Explore every episode of the podcast Filthy Rich Cleaners: The Cleaning Business Podcast

Serene Clean has rented every office it had for 7.5 years. Then a listing went up with no sign out front yet, and less than two months later, Stephanie was closing on a commercial building. In this solo episode, Stephanie explains why she resisted buying for years and what changed to make now the right time. She shares details about the $140K accepted offer and an appraisal around $185K to a local bank that matched a competitor’s rate.

📌 What You’ll Learn

— Why renting can be the smarter, lower-risk move for a growing cleaning business

— How owning assets during a divorce or partner buyout can put a business at risk

— What lenders ask for on a commercial property loan (tax returns, P&Ls, balance sheets)

— Why clean books, paying yourself through payroll, and running above board make you loan-ready

— How to negotiate a better rate by getting a quote from a second lender

— The non-negotiables to look for in a cleaning business office (parking, laundry hookups, private meeting space)

— Why owning a building means building a bigger emergency fund

Resources Mentioned

— Profit First (Book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/073521414X?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

— Best Damn Bookkeeping (Dan) — previous Filthy Rich Cleaners episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htS6eY6luMg&vl=en

— ZenMaid Mastermind (free Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie’s Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid’s Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

What happens when your whole sense of worth comes from how hard you work, and then your body stops letting you work? In this mental health episode, Stephanie sits down with her consulting client Leah Izadi of Bless This Mess, who took over her mother-in-law’s cleaning business with a newborn and cleaned for 23 years. Leah talks openly about chronic nerve pain, a financially controlling first marriage, infertility, and the belief that she was only worthy if she was doing physical work. She also explains how she let go of her residential clients, rediscovered her strengths, and is relaunching as Innate Cleaning Co., a cleaning company serving medical and wellness offices.

📌 What You’ll Learn

— How to let go of residential clients with honesty and care (and why most of them will understand)

— Why tying your self-worth to physical work keeps cleaning business owners stuck in the field

— How strength assessments like CliftonStrengths can help you see what you’re good at beyond cleaning

— Why financial literacy and control over your own money matter so much, especially for women business owners

— How Leah used summer pool and event-space cleaning to keep income coming in during her pivot

— What changes when you move from residential to commercial cleaning: speed, checklists, and not over-detailing

— How a feedback survey with commercial clients helped Leah tighten communication and earn referrals

— Why talking to people about your business everywhere you go creates opportunities (including your next hire)

— Mental health tools that helped Leah: therapy, an ADD coach, breathwork, healthy eating, strength training, kind self-talk, and boundaries

Resources Mentioned

— CliftonStrengths (StrengthsFinder): https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/252137/home.aspx

— The Happiness Lab podcast: https://www.drlauriesantos.com/happiness-lab-with-dr-laurie-santos-podcast

— ZenMaid: https://get.zenmaid.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie’s Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid’s Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Stephanie dressed up as a poop emoji for Halloween 💩 It fits, because this episode is all about the sh*t she didn’t expect when she opened her cleaning business. 7.5 years after opening Serene Clean, Stephanie goes through the surprises that hit hardest as she grew the business from zero to $1.4–$1.5 million a year. She sorts them into employees, clients, costs, and her own mindset. The list runs from a first hire who ghosted on training day and turnover that never ends, to a $30,000 workers’ comp audit bill, turning down whole categories of work, and more.

📌 What You’ll Learn

— Why initial cleans take longer than you think, and how production rate auditing keeps your time estimates honest

— How to keep hiring from making you cynical when it’s a permanent part of owning a cleaning business

— The one question to ask yourself before giving an employee a gift: “If they leave tomorrow, will I still feel good about this?”

— Why clear boundaries and direct conversations help your team as much as they help you

— How granular checklists close the gap between what a client thinks “deep clean” means and what you deliver

— The real cost of insurance and workers’ comp audits, and why shopping your policy every year can save you thousands

— Why you should target $50–$60 per labor hour and raise your prices as your costs go up

— How to keep fear and self-doubt from making your business decisions

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid (scheduling software): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— ClickUp (task management software): https://clickup.com/

— ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— Filthy Rich Cleaners episode: Stephanie’s first 10 employees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q44G2knlyEM

— Filthy Rich Cleaners episode: Top five craziest staff member stories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idwEDKueAKU

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie’s Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid’s Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Ashley O’Keeffe’s cleaning business is growing so fast she’s about to start turning down work. She’s never hired a W-2 employee who stayed, yet she has to quote the biggest house she’s ever cleaned. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Ashley, owner of A.O’K Pristine Clean in Hanover, Virginia, for a hands-on coaching session. Ashley built her client base almost entirely through word of mouth and Facebook tags, and she's now at the point where she needs to hire, but her first W-2 hire lasted a day and a half. Stephanie walks her through hiring, getting out of the field, pricing a 4,000 sq ft home, staying out of side services, setting up client guidelines and checklists, and more!

📌 What You’ll Learn

— How to price a large home using square-footage production rates and your target hourly rate

— Why big houses often expect a “quantity discount,” and why you shouldn’t give one

— How to quote a first-time clean and then lock in a maintenance price after the first few visits

— Why you should never give a price during an in-person walkthrough

— The discovery questions to ask a lead, including “Why today?” and “Have you had a cleaner before?”

— Why saying no to window washing and other side services protects your business

— How client guidelines and a physical checklist protect you and help you close sales

— Why owner-operators should clear their own schedule before they start hiring

— How weekly group interviews keep a hiring pipeline full so one resignation doesn’t sink you

— How to use clock-in data and AI to build your own pricing calculator

Resources Mentioned

— Serene Clean Client Guidelines (available on Serene Clean’s website): https://serene-clean.com/wp-content/uploads/2025-Client-Guidelines-112025.pdf

— Rescue My Maid Service Cleaning Tech Boot Camp: https://rescuemymaidservice.com/cleaning-tech-bootcamp/

— Sharon Tinberg’s video training modules: https://www.cleansmartacademy.com/#training

— Cleaning for a Reason: https://cleaningforareason.org/

— ZenMaid digital checklists, service ratings, and clock-in/out: https://get.zenmaid.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Stephanie just got back from CleanCon Austin 2026, and Serene Clean is already running differently because of it.

In this solo episode, Stephanie breaks down her biggest takeaways from the conference, including Kristen Hadeed's keynote on leadership, Drew Larison's "why today" approach to sales, and Molly Moran's Shine Protocol. She shares what Serene Clean has already put in place, from AI agents that log into ZenMaid and send daily reports to plans for a dedicated salesperson and weekly check-ins with new hires. She also explains what she's choosing not to change and whether CleanCon is worth attending next year.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — How the FBI feedback framework (feeling, behavior, impact) replaces the compliment sandwich
 — How the One Three One framework teaches your team to solve problems without running everything by you
 — Why giving managers a spending threshold lets them fix problems on their own
 — Why asking "why today?" closes more sales than talking about your company
 — How Molly Moran's Shine Protocol helps owners treat their health as part of the job
 — Why Stephanie is separating sales from customer support at Serene Clean
 — How Serene Clean uses Claude to log into ZenMaid, pull reports, and automate lead follow up
 — How weekly one on one check-ins with new hires can cut early turnover
 — What Stephanie is not changing, including how she pays her team

Resources Mentioned
 — CleanCon (next event is in the fall of 2027, plus their online mastermind group): https://mycleancon.com

— Live Bright, Molly Moran's coaching program: https://mollymoran.com

— Permission to Screw Up by Kristen Hadeed: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34437136

— The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin: https://www.readbrightly.com/books/9781524760915/the-four-tendencies-by-gretchen-rubin

— Claude (the AI behind Serene Clean's automations)
 — ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

⚠️ Content advisory: This episode includes discussion of suicide, death, violent crime, and blood cleanup. Listener discretion is advised.

If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US). Outside the US, visit findahelpline.com.

Blood cleanup, unattended deaths, violent crime scenes, houses packed floor to ceiling, and more. This is the part of the industry that most of us never see. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Alex Philbrick, owner and operator of T.A.C.T. Central Arkansas, a franchise that does biohazard remediation and hoarding cleanouts, to talk about what it takes to run a business built on the jobs nobody else wants. Alex shares how he went from buying and selling sports cards to taking over the franchise in 2023. He covers how he prices hoarding and bio jobs, how he staffs one-time jobs with independent contractors, how insurance billing works for trauma cleanup, and more!

📌 What You'll Learn

- How hoarding cleanouts are priced, and why dumpsters are the highest cost

- Why a $2,200 to $2,700 day rate is a useful starting point for estimating hoarding jobs

- How homeowner's insurance billing works for biohazard cleanup, and what documentation to send

- How to pay independent contractors fairly when a job's value doesn't match the hours worked

- Why the franchise route makes sense for a niche like trauma cleanup

- How residential cleaning companies can partner with biohazard and hoarding specialists on deep cleans after a cleanout

- How to run a hoarding cleanout like an assembly line, and why a good relationship with a local dumpster company matters so much

- The heat exhaustion lesson that changed how Alex handles safety in hazmat suits

- How asking "what range were you looking to be in?" helps you win jobs and fine tune your pricing

- Why being local and answering your own phone wins bids over bigger companies

Resources Mentioned

- T.A.C.T. Central Arkansas: tactcentralarkansas.com

- T.A.C.T. Central Arkansas on Facebook: facebook.com/TACT-247-Emergency-Biohazard-Decontamination-Service-103126401915515

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

What happens when your ex-husband opens a competing cleaning company with almost the same name as yours? Rebecca Emberson went through just that, but she kept her business and her brand, and she's building a better name than ever. Stephanie recorded this episode in person with longtime listener and cleaning business neighbor Rebecca Emberson of Dells-Maid Cleaning Solutions. Rebecca shares how she started in 2018 with five vacation rentals, rebuilt after a messy divorce, and now runs teams that handle same-day turnovers around the Wisconsin Dells. They talk about flat-rate pricing, turning down property manager requests, party house surprises, caring for elderly clients, and more.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — How to protect your business if your marriage goes south
 — Why you shouldn't panic when a former employee starts a competing cleaning company
 — How to let go of a client without burning the bridge
 — How Rebecca handles linens, flat-rate pricing, and teams for high-volume vacation rental turnovers
 — How to respond when owners ask you to haul firewood, run the pool vacuum, or treat the hot tub
 — Why you need to check every drawer, closet, and shower in a party house
 — How to run walkthroughs that build trust instead of making the client feel ashamed
 — How Stephanie's team used AI to find a close-rate gap on estimates between $400 and $700
 — Why elderly clients should have a second contact on file

Resources Mentioned
 — ZenMaid (job photos, service ratings feedback): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Cleaning for a Reason: https://cleaningforareason.org/

— Mark Limeberry's Filthy Rich Cleaners episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWVD2CXG3Ks

— Dells-Maid Cleaning Solutions: https://dellsmaidcleaningsolutions.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Everyone says cleaning is a "low-cost of entry" business, but Allison Diamond found out the hard way that's only true when you're the one doing the cleaning. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Allison, owner and founder of The Clean Collective in Atlanta, Georgia. After a career in corporate marketing (plus a body movement studio and a commercial greenhouse along the way), Allison launched her cleaning business without ever working in the field, which meant funding payroll, software, and marketing from day one. She and Stephanie get into the systems she built to make it work.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why "low cost of entry" is a myth when you're not subsidizing the business with your own labor

— How a Canva onboarding packet plus automated welcome texts got clients to actually read the policies

— The weekly team meeting structure Allison has run since day one (core values, recognition, games, and monthly outings)

— How to turn a Facebook giveaway into a lead-gen funnel with a secondary offer for everyone who enters

— Why the same question coming up twice means there's a hole in your training, policy, or communication

— How switching to subscription billing on the first of the month nearly eliminated cancellations

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid (scheduling): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Go High Level (CRM, funnels, and automations): https://www.gohighlevel.com/

— The Clean Collective: https://atlcleanco.com/

— The Clean Collective (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/thecleancollectiveatl/

— The Clean Collective (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576887479073&ref=PROFILE_EDIT_xav_ig_profile_page_web#

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

A cleaning company can look profitable on paper and still lose money on nearly every job. Before you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a business, you need to know what's behind the P&L. In this solo episode, Stephanie explains why she would almost never buy a cleaning business (yet why she seriously considered buying one anyway), and talks about a consulting client's rough experience after buying a mostly residential company.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why commercial accounts are a safer purchase than a residential client list

— How to check production rates and profit per hour on every client before you buy

— The red flags hiding behind a profitable-looking P&L, like owner labor, low pay, and staff turnover

— Why missing client notes create a mess for a new owner

— What to learn about a company's team and culture before making an offer

— Why Stephanie would rather put money into marketing than buy a client list

— How messy bookkeeping can stop you from getting the loan you need to grow

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— ZenMaid Newsletter: https://zenmaid.com/newsletter

— Filthy Rich Cleaners episode with Marco (Chicago) on buying a long-standing cleaning business: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7fC5SLJQGo&vl=en

— Stephanie's YouTube video on managing your money as a cleaning business owner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVZbZWbhKoA

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Meghan Caicedo went from crying after shifts at a senior home to running her own cleaning company with her husband — and getting booked solid just four months after making it official. Now, she's hit the wall every owner-operator knows: she can't let go. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Meghan, owner of Caicedo Cleaning in Alberta, Canada, to work through the fears that keep new owners stuck in the field. Stephanie lays out the systems that make handing off clients' work, plus a live teardown of Meghan's website and marketing.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why standardized checklists are the foundation of getting out of the field (if surgeons need them, so do cleaners)

— How to transition long-time clients to a new cleaner without losing them

— Why client notes in your scheduling software stop customers from having to repeat themselves

— Why a card on file matters most on move-out cleans

— How Google My Business beats Facebook groups for finding clients who are ready to buy

— The pie analogy: what happens to your income when you hire your first non-family cleaner

— Why your website has to answer "why you?" instead of listing generic services

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid (scheduling software and client notes): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Serene Clean's client guidelines: https://serene-clean.com

— Caicedo Cleaning: https://caicedocleaning.ca

— Caicedo Cleaning (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61589992966246

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Raising prices on 97 clients sounds terrifying...until you see the numbers 👀 In this solo episode, Stephanie answers listener Lorraine's question about how Serene Clean's flat rate transition is going. After seven years of hourly residential pricing, Serene Clean rolled a flat rate switch and a price increase into one change, and Stephanie shares the financial results, learnings so far, the pushback they got, and what she'd do differently. 

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why to roll out flat rate to new clients first, then transition existing clients in batches

— The real numbers: $7,693/month gained, $3,321/month lost, and a 12% cancellation rate

— The exact price increase email Serene Clean sent, plus and how a five-year client negotiated to a middle ground

— How to handle clients who think in hours, and how "priority cleans" replaced limited hour cleans

— Why production rate auditing is critical once you charge by the job instead of by the hour

— The mistake Stephanie made by not telling her cleaners about the switch, and why your team should always be in the loop

Resources Mentioned

— Flat Rate Email Estimate Template ($20) — available on Stephanie's website along with her checklists, documents, and bundles: https://serene-clean.com/downloads/flat-rate-estimate-email-template/

— Serene Clean's cleaning checklists — available on Stephanie's website: https://serene-clean.com/bundles/

— ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— ZenMaid's weekly newsletter: https://zenmaid.com/newsletter

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

What do you do when a hotel calls and needs 10–15 cleaners a day, seven days a week, and you only have until the weekend to deliver? If you're Nick Spagnolo, you hit the ground running. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Nick, president of Spag N Shine LLC in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Nick left a banking career during COVID, started cleaning houses with his mom, and has since grown to around 20 staff members by becoming the "one-stop shop" for apartment buildings — janitorial, turnovers, carpet cleaning, floor stripping and waxing, and more. 

📌 What You'll Learn

— How to become the one contact property managers call for everything, and why that builds unshakeable contracts

— How to break into carpet cleaning using your chemical vendor's free demos, training, and equipment support

— Why joining your local apartment association can unlock a whole new tier of commercial work

— How Nick priced and staffed a hotel contract requiring 10–15 cleaners a day during COVID

— The real cost of company vehicles and the $500 car allowance system Nick uses instead

— Why staffing agencies can tarnish your name (including the story of a drunk worker, a gun, and a parking lot fight)

— Why staying on top of your insurance broker matters

Resources Mentioned

— Spag N Shine (website): https://www.spagnshine.com/

— Spag N Shine (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/spag_n_shine/

— Spag N Shine (Facebook page): https://www.facebook.com/p/SPAG-N-SHINE-100063507854791/

— ZenMaid Software: https://get.zenmaid.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

What happens to your cleaning business when your key employee goes on vacation for a week or two? For a lot of owners, things break. That's why in this episode, Stephanie shares how Serene Clean is preparing for office manager April's upcoming three-week absence, a situation that would create total chaos for a lot of businesses. Stephanie talks about the documentation gaps that April's prep work uncovered, how she's been breaking April's role down into daily, weekly, and sporadic tasks, how they're replacing SOP booklets with quick Loom recordings, and how they ran practice payroll rounds months in advance just in case.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why to treat a planned absence like an audit, not an emergency

— How to break any role into daily, weekly, and sporadic tasks (and assign each one a due date)

— Why quick screen recordings beat a 30-page SOP nobody will read

— How practice runs expose the gaps in your documentation before they cost you

— The field-tested handoff method Serene Clean uses for both clients and office tasks

— What to pause during an absence to keep the workload steady

— Why thorough documentation makes your business more valuable to a future buyer

Resources Mentioned

— Buy Back Your Time (book): https://www.amazon.com/Buy-Back-Your-Time-Unstuck/dp/059342297X

— Loom (screen recording software): https://www.loom.com/

— ClickUp (task management): https://clickup.com/

— QuickBooks (auto-invoicing): https://quickbooks.intuit.com/

— ZenMaid (client details and invoicing notes): https://get.zenmaid.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Dave Camenga started cleaning houses in fifth grade (yes, really). 11 years later, he owns a thriving commercial janitorial company in Baltimore with 30 cleaners and hundreds of monthly cleans. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Dave, owner of Dave's Cleaning Consultants in Baltimore, Maryland, who shares how he skipped college to go all-in on cleaning. His nightly janitorial teams of 4–6 people clean eight offices a night, and he shares why old-school direct mailers still land him massive commercial contracts. Dave also talks about the hardest parts of the business, including letting go of a five-year employee, firing disrespectful clients, and protecting a zero-drama company culture.

📌 What You'll Learn

— How Dave structures teams of four to six cleaners to service eight offices a night

— Why "hire slow, fire fast" and always-open interviews protect your best people from burnout

— The direct mail system that landed a $150,000-per-month commercial contract

— When to fire a client — even one worth $7,000 a month

— Why being coachable matters more than 30 years of cleaning experience

— How to command respect as a young owner by never asking staff to do what you wouldn't

Resources Mentioned

— The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591842158?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

— Q&A with Dave and Carolyn Arellano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dzZLaEjX1k

— Dave's Cleaning Consultants on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davescleaningconsultants/

— Dave's consulting services: https://www.davescleaningconsultants.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

What software does it actually take to run a $100K+/month cleaning business? In this episode of Filthy Rich Cleaners, Stephanie goes through every single tool she pays for, including what it costs, who uses it, and why she picked it over the alternatives. You'll hear about how her team relies on ClickUp for task and lead management, QuickBooks for bookkeeping, OpenPhone for client communication, Slack for team communication, Gusto for payroll, Loom for process documentation, and more! Stephanie also shares how AI has transformed her operations, and how you can use similar takeaways for your own business.

📌 What You'll Learn

— How Stephanie uses ClickUp as her CRM, task manager, and weekly time-blocking system (especially helpful for ADHD brains)

— Why every cleaning business needs bookkeeping software, even if you have a bookkeeper

— Why you should never use your personal phone number as your business line

— How to use Loom + AI to create SOPs and delegate without repeating yourself

— The case for regular software audits and being ruthless about canceling what you don't use

— Why the first-response speed of AI tools is becoming a competitive advantage for owners

Resources Mentioned

— ClickUp: https://clickup.com/

— ProcessDriven (Layla's YouTube channel and ClickUp course): https://www.youtube.com/@LaylaPomper

— The ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— QuickBooks: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/

— OpenPhone (Quo): https://www.quo.com/

— Slack: https://slack.com/

— Claude: https://claude.ai/

— ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/

— Acquisition.com: https://www.acquisition.com/

— Indeed: https://www.indeed.com/

— SignRequest: https://signrequest.com/

— Gusto: https://gusto.com/

— Loom: http://loom.com/

— Trainual: http://trainual.com/

— Canva: https://www.canva.com/

— Guideline (401k): https://www.guideline.com/

— The Gift Card Cafe: https://www.thegiftcardcafe.com/

— MailChimp + Zapier: https://mailchimp.com/

— Best Damn Bookkeeping Service (Dan): https://bestdamnbookkeeping.com/

— CleanCon (Austin, TX — end of September): https://www.mycleancon.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Ty Severa is a former dispatcher and police officer who walked away from a guaranteed pension to build a 98% commercial cleaning company staffed by first responders and their families. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Ty, Owner of First Response Building Services in Roanoke, Virginia, who grew from three accounts and $1,600 a month in recurring revenue to 12 accounts by year-end. He shares how cold calling became his highest-leverage marketing channel, and how flat-rate pay lets him maintain a blended rate around $33 an hour while keeping margins healthy.

📌 What You'll Learn

— How to leave a stable career and replace the income with recurring commercial revenue

— Why cold calling gets easier the moment you reframe it as solving a problem instead of selling

— How to use the gatekeeper as an information source instead of an obstacle

— Why commercial sales cycles take months, and how to build a follow-up system that survives them

— How flat-rate pay works in practice, including the buffer Ty builds into every bid

— How to build a blind inspection system triggered by staffing changes and suspiciously fast clean times

— Why written scopes of work and infestation clauses protect you on deep cleans and post-construction

— The hardest truths about commercial: low-bid government contracts, after-hours phone calls, and big accounts with no juice to squeeze

Resources Mentioned

— BNI (Business Network International): https://www.bni.com/

— First Response Building Services (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/p/First-Response-Building-Services-61564978374874/

— First Response Building Services (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/firstresponsebuildingservices/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

A national big-box retailer offered Serene Clean a $50k-a-year account to clean three bathrooms. Easy work, centrally located, daytime hours, yet Stephanie declined to bid it. In this solo episode, Stephanie walks through exactly how that decision got made, including the pros and cons her manager brought to the ops meeting, the one non-negotiable that outweighed every positive, and the counter-offer they made before walking away. She also gets honest about why her answer today is different from the answer 23-year-old Stephanie would have given, and why comparing your year one to someone else's year one will lead you to the wrong decisions.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why the fastest path to growth depends entirely on what you're actually willing to sacrifice

— How to evaluate a large commercial opportunity by its worst-case scenario, not its best

— Why weekend work carries a management cost most owners never price in

— How to counter-offer and reshape a job before you decline it

— Why "I don't want to" is a legitimate business reason once you've built the foundation for it

— How to tell the difference between discomfort that means grow and discomfort that means walk away

— The real test of whether something is actually a non-negotiable for your business

Resources Mentioned

— The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt (the ZenMaid Retreat book club read): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1565114248?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

— CleanCon — Austin, Texas, end of September: https://www.mycleancon.com/

— The ZenMaid Mastermind on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— Serene Clean: https://serene-clean.com

— Filthy Rich Cleaners Ep. 108 with Yari Isling on walking away from a large post-construction bid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEF0xJm1DQI

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Courtney Nunes' first cleaning job was a 6,000-square-foot house, and she cried after working it for 12 hours straight. Two years later, she has 18 cleaners and is pulling in over 10 leads per day. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Courtney, Owner of Green Leaf Cleaning, who went from waitressing in California to running a 10-acre farm in upstate New York to building an 18-cleaner operation across two states in under two years. She talks about why she switched from independent contractors to W-2s within six months, how consistent social media posting took her to 10–15 leads a day, the incentive system she built to get her cleaners to produce content for her, and more!

📌 What You'll Learn

— How Courtney went from her first solo clean to 18 cleaners in under two years

— Why she switched from independent contractors to W-2s at the six-month mark, and how she handled the pushback

— The direct link between posting consistently and lead volume

— Why you should treat Google like a social media platform

— How to build a ticket and rewards system that gets your cleaners filming content for you

— The 30-second content hack for owners who are still cleaning full time

— Why holding onto a cleaner you love can cost you recurring clients

— How to know when a job isn't worth taking, no matter what it pays

— Why production rate auditing is impossible without accurate clock in / clock out data

— How to spot the clients who need a price increase, and why resentment is the signal to listen for

— What changes when you run the same brand in two very different markets

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid — scheduling and operations software: https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Green Leaf Cleaning on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/green_leaf_cleaning_md_fl/

— Green Leaf Cleaning: https://greenleaforganics.org/

— Courtney's email: admin@greenleaforganics.org

— Serene Clean: https://serene-clean.com

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

No one likes confrontation, but sometimes it's necessary. In this solo episode, Stephanie shares the pattern she sees in nearly every consulting call and also recognizes in herself — clocking unacceptable behavior but only saying something when it hits a breaking point. She walks through real examples from Serene Clean, including the employee who stole a wallet from a church, and the manager she nearly lost because she waited months to say what needed to be said.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why avoiding a hard conversation now guarantees a bigger blowup later

— The difference between a genuine mistake and a blatant disregard for standards (and why they require different responses)

— How your best employees lose respect for you when you let bad behavior slide

— Why delegating every difficult conversation away costs you the skill of having them

— The 48-hour rule Stephanie set for herself when she's sitting on unsavory information

— Why stating a consequence and not following through teaches your team not to believe you

— How avoiding the conversation steals your employee's opportunity to improve

— Why "you don't need anybody" is the harsh truth that saved her culture

— What core values mean and how allowing one exception makes them worthless

— How self-respect is built by action, and why you can't command respect you don't have for yourself

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid Mastermind (free Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— ZenMaid Weekly Newsletter (free, no ZenMaid account required): https://zenmaid.com/newsletter

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

A client claimed a 15-carat ring vanished from under a shampoo bottle, but little did they know that Shaquille spent 15 years as a fraud investigator. In this episode, Shaquille Richards, owner of Miracle Cleaners of Georgia in Atlanta, sits down with Stephanie to talk about building a five-star luxury cleaning business from scratch after losing her job three years ago. She breaks down how she landed the luxury high-rise work through a resident-app partnership, the parking and concierge logistics she manages by hand every day, and the after-photo system that protects her cleaners and her business.

📌 What You'll Learn

— How Shaquille broke into luxury high-rise cleaning through one relationship

— The parking and concierge workflow she uses so cleaners never get booted or locked out

— Why she gives customers a three-hour arrival window her cleaners never see

— How her before-and-after photo process protects cleaners from false complaints

— How she's handled awkward conversations with compassion

— Why she says high-end clients are simpler than you think

— How a 15-year fraud career made her better at running a cleaning business

— The difference between cleaning and repairing, and how to set that expectation before the job

— How she sets availability expectations in interviews so cleaners stop being shocked by their paychecks

— Why fear of Google reviews is costing owners more business than a bad review ever would

Resources Mentioned

— Miracle Cleaners of Georgia website: https://miraclecleanga.com

— Miracle Cleaners of Georgia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miraclecleanersofgeorgia/

— ZenMaid (Shaquille's scheduling software): https://get.zenmaid.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Serene Clean just had its highest-revenue month ever (over $130,000 in July), and Stephanie is opening the books to show exactly how it happened. In this episode, she breaks down the July numbers at Serene Clean: record revenue, 350+ recurring clients, 29 first-time cleans, and the highest net MRR the company has ever added. She walks through the metrics driving the growth, plus the areas that still need work, including undercharged travel fees and why none of her 2026 hires have made it past 90 days. It's a number-heavy look at what's working inside of Serene Clean!

📌 What You'll Learn

— How Serene Clean went from a $97K January to a record $130K+ July

— Why tracking net MRR (monthly recurring revenue) is the most important habit for growth

— What a "whale" client is, and why no client should be more than 10% of your revenue

— How switching to flat rate pricing made clients say yes to recurring service faster

— Why recurring close rate matters more than close rate alone

— How to normalize your profit and loss for 5-payroll-run months so you're not comparing apples to oranges

— Why most travel fees are undercharged

— What Stephanie learned from digging into why 14 employees left in 2026

Resources Mentioned

— Serene Clean's MRR tracking spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rO8m4mlE9-jHKavGDAo7kLyzvjTJuQYZdb3tOVY0Tro/edit?gid=890978938#gid=890978938

— Stephanie's flat rate estimate email template (~$20 on her website, linked below): https://serene-clean.com/downloads/flat-rate-cleaning-estimate-email-template/

— Serene Clean's active Indeed job listings: https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Serene-Clean-6/jobs

— ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— CleanCon in Austin, Texas: https://www.mycleancon.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Michelle Walker moved to the United States four years ago speaking almost no English. Today she runs Walker Cleaning Solutions in Portland, Oregon, with 15 recurring clients and her first W-2 employee — and she started the whole thing with $200. In this hybrid interview-and-consulting episode, Stephanie sits down with Michelle to walk through her path to owning a cleaning business. Michelle shares how she landed her first two recurring clients through families she babysat for and why she turns down clients other cleaners would take. Stephanie then shares what she thinks Michelle should focus on next, including how to think about revenue, how to think about revenue when you hand jobs to an employee, how picky is too picky, and the three growth levers that matter most at her size.

📌 What You'll Learn

— How to land your first recurring clients without spending a dollar on advertising

— Why the families who hire babysitters and nannies are an overlooked pipeline for cleaning clients

— The red flags in a first text message that tell you a client will be a nightmare

— Why "must-have" hiring requirements are non-negotiable, and what happens when you ignore your gut

— How to think about your revenue as a pie when you start handing jobs to employees

— How to figure out how many clients you actually need before you can stop cleaning

— Why being picky about clients only makes sense in the context of your lead volume and close rate

— The three growth levers Stephanie recommends for a solo-to-small cleaning business: in-person networking, community giving, and Google Business Profile

— Why video reviews are worth almost any amount of effort to get

— How hiring part-timers protects you when someone calls out or quits

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid (scheduling, reminders, payroll, clock in/out, digital checklists, client notes, booking form): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Book: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz: https://www.amazon.com/dp/073521414X?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

— Walker Cleaning Solutions (website): https://www.walkercleansolutions.com/

— Walker Cleaning Solutions (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586779175940

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Ever woken up and thought, "Didn't I deal with this exact same problem yesterday?" 🥴 In this solo episode (inspired by a groundhog hat and the movie Groundhog Day), Stephanie breaks down why cleaning business owners keep reliving the same problems on repeat, and how to stop. She separates the recurrences you can never eliminate (call outs, cancellations, client questions) from the ones that should never happen twice, then walks through the systems Serene Clean uses to handle both.

📌 What You'll Learn

— The "three-time rule" for knowing when a recurring problem needs a system

— Five questions to ask about any repeat issue: can you automate it, templatize it, document it, delegate it, or prevent it?

— How Slackbot autoresponders train your team to communicate fully the first time

— Why a policy is a decision you make once instead of a thousand times

— How ZenMaid's updated digital checklists let you print and share live cleaning checklists with clients

— How to build a call-out protocol so a cleaner calling in sick doesn't derail your whole day

— The first step to systematizing anything: write down what you did the last time it happened

Resources Mentioned

— Stephanie's free Slackbot Autoresponder download: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AICmhBWQ_Pt1_ZJzPMQxnBV4ppD7k1Kp/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109299880459560603683&rtpof=true&sd=true

— Serene Clean's client guidelines: https://serene-clean.com/wp-content/uploads/2026-Client-Guidelines-5-7-26.pdf

— Buy Back Your Time (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/059342297X?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

— The ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— The ZenMaid newsletter (respond with questions for future episodes): https://zenmaid.com/newsletter

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Six months into her cleaning business, Katie Wilson has already hit a $13K revenue month, fired a cleaner for time theft, lost half her team in 48 hours, and pulled off a 40,000-square-foot post-construction clean with four days' notice. This episode is, if nothing else, a presentation on figuring it out as you go.

In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Katie Wilson, owner of PrismPro Cleaning Solutions in Wichita, Kansas. Katie left a long career in banking and car sales to build a cleaning business she never intended to clean for. She shares how she's grown it, including Google Local Services Ads, free cleans for social proof, production rate audits, and a hiring funnel that intelligently filters candidates before she interviews them. 

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why Google LSA leads beat pay-per-click and why answering the phone fast closes nine out of 10 callers

— How free cleans build reviews, referrals, and the social proof that makes paid leads convert

— How production rate audits improve pricing and scheduling

— How Katie's audit caught an employee clocking out from home

— The Loom-based hiring funnel that filters out candidates who can't follow instructions before the first interview

— Why your close rate drops when you raise prices, and why you shouldn't panic or lower them

— How Katie assembled a crew of solo cleaners on Facebook to complete a 40,000 sq ft post-construction job in four days

Resources Mentioned

— Stephanie's consulting services & business bundles: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

— ZenMaid scheduling software (GPS clock-in/out, before & after photos): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Profit First (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/073521414X?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

— Cleaning For A Reason: https://cleaningforareason.org/

— PrismPro Cleaning Solutions website: https://prismprocleaning.com

— PrismPro Cleaning Solutions Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrismProCleaningSolutions/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Growing your commercial accounts is exciting until quality starts slipping. In this episode, Stephanie answers a listener question from Cameron of Virtuous Cleaning Services: how do you grow from 12 to 25 commercial accounts while keeping quality high? Drawing on Serene Clean's 77 commercial accounts (16 added this year alone), Stephanie breaks down the five systems her team uses to onboard new facilities, hand off accounts between cleaners, and catch problems before clients have to complain twice.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why cleaning checklists and walkthrough videos are the foundation of commercial quality
 — How to arrange checklists in the order a cleaner actually moves through the facility
 — Why a field lead should attend the first cleaning of every new account (and every cleaner transition)
 — How monthly check-in surveys and quarterly in-person walkthroughs keep feedback flowing before frustration builds
 — Why escalating after a complaint — with extra quality checks and proactive follow-up — keeps commercial clients long-term
 — The scope-of-work traps (floor machines, expendable supplies, "groundskeeper" duties) that can sign away your profit before the first clean

Resources Mentioned
 — Stephanie's quality control system breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5VddPy1IYs

— The ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group (free, no ZenMaid subscription required): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— CleanCon in Austin, TX — coming up at the end of September: https://www.mycleancon.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

What does the team behind your scheduling software REALLY think about the cleaning industry? Stephanie interviews four of ZenMaid's employees at the 2026 ZenMaid retreat in Barcelona, and the answers might change how you run your business.

In this special on-location episode, Stephanie sits down with Jorge (Head of Customer Success), Chris (full-stack developer), Nicole (Senior Content Marketing Manager), and Jim (Head of Design). They share what support tickets reveal about how organized a cleaning business really is, why hiding your prices can win you more clients, how to build a brand that actually fits your company, and the content mistakes that can erode customer trust without you even realizing.

📌 What You'll Learn

— The support-ticket "tell" that reveals within five minutes whether a cleaning business is organized or chaotic

— Why removing pricing from your booking form can eliminate an entire sales problem and create more human connection with customers

— Jim's two-part branding framework for small businesses: authentic visual identity plus a core belief you build everything around

— The two content mistakes that make cleaning businesses look unprofessional: inconsistent branding and inconsistent posting

— Why customers stop trusting a business that hasn't posted in months, even when the reviews are great

— How to bring retreat-style team bonding to a cleaning company where everyone works solo

Resources Mentioned

— CleanCon (September 28–30 in Austin, Stephanie will be there): https://www.mycleancon.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Brooke Kerstetter built The Neat Nest from nothing. She didn't have a background in cleaning or business role models, but now, almost a year in, she's running eight-hour cleaning days and considering making her first hire. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Brooke, owner and founder of The Neat Nest in State College, Pennsylvania, for a consulting-style deep dive into the operational gaps that hold back a solo cleaner. They cover pricing mistakes, the difference between flat-rate and hourly work, why organizing services need their own model, and all the math behind bringing on a first employee.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — How to calculate your production rate and stop underquoting jobs
 — Why organizing services should be billed hourly and treated as an add-on
 — What actually needs to be in place before you hire your first cleaner
 — The right way to think about a family business partnership (and how to protect the relationship)
 — Why raising prices and dropping a client can free up the time you desperately need
 — How to escape the "notebook" trap with scheduling software before chaos multiplies

Resources Mentioned
 — The Second Shift (book on household labor equity): https://www.amazon.com/Second-Shift-Arlie-Russell-Hochschild/dp/0380711575

— The Four Tendencies (book by Gretchen Rubin on internal vs. external expectations): https://www.amazon.com/Four-Tendencies-Indispensable-Personality-Profiles/dp/1524760919

— Profit First (book on managing business cash flow): https://www.amazon.com/Profit-First-Transform-Cash-Eating-Money-Making/dp/073521414X

— The Neat Nest on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Neat-Nest/100064185693597/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Two cleaning companies in one family! In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Kyleigh Lipsitz of The Blissful Clean (Grand Rapids, MI) and her mother, Lisa Temple, founder of Maid in Michigan. Lisa built her business from a stack of handwritten calendars, and Kyleigh took that framework and scaled her own business with software. They run separate residential cleaning companies two hours apart, but come to Filthy Rich Cleaners to share the systems, hiring philosophy, and sales approach that took Lisa's business to $1M in recurring revenue, and to discuss how Kyleigh is following the same playbook.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why switching from teams to solo cleaning increased pay AND efficiency
 — How to move from in-person walkthroughs to phone estimates without losing sales
 — Why phone estimates can actually protect you from underquoting bad jobs
 — The right way to position your business to attract better technicians
 — Why "the customer wants to say yes" should change how you sell
 — How delegating the phones and admin work unlocks real growth
 — The hard truth about AI phone assistants for cleaning businesses (and why they canceled theirs)
 — The compounding profit effect once you scale past break-even

Resources Mentioned
 — ZenMaid (scheduling software both businesses use): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Debbie Sardone (Lisa's business mentor / paid coaching program): https://debbiesardone.com/

— The Blissful Clean — https://theblissfulclean.com

— Maid in Michigan — https://madeinmichiganllc.com

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Vanessa Muir turned her knitting-group side gig into a cleaning company that doubled its revenue in a single year. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Vanessa, owner and founder of The Cleaning Guild in Fredericton, New Brunswick, to unpack how she built her business from two knitting-group clients into a six-person team. Vanessa shares the real numbers behind her pricing evolution, how she landed (and priced) her first big commercial contract, why she's walking away from a $4K/month account, and the hard-won lessons from firing her first three employees.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — How to price your services as you scale from solo cleaner to a team (and why hourly-then-flat-rate beats flat rate for first-time cleans)
 — Why some commercial contracts should be dropped even when they look "big and juicy"
 — The warning signs of a bad hire
 — How to transition long-time clients off of "only me" and onto your team
 — The exact metrics to start tracking first: leads, close rate, recurring conversions, and net MRR
 — Why tracking monthly recurring revenue changed everything for Serene Clean

Resources Mentioned
 — The Cleaning Guild: https://thecleaningguild.ca/

— ZenMaid (scheduling & booking): https://get.zenmaid.com/
 

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Rose Cavanaugh started cleaning houses in 2019 as a newly single mom who needed to make money. Seven years later, she runs a 175-client cleaning business with 15 techs and an office manager, and, best of all, she is 100% out of the field. In this episode, Rose sits down with host Stephanie to walk through how she built Patriot Endeavors / Rose's Cleaning Services in rural Central Texas. She talks about the terror of the first hire, learning her worth on pricing, closing nearly every walkthrough with confidence, and building a "family first" culture in a high-turnover industry. She also shares the systems shift — ZenMaid, QuickBooks, ACH invoicing — that lets the business run without her.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why "I'll take any job" is a survival mindset you have to outgrow once you hire staff

— How to build pricing confidence: do the walkthrough, vet the minimum first, and never budge on your number

— Why selling the value (not the price) is what closes 9 out of 10 walkthroughs

— How to relay client expectations to your team so quality doesn't get lost in translation

— The "family first" flexibility that turns parents and single moms into your most loyal staff

— Why letting go and delegating is the hardest skill for a growing owner

— How switching to ZenMaid, QuickBooks, and ACH transformed operations (and why losing a few clients was worth it)

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid (scheduling software, digital checklists, notes, client management): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Rose's Cleaning Services: https://www.facebook.com/p/Roses-Cleaning-100066975405899/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

0 years ago, there was barely any competition for cleaning businesses. Today, it feels like everyone and their mother has a cleaning business, so how do you actually stand out? In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Maria Dorian — owner of Task Away VA and a cleaning company that she now runs remotely from Spain. They dig into how the industry has transformed, why creativity beats budget when you're starting out, how to handle bad reviews and difficult clients, and red flags that owners should look for in current or prospective clients.

 📌 What You'll Learn

— How to stand out with creativity and hustle when you don't have a marketing budget

— Why consistency and communication are now non-negotiable (not optional extras)

— How to reframe a refund as a marketing cost instead of a fairness battle

— Why responding to a bad review is really about your future customers, not the angry one

— The client red flags to watch for, including same-day requests, serial service-hoppers, price obsession, and chaotic phone calls

— Why trusting your gut on safety concerns is never worth ignoring

— How to build policies and paper trails so the same problem never happens twice

 Resources Mentioned

— Task Away VA (Maria's virtual assistant company): https://taskawayva.com/

— Maria's previous Filthy Rich Cleaners episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgNrUVhaJDc

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Most people wait until they "feel ready" to do things like raise prices or hire staff. Sophia Tyler did the opposite and jumped straight in. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Sophia, the 24-year-old owner and founder of LadyDo in Longmont, Colorado, who launched her cleaning business at age 20. They dig into the messy early days of undercharging and overdelivering, the emotional work of raising rates on longtime clients, and how mindset, networking, and BNI became the engine behind her growth. Plus, a genuinely wild on-the-job story that you don't want to miss 👀

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why speed and confidence beat low pricing every time
 — How to raise your rates on existing clients without losing your nerve
 — Why "double your price and lose half your clients" can still leave you ahead
 — How BNI and word-of-mouth networking tripled Sophia's business
 — Why emotional regulation is a real business skill, not a soft one
 — The boundary-setting mistakes new owners make in their first year
 — A critical safety check every cleaner should add to their checklist

Resources Mentioned
 — You Are the Placebo by Dr. Joe Dispenza: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401944590?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

— Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins (the "cookie jar" concept): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1544512287?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

— Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470485884?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

— Katherine Zenkina (Manifestation Babe): https://manifestationbabe.com/

— BNI (Business Network International): https://www.bni.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

If you've ever wondered how to pull off a surprise quality check without terrifying your cleaner, you've come to the right place. In this solo episode, Stephanie answers a listener question from Kate in Australia about quality control checks and the practical side of making them happen. She walks through Serene Clean's exact QC form, the culture of "everybody checks everybody," the ideal timing for showing up, how often to check different staff members, and how feedback gets documented and shared with the team.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why your cleaning checklist is the foundation of every quality check

— How to build a QC form anyone on your team can follow

— Whether to arrive during the clean or after (and why in-person, real-time feedback is ideal)

— How to handle logistics: getting into the house, telling the tech, and telling the client

— How often to quality-check new hires vs. staff in good standing

— The color-coding and tracking-sheet system that keeps QCs proactive, not reactive

— How to document and share feedback so it counts for raises, bonuses, and warnings

— The "Pavlov" pro tip for turning quality-check anxiety into something your team looks forward to

Resources Mentioned

— Stephanie's YouTube video on Serene Clean's quality control system (from ~2 years ago): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UByNeDk--BM

— ZenMaid (daily calendar view + QC task scheduling): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— CleanCon (Austin, end of September): https://www.mycleancon.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Laid off from a 10-year cybersecurity career, Jose Razo used his severance to launch the cleaning business he'd been sitting on for years. He built it around one person: his own home's cleaner of six years. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Jose, owner of Allens Landing Cleaning just outside Houston, Texas. Jose shares how he went from tech professional to cleaning business owner in a matter of months, why he refuses to compete on price, and how he's building a premium brand from a two-person team.
 

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why execution beats knowledge and how to stop sitting on your business idea
 — How to build a premium cleaning brand from day one, even as the smallest company on the block
 — Why "we're not the cheapest" belongs on your website
 — How to structure pay and expectations so great cleaners want to work for you
 — The reason consistency is your biggest differentiator
 — How to win the first phone call and set realistic expectations on first-time cleans
 — Why free and discounted cleans are an investment, not a cheapened brand
 — How to leverage one apartment complex into a 13-property vendor relationship
 

Resources Mentioned
 — ZenMaid (scheduling & automation)
 — Notion (systems & documentation)
 — Claude / Claude Design (SOPs, branding, research)
 — Serene Clean (Stephanie's cleaning business)
 — Friendswood Chamber of Commerce
 — Allens Landing Cleaning (allenslandingcleaning.com) + Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allenslandingcleaning/
 

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

Two cleaners, the same feedback, but two completely different reactions. This told Stephanie everything she needed to know about who stays and who goes at Serene Clean. In this episode, Stephanie talks about why she views accountability as the single biggest predictor of whether someone will succeed on your team (or in your business). She walks through two active situations in her company right now: a beloved, long-tenured cleaner going through a rough patch who takes full responsibility for her mistakes, and a two-month hire who blames everyone but herself 👀
 

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why accountability is the telltale sign of who will succeed on your team
 — How to deliver negative client feedback without ruining a cleaner's whole day
 — Why you should praise in public and coach in private
 — How the "line of credit" model of trust helps you decide who gets the benefit of the doubt
 — Why you need to look at actions and see that how people react to stress reveals their real character
 — When to stop retraining and simply let someone go
 — How to proactively pull honest feedback from clients who love their cleaner and don't want to complain
 

Resources Mentioned
 — Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink
 — ZenMaid service rating features (for collecting internal client feedback)
 — ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group
 — The prior episode on paying for things you didn't break
 

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

If you're burnt out doing every clean yourself but terrified to hire, you're not alone! In this episode, Stephanie welcomes back Simone Angell of The House Mum to talk about a question posted in the ZenMaid Mastermind: how do you transition from doing all the cleaning yourself to building and leading a team? Simone, who just hit 30 employees running a luxury household-management company in Australia, and Stephanie unpack pricing, hiring, financial transitions, client notes, and the hard conversations.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why a growing waiting list should trigger a price increase (and how that funds your first hires)
 — How to handle the financial "pie" when you bring on your first cleaner without going broke
 — Why hiring out of desperation backfires and how to trust your gut instead
 — How to document client notes so any team member can step in seamlessly
 — Why you must pay yourself from day one, even if it's only 1% of revenue
 — How to frame a termination so it lands as kindly as possible
 — Why employment contracts and kit bonds protect the business you've worked to build
 — How part-time staff can be just as loyal and dedicated as full-timers

Resources Mentioned
 — The House Mum (https://housemum.com / @housemumhomeservices on Instagram)

— ZenMaid (booking form, scheduling, GPS clock-in/out, digital checklists): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group (original post by Courtney Burleson, May 14): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind
 

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

It's not a matter of IF you'll break something in a client's home, but a matter of when 😬 It happens to every cleaning business owner, and in this solo episode, Stephanie talks about things she and her team have broken, damaged, and replaced over seven years at Serene Clean — from a faucet that snapped in her hand to a priceless glass statue that couldn't be replaced. She breaks down who's responsible when staff damages items, why you should never hide it, and how reducing risk in your kit and scope of work protects your business in the long term.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why the employer (not the employee) pays when staff break something
 — The exact email template Serene Clean uses to notify clients about damage
 — Why hiding a broken item can quietly destroy your reputation
 — How to reduce risk by removing harsh products and risky tasks from your kit
 — When it's okay to stand your ground and refuse to pay for a damage claim
 — Why charging good rates and carrying insurance protects you when expensive accidents happen

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application 

Hiring is hard, but firing is harder — especially when it's the first time you have to do it.  In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Lee Anne Chevalier, owner of SerenLumi in Ithaca, New York, just hours after she performed her first-ever employee termination! Lee Anne walks through her decades in cleaning, rebuilding her business from rock bottom after moving states, and the timely story of a manipulative hire who tried to pressure her into committing unemployment fraud. 

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why "speed of trust" matters and how to extend it like a credit card, not a blank check
 — How to spot a manipulative hire before they poison your team
 — Why long-commute employees almost never work out long-term
 — How to protect your team (and your reputation) when an employee turns toxic
 — Why building a real brand from day one beats piecing things together
 — How to re-enter a market as a full brand after starting over

Resources Mentioned
 — ZenMaid (scheduling software, SOS feature, new app beta, Stripe + Mailchimp integrations): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— The ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— Serene Clean templates (purchased and adapted for SerenLumi): https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

— The Filthy Rich Cleaners episode with Cheryl Hajjar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9azk8CrpGE

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

Stephanie used to spend nothing on job listings for years. That's all changed now, and in this solo episode, Stephanie walks through Serene Clean's real numbers behind a month of aggressive hiring. She shares the May 2026 hiring funnel — from applications started to retained hires — and how much she spent on Indeed to get there. 

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why free job listing hacks on Indeed no longer work
 — Why Stephanie runs all interviews (group and secondary) on Zoom
 — What a 57% interview no-show rate really tells you about applicants
 — The full May hiring funnel: 395 applications started down to 5 retained hires
 — Why she refuses to call and remind candidates about confirmed interviews
 — What percentage of revenue to spend on recruiting (0.5–1.5% baseline, 2–4% during growth)
 — The mindset shift behind being willing to spend money to solve your biggest constraint

Resources Mentioned
 — ZenMaid Mastermind (Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— Indeed job post: https://www.indeed.com/job/daytime-residential-and-commercial-cleaning-technician-23e73d25ef635a46

— Previous episode on group interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzpln5-Z0-A

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/ 

Most cleaning business owners obsess over hiring, but few ask the people who actually stay why they stayed. In this in-person episode, Stephanie sits down with Ashley Seekamp, one of her very first hires at Serene Clean and now her longest-tenured cleaning technician at nearly seven years. They talk candidly about what it was like to build the company out of chaos, the growing pains of adding structure, the hard call to fire a beloved employee for theft, and the on-the-job moments that have shaped Serene Clean's policies.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why flexibility, safety, and being backed up by management beat a bigger paycheck for retaining staff
 — How adding "corporate" structure creates growing pains
 — Why you can't hire "hot bodies" and hope for the best
 — How to coach staff through trusting their intuition on unsafe client situations
 — The check-in process that makes employees feel like a person instead of just a number on the payroll
 — Why theft is a non-negotiable, no-second-chances firing 
 — How good employees notice when you hold the line
 — The real skill behind professional cleaning that outsiders never see

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

Owners are often terrified to raise prices, and Stephanie Pipkin completely understands why. In fact, her team, including Serene Clean's Customer Relations Manager, Katie, just did it across the board, but they came out with their highest close rate in years. In this special in-person episode, Stephanie sits down with Katie to break down the whirlwind of May: a price increase on 72 existing clients, a full switch from hourly to flat-rate pricing, built-in travel fees, and autopay. They talk about Serene Cleans' numbers and why they believe framing a price matters far more than the number itself.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — How to roll out a price increase without losing the clients you want to keep
 — Why switching from hourly to flat rate made selling easier, not harder
 — The psychology of why long-term clients resist increases more than new ones
 — How to build travel fees into one simple price (the "Amazon free shipping" trick)
 — Why every hour of labor has to work as hard as possible when staffing is your constraint
 — How "priority cleans" replaced "limited hour cleans" to kill the time conversation
 — The production-rate auditing system that flags every job over or under target in 15-minute increments

Resources Mentioned
 — ZenMaid Software: https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Serene Clean website: https://serene-clean.com

— ZenMaid Mastermind (Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

ZenMaid wants to be more than your scheduling software. In this episode, Stephanie sits down again with Amar Ghose, CEO of ZenMaid, to talk about how ZenMaid is thinking about the maid service industry and the problems it's setting out to solve. They talk about using AI as a thinking partner instead of a decision-maker, the new tools coming out of ZenMaid (MaidPop, the customer portal, and a training/onboarding app), an exercise that helps owners design genuine customer delight, and more!

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why giving AI more context beats short, Google-style questions (and how to start using voice notes to do it)

— How to use AI as a thinking partner to find your blind spots — without outsourcing the actual decision

— The "12-star experience" exercise for designing customer delight at every level of your business

— Why "I can just do that" is one of the most dangerous phrases an owner can say

— How MaidPop captures website leads in about two minutes of setup

— Why the best companies use best-in-class tools instead of one all-in-one platform

— Three books worth reading: The Goal, The Algorithm, and Incorruptible

Resources Mentioned

— MaidPop: https://www.maidpop.io/

— Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

— The Goal: 40th Anniversary Edition: A Process of Ongoing Improvement: https://www.amazon.com/Goal-Process-Ongoing-Improvement/dp/0884271951

— The Algorithm: The Hypergrowth Formula That Transformed Tesla, Lululemon, General Motors, and SpaceX: https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Hypergrowth-Formula-Transformed-Lululemon/dp/B0FFG5KFSK

— Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great: https://www.amazon.com/Incorruptible-Good-Companies-Great-Stay/dp/B0FWZZBPZB

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

After seven years, Stephanie recently built a real career path at Serene Clean, but it looks nothing like what most cleaning companies do. In this episode, she unveils the new four-level career path she launched: Cleaning Tech 1, Cleaning Tech 2, Senior Cleaning Tech 1, and Senior Cleaning Tech 2. She breaks down why she intentionally left some roles vague to future-proof the business, how she tied two new monthly bonuses to attendance and compliance, and why she deliberately skipped titles like "team lead" and "trainer." She also walks through exactly how she ran the numbers with AI to make sure the bonuses were affordable at their worst-case cost.
 

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why a too-simple structure can quietly cause turnover and stagnation
 — How to build a career path using behaviors you're already tracking
 — Why Stephanie set attendance qualification at 98%
 — How the rolling six-month attendance window actually works
 — Why she made the bonuses monthly instead of quarterly
 — How to calculate what a new bonus or benefit will cost you at its worst
 — Why she avoids team leads and the power dynamics they can create
 — How to future-proof roles by leaving responsibilities intentionally flexible
 

Resources Mentioned
 — Serene Clean Raise & Wage Guidelines (previous episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQngBPrIuWQ
— Molly Moran (Live Bright Consulting): https://mollymoran.com/
— Career Path Template ($15): https://serene-clean.com/downloads/career-path-template/
 

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

Matt Ricketts went from being a furloughed pilot back in the 2008 economic crash to owning a residential cleaning company doing $6M a year, but he didn't plan any of this. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Matt Ricketts of Better Life Home Services to talk about why he decided to own a cleaning business after being furloughed from his pilot job, and how he eventually scaled to 60+ cleaners across St. Louis. Matt shares the operational systems behind his "pod" model, why he switched from teams to solos, how he thinks about the numbers that drive growth, and where he sees private equity reshaping the industry.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why recurring revenue per week matters far more than your total customer count
 — How the "pod system" cuts drive time and keeps cleaners working close to home
 — The 500-to-1 hiring funnel Better Life uses to filter applicants
 — Why getting a new hire to 90 days predicts whether they'll last a year
 — How to fund great benefits with a customer-facing health and safety fee
 — The math behind spending $360 (or more) to acquire a single customer
 — The three pillars of "delight": operational excellence, custom experience, and memorable moments
 — Why solo cleaners generate more revenue per head than teams
 — How private equity and AI are about to reshape the cleaning industry

Resources Mentioned
 — Better Life Home Services: https://betterlifehome.com/

— Sight Stones (Matt's nonprofit — gifts for customers): https://sightstones.org/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

If you're prepping every cleaner's kit, tolerating time theft, or trying to force the wrong person into an office role, this one's for you 🥴 In this episode, Stephanie breaks down three examples from the past week of cleaning business owners doing too much, including why your cleaners should be responsible for their own kits and supplies, why time theft is a non-negotiable firing offense, and why pushing the wrong employee into an administrative role is costing you.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why owners should never be the ones prepping cleaner kits (and how to transition that responsibility)
 — How to pay cleaners fairly for 10 minutes of prep time so you can hold them accountable
 — Why GPS clock-in/clock-out is one of the most important features of any scheduling software
 — How to handle staff who turn off GPS tracking or clock in from home
 — Why "time theft" is still legitimate theft
 — How to spot when an employee is the wrong fit for an office role
 — Why problem-solving with technology matters more than knowing how to do something
 — How Stephanie's team documents SOPs using recordings + Claude to make processes plug-and-play
 — Why org charts and role clarity matter once you bring on admin help

Resources Mentioned
 — ZenMaid Mastermind (free Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— Claude AI (used for writing SOPs from recordings): https://claude.ai/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

Krista Radau didn't set out to build a cleaning empire; she just needed to help pay the bills! Six years later, she's running Extreme Clean Solutions in Oklahoma City with her husband, son, niece, and now her mom, and growing 30% a year without spending any money on ads 🤯 In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Krista to talk about starting a cleaning business in November 2019 (right before COVID), turning her husband's window cleaning company into a profitable upsell, why she walked away from a five-year Air Force Base contract, and how her TikTok handle "Queen of Clean OKC" is pulling in clients from other states.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — How Krista grew her business 30% per year using only word of mouth
 — Why she walked away from a five-year government contract mid-negotiation
 — How to combine window cleaning with house cleaning for a massive revenue lift
 — Her exact pricing on ovens ($50+), fridges ($80), and windows ($20 each)
 — Why "Google loves Google" and how to treat your Google Business Page like social media
 — How to build TikTok content that actually converts to bookings
 — Why systems, checklists, and policies protect you from awkward customer conversations
 — The squeegee method she preaches on every cleaning job
 — How to add coach light cleaning as a high-margin upsell
 — Why authentic, unpolished video outperforms scripted content every time

Resources Mentioned
 — Extreme Clean Solutions (Oklahoma City): https://extremecleaningsolution.com/

— ZenMaid (scheduling software): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Angela Brown / Savvy Cleaner (systems advice): https://www.youtube.com/c/AngelaBrownCleaning

— Krista's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@QueenofCleanOKC

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

Reviews are the lifeblood of a residential cleaning business, and the companies racking up hundreds of them have a system in place, including Serene Clean. In this episode, Stephanie breaks down exactly how Serene Clean has collected 471 (!!!) Google reviews, 64 Facebook reviews, and dozens of video testimonials over seven years. She walks through the leave-behind cards, QR codes, email signatures, and the brand-new "Record and Reward" incentive program that pays cleaning techs to bring in video reviews.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — Why reviews are the single most important piece of social proof for a local cleaning business
 — How to track reviews as a weekly KPI so you never go stale
 — The exact leave-behind card Serene Clean uses (front and back) to ask for written and video reviews
 — Why putting your review links on checklists, invoices, and email signatures multiplies your results
 — How to incentivize cleaning techs to actively collect reviews
 — The four questions Serene Clean asks every client for a video review
 — How the Record and Reward program stacks bonuses: $20 per video, +$30 for the first video of the week, +$10 for the second, plus a quarterly pot
 — Why video reviews outperform Google reviews when you're just starting out
 — The pain-point question Stephanie added after Alex Hormozi's conference to make video testimonials better for marketing
 — Where to repurpose video reviews so they keep working for you for years

Resources Mentioned
 — Serene Clean review card (front and back): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ksddeuPtVV2cZWVaQCZV4dw34USqMjil/view?usp=sharing

— Record and Reward Incentive Program document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A0vfHqOc-SnfXYr3wtBq-6Dmhjn773HdpzGUAj0CYJo/edit?usp=sharing

— Joe's video review (example): https://youtu.be/KHlrZraiCck?si=xD-qU9amX78W6qx6

— ZenMaid Mastermind (Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

Most cleaning business owners think they have a hiring problem, a marketing problem, or a cash flow problem, but Dan Platta disagrees. He says they actually have a clarity problem 🤯 In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Dan Platta, owner of Best Damn Bookkeeping and former operator of multiple cleaning, window, and home service businesses across the US. Dan breaks down the "Purgatories of Scaling," explains why bookkeeping is a finance activity (not a tax activity), and walks through the five spending buckets every service business owner should be tracking weekly.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — The three "purgatories" every cleaning business gets stuck in
 — Why doubling your revenue from $100K to $200K often means making less money
 — The five money buckets every cleaning business needs to track (and the % targets for each)
 — Why hiring a local bookkeeper or tax accountant for your books is usually a mistake
 — Why you should NOT sync your CRM to QuickBooks
 — How to reverse-interview candidates so the right people self-select in
 — The biggest hiring filter mistake owners make: "stop selling the job like it's easy"
 — Why your highest-producing cleaner is often the worst person to promote to manager
 — How to think about admin team spend (and the 15–17% sweet spot)
 — Why "growth is expensive" and how to brace your business (and team) for it

Resources Mentioned
 — Best Damn Bookkeeping: https://bestdamnbookkeeping.com

— Home Service Happy Hour Podcast (Dan's show): https://www.youtube.com/@HomeServiceHappyHour

— Hire Lead Chill (recruiting company Dan co-owns with Sean Day): https://hireleadchill.com

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

Free PR? Sign us up! It's not as far-fetched as it sounds, and Stephanie's team pulled it off last month with one well-crafted email. In this solo episode, Stephanie breaks down the exact media pitch her executive assistant, Veronica, used to land Serene Clean in two local news outlets in April. She talks about why charitable giving has been baked into Serene Clean's brand since its inception in 2019, how the Cleaning for a Reason partnership works, the PR pitch that worked to get Serene Clean in the local news, and more.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — How to structure a media pitch that local reporters will open (subject line + 150-word body)
 — Why leading with the community story is the formula that gets greenlit
 — How Cleaning for a Reason membership works and why $25/month is worth it for brand-building alone
 — How Stephanie structures Serene Clean's monthly giving budget (fixed + variable)
 — Why local TV is still the most trusted news source and reaches your ideal cleaning customer
 — The subject line and pitch email Serene Clean sent to land two media placements
 — Why corporate social responsibility is a long-term branding play

Resources Mentioned
 — WEAU news story on Serene Clean's Cleaning for a Reason partnership: https://www.weau.com/2026/05/01/local-cleaning-company-brings-free-house-cleanings-homeowners-fighting-cancer/

— Cleaning for a Reason (nonprofit partner, $25/month membership): https://cleaningforareason.org/

— ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— Sean Perry's previous episode on SEO and backlinks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJNnCWP4Pik

— Serene Clean's Fresh Start Project (free cleaning initiative): https://serene-clean.com/giveback/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

Reagan Bell was fired from a toxic cleaning job at 18. Four years later, she's running her own organic cleaning company in Orlando, and about to take it fully remote. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Reagan, the 22-year-old founder of Bell's Organic Maids, to talk about how she turned getting fired from a chaotic contractor job into launching her own business from scratch. They cover the systems she set up from day one, why she chose W2 employees over independent contractors, how she's promoting her first hire into a field manager role, and the plan she's following to transition to remote ownership when she moves across the country this summer.

📌 What You'll Learn
 — How to turn cleaning experience into a real business
 — Why W2 employees beat independent contractors for culture and risk protection
 — The exact software stack Reagan uses to stay organized (ZenMaid, Confluence, Notion)
 — How to promote your first cleaner into a field manager role with a stipend structure
 — Why automated client reminders are a non-negotiable
 — Small, thoughtful client retention gifts under $5 that drive real word of mouth
 — How Stephanie maintains team culture as a remote owner using Slack channels, weekly virtual meetings, and AI-powered positive reinforcement
 — Why signed service policies will save you when you run into the inevitable crazy client

Resources Mentioned
 — ZenMaid (CRM, scheduling, automated reminders, invoicing): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Confluence (systems and SOP documentation): https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence

— Notion (team hub for checklists, inventory, employee guidelines): https://notion.so/

— Slack (team communication and culture): https://slack.com/

— Stripe (payment processing): https://stripe.com/

— Gusto + Guideline (payroll and 401k): https://gusto.com/

— Indeed (hiring)
 — Canva (branded client postcards)

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/

✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/