Welcome to the CrystalClean Cleaning with Purpose podcast. I'm your host ​Charlie here with Jeff on one of our many episodes we've been filming. As we​

were setting up in the studio today, I saw this beautiful piece of paper that says culture eats strategy for​

breakfast. And I thought, what a great way to start today's dialogue and really help understand. So often in our work,

especially in our earlier podcast, we talked a lot about the why we do what we do, which is tied to values and culture.

Then we talked about how we do what we do, the uniqueness. Well, we like to think of it like being exceptional

superheroes. And then specifically what we do, which are the different services, products,​

things that we use, that kind of stuff, and the the technique that we use as part of the how. But this called treat​

strategy for breakfast, would love to kind of break this down with you. So, where did this come from? And uh let's​

we'll go through the the it looks like five points here. Was this​

something that you guys found and printed or share with the team or how does that work? Yeah, you know, uh Dave and uh and​

myself, we we love to listen to a lot of things. I say listen because it used to be read, now it's more listen, watch uh​

and culture eat strategy for breakfast. I don't know who would claim saying that first, but somewhere along the line we​

heard itand then we kind of put it into our weekly meetings. It's a line item that I keep every week and they they

kind of laugh at me because I'm like, you know, culture eats strategy for breakfast. Um, we did it kind of in line
with uh bringing on good people was maybe a start where we went, hey, this means something. We like it. Um, and
then what is our culture? So, we're trying to continue to develop our culture. Ever since Dave and I have
worked together, I think it kind of reignited the let's keep growing. Let's really grow this thing. Let's make it
bigger and better. Uh the better is where the culture comes in. You go. We we don't just want to be a cleaning
company. We know that's the service that we provide. We know that uh it's it's what pays all the bills. So, we're we're
very aware of of cleaning and wanting to be good cleaners and provide all the right services, but we're more in tune
right now with the right attitudes and and it needs to start at the top. So, kind of take the the lead management
team and then our our managers who are are dealing with like our lead tech cleaners and account managers who are
dealing with a lot of our clients right down to the cleaners who just on a daily basis just have a good attitude. if if
you're cleaning at Charlie's condo and he walks by, just a nice smile and greeting. And we hope that it it takes
over the company to go, let's have a really good culture and and be happy and enjoy what we do cuz it it has a purpose
uh beyond what we see from it and what our clients see from it. You know, we're we're trying to create something unique
and different here. And so we want a good culture that will eat the strategy for breakfast cuz we can come up a strategy all day. Dave's a smart guy.
And when we sit around and go, how do we strategize to be better power washers? You go, well, there's a few key
elements. I mean, honestly, it is a good conversation. I'm not minimizing it. Yeah. Uh, however, you go, we we can conquer
those things relatively effectively, quickly. Uh, culture is is one of those things
that's more difficult because you're dealing with human beings and and all the personalities. And that's part of what I found that in dealing with our
managers, you go, we have to embrace everybody's differences, too. You can't just cling to the people that you say,
"Oh, hey, they're my rock solid cleaners. I love them. They'll do whatever I ask and they have a good attitude." Well, that's great. Uh, but
we have 100 people. We have a lot of different personalities. We have to embrace all of them and make everybody feel welcome so they buy into the the
culture that we're looking for. The biggest thing that I learned now I've come coming into 40 years in the
entrepreneurial world starting in the basically 88 1988. If I did my math
right, I think that's coming up two 2028 would be 40 years, right?
I learned early on that if somebody's teachable and as we'll say in today's
terms, coachable, I can help them learn how to do something, but I cannot teach them how
to be like you can't change how somebody is. We've talked a lot about this in
previous podcasts. I teach this above the line, below the line kind of concept. Above the line people are of
ownership, responsibility, um, growthminded, ambitionoriented,
generally positive energy. Hey, they come into work, they're like, "Hey, what can I do to help? You know, we didn't get that right, but I really want to
make sure we we nail that today, so let's go after it." Below the liners are
more about blame, excuse, denial, gossip, drama, and generally have
negative energy. Now, we recognize that we're all human. And so, we can get below the line even though we're
generally above the line kind of people, but people that are predominantly below
the line aren't people that we really want to be around and and we really just don't want them on our team. There's a
study u Dr. Jordan Peterson, you may know him from his big internet fame
lately, shared a study where he said there was a group of 10, we'll call them high performing team members in a
company. And they brought in one person who was a below the liner. And you would
think at the surface level that the 10 people would kind of work their magic,
maybe not directly, but just being around them to convert, if you will, or
minimize the negative person. But the study shows and this shows over and over in psychology is that one negative
person brings the team down over time. And the reason is if you think about it
in the day-to-day tactics is that negative person makes it so the other positive person's like, you know, I don't really want to share that. I don't
want to be critiqued. I don't want to share that. I don't want to be judged. And they don't necessarily think that way. It's just a feeling. you know, I'm
just less inclined to share something because that person, the negative person
is going to do something with it or use it against me or something like that. And so the team's communication and
overall energy decreases and that's a cultural thing. What I've also learned over the last 40 years, I've dealt with,
I would say, tens of thousands of business owners now. computers in the 80s, uh, small businesses in the early
90s, the internet took off in the late 90s, mid 90s, then internet marketing
and everything since 2002 down here in Florida. All these kind of things is that when we really
meet the CEO or the owner or at a small business level, you know, the manager,
owner, whatever that might be, I can tell right away what what's permeating from the top down. Is it values? And how
well is that owner, manager, leader continually and consistently
permeating those values down? Are they living it? We teach in high performance. I'm a high performance coach, but we
teach um this idea of servant leadership and it's built on this principle of
people support what they create. Everything is a collaboration and a co-creation. So the way this sounds
tactically is that if you have a technician in the field and says hey I got a better idea for how we can do this
process or I found this technology a non high performing business would be like yeah that's great but tell me about it
or not but they don't do anything with it but in the context for what we're talking through culture strategy all the
way up to the top Dave and you would be like let's talk that through now what's this technology and why do you believe
that it would help so they have an openness And it ties back to something we covered way back in our first
podcast. A psychologically safe place to openly share, grow, and contribute to
the culture, but there's an infusion over time consistently of the fact that
we believe in and we articulate and we describe our culture too. So, any
takeaways, thoughts, insights of what I've shared? Yeah, you uh you hit on some real key points and it's um it's an ongoing
process. Yeah. uh especially, you know, with a cleaning company and and about a hundred
cleaners. That's the the close approximation. You work through all these things and uh
and you you'd kind of nailed it with the uh the servant leadership is another theme that we've had and carried into
our culture and and our decision-m of the type of company we want to be. Uh we try to buffer all egos and say you know
any anybody that we hire or that you have hired if they come up with a good idea or if you can uh really elevate
them make them the the star you're you're doing the right things. We we want to hire smarter people around us.
We want to hire people that do a good job that it ultimately makes all of us look good. But keep the egos out of it
and let's just hone in on making everybody better. Um, that's what we try for. And again, you start at the top and
and it's always an ongoing process to keep it channeling through the company and and let the cleaners know that
they're they're part of this culture as well. And we have multiple things maybe are different than other companies. Like you
said, we're not all in the same environment all day every day. We rarely see our cleaners here. So,
those are some of the things we have to try to overcome by really reaching out to them through our key managers and account managers and lead techs. Y
uh so that everybody feels like a cohesive part of this culture. Yeah. The part that I love and we've
shared this in previous podcasts is this lead tech is in my opinion not only
somebody who's assessing and accountable for the work quality on a job. They come
in, they look things over, they're kind of checking the boxes for quality and so on, but they're also the continual
infuser of culture. So the lead tech being you know we'll call it a manager
on site for the other techs the leader of them is the catalyst for continued
culture infusion and what does that feel and look like when I think of that I think of they come in and go how are we
all doing what's happening is there anything any problems you guys are having anything that I can do to help do
you guys have any better ideas of how we can handle this particular job or or structurally organize it better what
does that look like and that's the kind dialogue that a high performing lead
tech part of a high performing business has pretty cool. Any thoughts with what I just shared?
Well, that we uh we continue to try to make that happen and we've had, you know, success where we've had some really good hires and uh throughout our
structure. Uh we're getting more and more of that. That's where the pursuit of culture is ongoing and we're making
headway. And that's why we're so excited. We are we are growing. We're seeing it come to life because we've
got, I think, really key people for our operational side and our financial side and our sales and marketing side. Now,
like you said, the account management people who will see clients and the assistant account managers. See, we keep adding these levels uh lead technicians
and cleaning technicians. It's it's happening. It just uh sometimes seems
slow, but you it's a reality here at Crystal Clean and and we see ourselves going uh you know doubling in size over
the next five years and and carrying on this particular model where wherever it takes us and we have some ideas on that
too. The beauty is with what you just shared is there's a contagion in a good way in that when you have that going on.
People think, "Hey, I have a friend, I have a brother, I have a sister, I have a cousin, whatever that's of that same
fabric. This is a great place to work." And I noticed early on, only once did I
hire people a traditional way in my business here in Florida. That was in 2004. or I didn't even hire anybody, but
I put out the word that we're hiring and these people came in with their resumes for internet marketing and development
and they were shown the credentials and the resumes and they take their resume
and put it in front of me and I I didn't even really look at it. I just flip it over and I'd put it over here and go, "Tell me about what you're passionate
about. Tell me about how you show up in life. What do you love to do?" And it so
caught many of them offguard because they're thinking I'm here to get, you know, formally get it. And I'm like, I
don't credentials aren't my thing. What I'm looking for are people who are growthminded,
coachable, and love maybe one of two realms or both realms like I do. Working
with tech and helping people. And inherently, the helping people part has
a lot of the values of our culture in it. Care, compassion, openness, trust. I would even say unconditional love. One
of my favorites. And there's courage in there because sometimes in terms of helping people, you got to say something
you don't really, oh, I got to say that, but I'm going to do it with love. I'm going to be positively stern about it
and move it forward. So, there's a big part of this is that in my history, if
you looked at all the people that had worked for me over the years, the last 30, 40 years, that it was an it was like
a contagion. It was an attraction. I love working here. Well, do you know other people like you? Oh, yeah. I got a
few. We'll bring them in. Let's talk. Let's just try them out 30 days. See how they feel. See if they like it. And uh
it it's worked it worked out great for me. I had many employees for over 10 20 years. And some of them moved with me
from Michigan to Florida in 2002 through 2005. They're like, um, we like working
with you, Char. And I'm like, well, if you like working, I'm growing another business. Let's get it. And I moved them
down. My stepdad drove the U-Haul from Michigan down and with other stuff. It was great. But there's a there's a tell
there and I just want to make sure we land this as we talk about this part in our podcast. And that is great people
can attract great people. And then when we get beyond what are great people and
we break it down, they're living to values that we really really want to
exemplify and and help others with. And again coming back to that care, compassion, openness, any thoughts with
what I've shared, any ideas of how you attract and are looking to attract as you double the business.
It's interesting the uh the strategy of hiring. We've had people on paper that look like they would be the rock stars
of of all account managers as an example. It happened recently uh side by side. We had two people come in the
strategy side lean to one like, "Oh, this is this one's going to be it." like really gonna elevate everything. Uh
another person culturally speaking fits in but not as experienced, not really
sure how this is going to go. Hey, based on what we think or our previous experience, you know, we had our conversations about the two, but culture
eats strategy for breakfast because the strategy person didn't pan out whereas the culture person uh is accelerated and
doing tremendous spectacular. I mean, it's just uh you can teach people all the things they need to know about how
to run a good cleaning business. The strategy is relatively easy compared to getting the right people.
So, well put and I just want to make sure we land this for the people that listen, especially the business owners and entrepreneurs, is that idea that we
cannot teach people how to be. You've just got to be careful about the recruitment and the qualification
process, but also make sure that they're coachable and they want to learn and they're like, well, and they're
ambition-minded, growth oriented, like, yeah, what what can I do to help? What
can I research tonight? And and they don't say this, but on my own time to help the business, I'll come in with it
tomorrow. And that negativity, you'd mentioned it before. Um, it seems to always raise its ugly head on the the
people who who work under the line. And it's um you know we don't talk a lot about go sometimes you have to know when
to let people go and and there's a truth to that and usually it's uh with us there's gossip there's negativity things
that just automatically start to it's like a cloud that hovers around certain people and and you kind of know and you
go we we just have to eliminate people like that and keep bringing in the right ones. So yeah and it's like a contagion. I found
myself going into situations where I was joining a couple of entrepreneurs. Well, it was four entrepreneurs for lunch.
It's probably 10 years ago. And whenever I met them individually, they were very much above the line, but they were
sitting in a whole stew of gossip and drama when I landed. And I was just a couple minutes behind them. So, the
table's already there and they were seated and they're like, "Can't believe this. Can't believe that." And I'm like, "What's going on here?" And this is
positive sternness for me. I'm like, "You guys are talking about like drama, gossip stuff. What is happening here?
This isn't Well, oh yeah, because so and so." I'm like, "Yeah, well, can I just
formally ask that we reset this conversation, talk about what's possible and move towards ambition and growth,
cuz that's what I'm here for. If you guys are going to still talk like that, I I got I got other things I can do cuz
that's not part of my scene." And I asked co-creative leadership, servant leadership. I said,
"Would it be helpful if I went over a model above the line, below the line? Take about a minute, 2 minutes. It'll
really clear things up for us." And they're like, "Yeah." And only one of them had heard it. So when I went over, they're like, "Oh my gosh." And I said,
"You just got to be careful because it's a contagion." But it's a contagion on the good side. If you come in and you're
in a not so good mood, but the rest of the team's in a good mood, and generally you're predominant predominantly above
the line, but you're human, so you had a bad morning. Then you come in and the team's lifting you up and then he gets
you back on playing so to speak with the good values, the good vibes and you can kind of work from there. So we just have
to be real careful and that above the line below the line has been solid for 20 plus years since I learned it with a
guidance system for not only people in business but for people with friend groups and organizations and stuff like
this. Um that all said, I do want to make sure we just touch on a couple of
these points. All right. So would you go through and just kind of read the five just so we have a frame?
Yeah. As it relates, you don't have to read it all, but just kind of summary the the subtopics, you know, culture, eating strategy for
breakfast. We talk about behavior and attitudes. So obviously dealing with people and the culture, decision-m, how
we think, what we think about, and what we bounce off each other. We make better decisions when we talk about it.
Alignment and cohesion. So there has to be a point where everybody's on board. We come up with ideas and you go, we're
all on board with this, right? And uh with a group of people, you could have difference opinions, but we're going to
all be on board with the decisions we make to move forward. So uh the adaptability therefore we we need to be
able to change every one of us and accept uh the whether it's the different personalities or that we've made a
decision to move forward in a certain area even though it's going to be hard work because it's it's a new venture. um
employee retention and attraction. That's we've talked about quite a bit where we're clinging to the good and uh and do
what we can to keep them, you know, as much as possible. And then when we when we see the ones
that you go, it's just they're really causing more of a disruption or a problem, you have to let them go. And I I hate to even say that. We we love
people. That's part of the culture. That's what we want to do. We want to help people. Um but knowing where to draw the line
makes a difference for the health of the company. Wow, those are so good. I look at that as a list, these five areas. Behavior
and attitudes, decision-m, alignment, cohesion, adaptability, employee retention, and attraction. And think
about it like a checklist, an assessing tool, right? But instead of a check box
filling it with a check, we rate it. And maybe we do it on a weekly basis. How
well have we as a team in the last week lived into the behavior and attitudes that we strive for? Zero. We didn't do
it at all. uh 10. We crushed it. Let's just say it's a six. Okay. What can we do to
uplevel that next week? Same thing with we'll go down adaptability. How well did we adapt the things this week? 0 to 10.
Fill that one out. What can we do to uplevel that for next week? So, I just want to make sure we land that as a tool
to sustain culture, which is a big part of our theme so far today. That's wonderful. I love that. It's so fun that
I was setting everything up for our podcast today. I'm like, "Oh, this is a topic. Let's own it."
I'm glad you found it. Yeah. And it's in here because this is where we have our production meetings and uh a manager manager meetings. They all
happen here and and we do discuss those things. Fantastic. So, let's switch gears a little bit. Now, let's talk about one of
the big things I wanted to make sure we covered is we're growing very quickly
and we're really aiming to amplify even more service in the Naples area. So, to
start that conversation, we've done some video work down in the Naples new location. So, the first thing I want to
confirm is that we have a Naples location, which is a great place for us to meet with clients if we want to do
that. We also have supplies and everything so we can best serve that area. But talk to me a little bit about
what your dream, your goals, your ambitions are through Naples cleaning services. So maybe we'll start with the
idea of what the actual services are we're looking to grow in the Naples area. Then we'll kind of break them down from there. So what does that sound
like? All right. So you know the importance as you live here, uh, Fort Myers, Naples, it's really about an hour in any given
moment to drive back and forth. And so having an office in Naples really allows us to service it better. We've been
working in Naples for a long time really. um out of Fort Myers. Most people who have a service uh work from
the north Fort Meyers area. Maybe sometimes we go up to Puna Gorda or out to Alva, oddly enough. Sometimes we do
that, but most of our work flows south out of Fort Meyers. So, uh Naples is a natural. We we already have a good
foothold. We do have the office there and all we want to do is now focus on how to how to get more of the work in
that area because u all of southwest Florida from Marco Island and Naples and
up through Bonita and Fort Meyers. Uh there's plenty of work. There's plenty of country clubs. There's plenty of
condos. There's plenty of offices. There's new buildings going up all the time. We just know we want to get more
of a market share going down there. and to facilitate that with with an office. Like you said, now we keep supplies and
we keep staff and we we have the meeting site for people like to come in and see us. We love to give people tours. Uh
usually that's one of the things that really cinches the deal when they realize we're not just another cleaning
company. U locally owned and operated 44 years. These things add up in their mind and then they see our facilities and go
you're a real company. you go, "Yes, we're we're a real company and and therefore we can be more consistent and
and then the services is is the next extension beyond all of that." So through the years, uh what we
subcontract or if we subcontract ourselves, you know, subcontracting is one of those things. We never try to hide it. Uh there's there's points in
times where it's better to subcontract, uh maybe a window job or a power washing job. Uh but we also do those things
ourselves. So knowing uh how we can take care of the people in Naples and Fort
Myers at a higher level with the power washing and the window washing and the floor care work some of the things that
we're working on to just keep getting better and grow more and more. But by proximity Naples without question, the
country clubs and condos alone, you go there's so many. We we just need to get a bigger market share going down there.
So let's kind of break this down as we think about per service in the areas.
One of the big things that Google loves as well as AI now all forms of AI even
Google's model Gemini is to understand here's the service we provide or that we're really looking to amplify could be
office cleaning um industrial construction cleaning some of the things that we've done um and then here's the
communities or areas that we can do it in. So, off the top of your head, communities in Naples that you guys like
higherend home communities, any come to mind in the Naples area?
As we work our way south, I know we the ones that come to mind, you know, we've been established with Miramar for a long time. We just picked up Lucaya here
recently. Uh, when you get into Naples and onto Marco Island, um, we have multiple properties and I'm sorry I'm
not coming up with names for you. Bonita Bay is a big one. Bonita Bay is and Grey Oaks is down there. Um, Grey Oaks
is huge. Yeah, I got to tour the house. I would need to pull up my cheat sheet. No worries. But the the idea is that per
community we can get in and then in the areas um that aren't necessarily home
related, luxury home and so on. We're also talking about office cleaning and do you want to go in a little bit of detail on the different services that
you're looking to really ramp up in the area? Yeah. So, um, with what we've we've
become as we continue to grow, uh, and as the area continues to grow, while common area cleaning was always and has
been and still is the mainstay, uh, you'd mentioned office cleaning. Well, uh, at a at a certain level with all the
uh, the medical communities, Lee Health being a prominent one, and we do work with them. Uh, you know, fine mark bank
is a uh, LMCU banks. We found that uh office cleaning at a certain level suits
us very well. You know, it's uh it's typically going to be nighttime cleaning, multiple nights, if not the entire week. And and those are the kind
of jobs we do very well with. So, we've picked up more and more the big neoenomics office when you're driving down 75.
That's seven days a week. So, those are the ones that really fit us and vice versa. Kyle. So, we want to pick up more
of the big office work and and because of the growing volume of people and
businesses coming to Southwest Florida, there's more of that to be had. And like I already mentioned, the uh the services
around the condos and and uh country clubs be beyond just the common area
cleaning, which is what we've always focused on. Uh as you can imagine, again, all the pressure washing that
needs to be done for the sidewalks, curbs, streets, uh the building fascias, um is just endless. So, we know that uh
it's a competitive field. There's a lot of power washers out there. It's not difficult for somebody to start it right out of their house. Uh you can buy a
nice rig and be in the power washing business easily overnight. However, uh
the level of service that our clients typically want, uh the timing, the
pricing, and making sure that it's perfect by the time it's done before you walk away and that you didn't harm anything in the process. Uh they want
some guarantees and and that's where we can kind of shine and go, "Hey, we we're established. We've been doing this for a long time and we can take care of it in
the right time frame, get it in a competitive price and make sure that it's going to be as near perfect as
possible by the time we're done. Same with the floor care work and uh same with the window cleaning. Got it. Okay. So, a couple things I want
to circle back on uh some of the I would call it the superpowers of Crystal Clean. point is is that you guys have
process and training for doing things like industrial cleaning and medical
cleaning like uh you talked about Lee Health and that kind of scene and this
is above and beyond what I would classify as somebody who's a kind of mom and pop shop where there's a certain
grade or level of um confidentiality and care especially in the medical field and
you guys have done that work. Do you want to expand on that at all? It does. It requires training. What's
funny, it's um it's the type of training you have to do on your own. Uh there's not like a state board that ultimately certifies you to work. Uh but Lee Health
will quiz you on on your capabilities and your training and what you really accomplish. So uh we make sure that uh
when we are in certain facilities, surgery centers, doctor's offices, the
crosscontamination things you need to be very well aware of as you go room to room uh or any given surface by surface
even to be more in tune with that to make sure that uh we clean according to the proper healthc care standards. Uh so
we've proven that out. We've trained our staff for it. Uh we also work in government buildings where we have to have u credentials that allow our
cleaners to come in. So, you know, the the TSA and the ICE offices and the social security offices um require
training above and beyond what would be normal. So, we have quite a few of our staff who uh and airport is another one.
So, uh being able to go out and get the credentials that allow us in and out of facilities that require a special level
of uh of u identification, we've we worked through that process as well. So
again, the things that would be looked for by companies who are more demanding, we make sure we step up. We want that.
We want to fill that that need because we we are able to do so. We've proven it. We've done it. We have a good
history for it. And uh, of course, we're always pursuing more and more of that work. That's the beauty of this is that
we really have to think about the differentiators for us. And we have a big enough team and we have enough
history 40 plus years as we think about that that we've really tested and
measured, tried, you know, improved, iterated these kind of things. But as
we've worked in the area, there's specific cleaning jobs that not
everybody can do because of the certification, because of the security clearance and that. And it's something
that's a true I would say a true gift of Crystal Clean is that and going back to
what we talked about earlier in our podcast. We're going to co-create and collaborate to make sure whatever you need from a education or a credentials
level, we're going to dedicate team to getting that and ensuring we take care of you. And I'm certain with the
security clearances there might be background checks or whatever that is and we're going to facilitate for that and make sure that we're taking care of
things on the up and up, moving things forward. Love that. So, kind of circling
back, medical, industrial, RSW, the airport,
big deal, TSA. Um, any other things you want to talk through or or think about as things that you've done that go the
extra mile to take care of customers, to get credentialed, to um assure that, you
know, whatever the special need is. A couple come to mind, but I'll see if you come up with anything. Well, uh, the
more work you do and different type of work you do, you're always going to learn something, right? So, out of the construction clean, we've never had, uh,
day labor before. So, day labor in the area with all the construction, they hire people just to come in and
maybe keep sweeping the floor around all the other tradesmen, pick up a little bit of garbage. Um the people that that
typically sell out day labor uh by the time you get somebody out in the floor, what we noticed in the construction
sites was somebody pushing a broom as slowly as they possibly could for that 4
hour, 8 hour shift. It was just it was painful to watch. And and we're like, we have such a good labor pool. I bet we
could find people that will show up and actually want to work. And and I things like pay come to mind. Everybody always
talks about the pay scale. I don't know that we pay our day labors a lot more than other people do, but we want to be
fair-minded, right? Like we go, we want to pay you appropriately for the job. And all I know is we bring in day labor
and it has been one of those things that on site everybody has noticed the difference. They latch on to our day
labors. They love them. They call them back. They want more. They find that they enjoy working with one of them more
than the others. And like, hey, I want him every day. Like, cool. He's going to be your guy. Day labor is one of those
things that's kind of expanded on us that we we didn't really see coming. We were just kind of filling a need on one of the jobs a couple years ago and went,
"Hey, looks like this could maybe be a thing." So now we sell day labor at the construction sites and it's really saved
us. This is um if you really want to hear the bigger picture of it, how it how it helps them and helps us. So we
have uh the opportunity to bid a job to clean the site. That's always really
tricky. It is a rough clean, a finish clean, and then a touch-up clean. That really gets it ready for the occupant.
In theory, that that wraps it up. It's nice. Okay. They always want to start too early. Tradesmen are still working.
They want to bring you in and say, "We we have to start cleaning." You're like, "But you're still working." Doesn't matter. You always go in too early.
Always. Day labor helps uh facilitate that little bit of need for rough clean that has to happen in that moment at a
little lower rate for them. And it and it helps us too because then we save up what is really the the cleaning budget
and then at the end we have kind of the same thing. They they are always working on the site to the until the very last
minute. And so people are kind of dirtying up things that we've already cleaned as they go. So once we're done
with the final clean and there's a sign off, we've we fulfilled that sector that is the actual construction clean.
There's always a need for some more at the end. and uh instead of billing it out as a new proposal, we go, "Hey,
we'll just put some some day labor in there and and keep it tidied up to the very end until you say you're done."
That has worked wonderfully for us with the big construction sites. Wow. I love hearing that. And it's I
love the idea that goes right back to the principle we talked about at the beginning. Iteration, test, measure, improve, and remove. And
that idea of we're testing and measuring and proving things. And you know what? this particular part of our process we
need to move remove whatever that looks like but taking care of the reality of the scene because I've never been on a
building project and I haven't been on a lot of them but I have been involved in some where everything's on time and
early. Yeah. So we're working right up to that time where they turn over the occupancy or
whatever that looks like. Two things always change. Budget and timelines. Yeah. Constantly.
And you're on it. It's not your first rodeo. We've been here. We got it.
Uh, and that's fun for us and for me personally, as you can tell, like learning through the process, uh,
figuring out how to fix it, then going, "Oh, wow. We're going to repeat this." Now, that's become a standard part of the practice. And, and that's one of
them. Same with, you know, you go back to medical and learning how to terminal clean. The first time I ever heard terminal clean, that doesn't sound
great. Most people are like, "Terminal? That sounds like death." Like, no, no, no, it's not that at all. Um, but you
have to terminally clean, let's say, an operation room. And there's again that that crosscontamination point that is uh critical, very
critical. So again, self-taught and uh plenty of plenty of ways to learn it. Um
but having that in your hip pocket typically will make you stand out amongst your competitors. The part that
I want to make sure we double down on here is this concept kind of goes back
to the growthminded ambitionoriented conversation we had a little while ago that if we have to learn
and dive deep and even if it has to be on our own terms, we're going to do that. We're accountable for what we're
going after. We're responsible in that way. We're going to assure that our team
and us are very aware of and have tested and measured maybe uh role played even
how this works through the cleaning process. The other part that we haven't really touched on is using the right
cleaning application for the different jobs. you know, when I had the absolute
honor of joining y'all to go to ISSA out there in Vegas last November and I'm
like, "This is going to be cool." Me tiptoeing in here. I hear some name brands. I see that and it's just like we
walked for felt like days inside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center and I'm like, I didn't realize it was this big
of a deal. Well, then what I learned from you Dave, the team, and then a lot
of the vendors was there's completely different applications for different levels of um cleanliness, we'll call it,
and then different levels of required cleanliness in that regard. And so, would you talk a bit about like um some
of the practices that you might have for assuring you have the right we'll call it product or whatever that looks like
or solution? We talked about robots and AI. That was kind of neat watching that exhibit. And you know, you mentioned
levels. There's there's always another level. We where we stand out, you know, you have uh anybody who starts a
commercial cleaning business. Let's get out of just cleaning a home or two by yourself. You get into the commercial cleaning business. Uh we've grown into
where, you know, when you when you analyze the numbers across the country, you go, we're in the top 7 percentile of
of at least size and scale for commercial cleaning companies. And that's good. Uh you get in the top one or 2% and you
have the the BSC's, the building contractors. They're they're the big facility managers. So, a lot of what you
saw at ISSA is going to be geared towards them, but we're the right size
company to come in and take advantage of the technology or the products or the chemicals that as they continue to improve them, we use them here in our
corner of the world, Southwest Florida. Um, we may expand one day outside of this corner of the world and and take on
more and become a big-time facility manager. It could happen. But that's why you go to an ISSA and see all of that
and we're able to cherrypick the things that apply to us and take advantage of it. But that's why we go every year. We
just we always learn something and as you watch robotics u I had some nice conversations this year coming out of
that show. I stayed in contact with one of the big robotic manufacturers and of course they want us to be a dealer and
distributor and I love the idea. U but we're waiting on that technology and price point to be right. uh you have to
be able to service and maintain these robots as they're out and about. And it's getting better and it's getting easier and it's getting less expensive.
It's like when you bought a microwave back in 1980 that cost $500 and you go
buy one now for $75 is better. Uh robots are are working that way and there's no question we want them vacuuming the
floors at night and even scrubbing the floors over the weekend. We we want to do all those things. Uh chemically
speaking, we stay in touch with the right people. you know, it's uh there's a certain level there again of who you buy through. You kind of want to have
somebody who distributes cleaning products and they're happy to train and educate and come out with you on big
jobs and and help you learn your way through as to why you want to use a certain product or technique.
The thing that I love about what you're sharing is this. When we have growthminded people, Dave, from the top
down, you and a team, we're on the hunt for that. The very reason we went to
ISSA was to connect, discover, and unpack what's
possible. And I just love the team's drive. All five of us are out there and we're
walking the floor and we're like, what's new and improved? And I'm look, I'm on the hunt for anything AI and I'm seeing
robots that are like they use AI to make sure they map a floor and then make the best cleaning decisions. And then if you
program the robot, if I understood it right for the hight traffic part of that floor, it doubles down in that area. It
knows it. It's like, yeah, that's the door entry. I got to double down and make sure I extra clean that. So maybe
run over it a few times, put more chemical down or whatever it is. Then the other side of it was the different chemical applications. One of the things
that Dave and I looked at was these um backpacks that the cleaners can wear
with the vacuum. And he was talking about this particular brand, they break down a lot. this brand is on it, you know, and they were uh
demoing it and doing that kind of stuff there. So, there's a drive, a goal. We've bought at least a half dozen of
those. Did you? Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm talking about. It's like there's the drive, desire, desire, and goal to asssure
we're working efficiently and that we're on a hunt for the latest tech. And just like everything in the world right now,
tech is evolving very quickly. It's almost like you go to ISSA every quarter. They had a mini event just to
see the evolvement for the last 3 months in that regard. So talk to me a little bit about that idea of just making sure
the way I look at it is like this. I do a lot of curation, believe it or not, on Tik Tok. Not to see people doing a
dance, but I do it for AI. There's specific people that I follow that inside 30 seconds show you an AI tool
that is mind-blowing. And you're like, I didn't even know that thing existed before I saw it. And you're like, okay,
so I curate that. I save that link and I put it in and I teach and train on it. That kind of thing. or use it depending
on what it is. Right? So, there's this part of my weekly ritual that's dedicated to research and
development. It's dedicated, as we would say, the application of growthmindedness means
that in your week, in your schedule, there's times where you're in on the hunt, so to speak, for new tech, new
ideas, new perspective. So when you think about the crystal clean philosophy, I know Dave, I know you and
I know a few others do spend time every week learning new things and going after
that. So I would love to hear like what's the thought pattern on that? Um
is it something that you feel inherent to do? Like is it built into you or is it something you've learned to do to just be on the growth path? Like does it
excite you? Are you passionate about it? Yes and yes. and and yes uh you know I
think you'd mentioned it people are we kind of are who we are and uh whether it's been in this industry or different
industries uh the quest to learn to know more to never never be lagging behind
right like you you don't want to go yeah I'm in the cleaning business and you know we clean a couple things here and there and and and that's good enough end
of end of story you go that that will never be the case for people like Dave and I we we use the expression sometimes
you geek out over what's new and what's next and and how we can apply it or what we can do with it. Uh day one when I
came in and Dave didn't even know what he wanted to do with me. He was excited about drones. So I was like, let's learn more about drones. I got my pilot's
license and we went out and we started cleaning roofs with drones over the course of time. We figured out a lot of things, learned a lot uh chemically and
and drone. Uh we aren't doing it today for a reason, but we learned a lot and that's Dave and
I just I think kind of we like doing that. So the continued education that comes with shows and events um
introduces you to new people, new products, new thinking, new ideas, uh that never gets old. In fact, it's the
more exciting part about what we do. Yeah. So even from ISSI, uh as much as yesterday, uh one of one of the board
members at ISSA uh has has taken on another event that um he's put together
out of his own little grouping and for companies pretty much like us. Like so you have the big event, they're kind of
the big building contractor facility managers. Uh this guy's thought about companies like us and said, "Hey, I want
to get you all together and see what we can learn and and network and and he has a process by which he's it's about 5
years old now. It's called cleaning and cocktails." So he gives it a cool name, too. That's so cool. And yeah, so uh talking with him, you go
there's there's always more that you can learn and and achieve and you can find
examples. And those people typically they find people like you or I and and they know that you want to learn and
they're happy to teach you. You just have to spend a little time with them. Like uh most people who are successful
don't try to hide it and and keep it to themselves. They're happy to share it. You you just have to interact with them
and say how did you do that or tell me more about what I need to know. Um so we do that
and the continued education part all the way through. I know uh we have training this week for uh for lifts because of
the the construction cleaning. A lot of times we need to get out and and articulating lifts. We had uh one person trained already
had an 80ft articulating lift out at Bella Vista to do all the windows in that uh five building community.
And because of our post construction cleaning, it comes up enough we have a second person going in for training to make sure that uh we're OSHA certified
on our lifts. So uh we do that. We have the the cleaners that stay in tune with the the medical and what's necessary for
bloodborne pathogens as an example or the terminal cleaning so that we always have someone on standby. we we send more
people to uh to make sure that they get federally validated for all the government buildings I mentioned so that
if if the one who's on point can't make it, we have somebody else to back them up and and get in and cover it. So, we
we spend a lot of time trying to educate everyone who wants it and and we just happen to want to be educated. So, we
enjoy doing those things. Yeah. Um, and it's it's endless and it it will always continue to be because
every, you know, everything changes and we learn and we grow. So, uh, we'll never run out of opportunity to come up
with more ideas. And we we love just chasing them. It's fun to just learn new stuff. Yeah. The part that I want to pull out
of this that's so applicable to what we call ambitionoriented growthmindedness is there's well, let's preframe this.
Two big things about exceptional businesses. One is they create, build, and sustain exceptional relationships.
two, they create, build and sustain and I would say iterate exceptional systems.
So when you break down a system, what's a system? Just a set of habits literally. So when we think about the
learning of this, there's a drive, a goal, a desire to be in the learning
mode, maybe once a day for a while, maybe around lunch. So there's a lot of people that I know and I used to be this
prior to me stepping up my game probably 2011 2012 where I would go through and
really own that learning curve and make sure that I was moving that forward. And what does that look like on the daily
for me? I used to play on my phone. I'd have a folder with games on it. I
deleted the games folder and instead put in the curation. So I said instead of
sitting here and resetting, rejuvenating, and nothing wrong with games because that can really help reset, rejuvenate, and restore us. But
I'm like, let me just go out and explore what's possible. So I put Tik Tok in that folder. And people are like, Tik
Tok, you're going to learn dance moves and stuff. No, no, no. I trained Tik Tok's algorithm to give me inside 20 or
30 minutes of time literally, you know, usually I come out of that with a dozen to two dozen links that are
brand new, new thoughts, new perspective, new tools and I'll really go after that and then I'll study them
and I have this massive note in chronological order of all the things I've curated. So the reason I'm telling
you this and the reason we're sharing this is that the highest performing businesses who are really stepping to be
exceptional have baked in what caught research and development the learning of
new but the drives there goes back to what we talked about earlier we can't train people how to be but if they're
already in a mode of like I'm already on the hunt every day I go to these specific things to learn new things that
apply to the business or apply to people or whatever and I want to share that with the group that's exactly what the
philosophy is here. Does that make sense? It does. Yeah. So, was we bringing this into your world? Do you have a dedicated time per
week or just kind of a ritual where you're in like, "Let me go out and see what's new in the technology world. Let me go over here and see what's new in
the chemical world. Let me go over here and see what's new in in general cleaning and running a cleaning business." Exceptionally, is that part
of your practice? It is. Uh, and you know, it's funny you'd even mentioned lunch. So lunch has
kind of become a big deal for uh several managers who it's not that we go out
every day all the time, but lunch is never really about lunch. Lunch is about talking about work and and how we're
going to improve. So it's kind of been a big one and it just evolved that way for me personally. Um I keep myself on track
through my calendar. You know what I mean? A lot of people have task lists and I I put all that in my calendar. And so,
uh, when I when I have a prompt, an inkling that I want to, uh, dig in deeper on something, Yeah., uh, contact
someone who I think is more knowledgeable, I I make sure I I slot it in and put a time in for it. So, it's not that I do it every day at a certain
time. Yeah. Um, but I kind of know to myself when something happens, I'm like, "Oh, I I need to make a note of that to contact a
person to look up more on that subject." When it goes to the next level, I make notes on it. Like, what am I thinking here? What What can we do with this? So,
um I have a system and it's it's kind of non-stop at at the same time. Um I don't do something every day. I
just I know that I get prompts to myself. I go I need I need to know more and I'll plug it in my calendar.
Yeah. Just so you have a frame like I don't curate Tik Tok so to speak every day or curate other places. Um, but at
least three to five times a week and it could be for half an hour to two hours
and I just grab these links, study them and then kind of incorporate them into my curated notes and then I rank things
by the highest down to the lowest. Like there's a great tool that I discovered over the last few months called make.com
and it's like Zapier. It's an automation tool where you take things that happen in Google Sheets spreadsheet and you add
new data there. It can look into that, see a new row in there, and then that row might be there's a new video clip
from our work today. And now it needs to propagate it to YouTube shorts to Tik
Tok to X and all these things. Then makes the kind of glue that makes that all happen in an automated fashion. And
then you can run make through AI and say, listen, take the transcript of this and it's located here in Dropbox. you
can make permission for that and create uh six inspired posts for X using X best
practices for that podcast and then schedule them with X.
Yeah, thanks AI. AI agents is the name of the game going into this part of 2025 and beyond. And
it's amazing where this is going, but it's also scary on another side. But I just really wanted to make sure we
landed the ship here and dove deep, articulated about how we really are on the hunt for new tech, new we'll say
chemicals, but products that really help us take care of our customers the best possible way. On top of that, something
you shared is that we're also incredibly clear about assuring if there's a specific process or certification we
need that we're on that. And it isn't like this attitude that some businesses have of like, "Oh, we got to learn that
now." Which means they're probably going to do C or D-grade learning. You know, they do it because they have to. But for
us, the general culture is, "Oh, we get to learn this. Now, I have to learn this. So, I'm going to get in there. I'm
going to own this and see what we can do with it." Any takeaways, thoughts, insights of what I've shared?
We don't sit around and pat ourselves on the back. But, but you're right. You know, we're we're never complacent in
the moment. And uh we're like any company. There's there's good and bad. There's always work is uh problem solving. There's problems to be solved.
We're no different in that regard. Uh that said, I think we we do a good job of staying on top of if if there's a big
enough problem. We focus on it to the the right degree to make sure we take corrective action.
Yeah. Uh when it comes to finding and doing things differently, we do have people that come along with us. Now, that's
been one of the big differences over the last couple years. We've really hired people that have that that mindset that you'd mentioned like, "Oh, I I get to uh
take on the power washing now or I get to learn how to manage some floor care that I've never done this before, but
hey, I can run a scrubber." Right. So, uh you teach them a couple of times, uh
come and go with them and and help them with how and why we do things in a certain way. We have some great tile and
grout experiences recently. One yesterday at the USPS in Cape Coral. Yeah. So
none nothing about cleaning is insurmountable. There there's always a way to meet the objective. Um teaching
our staff and and the ones who are hungry for it. Uh we had another window process a couple weeks ago. It just Dave
and I when we when we did get up to speed on it, it became a problem. We're like it's glass. I why are we having a
problem? It's glass. and uh and and you dig in and and we helped our our cleaner
technicians understand what they were looking at and and push through it and they'll be
better glass cleaners for it the rest of their lives, you know. So anyway, we enjoy all that and and our cleaners now
who are being used for these things also enjoy it. It's the right mindset. I kind of totally own this of what you just
shared kind of incorporated into our dialogue today in that if you hire somebody and they have an interest in
growth or trying something new, come to us. Let's go. There isn't a no, that's
not the job you're responsible for and it's not your in your job description. There's a uh okay, let's see what we can
do to help you grow in that area. Is that true? Absolutely. Yeah. uh the old Zig Ziggler
and then and I I was a Zig Ziggler student, but Dave Dave pulled it out from day one. He also likes Zig Ziggler.
So, as soon as he said it, I was like, "Ah, Zigg, the classic Zigg is uh you'll get
typically everything you want out of life by helping other people get what they want out of life." And Dave, rest in peace.
Yeah, he lives by it. Uh that's if somebody says, "No, Dave, I really want to do this." And it fits within the schematic of the company,
you bet we're on it. Like, let's let's make them happy. they're going to do a great job and we we can fill their old
position with somebody else that wants to do that. Uh I love this and I just want to make sure there's one area you talked about a
little while ago that I want to go much deeper on and we'll wrap this beautiful baby up and that's the luxury home
cleaning that we're doing. And uh one of the big things we've you and I have talked about is in the initiatives for
this part of 2025 is just making sure we're testing and measuring what's purposeful and profitable for us in the
luxury home cleaning market. So would you expand on what that looks like now and what you're hoping to achieve in
that regard? Yes. Uh home cleaning. So like all models of cleaning, uh you're competing
with someone can start a home cleaning business immediately and even successfully.
For a company like Crystal Clean, uh home cleaning can be successful, but it
needs to fit a certain criteria. So we have a very uh good working model right
now at Myiramar through Concier Services. because we've been the cleaner for years there and uh it's because we're trusted and
we'll do a good job. Uh very consistent. You know, we we stay on top of of all
the the cleaning technicians and account managers and the manager for Myiramar where it's uh
it's taught us a lot about home cleaning. So, it's been a process for us because home cleaning uh could be in
that competitive dummy down world of uh of Mary Maids, which I'm not I actually I praise Marys for what they've put
together. You go that's an awesome model. Yeah, I really kind of want to mimic that, but um we know that for us uh we probably
will find success in making sure uh that that picture of of home cleaning for us
should be in the luxury home cleaning model. We can do that very well and successfully. We know that it comes at a
a cost to the homeowner to make that happen. But when you look at the security and
the cleaning, uh the trusted partnership, the consistency for people who want all those things above and
beyond just having somebody come in and clean their house every week, uh we can make that happen and we've
proven it and I want to take on more and more of that. So, especially uh in the Asterero
area when I take these same cleaners who have all this experience, that's where we want to grow this model out kind of
as an Asterero epicenter. Yeah. See where where it can take us and it it
could be very much like a Merry Maids but in the in the luxury high-end model because that's where we really can fill
the need. Yeah. We we don't want to go out and compete with Maryade for all the homes throughout the Southwest Florida
community. Yeah. So if if uh we can couple up with the right people who see the value in a
crystal clean Yeah. we want to grow that model and I I think it's out there. We just we we need to
start climbing that ladder. I've done a lot of research in this regard. I've talked with a lot of people who are luxury homeowners over the last
oh about 15 years down here in Southwest Florida and one of the big things they share well there's a few big things but
one of the big things they share is security and trust. And then another big
thing they share is liability. So through the security and trust
typically the way that works is they'll share that they want to make sure that the team that's in their house they know
who they are and they aren't the cleaner company isn't rotating people out right
and one of the big things that we've talked about at Crystal Clean is the fact that we have the same cleaners because we take care of our people and
we've talked about this in previous sessions episodes is where we
really help them beyond the job to be better people overall and you know bring
in like their family and and do family things to asssure that it's not just a job that we're part of the Crystal Clean
family which is part of the value structure right behind you. Yeah. So there's a security piece to
this and that's something that I believe Crystal Clean really nails is keeping
accountability with the same people there. So like the homeowner or the person managing a property. Some of the
houses down here are substantial. We'll say 15,000 25,000 square feet.
And you you know you said liability. Uh yeah. So on the and not to the security model
I I've already told you how we've been vetted in in some categories to do government work. Uh we can do the same
thing in the high-end luxury market. We'll vet it as far as it needs to go to make them feel secure. Yeah. Uh, also we'll give them some
history on how we take care of things like keys and codes. Also, that our
insurance that, you know, we will be accountable for uh the last mirror that
uh seemingly was damaged in a luxury home was like a $2,500 mirror, which
maybe doesn't sound like a lot to some people, sounds like a lot to other people. For for a mirror, I think that sounds like a lot. And and that's just
the tip of the iceberg, the type of things that you're working around in the luxury home model. And you have to be responsible for this. Uh that's where
again it's uh that level that allows us to perform better uh because more is
required and and we want to step up to that challenge. We want to provide that. The part that I love about what we shared is this. If it's a well I'd say a
fly by night but a lower company that doesn't have that level of um backing we'll call it and they do that that can
be devastating for their cash flow where they have to pay out we'll call it a claim or their insurance company does.
Um the other side of it is from the lensure in the insuranceances the
workers comp. This is something that companies or individuals who want to
start up overnight in cleaning. Um they can't fire that up right away. Like not overnight typically they have to get
that sorted and they got to pay workers comp and do all this kind of thing. So that's just an inherent part of working with Crystal Clean is we have all the
proper we'll call technical licensing and insuranceances and all that kind of stuff, but on the other side we have the
team who's very inspired to stay with us to be consistent so we're not switching
out cleaners all the time necessarily. Um but that the owner knows or the
manager of the property knows who that person or those people are. So if something goes sideways, they're able to
make that call and it's a very open communication. and very responsive. These are all things that seem, yeah,
that should be the way it is, but they're not the way it is. Especially, we've talked about this in previous episode, like we're all from the
Midwest, you, me, and Dave, and we're like, back in our day, we call somebody,
they'd answer the freaking phone or we'd leave a message, they call us back. Yeah, that's common practice, but that
is not what happens down here, right? Cross spectrum in service industries. It is what happens with Crystal Clean. And
I just really want to make sure we double down on this. It is our uh from the home owner to the
concierge office. Uh of course we see who's calling in. We get calls from Myiramar every day and and I'm proud of
that because uh like whoever is comfortable enough that wants to call us, please do. we'll we'll talk to you
and and we'll make sure that you know if you're just wondering when the cleaner is going to show up or you need to
offset your week from a Wednesday to a Friday. We get those kind of calls every day and and we take them and we manage
them and that's why I said we've been we've been doing that for years in a community that kind of stands out even in Southwest
Florida as being in the high-end luxury model and we just want to expand on that. I love it. And I just want to make
sure as we start to wrap up today, some of these principles, this beautiful culture strategy for breakfast, I feel
like we really fleshed that out in a lot of illustration and a lot of the services that we provide. Another one is
this idea, help others get what they want and you'll get what you want. Rest in peace, Zigg.
Yeah. Another big one, we didn't really cover this particular theme. It's something we teach or I teach as a high performance
coach is that if it's not in the schedule, it's just a dream. And what
you shared was you put your tasks and things you want to research in your calendar and you you can put it in the
calendar. A lot of people like I put it in the calendar but they don't look at it. I'll move that across. You look at
it and do it but like allocate the appropriate time to do it. You know
there's another quote that I love in our high performance work. Schedule plus plus focus plus discipline equals
freedom. When we live into these things and they're scheduled and we get through them and we recognize we'll say on a
Friday that we crush this week, we got everything we're responsible for. I allocate time every Friday to do what I
call Friday finishers. Just things that fell through the cracks throughout the week. Look everything over. Did I get
all that? Oh, missed that, missed this, missed that. Okay, let me hit this 2-hour time block where I do my Friday finishers so I can go into the weekend,
fill in that freedom. But it requires schedule and I use a to-do. We call it
the onepage productivity plan in high performance. I use that and schedule. Those two things are like ninja tools
for putting a lot of the practices of things we we talked about today. Another thing we talked through today was above
the line and below the line. We've touched on this in previous episodes as well. Above the line companies are about
accountability, responsibility, ownership, growthmindedness, ambition
orientation. Generally have good energy. Below the line companies are about
blame, excuse, denial, gossip, drama, generally negative energy. Now,
realizing we're all human, we can go below the line. But where are we predominantly? And what we're finding
with the hundred people that are part of this beautiful team is we're above the liners. But if you go below the line and
you're having a bad day, we're here to help you. We're going to pick you up and lift you up. So, with everything I shared, I'd love for you. Is there any
principles or things you loved about our discussion today that you want to share? Make sure we reiterate any services, any
commitments to tech, anything else that showed up for you today? You know, I guess uh since we tackled
culture eat strategy for breakfast so hard that that'll be with me all day. Uh but also that uh that continued pursuit
of of excellence if we follow the the old Lexus model. Uh, but just to um to
keep growing and keep doing a better job that always always excites me. And you're right, I I uh I'm like you. I I
can't let something undone just sit. And uh so for me, early
mornings are are a sweet spot uh throughout the course of a week. If I need to catch up or I need to make sure that I really hyperfocus on something,
it's probably going to be relatively early in the morning. Um Fridays, you're right. you know, our
uh our community association managers that we deal with so much. Yeah. Um I love that most of them kind of try
to take Friday afternoons off. Um it just seems to be a part of their world. That kind of helps us have that that
moment of a catchup Friday. Yeah. Friday finisher. That's why I need to plug that into my calendar item by name.
I love it. But yeah, that those are things that that keep us going. That's why we can do
what we do daily and weekly and annually. And it really never gets old because we're very busy. Yeah,
but we continue to plug in those right things. You go, let's remember the the people are more important. Uh the
process of learning and growing and achieving is what makes us feel good. That's important. And then you got the day-to-day stuff in between. Yeah.
Two more things I want to make sure we nail. You just sparked. One is the needlemoving activities
towards the outcomes we want for us, our team, our customers, and the world. And
that's kind of what you're hinting at. when I do specific things or learn specific things, it moves the needle for
us, our team, our customers, and the world in some fashion. The other one is
reiterating that every exceptional business builds creates, builds and
sustains great relationships, create builds, sustains, and iterates
like it's daily throughout the day great systems. And boy, I watched from a I'm
not in it every day with y'all, but I'm watching it and it's like, oh, look at this thing take off. And that's exactly
what that is. And I just want to tell you, it's an absolute honor to be on a journey with you. We've been working on
videos and podcasts for the last few years, and I feel like we're just taking off in many ways, and it's just so great
to be here with you on this beautiful day. Final thoughts. I appreciate you coming in and do it.
Uh, as we were talking, I I know of, uh, two scenarios where people kind of started with the podcast realm.
Yeah. And they've grown that into kind of a business of its own. Yeah. That accentuated their original business and grew them as an overall company.
And you may be doing that for us as we speak. Yay. We'll see. Oh, I can't wait. We'll we'll talk that
through. All right. Well, we're sending it. If you've watched this far and you're at this part of the video, podcast, audio, however
you're digesting this beautiful thing, we're sending you so much positive, loving, healthy, healing energy vibes
and thoughts. Thank you for being with us. We'll talk to you in the next one. Have a good one.