you able to operate in 13 States?
Like, I don't even know what they're doing in Philadelphia.
I'm like, well, you know, technology, like, wow, how that doesn't explain it?
What do you mean?
He's like, technologies like Gmail or something like that.
I'm like, I've got this app that you don't look at, and I've showed it to him too.
I was like, I agree that he's talked to her and I was working calm.
There's gotta be some privacy, privacy issues there.
You know, it's called time and attendance.
Those types of experiences.
I'm hoping the audience hears this and sees like.
This is how important technology is.
So this kinda goes to the next question of, we're not saying that technology
is going to eliminate everything.
Everything is going to be on a touch of a button, because correct
me if I'm wrong, you know, gated.
We'll start with you.
Do you think technology can solve all problems or what do you, what
did you say to the people that say.
You still need to touch.
Caden: This is a very good point.
Um, the human element always has to be there.
Um, that's fundamental to our human human interaction.
I believe technology's mission is to make that human to human interaction
more intimate and more personable.
And a technology is to solve problems that get in the way.
Of us as human to humans connecting.
It's never meant to replace human to human interactions, meant to, it's
meant to get the busy work off to the side off to somewhere else, because at
the end of the day, set aside business, you know, our loved ones, our family,
our friendships are the most important things that should matter to us in life.
And I believe technology's role is meant to have that be the most influential focus
of what we should be working towards.
Ricky: Nailed it.
Mike, you gotta follow that up now?
Mike: Perfect.
You know, like set up for us because it's why we exist.
Humans are a must.
You know, when I owned my cleaning company, we had a virtual assistant who,
she was our cleaner happiness manager.
She called cleaners on their birthdays.
Uh, you know.
And swept it.
You can put a sad face or a happy face.
You get a clear mood.
So she would reach out to people if they're unhappy.
She like every, this is a business for humans.
And you know, as Caden said, there's certain things that technology can assist
with, but it's really about connecting.
You know, we have people who play games, which again, our product was not built
for this, but they'll hide a poker chip.
In someone's office and they might have a team of a number of cleaners going
in and they'll say, whoever finds the poker chip tonight, it's 25 bucks.
Or they'll, they'll play different games and they interact on the
message board with the cleaners.
Your whole team is remote.
Retention is such a challenge in this industry.
So if you can find a way to talk to your, your team, engage them, share funny news
or updates or jokes, like technology.
Um, yeah.
Like you cannot take away.
That human element.
Um, you, you look at COBIT and all the things that are happening.
Um, humans are extremely important.
We need to be working on the, the high touch points, the areas, and, you
know, let the robots clean other areas.
But the area where you need to use your brain and focus, um,
let's, let's create that space.
And humans are not going away in the cleaning industry.
No, that,
Ricky: no, definitely not.
And you know what, uh, this just reminded me too.
Katie talks on a good point where, you know, we're so as a business operator to
small business operator, you know, I can remember the days at the beginning when
I started, I was working 1820 hour days.
I was me and my wife, my cousin, right?
It's was long winded days and it's when I started to implement technology.
I started to get some of that time back, right?
I had people helping me, you know, quick books.
I used to do the invoice in word document, right?
QuickBooks help make that go faster.
Type of attendance was done by people.
Text messaging me and told me, Hey, I did it.
Hey, I got here.
Hey, I'm gone.
So what does that do?
That makes me have to stay up late to make sure that a restaurant bar
that gets cleaned up at three in the morning to 6:00 AM I got to make sure
it's 6:00 AM he clocked out right?
Which through a text soul.
It's things like that, that that's a good part of it brings your
life, your work life balance.
As a business operator, you've ever stopped learning, but you
can use these tools that we built to get your job done faster.
They can get back to your family.
Mike: Right.
You know, one of the other things I'll share on this is something, again.
The fun thing about innovating is you create something, you put it out there
and people use it differently, right?
I'm sure you see this Caden that you built with this, with this intent,
but someone's going to do X, Y, Z, and they call you and say what?
He found an amazing way to use this.
And, and it happened for us too, where cleaners are on the message
board and someone says, I need this supply, or I can't get in here,
or something's going wrong here.
And by the time the manager gets to it, the cleaners have already fixed it.
And that to me is like, that's why, you know, technology, it's assisting us.
It's not taking over.
It's allowing us to say, you know what?
I'm not wiping the service right now.
I'm actually going to help this person so they can continue.
Um, and you look at labor hours and all the rest like that.
That bond, um, is so critical and people are missing out on it.
On pen and paper.
Ricky: Mean this is a data driven industry as much as it helps the businesses.
So a question that I don't want to be part of gonna want to hear is, or an answer
for is how much more can we test about,
Mike: right?
Ricky: How much more technology can we do?
I know we could probably spend hours talking about this, but like what
more is there to do, you know, like gaining weight or you know about that
you had to share some insight, right?
But some of the things you guys are thinking about, like things that
you guys are thinking about, why don't you take your first game.
Sure.
Caden: Um, so clean, intelligent, um, especially in the last probably 18
months, 24 months, um, we've had, I mean, we've spent quite a bit of money
in this category of just R and D.
Um, because at the end of the day, and this is how we started, and,
and honestly, it just, it isn't the way to run a software company.
Um, years ago it was just whatever the user asks for, you build
and you can't build everything.
You can't take on every request.
You muck up the database, the code.
Um, you lose sight of what you originally were built for, uh,
from an architecture standpoint.
Um, so for us it was getting back to the fundamentals of research and
what needs are we wanting to solve.
And then for us, it was looking at what other needs are being solved elsewhere.
Like, there's no way I'm going to go build a financial product
just for the cleaning industry.
When QuickBooks has nailed financial product for SMB
in general, it's just, it's
Mike: that,
Caden: and, and making sure that they're doing a good job with it.
Right.
Um, and they are, and so for me, I don't want to spend our
precious time and resources on something that already works there.
Um, but as for us, and I've, and I've had conversations with
the both of you about this is.
Um, our ability to get connected, um, because we already do it as a business.
We probably have 15 some odd softwares that we use to
operate our business, right?
From a technology standpoint, from how we're managing our database and our
projects and all those things integrate.
But that's the software world.
It doesn't take so much of management.
And as we're such young businesses in the technology space trying to solve
needs, for us, it's been the next step of how do we connect to the next 2000
platforms that are gonna be gonna come in this space over the next five, 10 years.
Right.
Or the other platforms that already exist out there with financial
platforms, time-tracking platforms, inventory management systems.
Because all of those technologies are researching that specific
job and how to do it well.
And so for clean, intelligent, it was, Hey, we had to scale back.
We had to understand what do we do best and how do we stick to that?
How do we innovate on top of that?
And number two, how do we connect to the other platforms appropriately within
reason that would make sense to connect?
And so, uh, that's been huge, uh, for, um, end of 2019 and
beginning of 2020 to prep for.
Uh, our system to be that.
Now the unfortunate disadvantage for us is we have 17 years of code, in essence,
that we've had to go back through and, and prep for that, uh, technology advancement.
Because when clean Teligent was built, that wasn't even
a, a mindset of a one day.
This is going to need to connect to a, what people might consider competing
products or like-minded products.
And so for us, that was our number one focus.
And still, um.
Is is in development, uh, with APIs and connections that are in beta right now.
And so for us, that's kind of our next big thing is how do we capitalize our
product into aspects of businesses and other products that exist out there
and increase the efficiency and flow between product communication between
one product to another platform.
So that's kind of been the biggest thing for us, is to eliminate the
headache of now what this industry is.
Going to start experiencing with more and more of us trying to create
tools for different sources is how do you manage which ones you prefer.
Um, because people want the best of the best of everything.
And if they're going to get that, they have to package everything together,
um, and be, you know, turning to a company like Salesforce, that there
was one piece that Salesforce offered.
And now Salesforce is such an integrated suite.
It's almost.
Industry standard, um, that everything has to integrate into Salesforce, um, for them
to be successful in their business ops.
So that's kind of been the, the most immediate, short term vision for
clean Teligent as far as the longterm vision for clean, intelligent, um,
something we really spent, like I'd mentioned on research the last 18 to
24 months with something called ODI.
Which is a, a process, um, call it, uh, it's stands for outcome driven innovation.
And, uh, that's what we really got super focused on.
We actually launched a, uh, a research project to last,
uh, four months of last year.
Um, got a bunch of survey respondents to dive in and it
wasn't related to our product.
It was just pure industry knowledge across the end users who were.
Explaining the problems from their eyes.
And, uh, that data that we started sifting through back in February.
It's just mindblowing is fascinating.
Some small things, it's fun to go through and be like, wow, like our technology
solves a third of the issues that they currently are complaining about.
How are we not marketing ourselves or positioned ourselves to be that solution?
Um, you know, Michael, you talked about this of just like, people start using
your product in ways that you just like.
I didn't think it would be used that way.
You know, that's, that's been clean Teligent for years of just like, I
had no idea what is ever going to be intended, but it's still a solution.
It's still a viable solution.
It's not a workaround.
It actually works.
And so, um, you know, it's building off of those to
capitalize on them even more in the
Mike: future.
Nice.
Ricky: Nice.
What about, uh, what's your thoughts on that?
I don't mean you go back and forth on just what's possible, but.
Mike: Yeah.
So I mean, when you look at the cleaning industry, just for a moment, you
know, not looking at sweat per se, but the surface is just being scratched.
And as we just talked about, the ISIS, the convention is huge.
It's a $64 billion industry.
And I wonder, you know, I, I've thought about this a lot over the years.
Are there not a lot of solutions because.
You know, people don't care about the industry, they, you know, or,
or is it the fact that the people in the industry were not ready?
So I, you know, there are software companies that have come before us were
key and probably for clean intelligence
Caden: that have like,
Mike: gone up and gone down and, and clean tells you, you guys have done
a great job at, you know, just like repositioning and like, it's amazing
because a lot of companies can't do it.
Um, but the industry to steel is, it's ready now.
And so when you take a group that's.
That's ready for it.
That their customers, you know, the office managers, the facility
managers, start demanding and saying like, you saw clean Teligent.
We've had people put swept, uh, in proposals and RFPs.
Like, so now your clients are asking for it.
Um, you're hearing what your peers, you know, so swept like our clients, we,
we, we looked at our data last year.
They retain their contracts 91% better than industry standard.
Why is that?
Well, because they're using, they can get ahead of things.
And so, and I'm guessing that with clean, intelligent, it's similar that
you guys said that your, your, your clients are performing better than
their peers because they're advancing.
So when I think about technology and the industry as a whole, people
are, are more willing to use it.
Uh, their clients are demanding it.
People like us are, you know, thinking about how we're going to, we're
thinking about them as the end user.
The surface is just being scratched.
It's like it's such an exciting time because, yep.
Endless opportunity, basically.
Yeah, for sure.
Ricky: And I think you touched on it earlier in the conversation,
it's a ecosystem, right?
I think all three of us that said that at one point where.
I, you know, I'm always, I'm out there, you know, not coaching or mentoring, but
I'm listening and I'm talking to a lot of the people in the space and they, they're
hungry for something, for the solutions, but they want to do everything right.
They want to try to use different things.
It'd be great if I could use this for that, this, this, you know,
or it'd be great if there was one thing for everything, right?
But if you peel that onion back and you say.
Well does one thing have to do everything?
You know?
Can there be an ecosystem where there'll be a joint effort with
solutions that you said again?
Right.
I enrolled a lot of them.
I use nine, nine different pieces of softwares.
Not that me, myself, but the company like, and we just have to, and it's
easy and you come to go and do this.
And there is some manual processes that get affected by
not being able to integrate.
So I think that word integration, um, is being used a lot.
And it's.
And it's people that don't even need to be tactical.
Like I'm in a lot of Facebook groups and I hear them talk about integration.
They'll throw the word Zapier.
I'm like, you know what's happened six months ago?
So it's, it's coming, it's coming.
It's, it's the future.
It's, we have to be ready.
We have to give for it.
I mean, it's, I feel like it's the only way to people to be best at
what they do and to be great at what they do instead of being, okay.
That's the only different things.
Um, but that, let's talk about a topic that has been on a lot of people's
minds, uh, on the cleaning side.
Um, you know, we are considered essential services right now.
I still say we, cause you know, my son cleaning business, but how has called the
19 affected you guys in your day to day?
Um, have you pivoted?
How have you.
Use the knowledge content come out there.
We don't talk about it like mine.
What have you guys seen on the swept side?
Even saw you.
You too, because you're in Canada, right?
So it's like, is it a little different than here in the States?
How are you guys impacted
Mike: recovery.
I mean, most of our client base is us.
We have, you know, we're in Canada.
Uh, but you know, we've got clients around the world, Europe and Australia and
whatnot, but most of it's concentrated in the U S um, you know, from my customer's
perspective, the things I'm hearing and, you know, the webinars, um, you know.
People were able to balance out their business.
A lot of times.
Um, there's a lot of fear and concern about how long this is going to last, but
people are doing disinfected cleanings, deep cleanings and whatnot there.
Um, so people are managing, I think we're managing really well.
And from swaps perspective, um, you know.
We made a few adjustments and in our, in our team.
And the reason for that is, you know, we're a software company.
We're looking to innovate, drive fast, but there's been so many people over
the last number of years that said, uh.
If you know, software companies go to business, uh, you know,
we know these things happen.
They raise money and they spend it.
They go to business.
But I'm putting my cleaners, my, you know, my whole operations into your company.
You can't go to business.
Um, and you know, Ricky, like you slept.
If, if we went away overnight, my guess is there'd be a couple issues on
Monday morning when you're trying to figure out how to manage your business.
So I take
Ricky: that.
Mike: So I take that so seriously.
And so what we did was we really positioned, um, we
scaled back some of our sales.
Um, and, but we're, we're still investing in thought leadership and marketing
and, and especially in Devin product.
And so the whole idea is my focus has shifted to my customers.
How can I help them?
What do they need?
Um, so there's been a lot of outreach and.
I, I think, you know, even as Katie was mentioning, like he looks back and sees
the data of what his customers are doing.
So it's been a positive in the sense that I've come even closer to my customers.
Um, and uh, yeah, it's, it's something I feel like we literally are all
trying to get through together, but we're well positioned to do it.
And I think.
What I keep hearing from people is the opportunity in front of us,
both from software providers, the people out in the front lines, like
there's a really big opportunity.
We're so relevant, is that we have to get through this.
Caden: Um,
Mike: so
Ricky: you guys are intelligent.
I think.
I gotta believe now more than ever because of Kobe 19 and just
cleanliness, quality, and service.
You, I mean, how is this affecting you guys as a software company,
but also as your customer base?
Caden: Sure.
Um, to start off with our customers, it's, it's, uh, you know, Mike kind
of said it is kind of a balancing act between different, uh, customers.
We look at some customers and it depended on their portfolio
of businesses that they serve.
Um, and unfortunately we had some customers that got
slammed and got hit hard.
Uh, they went out of business and it's really, really sad.
Um, and then we have other customers that their portfolio was
diverse and just different things.
If they were portfolio focused more on manufacturing side, they doubled
their business in the last three weeks because manufacturing needing to stay
open and they want bathrooms cleaned 14 times a day, it seems like was
just like as soon as someone uses it.
Um, so it's, it's definitely a balanced, um, as far as clean,
intelligent, um, we've really tried to focus on making sure our customers
know that we're here for them.
Um, you know, we, and it's, you know, blessing to not have, had
to make hard decisions with any staff, uh, at clean, intelligent.
It's been really, um, truly, really grateful for, for that.
Um, and Clinton has also survived through, and especially as a
really young startup, um, the 2008, 2009 era in the United States.
Um, and this is, you know, definitely a lot, a lot worse than, than that was, um.
But I feel like in general, as a software provider to the
cleaning industry, the cleaning industry is an essential industry.
And so, um, people have had to rely on, uh, our customers staying
open and trying the best they can.
Um, and it's, it's a great position to be in, to be able to help.
Um, so we've, we've done things, we have had deals running for,
uh, new people coming on board of just free or heavily discounted.
Or if customers being like, Hey.
My whole business just like, shut down.
I just, I need to cancel.
And we're like, Hey, you got the next three to six months
until you're back on your feet,
Mike: like
Caden: we're here for you.
Um, so that's, that's kinda how clean intelligence responded.
Um, as well as, I mean, there are so many other companies that I wish I could
do as much as some others have done.
Um.
But you know, at the end of the day, uh, doing all we can to support
them, uh, to let them know we're here for them, that we love them, um,
and show our appreciation for them.
We did, uh, do some things on social media.
Uh, we started this heroes of clean hashtag that we put a lot of emphasis
on, um, just competitions, recognizing cleaners, um, just trying to, to
be, uh, giving the highlight where it's needed and where it should be.
Do so.
Yeah, I
Ricky: mean, this is definitely the time that, and this is what I've
been telling everybody to do, is we were considered essential, right?
So, yes, this is a black Swan event.
This is
a
Mike: pandemic.
There is,
Ricky: there's no, no really positive way to look at what's going on.
But the positivity, I can say that, that we can share proven spaces.
This is our time to shine, right?
This is the time for our customers.
For me, as you know, it's my family business to, to stay.
Uh, now more than ever, we met.
Right.
You know, I, I want to put ourselves out there with the first responders are nurses
or cops and you know, things like that.
But we're pretty damn close, right?
Like if you think about it, report into spaces, then there's comfort cases.
You're decontaminating a comfort case areas.
So.
Putting businesses not where they're at already, to either
prove the professionalism right.
Um, you guys, company's gone out of business that this is a way to improve.
Take a step back.
People are closed.
You know what I'm trying to tell people, which I'm sure you guys do, is you
don't check, diversify your business.
This is what, you know, share the bad, and you had too many buckets,
too many eggs in one basket, or too many things in one bucket.
Manufacturing, you know, have some residential, have some
healthcare, have some hospitality.
This is an eyeopening situation.
Like I got to say,
Mike: yeah.
One thing I'll, I'll mention Ricky, you know, for everyone out there who's
listening to this, um, your clients are looking to you to be the leader.
And that can be a little bit scary.
And you know, we've had past webinars and I've asked people in a poll, how
many of you reached out to your clients in the last three or four weeks?
And I think there's was like 65% said they hadn't.
And you know, my, my guests, and I've talked to some people afterwards, is
that people are scared that they reach out, they don't have the answers.
Maybe they're going to lose their contract.
They're scared that like.
You are essential.
People need you.
And if you don't get out there and talk to your clients, what's going
to happen is another cleaning company is going to come up and they're going
to tell them about all the wonderful things that they do that you're probably
already doing, and they're going to fire you and hire that other company.
So sometimes it can be a little bit scary to be a leader in stand up.
Um, and oftentimes this industry has kind of forgotten and in the background.
And so now that the spotlight's on you, it can be a little unnerving, but
you know, reach out to us, reach out to other people for mentorship, but
you have to have those conversations.
Um, it's going to really solidify the relationships you have with your
customers, um, and you know, and then just goes from referrals and everything else.
But now is our time.
Ricky: That's a great, great point.
Where
all the other software companies in their spaces.
We use us.
Right?
But we know this space.
You know, we've been there.
Well, you know, we've been there for a while.
Chronology for many years, might do all the business, right?
Is
Mike: don't be afraid to reach
Ricky: out to your software solution.
It'll come to people like us.
We can give you, you know, templates, email, hobbies.
You know how to burn out of, how to work something.
You know, how to present it the right way.
Because you're right, that we should be speaking to our
customers in this time, right?
We shouldn't be sending out, but I love seeing all those
reopening programs, right.
Because that's exactly what it is, is you're getting your client ready.
They're reaching out to them.
You know, you're, are we safe to open?
What should we do?
What's the extra test.
Put it together, put a program together.
I'm sure each one of you guys have a template or a presentation you
could say here, slap your name on it.
Go ahead.
Mike: Use it.
Ricky: Yep.
That's what we're here for is not just software solutions,
but industry related solutions.
Caden: For sure.
So
Ricky: another, another topic I wanted to touch on.
You know, this is great stuff guys.
I hope you guys.
Love.
I mean, this is some
Caden: meat, meat.
I'll tell you this.
Ricky: So think about, let's think about the small business owner right now, right?
This is, like I said, this is a time that these, that these
people could be thinking of.
How do I fix my operations?
I might fix my processes.
Um, how do I get back to the drawing board?
What should I improve?
Well, software solutions are one of those ways that you can improve.
But it could be overwhelming, right?
You see people that, you know, you could do Slack for this and you swept
intelligent, but it is what, what's a proper way you guys think a, let's just
say 10 employee company as the main owner who has to wear all the hats.
How should they implement technology and what are the steps they should look at?
Um.
You know, a general outlook, how should somebody implement software
and how should they determine what is a good solution or not?
You know, Mike, do you want
Mike: to start with that?
Yeah.
I all answer this, and it might be a little bit around the boat, but
so much of it comes down to mindset because at the end of the day.
The software that you're trying to use is too complicated for you,
you should probably abandon it, um, because it has to be easy for you.
So, um, what we've seen is that what we call like a customer journey, they
become aware of the need to use software.
They come in and they try it and they go through.
And what happens so often is people go from.
You know, being a little scared, not really sure if they're
comfortable using it too.
All of a sudden they get that aha moment.
As I mentioned earlier, when they experienced innovation, they
experienced some positive of it.
So getting them from being concerned to that, that feeling of
like I've got success is, is key.
But what's so fascinating in this industry, because it's so far behind, is
that once they get there, they go another three months, nine months, 12 months.
And then all of a sudden they become experts and they say, you should have
this feature, you should do this.
Do that.
I think a year ago you found the on pen and paper and you know, and
you had no concept of this at all.
But it's, I always appreciate that and I joke about it, cause
I'm sure you guys deal with this, like the feature request thing.
Um, and Kayden you mentioned earlier you can't build everything people want, but
at the end of the day it's so wonderful.
So, you know, getting back to your direct question, or if
you'd like, what should they do?
They have to be willing.
To say, this is the wave of the future, and I want to be part of it.
Like that one thing, because when you're demoing someone, you're talking
to someone and they're, they're still doubting it or they're scared.
So their defense mechanism is like, well, we've done it like this for years.
I don't think we need this, that they're dead in the water man.
They need to say, you know what?
I don't know how to do this.
I'm terrified, but my clients want it, so I'm going to figure it out.
Because they have, if you have the capacity to run the business and you
can figure out technology, um, it's, it's okay to be scared maybe as the
thing like, and we've got people who drive into it and are fine.
We've got on people who come in timid, but it's, I find the people who say
that, you know, you know, we tried it and, uh, you know, we're gonna leave.
It's been three months.
We haven't had any value.
And you look and they haven't signed in once.
That's like, it's like buying a gym membership and expecting abs and sitting
home and it's like, I don't care if you don't buy gym membership and complaint.
It didn't work.
Right.
Yeah.
That's my take on it, man.
Caden: Yeah.
Um, you know, very much similar.
At the end of the day, if people don't know what they want and they just want
technology because they're told to have it, I can guarantee you already
know what their future looks like using technology, it's not going to work
because technology in and of itself as a solution, if someone's like, Hey, I'm
supposed to do inspections, you know how many clients have called it not clients?
Potential clients have called and be like.
Damn clean intelligence is, is in this RFP, and I have no clue what you guys
are, but I have to get you because I can't win this bid without you.
And you know, honestly, there's, there's a part of me, I'm like, well, I actually
don't want you as a client because they're, you know, I wouldn't necessarily
say that straight off the bat, but there's a, there's a level of who they are as a
business is they aren't looking for it.
And so I hate to, you know, lead you into this vision that it's gonna
solve all your problems because.
It has to be initiated by you.
And so
Mike: there's that.
Caden: There's that thing.
I'll tell a client and be like, well, what's your, what
are you wanting to accomplish?
I don't know.
We need to do inspections.
And I'm just like, Hey, we're here to help you.
Um, but you need to build a quality control program, not do inspections.
Doing inspections doesn't mean you have quality control program.
And so.
You know, our approach to quality control is very much a customized
approach because every single one of their clients are very different from
one another, and they're demanding things and they want it their way.
And so they're trying to accommodate to their client.
And so, you know, we tell them like, Hey, you guys need to be in this for the
long haul because it is not a just click of a button and all of a sudden you.
I could be doing inspections in five minutes.
I've never used my platform before, but that's not the purpose of quality
control is you have to have a strategy.
What are you trying to get out of it?
What data is important to the client?
Um, because a
Mike: true proactive
Caden: approach means you have to know the client so intimately that, uh.
It's just hands down the best thing that a client knows that you're
being taken care of because they know exactly what you're trying to look for.
Always watch out for the special attention given on conference room versus bathrooms.
What bugs the client?
Maybe the client has a pet peeve for paper clips in the bathroom.
For some reason.
You want to be able to set up a program that has making sure to track all the
things that are important to your client, not necessarily you as a business.
Now you're there as a business to educate them on what should be
important, what should be best practices.
But that's what we look for in a client.
That's what you should be thinking about and be open.
At the end of the day.
We are technology providers who have built our businesses from the cleaning industry.
We've gone through these processes, but you know, the biggest thing in the
back of all of our wallets is the fact that we have an entire client base
that we've helped accomplish this.
And when we're talking to a singular client, that's one process.
We can go back and look through our experience and be like.
I got 45 clients in this case study group that did the exact same thing,
and you can, you know, they want to hear that and it should be provided.
So
Mike: are you telling me that they shouldn't just.
Check.
Yes, that everything is perfect and an inspection,
Caden: if you do every inspection with a hundred percent you don't
have a good quality control program.
Ricky: So funny you guys just say that because my quick story
here is I was that person, right?
So, and we had this conversation right?
Or four years ago, this is even before I use sweat, like.
It is crew intelligible was one of the first softwares that I was looking at
and I was like, Oh, I need to have this.
I own cleaning company.
Um, I got to do inspections.
I gotta I have to purchase it, purchase it.
They didn't use it for two months.
Uh, but I was wearing the counting hat.
I was wearing the sales hat I was wearing.
I was wearing all the hats of the business.
So more than ever, people that are listed in that are small business
owners, like you guys nailed it.
Where.
Somebody needs to own it.
You know?
If you're not owning that solution for that moment, if the quality
control is not your job for the next six months, you don't buy a software.
If you're not trying to track time and attendance for the next
six months, don't use the tool.
Habit attendance.
You know, like that is biggest thing where.
People need to own it.
Swipe worked out for us cause I had a guy that just started it, took it on, ran it.
Um, I'm using Monday right now.
I have somebody literally owning Monday and running it and do it.
It's like if you're going to subscribe to a solution.
And then never clock in and use it.
Or rather, like you said, three months later, just cancel.
That's not, that's not a solution for you.
Right?
Right.
Now we have a quality control director.
She told me I want to use clean, intelligent.
Right?
So because it's, she's that role, she's effort that was going to take it out.
Right.
So I feel like.
Just be slow and patient.
Think about the things that you need as a small business owner.
If it's, if it's a common them.
Okay, start with QuickBooks first.
You don't need payroll, so then start with time and attendance.
Then you need to start inspecting.
Like
Mike: one thing I'll share as well, one thing I'll share for business
owners, sometimes it's, it's really challenging to balance your time.
You're always putting out fires.
And I'm a business coach, and he shared what he calls the
entrepreneurial, uh, timecard.
Uh, and so you have $10 an hour tasks and you have a hundred dollar, 505,000.
5,000 is the strategic time that, you know, you might get a couple
hours a week, depending if you're, if you're really good, you're
spending a full day on those hours.
Um, but what happened with the cleaning business, I find it so reactive.
They spend most of their time, and I know I was so guilty of this when I had my
cleaning company cleaner messages made.
They ran out of garbage bags and ran out of something.
I stop what I'm doing, go down the road, drop things off.
That was a, that was a $10 $10 an hour task, like a minimum wage task.
There's nothing wrong with doing it.
But if you're in the business, you need other people to do those things for you.
So that if like software and implementing that, that is kind of like a $5,000
hour task to come up with a thought, as Katie said, what do we need?
What are we solving for?
What pain do we have?
And then the implementation is not $10 it's maybe like a hundred dollars but
there's has to be someone who owns it.
But you have the strategic side and you have the very tactical.
And this industry unfortunately suffers with people so tactical.
They can't get out of their own way and they'll never, you know,
you talk to me, we were still cleaning after years and years.
There's still a person that goes in and I remember what I got into cleaning and
I have lots of clients who have got no, the cleaning themselves, it is an amazing
feeling, but it's not magic, right?
It's mindset like Ricky, like it's people like you who have said, you know what?
There is a better way and I'm going to invest in that.
Ricky: Nah, you guys that that's, that's the truth, man.
That's why I feel like there's such a fragmented market is because a lot of
these people are, are stuck in that position of having to do the cleaning
cause they want to control everything.
Again, I was guilty of that, but this is why I'm excited to talk
to guys like you and other similar solutions like us in this spaces.
We are paving the way for everybody to.
To delegate better, right, to, to, to a point some of these departments
with certain solutions and software to make their job better and be
able to trust somebody to do that because it's all about trust.
As a business owner, I still sometimes stick my head into
certain topics and they're like, Oh.
You're not a part of this conversation, but why all the company?
What do you mean it's brick?
A new button?
You're coming in not understanding what we've done in the last three months
and the process we've put in place until it is you gotta give a little,
it's not a get rich quick industry.
It's a, it's a legacy industry, you know, like take the proper steps to build this
Mike: totally
software as a tool.
Every one of our software, it's absolutely useless.
Dubai swept, clean, intelligent, or out.
If you're going to just send it on the shelf and do nothing with it, it's not
going to, if there's no silver bullet, you have to put in the work and I
think when you want to find a partner.
Yeah, like us.
Who wants to get you there?
If they want to take your money every month and not take your phone call,
that's might be a warning signal.
Ricky: So it's been a little bit over an hour.
I could keep going, but I did want to end with a couple, a couple of good points.
One funny, um, but before the thought is if you guys could give a tip for a small
business owner either wanting to grow or just just starting into the business.
Uh, you know, Katie, we'll start with you.
What would you say?
You know, it could be business, it could be technology, it could be just,
you know, them as a, as a person.
What, what's a tip you would give them here in 2020?
Um,
Caden: you know, I've actually, not only to my own employees,
myself, um, and the businesses I've consultant with, um, at the end of
the day, uh, get out of your head.
Like there, there's a solution for everything out there.
It seems like someone has built a process, whether it's manual, pen and
paper, whatever it is, technology.
Um, it can be overwhelming.
And for me personally, uh, I am, I'm very concerned about the
mental health of an entrepreneur.
Um, I unfortunately have been close to, uh, some really close individuals
who are no longer on this earth.
Because they, they burn themselves out.
And, um, it's sad.
And in this industry, I've, I've had some really close relationships
with good friends that they are burning themselves out.
And technology is here to help.
There are people, specifically human human relationships that are here to help.
And that is the most important thing.
At the end of the day.
You could have a client chew you out for missing something, whatever
it is, but that person doesn't own you and you'll always bounce back.
You don't have to be perfect.
Um, and I, and I wish more people in the industry, people in this industry are
dealing with some pretty garbage stuff.
You know, people yell at them all day long, maybe look at them a
little lowlife cause they don't have this huge career in high towers.
And that, that really bugs me.
Um, but at the same time, I'm trying to spread a little bit of light, you know,
to those who work in this industry.
I think that's the one positive that hopefully comes out of this pandemic,
is the realization of how important these individuals are and that they're
human beings that are just as valuable as the next human being next year.
So just remember who you are and remember that, uh, your life
isn't meant to be a business.
It's meant to be lived freely.
So.
Mike: what a guy he knew.
He was like, I'm going to slide this in at the end and Michael
Michael can follow up on that.
So I totally agree.
Mindset.
So I'm going to take a different path cause I, you know, I just
don't want to try to follow this.
You did a great job and
Caden: I totally agree.
No worries.
Mike: A tip for a small business, getting into it and getting things moving.
I'll say, when I was growing my business, we cleaned, uh, daycares.
Uh, we cleaned dentist office.
So whatever.
Take a look.
Maybe it's your first contract where you have a few.
What do you know that's really, uh, special about that, that maybe
unique that nobody else knows?
So I started cold calling daycares and saying, Hey, we're a cleaning company.
You know, we're interested in looking at your space.
We love cleaning the tiny toilets because daycares have little
tiny toilets for the kids.
And they would go, Oh, you must know my space.
So once you win a contract in a certain space.
Then go to all of their competitors and, and you know, then you can, so that's a
way to quickly grow your relevant, right?
You're trying to call them, and if you call every generic place and try
to say to your cleaning company, it's like, well, I don't care cleaning
companies call me every week.
But if you know something special because you've cleaned the space similar
to that, that's a really nice in, um, so take a look at your contracts and
see what else can you, can you do.
Ricky: That was great.
Empowering, right?
Like that's insightful, right?
That's, that's a piece of information that I actually shared the same
thing as far as relevancy because you start to feel the comfort of the
client on the other end when they say, Oh man, this guy knows my space.
Holy cow.
Like my, a lot of the tremors, a lot of my team members that are
like, Rick, how do you build things.
In your head, like how do you, how do you remember the income from four years ago
that you walked through when you cook?
Cause I cleaned it cause I've been there.
I know what I built, what it is.
Right.
But gain it back to the empowering part.
Like this is why I did.
This is why I put us together.
This is why I do what I do too.
And I know you guys do it too, is I've been there where I, you know, I've
been disrespected, looked down upon.
You know, the, the, the people that didn't know I was the owner of the
company sweeping the floor right after they, you know, had a big party when they
talk to you and just treat you as a low income wage, low blue collar position.
Right.
And little do they know that I probably make more money than I'm in some
cases, but it's like, I mean, it is a lucrative business if you do it right.
If you.
You know, if you approach it very professionally, if you talk to people like
you guys, if you reach out for help, you know, like this is a great, great, it's
probably one of the best episodes I've ever been a part of as far as how much
rich context we've, we've given, not only to each other, cause I learned a lot.
I'll just being on this with you guys too.
Thank you guys.
I really do appreciate you guys being a part of this because again, I don't see
too many people doing this within our.
You know, industry.
Um, but I think this is where, this is where it counts.
It's not for us, it's for the small business community.
Um, but I did want to end up with something funny, right?
Like, let's, let's talk about, especially like, I know you're
going to have some stuff too, but Katie, what, what's a funny story?
Maybe it doesn't have to be just in the cleaning industry,
just in life in general.
You know, people love to laugh, give us something that,
that's gonna make us laugh.
Caden: Well, I'll share one that, you know, has been a common funny story
that we actually share, uh, as clean.
Tellings is what we call ourselves.
But, um, um, it, it often comes up in just a sales pitches.
Just, you know, breaking the ice a little bit.
Cause it's a funny story that happened to early on clientele.
This must have been years ago.
Um, so we have a feature in clean Teligent where you can scan the QR code.
Um, they're meant to be anonymous, to gather open ended, uh, source
feedback from all your facilities.
Um, so instead of your cleaners looking out for your Soliz, just
the entire public, and it's mostly relevant in massive facilities.
You're talking to airports, stadiums.
Um, you wouldn't put it like small office buildings or things like
that, but I mean, you could, but, um, anyways, so we had a client tell us
one time that at an airport they put.
They, they coded every single QR code to every single stall of every single
bathroom throughout the entire airport.
And they were on the back of the stall.
And the idea was that, uh, every single stall, if something was wrong
with the stall, whether it be a toilet or the toilet papers out, like all
eyes on deck kind of mindset, um, of using the public as their eyes
of knowing when things are wrong.
And again, this was early on, so.
They launched it and they weren't sure.
How applicable it was going to be if people would actually use it.
And surprisingly enough, especially in today's day and age, a lot of people are
on their phones while using the toilet.
Um, someone ended up scanning the QR code in that stall cause the
stall had ran out of toilet paper.
And two minutes later, their day Porter team came in and handed pillar paper
underneath the stall door as the funniest story that it's just something very real.
Um, they, you know, it wasn't just our software that helped accomplish it.
It was just the idea that the Hughes.
That moment they knew.
Yeah.
They knew exactly which stall it was.
Cause every QR code is coded to, to which Stalin purse.
So yeah, know it's just, it's a funny small thing that we told the
story for probably six years now.
It was the first time I heard the client said, so.
Ricky: Yes.
Mike: Um, funny story.
Um.
I have two.
One's very short.
When I was cleaning a very early days and we were doing a house cleaning
and also a office cleaning, I showed up to someone's house and I mean,
I'm a six foot five guy, right?
And I've got, you know, the vacuum, I've got all the gear and the woman opens
the door and then slams it and locks the door, and she opened the window and says.
I'm sorry, I'm going to call the owner.
We're going to send someone else.
I'm, you know, I'm an older lady.
I don't want, you know, and I was like, I actually am the owner.
And she's like, but it was so funny and I couldn't believe how many times people
did not want me to enter their home.
And I, you know, like my wife says, well, you're six foot five.
You're like, you're intimidating.
I'm like, I'm not intimidating.
Um, so that was a really funny thing.
Like, I'm not getting into people's homes to do the job.
And the other one is.
Uh, it was a funny story was we had our holiday party this before we launched,
swept just the cleaning company.
Um, and we pulled everyone together and we were having dinner and I realized
people sat down and they'd say, you're Deborah, you're, you're Harry.
Cause we had an internal system which was swept.
And it was so funny because people are like, Oh, I thought Joey was 80 years old
and I watched my team interact in a way.
They knew each other's names.
They knew what jobs they worked at.
They knew all of this information about gender.
They worked collaboratively but never actually met.
And it was so funny.
Um, you know, to see people interact in this, it was kind of like, again,
it's like kind of like the future.
They're like, you've built relationships with some that cover your shifts.
They've done all these things and you thought they were 80
and it's a 22 year old person.
And it was, it was a hilarious thing, you know, to think about how, how much
our lives have changed with technology.
Um, but yeah, that's one thing that comes to my mind of just seeing that experience.
Ricky: Nice.
Nice.
Well guys, it's been a pleasure.
Mike: Uh, I appreciate the
Ricky: time.
I mean, we definitely spend quite a bit of time.
I always like to end with that, even just the company itself, but, you know, cause
it's going to be easy to find you guys.
We'll tag it on the buckets.
Well, I'd say even if you guys are all four, give your your Instagram or
LinkedIn, you know, hashtag you guys as a personal, as a person, right?
Like, people sometimes like to ask us questions like, you know, Mike, what's
your, what's your Instagram, Katie?
What's her?
It's whatever.
If you guys use that, or Facebook, just get, give the audience
one so they know who the faces of the companies that they're
Mike: listening to.
The best way to find me is on LinkedIn, Michael Brown.
Now it's the most generic boring name.
I apologize, but if you write Michael Brown swept, there's only one.
Um, and send a message.
If there's anything I can do in terms of connecting you with some of the industry
helping, mentoring, I'm constantly connecting with people and I love it.
It's kind of really the best part of the job.
Um, so yeah, please reach out if I can help.
I definitely will.
Caden: Yeah, for sure.
It's a same thing.
Kaden Hutchins on LinkedIn, and that's where a lot of people interact with me.
Uh, you could also find me on Facebook, Twitter, um, uh, Instagram
as well, but definitely from the.
The advice, uh, consulted consultative, the background as LinkedIn is going
to be the best, uh, there for me.
And, uh, I'm always here to help answer questions.
Uh, I'm doing it all the time.
I love it.
Um, or if you just need, you know, if you need someone to vent to, you know, just,
I'm here as a listening ear as well, so.
Ricky: Awesome.
Well, thank you guys.
Thank you everybody out there for listening.
Uh, again, we're calling this episode, uh, cleaning tech.
And it's cleaning and cocktails here, guys.
Thank you again.
I
Mike: bring it up to
Caden: chance.
Ricky: What's up?
Mike: It's cleaning with cocktails.
You've got to let me plug my cousin who, okay, so if you enjoy mez County,
you've never tried it, check it out.
She's from Mexico.
This is so authentic.
You might even not be able to order it, but check it out online.
Okay.
It's family business right.
Ricky: Awesome.
Well, thank you guys.
I appreciate it.
Uh, everybody will be a little, you know, hearing more and more about
us, you know, uh, and look forward to seeing you guys in person.
Caden: Alrighty.
Alright guys, guys.
We'll see.