How We’re Surviving COVID Running Service Businesses – Coffee with Danielle | Ep. 180 | Business Podcast

Summary

Danielle and I talk about how we’ve been surviving running service businesses during COVID.

Every Friday Danielle Jenkins, founder of Domestic Divas, and I do a live show called Coffee with Danielle at 8am PST, 11am EST on YouTube and talk all things about running a business. The episode is published here later in the day.

Danielle and I each run businesses doing millions in revenue each year. We grab a coffee and pull back the curtain on our businesses.

We talk about what’s working, what’s not, what software and systems we use, sales and marketing, our own wellness and other challenges and solutions we’ve discovered running a business.

Drop in live on Fridays on the EDGE’s YouTube channel, ask questions and join the conversation via chat or grab our recorded conversations on Fridays right here.

Hello Friends.

Danielle:

Welcome to the Edge.

Danielle:

Today we have a recorded session of Danielle and I having coffee in our friday sessions of coffee with Danielle and we talk about how we are surviving Covid. How are businesses survived it especially Danielle’s business, which is a service business and has had a lot of challenges because it requires people to be on the job site.

Danielle:

We share a bunch of things that we’ve been doing, how we’ve adjusted our businesses and some tips that you can use in your business as we’re coming out of this pandemic.

Danielle:

You’ll enjoy this episode.

Danielle:

Oh and remember, tune in live on friday mornings on Youtube where we actually stream live.

Danielle:

You can jump into the conversation on the chat and talk with us.

Danielle:

It streams eight a.m. Pacific time, 11 a.m. Eastern Standard time.

Danielle:

Just google the Edge podcast live on Youtube and it should come up.

Danielle:

Have fun with this episode. Here we go.

Danielle:

Welcome to the Edge podcast.

Danielle:

Your weekly playbook about the inner game of building a successful business, making you a happier, healthier and richer business owner And here’s your host, Brandon White.

Brandon:

Good morning.

Danielle:

I am just changing my name because I guess it logged into the company and I think my assistant has zoom calls today so I need to step out of no way we can leave it on here.

Brandon:

But I just needed to change my name.

Danielle:

So it wasn’t the company.

Brandon:

Yeah, I think we’re online.

Brandon:

We’re online, aren’t we?

Brandon:

Yes, but I think my user coming in was domestic divas cleaning.

Brandon:

Co zoom not Danielle.

Danielle:

Does that make sense?

Brandon:

Well, you’re here now is Daniel Jenkins.

Brandon:

I’m here.

Brandon:

Welcome, Welcome to the show.

Brandon:

Thank you.

Danielle:

I’m glad we’re having coffee.

Brandon:

I mean here it’s brunch.

Danielle:

So I’m calling it brunch to Brandon instead of coffee with Danielle.

Brandon:

I like that.

Danielle:

Well, how are you going to steal that?

Brandon:

It works especially for your Eastern standard time guests.

Brandon:

Right.

Danielle:

Yeah.

Brandon:

It does brunch with Brandon.

Danielle:

That could be good or it could be bad.

Danielle:

We’ll find out here in a minute.

Danielle:

I was thinking of, you know, having some crepes or some, you know, fruits or something. I thought it would be nice. Maybe I’m a mota.

Brandon:

Well you, I’ve seen some pictures lately that you seem to be eating well in that regard.

Brandon:

So maybe they’ll have some mimosa and waffles and eggs and with whipped cream syrup.

Danielle:

You can tell that I’m very hungry.

Danielle:

Yes.

Danielle:

Yes. I guess it’s eight o’clock there. Have you not eaten breakfast yet?

Brandon:

No, I haven’t. I’m trying to, I’m on a, I’m trying to be on the 75 day hard.

Danielle:

Oh, I’ve done that.

Danielle:

Um Yes. And as great as it is nutrition and health wise, it’s everything mental instead of physical.

Brandon:

So many people do it for the physical benefits. But I found when I did it, it was very good for the mental side of things. It was very, I have a lot of dedication and a lot of Commitment.

Brandon:

But when it comes to that 75 hard challenge you really are even more committed and dedicated.

Brandon:

Well, the truth is I haven’t even, I’ve just seen, I don’t even, who is that a David Goggins thing or something else?

Danielle:

To be honest.

Danielle:

I don’t know who the founder or the creator of it is. I just saw it on instagram once, you know, the 75 hard challenge. And I googled it and I thought, oh, I do all those things already. So let’s let’s make it hard And boy was it hard?

Brandon:

Yeah, I think I’m going to do, um, I call it the B 3 65 program, B 3 65 X.

Danielle:

Which is, I think I’m gonna alter it. I mean, I ride my bike all the time. I lift.

Danielle:

I think the main thing for me is I got to get the, I’ve had this like lingering a few percent of body fat from covid, not from having covid from being from, from covid from like this whole, yeah thing, whatever.

Danielle:

And I’ve got to bust it down.

Danielle:

So that’s my, that’s my real thing.

Danielle:

And that’s just all nutrition.

Brandon:

So yeah, I’m really hungry. I’ve only had, well, I haven’t any sweets and then my craving them until you said brunch with Brandon at all yet.

Danielle:

But yeah, I’ve had, I did have pizza last night and I had two Sandwiches, but that’s it this week that’s impressive.

Danielle:

That’s that’s good.

Danielle:

You know what one thing I need to tell you, I have went through many stages of fitness, I used to be, you know, very big on the bulking and the gaining and the big muscles.

Danielle:

That was a thing once way back.

Danielle:

And then I wanted to slim down and then I gained some weight loss and weight.

Danielle:

So I kind of had like a, you know, up and down uh, fitness and health kind of journey and when it came to losing weight or, you know, those little covid pounds or whatever you wanna call them, the hardest thing and what everybody thinks uses.

Danielle:

I count calories and stuff like that.

Danielle:

Yes, you do.

Danielle:

But I found that the second I cut things out, like I’m a big pasta lover, big steak lover.

Danielle:

And when I cut those things out, I wanted them that much more.

Brandon:

So then when I did have them, I had the biggest bowl of pasta or the biggest steak.

Brandon:

So, and then I just started having like small pieces, you know, once a week or something and then it was enough.

Brandon:

I didn’t call them cheat meals. I just said it was like, you know, part of, part of the lifestyle change.

Brandon:

So here we are.

Brandon:

Yeah, I think I did the body for life.

Danielle:

Have you ever seen that?

Danielle:

You know that guy’s, yeah, he’s older, but he’s pretty famous, He actually got Covid and he’s recovering, but forget his name, but sort of like that program or when you said cheat meals, Sundays was cheat meals and trying to keep that.

Danielle:

But yeah, when I got in my late thirties, I decided that lifting weights and being big was probably going to be a problem for my knees.

Danielle:

Yeah.

Danielle:

So then I, I think I went from at my biggest, I was like 1 89 then I went to 1 48 Then 1 42 when I started riding a bike and it’s worked out, I’m not that tall.

Danielle:

So, no, no.

Danielle:

Okay.

Danielle:

I mean you are, I actually talked about you all the time and how, how you just, you know, biking is just part of your life and you do more biking than I know a lot of people who, you know, go to the gym and go, you know, it’s part of their routine in the morning.

Danielle:

You know, they cycle or they walk or they run and you just do it like a hobby and I just think that’s the coolest thing.

Danielle:

I think it’s amazing.

Brandon:

Yeah.

Danielle:

And I looked in your ventures like you post the coolest pictures like the other day I saw on your instagram, the modern family house.

Danielle:

So I thought that was super cute, very cool.

Danielle:

I love, you’re watching your ventures and you know, it’s pretty cool because like I go on a lot of little trips and you know, see different places of the world.

Danielle:

I mean, pretty Covid, I did now I just kind of see Canada, I would just find, you know, we did Montreal and we went up to Muskoka last weekend or sorry the weekend before.

Danielle:

So you know, I like to do little trips and try food and different wines and things like that.

Danielle:

But then I see other people’s trips.

Danielle:

So cool.

Brandon:

You know, like places that I would never go, I would never think to go to the modern family house.

Danielle:

Well the crazy part is one of our companies has a project down there and that house is literally the next street over and I read about the neighborhood because all these L A neighborhoods have like cool things and they’re like, oh the modern house, family and actually the house next to it I think was the neighbor’s house in modern family as well.

Brandon:

So I got to take a picture but they’re redoing it when I want to take my picture there.

Danielle:

I’m sure they’re used to it.

Brandon:

But all these workers were looking at me like I was nuts.

Brandon:

But yeah, I mean you are but well maybe, but I think next is going to be the playboy mansion, which is which is apparently run down and and a mess.

Danielle:

But I don’t know, maybe you have to take a picture by the gate.

Danielle:

I don’t know.

Danielle:

But yeah, I write my like riding my bike, I think that the, I encourage everybody to get into biking mainly because you see things that you would, you would just never see that driving by in a car.

Danielle:

I mean you could go see the modern family house if you drove there, but it’s not really quite the same on your bike.

Danielle:

Yeah.

Brandon:

And you’re getting the physical benefits, the mind clearing benefits.

Danielle:

You know, it’s like I go to the gym.

Danielle:

I need to know because I want to like I have, I need to for my mental sanity, you know?

Danielle:

So yeah, I just think it’s the coolest thing when I see your stories.

Danielle:

Like I almost get excited like, oh, Brandon posted, Where is he going today?

Brandon:

I feel obligated people say that, but I haven’t seen any pictures of you in the gym yet.

Danielle:

Why don’t you put, I mean, I see these big dinners that you have that just makes me feel hungry.

Danielle:

They look spectacular.

Danielle:

And some pictures by the pool, which definitely looks like you’re relaxing.

Danielle:

Yeah.

Danielle:

And I think, you know, I kind of based my, my social media so you know, obviously social media being a part of life these days.

Danielle:

You know, people like to see kind of who you are and what you’re about.

Brandon:

I think, you know, go to the gym, having a coffee in the morning and walking my dog.

Danielle:

Those are just like normal parts of life, like every day, parts of life for me, it was just like brushing my teeth, you know, so I’m not going to put the picture on instagram and I brush my teeth but you know, adventures and things like that.

Danielle:

I like doing things like that on my social media because and a lot of people don’t take the time to enjoy those things in life and you know, even the first time you and I spoke and you said oh you know make sure you actually take some downtime because it’s hard for me.

Danielle:

So I try to really emphasize that because I am addicted to working and doing all of the things for the company and everything.

Brandon:

So when I actually have some time I like to push, not push it, but you know say like everybody needs to take some downtime and the beauty of the beauty of it is I can work anywhere.

Brandon:

Like you know when I spoke with you when I was in Montreal up in Muskoka, you know, Yes, I took the weekend, my other half and I went up there and we did a little trip and I was also working, you know, I was doing some projects up there and having some meetings.

Brandon:

So it’s nice.

Brandon:

I like that work life balance that I can have, you know while seeing the world in little places and still adventuring, what do you what do you think the cause and root of being addicted to work is I’m a big results person, a big completion, you know, task checker offer or kind of person.

Brandon:

So for me and it’s funny you bring this up because I had a girlfriend reach out to me yesterday and she said, hey, I’m currently working for my brother, he’s a great guy, paid well, great mentor, but I want to go out of my own, but I don’t know where to start, I want to do something on my own without working for my brother.

Brandon:

And I said, oh that’s great, you know, exciting your brother is a great guy, I also know him, you know, why are you doing this?

Brandon:

And she said I want to venture out, I just want to have something for my own, you know, do something for myself.

Danielle:

And I said, okay, that’s exciting.

Brandon:

And she said, so I was hoping you could tell me where to start and I said I can definitely help you, you know, with the business side of things, so what are you thinking about?

Brandon:

And she said, well I was hoping you’d tell me or give me some ideas on where to start on a, like what kind of business will start.

Brandon:

And I was actually kind of thinking that we would bring this up today in our, in our little brunch with Brandon because I said to her, I said, I’m so happy for you that you want to go out on your own, but you really need to find something that you like because if you don’t as we both know and everybody who’s probably listening being self employed, an entrepreneur or business, you do this 24 7, it’s your life, you know, there’s no 9 to 5, there’s no clock in and clock out, so you have to love it because there are grueling hours, there are weekends, there are evenings, early mornings, all of those things, so I said I can’t give you like what, what you want to do in business, like you have to enjoy it.

Brandon:

Right, so coming back to your question in why I’m addicted to work, I went through little stages of our company, you know, just looking at the one company, the cleaning company, for example, when I first started, I was cleaning myself, that was the first sense of accomplishment, success, you know, I would go in myself, clean those homes myself, That would be a great feeling when the client would go, oh my goodness, my house looks amazing, thank you so much.

Brandon:

See you next week, here’s your money and like would rave about it, that was a sense of accomplishment.

Brandon:

And then when like I hired my first staff member, that was the next sense of accomplishment, you know, because now it’s like we’re getting double the work done and I’m not doing everything on my own, so then it’s just been stepped on stage is like that, So now my day is full of exciting, zoom calls with new clients, new contracts, new, you know, vendors, potentially new partners, things like that and that is a sense of accomplishment, right?

Brandon:

So I get excited in the morning and I go get Brandon today, I get to talk to this person today, I get to do this today and then when those are done and then I’m working on proposals and quotes and I’m getting super excited about that.

Brandon:

And then I get that email that goes okay, you know, like welcome to the team or yes, we’re going to do this with you and that’s the sense of accomplishment.

Brandon:

So that’s where I get, I think that quote unquote addiction come from because I just love it, I get so excited all the time do you think that’s a dopamine rush?

Brandon:

Yes, definitely.

Brandon:

It’s so exciting even now, like I’ve been doing this like I’ve kind of been in the office and you know doing those kind of things more the business development side of things and still, you know, I have great managers and great team members that go out and do the, the business development along with me, so do I really need to know, but I love doing it and I love being on there with our managers and you know, people always say, oh, you know, you’re the owner and I go, yeah, like why are you even here it is because I love it, I want to know all about the operations, I want to know all about these cool things and where we’re getting into and I want you guys to know you can call me, you know, things like that.

Brandon:

And that’s not only the customer service side of things, but that rush of like yes, we just won.

Brandon:

We got this contract way to go team to, they love us, you know, just like all of those little things that we just celebrate all the time.

Danielle:

They were big on that the celebration of the positives.

Brandon:

Even if it’s not necessarily we’ve won the contract over or we’ve been accepted or anything like that.

Brandon:

It’s that whole step up to that, you know, great zoom call guys.

Brandon:

That was amazing energy.

Brandon:

You know, we they love us, don’t worry, they love us.

Brandon:

They’re totally going to take our contract, right? So things like that. If we really do celebrate those things in our company, I think it’s super important.

Brandon:

So I saw you doing proposals this week. Are you doing more of the commercial stuff now? I mean, do you actually have to write the proposal for residential houses?

Danielle:

No, so on the residential side, it’s pretty much a standard contract.

Danielle:

Standards complete uh, you know, things are very standard for residential, whether you have 1000 square foot home or a 10,000 square foot home.

Danielle:

It’s just, it’s very similar.

Brandon:

Commercial is very much different. We’ve seen a lot of change over the last even, you know, six months just with Covid, you know, we’ve had to implement different policies in our proposals now because of the covid vaccination because of Covid mandates and just those things alone.

Brandon:

So prior to Covid or in the beginning stages of Covid, our proposals are pretty you know, standard, pretty much a template.

Brandon:

But now things are changing all the time because every location has different policies, different standards, different rules, not only towards Covid, but also safety, things like that.

Brandon:

So when we go in and you know, meet with a client or have a zoom call and go through all of these basic things.

Brandon:

We have to address all of them and make sure that we are going to do the right thing because when we step on, we don’t want to come on and go, oh you guys don’t allow this or oh this is a policy you guys have that we have to, you know, deal with and and all of those things.

Brandon:

We don’t want to have that first impression on the job the day of and then it be a total disaster.

Brandon:

So we want to make sure that all those things are and done prior and I love doing them.

Brandon:

So we pretty much dropped them.

Brandon:

My commercial manager myself and some of our offices that we go through, you know, the notes and stuff like that. They draft them and then I go through them and make sure everything is is good to go and then I get excited.

Brandon:

There are people are people cleaning.

Danielle:

I mean are people back in the office?

Danielle:

Well no, not your office.

Brandon:

I assume you’re mostly remote when we’re going to talk about operations at some point today, but or operations software. But are the your commercial clients like are you cleaning as much?

Danielle:

I’m just curious if people are actually back in the office.

Danielle:

I see a lot of traffic on the roads around here but, and you know from here to actually L. A definitely as it is, I don’t know, say it’s back to normal but The four or five is really crowded when I go down there.

Danielle:

The 101 and the 280 up here are crowded but not like they used to be. So I was just curious if people are, I mean you would know because you’re cleaning the offices, maybe they clean the offices every day anyway. I don’t know.

Danielle:

Yeah, great question.

Brandon:

So right now, like I said, you know, we have been going through a lot of waves busy all the time, but just different ways if that makes sense. So for example, so about june july a lot of the clients that we, when I talk about clients, I’m talking about commercial at this point.

Brandon:

So when I say june july some of our clients that we had that we were cleaning maybe once, twice a week.

Brandon:

Their office spaces now we’re cleaning daily, some of the locations that we were cleaning daily.

Brandon:

Pre covid now we’re cleaning 24 7, some of the locations that are that were never clients of ours and now like for example August and this month we are doing a lot of preparation for people to come back to the office October November or new year.

Brandon:

So we have this one location, it’s about 58,000 square feet of office space, warehouse space, employee lunch room space, it’s it’s quite a lot.

Brandon:

And so we are spending, you know, we put together a plan in our proposal for the next two months where we are breaking down every day, so we have staff there 16 hours a day, two shifts and they are cleaning the space top to bottom floor scrubbing while washrooms that have not been used for a year because last March or I guess it’s been a year and a half now, last March, everybody kind of left for two weeks and then never came back.

Brandon:

Right.

Brandon:

So it’s all these little things that were preparing locations for people to come back, some people are back in the offices, but then it’s also limited.

Brandon:

So some people are working three days a week at the office and then the rest from home. So we find kind of a very operations with other companies and how they’re doing things, but it’s funny to me because offices that people are not working at that are working from home, but then we have golf courses that we do work with that were there, you know two shifts a day that everybody’s there like everything is normal.

Brandon:

So it just I think it just depends on you know their own company policies and their own guidelines and government regulations that they’re going through right now with Covid.

Brandon:

So yeah it’s quite different and it just depends like we can’t really go into a commercial proposal right now and go this is what we think.

Brandon:

It just really depends on that company’s culture and how they’re dealing with everything.

Brandon:

Yeah it’s sort of crazy. I I see some I look at things sometimes it’s totally back to normal as if nothing is wrong or happen and then in other places you see it much more cautious.

Danielle:

I don’t know about you Danielle but I’m not freaked out by the Covid thing.

Danielle:

But we had R.

Danielle:

R.

Danielle:

C. E. O. Of one company get Covid. He is a retired green beret.

Danielle:

He’s in shape is what I’m saying.

Danielle:

Like he’s not a He’s younger he’s in his 30s and he got it from his daughter and it basically wiped him out.

Danielle:

I don’t want to say you almost died like Benny is not very happy.

Danielle:

Yeah I’m so sorry that’s okay.

Danielle:

Then he just woke up from his nap so he can hear something outside so I’m sorry it’s okay.

Brandon:

The for our listeners.

Danielle:

Benny is Danielle’s is it a miniature bulldog?

Danielle:

He’s a french bulldog french bulldog sorry but he french bulldogs are they little because he looks little pictures, He’s little.

Danielle:

He’s only about £30. 030.

Brandon:

That’s actually big.

Danielle:

Yeah, but he’s very muscular.

Brandon:

He’s um, he’s a muscular little dog, so he’s only about a foot tall.

Danielle:

Like he’s not big, but he’s stocky. So yeah, that’s my little man. You can find him on instagram.

Brandon:

Yeah, he’s funny. He’s a cute little dog.

Danielle:

The what we’re, oh, so the guy on our team gets it basically.

Danielle:

Wait, is gets it, his ex wife got it.

Danielle:

Who is also in the army and set, she doesn’t have any major symptoms.

Danielle:

He goes four days on and off, can’t sleep yada yada during some diet.

Danielle:

Some days he’s fine.

Danielle:

He’s on the zoom calls.

Danielle:

Sometimes he’s not and then Friday his oxygen level falls to like 90% because he was using the little finger thing that some of us do to practice breasts and all this stuff.

Danielle:

And his mom says he is a nurse practitioner and says, you gotta come to hospital.

Danielle:

Well, turns out thank God he did because he had pneumonia and it was just progressing significantly and he called me, he’s like, hey, look, I’m out, you know, I’m done and he was out like literally out for four days.

Danielle:

I couldn’t do anything, you know, came back to life.

Danielle:

But that’s just like, I don’t, I’m not scared of getting sick.

Danielle:

I mean I am scared of getting sick or if you’re going to die.

Danielle:

But um, I just don’t really have time right now right now to be sick.

Danielle:

And then another guy on our team got it and he actually doesn’t really know where he got it.

Danielle:

He thinks he got it from a doctor’s office because he’s been home.

Danielle:

You know our team is mostly remote on that company and he basically has been dead.

Danielle:

He went to the hospital and got I forget what medication they gave him.

Danielle:

But he got it through an I.

Danielle:

V.

Danielle:

Twice and just two days ago he was able to leave the house in the first time in two weeks without being nauseous.

Danielle:

Like yeah it’s unpredictable.

Danielle:

You know what I mean?

Danielle:

Uh It really is Brandon like you know I’m sure it’s the same down in uh in L.

Danielle:

A.

Danielle:

There as it is for us as well.

Danielle:

But I have it’s so hard to know right Because and I don’t want to make light of the situation by any means because there are people that have gotten extremely sick.

Danielle:

People that have, you know died.

Brandon:

Unfortunately people who have went through it been positive for Covid and have not even had any symptoms.

Brandon:

You know, we’re just talking to hold it the virus, not even the whole vaccination stuff.

Brandon:

So during covid I was very cautious.

Brandon:

You know I worked a lot from home, our office staff worked from home, our staff on the residential side.

Brandon:

We actually weren’t able to work for a few weeks. The government said that residential cleaning was not allowed me being me terrible that like totally crushed your revenue totally 1000%.

Brandon:

So I was prepared.

Danielle:

But again I’m not sure what it was like down in L. A. Or even just the U. S. In general.

Brandon:

Yeah. Just for our listeners. I’m in san Francisco. I’m in half moon that in or half moon base you I don’t want I don’t want to be characterized as much as you know, L. A. Is a cool place. Danielle. I am a northern California guy who visits L.

Danielle:

A.

Danielle:

For for business.

Brandon:

I just don’t want to be our listeners are probably like Brandon did Brandon moved to L. A. No.

Danielle:

Brandon did not move to L. A. He lives in half a day and he’s not leaving for a while.

Danielle:

But but yeah.

Brandon:

Anyway so keep going with your.

Danielle:

Yeah because I didn’t know that when we talked when we talked.

Danielle:

I didn’t, well we went through your whole life story but we really did the I didn’t realize that you couldn’t work for a few weeks.

Danielle:

Like that crushed you.

Danielle:

How’d you do that?

Danielle:

Yeah. So when everything kind of hits. So I believe it was March one last year and all of a sudden it was you know our government was saying okay this covid thing is here, we need to go on a two week lockdown to flatten the curve.

Brandon:

That was the big thing up here in Canada to flatten the curve and you know after two weeks of a lockdown, everything will go back to normal.

Brandon:

So I can’t quite remember if it was the first two weeks of March.

Brandon:

No, it was the last two weeks of March because This year 2000 21 2020 2020, we’re back in 2020.

Brandon:

Okay.

Brandon:

Yes.

Danielle:

So when that happened we again we have our commercial side, we have our residential side.

Brandon:

So on the residential side I said, okay guys like that’s it, we’re not working for two weeks.

Brandon:

So I took that time I didn’t not work for two weeks.

Danielle:

I still paid by staff for those two weeks because like hello, two weeks last minute the government has just say like okay, nobody’s working.

Brandon:

So we still did everything as normal.

Brandon:

I was still in the office at home, I started working at my home home office and I kind of just took the time to finesse some things within the company.

Brandon:

So just some foundational things, just some policies, nobody really knew what this whole covid thing was.

Brandon:

Right.

Brandon:

So I remember it very vividly because we had a team or I guess a company called April one that was booked to do and then we were going to go back to work.

Brandon:

So we had this, this zoom called booked and then it was you know we had the zoom call and there was no light at the end of the tunnel.

Brandon:

It was like, you know now the two week lockdown has been extended to two months and now it’s this and now this is what we’re not gonna be able to do.

Brandon:

So we had this zoom call because the zoom call agenda was initially supposed to be about getting back to work after this two week lockdown.

Brandon:

What we’re going to talk to our clients about how we’re going to protect ourselves with this new, you know, mini virus that has come to play and you know, we’re going to do some deeper cleaning and you know, like, like silly things like that because you really have no idea.

Brandon:

And so then I presume call it was like okay guys, like we’re not going back to work tomorrow, we’re on monday, so we’re gonna figure something out.

Brandon:

So I said like stay tuned.

Brandon:

So from that point on I was like okay, like we cannot take, I can’t like you know myself, I could probably handle it if it’s just myself, but I have a whole company of people who need to work.

Brandon:

You know, I can’t just go okay bye guys, stay home and figure out how to make money because you can’t do it here.

Brandon:

So and it wasn’t just the cleaning industry, I mean everybody was kind of on that lockdown.

Brandon:

So I kind of started doing some digging.

Brandon:

I spoke with our lawyers, I just me being me dug and dug and dug and dug. And so it’s funny the Canadian government put out a few different kinds of documents and so one of them that they said about the people who are essential.

Brandon:

So for the longest time we were able to if you were essential.

Brandon:

And again I don’t know if it’s the same in the states or not but essential businesses were able to stay open which was L.

Brandon:

C. B. O. Convenience stores, gas stations and like walmart and Mcdonald’s and Tim Hortons were considered essential.

Brandon:

So but then everything else was not so you know we weren’t essential like things like that.

Brandon:

You know little services, window cleaners weren’t essential just like all kinds of things were not essential.

Brandon:

So in the non essential and essential list and initially said housekeepers, window cleaners, each trough cleaners, anything like that in the service industry were not able to continue working.

Brandon:

Me being me dug and found this document that the government had then put on their website that said that anybody who provides sanitization, maintenance, cleanliness and organization to residences, commercial, industrial or any kind of dwelling was able to work.

Brandon:

They were considered essential.

Brandon:

I thought okay we’re good to go.

Brandon:

So I then kind of took I took another two weeks because at that point I thought if I’m going to actually do this, I need to have Like everything covered right all of my bases covered because at this point the government were threatening on, you know, $20, fines jail time.

Brandon:

Like it was, it was so uncertain of what could happen.

Brandon:

So you know, I then started doing digging on, you know, covid cleaning, you know, what does this look like?

Brandon:

Does it look like a regular virus? Do you need to wear a hazmat suit? You know, it was just so uncertain. So I started doing that. And then after all of that we did some covid training zoom calls with our team and we put them back out and I had smaller cleaning businesses in the area, message me and go, oh my God, aren’t you scared of?

Brandon:

You know, what’s going on? Are you guys staying open? What’s the plan? You know you as a business owner, You know what are your thoughts here? So I said listen like I’m gonna fight and die trying.

Brandon:

I have 30 people at the time that need paychecks and then you know, I can’t pay them out of my own pocket for 456 months. So we’re going to keep working. And the funniest thing is Brandon I said to everybody on the zoom call when I said, you know, we’re going to go back, things are gonna look a hell of a lot different and this is what we’re gonna, you know, look like and how our days are going to be and we had to buy, I think I purchased like $6000 worth of gloves, like $4000 worth of masks.

Brandon:

Like, like I’m talking like the heavy duty mask, like just things that you just never know. But I went into kind of panic mode because I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know if a client was going to be different than be clients all of these things.

Brandon:

And So I said to everybody. So at the time we had about 600, No, I’m gonna save a 500 residential clients.

Brandon:

And so I said to all of our staff, I said, Okay, so what we’re going to send out this email saying that based on this guideline and this is what the government has said. We are going to come back if you would like us to come back, let us know we will get you into our schedule.

Brandon:

We’re opening as of this date. So we were only off for about a month.

Brandon:

The rest of the cleaning businesses were off for about four.

Brandon:

And when I sent out that email because I said to all of our staff, we probably won’t get as busy as we were pre covid because one people don’t have money to people are scared. Three people are going to be home and you know, they don’t want are virus infected.

Brandon:

Human diva’s going into their homes or like whatever the reason may be right.

Brandon:

So I said we’re probably not going to be as busy, but at least it’s something, it’s something to keep us going, it’s something to get us back out there by the time everybody else is good to go will be, you know, back and full tilt.

Brandon:

So we sent a female and I’m not kidding when I say every single one of our 500 plus clients can that except to So yeah, it was absolutely amazing, unexpected.

Brandon:

Then we kind of had to go back to the panic mode again because now we’re going, oh my God, like what are we gonna do now?

Danielle:

So on top of them coming back with everybody going back into the workforce when with all of this going on and kind of a little nervous as well because the government could have like who knows what they could have done.

Brandon:

But the team has always known that I’ve kind of had their back and again I will die trying to fight the, you know, whatever rules they have.

Brandon:

So when we were doing that, but then we had so many more clients come in, so we’re now going back into the workforce with Covid.

Brandon:

Now we’re starting our diva training program.

Brandon:

We had, I think five at the time join us. So within one week it was just like hiring training, going back in the workforce, wearing equipment and supplies that we had never even thought of before.

Brandon:

Right. And so it was all of these crazy things all going in at once and and we were able to get through covid and shortly after going back in on the residential side are commercial side like quadrupled super quick.

Brandon:

You know, you guys are actually open great, we need, you were doing probation offices, fire stations, police office stations just because they needed that 24 7 cleaning and sanitization and we were able to kind of get our foot in the door because we have taken the time to pivot, learn about this new thing, stay on top of the trend.

Brandon:

I don’t want to call it like a positive trend but it was a trend you know of of life that we had to get used to in our, in our current world.

Brandon:

So with all of those things I think we were able to get through covid quite well to be honest. And uh here we are a year and a half later.

Brandon:

So do you think that whole thing really prepared? Like you know, some businesses owners sort of well down here in the bay area was pretty extreme.

Danielle:

So they closed businesses.

Danielle:

I didn’t really understand how anybody thought that they were going to survive.

Danielle:

Some of them, some of them did.

Danielle:

But going through that whole experience which we all experienced, you think that prepared you for something that you wouldn’t have otherwise be prepared for like in the future made you more resilient 100% every time I do mentorship with people, I always say, I mean you can only use to prepare so much.

Danielle:

You can only think of the worst so much.

Danielle:

I mean how many of us actually thought there would be a virus that would come in and change the world for?

Danielle:

I mean what we’re in our second year almost, right?

Danielle:

So what we are in our second year, but I mean two full years of this virus and the way the world changed dramatically.

Brandon:

I mean not even just because of the virus, but now we’re experiencing what I see up here.

Brandon:

Especially and again, I’m not sure if it’s the same down there, but like segregation in regards to the vaccine, right?

Brandon:

So there’s so many things that we’re not only even just as a cleaning company.

Brandon:

We’re not just preparing for going into the work force protecting ourselves against the virus.

Brandon:

So masks gloves, extra disinfecting materials, things like that.

Brandon:

We’re also now dealing with HR things and lot and like employment law things and all of you know those things that are in the back office people don’t really see and I think going through that has definitely made me more, I don’t want to stay aware.

Brandon:

I’ve always been aware, but now I’m always thinking like, okay, so what happens if this happens again on another extreme like what are we going to do?

Brandon:

Do we what are we seeing in 2345 years, right?

Brandon:

And we just never know really.

Brandon:

But I think going through that and going as quickly as I did, you know, pivoting, that’s one thing I do and I am very proud of myself for doing where I could have sat back and went, oh the government shut us down. Cool. I’m just gonna sit on my couch for 34 or five months and all my employees okay.

Brandon:

You guys are good, right? Like see you in six months when we reopen like you know, there’s so many things but it’s sad because that’s unfortunately what a lot of business owners had no choice.

Brandon:

They had to do that. But then a lot of other people I found were just like, okay, the government said this, okay, we’re good, we’re just going to stay, right. So there was actually a lot of cleaning businesses up here who did that.

Brandon:

And you know, we have, I don’t, I hate even saying this, but they like their clients have lost them or they’ve lost those clients.

Brandon:

Unfortunately they’ve called us and went, hey are cleaning company or cleaning lady shut down her business because the government said that they were no longer allowed to work, but we see you guys are open. So you know when we hire you.

Brandon:

So great breath unfortunate for them, I wish everybody had that resilience and kind of fighter ethic and them to kind of get through it.

Brandon:

I mean if God only knows what’s gonna happen if the government has to come to the office and like who knows right?

Brandon:

Like we, we don’t know. But all we can do is is push and try and we had no problems. Right? Everything seems to be a find that looking at potential other issues.

Brandon:

I’m proud of how quickly I, I resolved the current issues to the best of my ability.

Brandon:

I mean obviously, you know, I wish I could get rid of Covid, but I can’t. So I did what we could for our company and then just everything else.

Brandon:

I think you just really not keep that in the back of your mind. And even now because we’re again, we’re not only experiencing the stuff about dealing with Covid, We’re dealing with short staffing people that don’t want to work now. So we have a great crew, great company of staff. Our managers are great. Our divas are great. Just everybody in our company is so phenomenal.

Brandon:

But we’re growing at such an exceptional rate on the client side.

Brandon:

But hiring is next to impossible right now.

Brandon:

So we are, you know, hiring were paying well where we have so many great things about joining our company and as such stuff, there’s, you know, every location in Canada right now is struggling to find staff And the government giving people $2,000 a month to stay at home until still up there.

Brandon:

Well mm no, it seems like you’re generating the tax money to pay that.

Brandon:

Yeah, for real.

Brandon:

Yeah.

Brandon:

I mean that’s another thing, I mean, honestly do I care?

Danielle:

No, because we’re living a great life.

Brandon:

My stuff are living a great life.

Brandon:

I mean, you know, we’re not sitting at home drinking beer on the couch and collecting two grand a month.

Danielle:

We’re actually, yes, we have to work.

Danielle:

But we’re also enjoying life as we go.

Brandon:

We’re also growing because this is the thing, the people and I say this all the time from people who do work.

Brandon:

You know, it’s a big topic in our conversations and our conference calls and the company right now is the people who are choosing to work right now, they’re going to come out way better than the ones who are still collecting government money, you know, still not working because all those job positions, unfortunately, you’re going to be gone in a year when the government stops giving you money.

Brandon:

Unfortunately, we’ve already seen so many businesses have to close down because of lack of staff and right now people will need workers.

Brandon:

But in a year’s time when a lot of those businesses are shut down due to not having staff right now.

Brandon:

And all those people want jobs, there’s not gonna be any jobs, right?

Brandon:

And um, I saw quote last june and I think it was Winston Churchill who said it and he said something along the lines of never, never give up or never lose the opportunity to take advantage of a good crisis or something to that effect.

Brandon:

And I have kept that in the back of my head during this full covid thing because the amount of times that we’ve struggled with staffing, getting new staff and hiring and even as great as our current staff are, they’re also battling their own issues.

Brandon:

You know, they all have Children or majority of them have Children and they have full time day care for them or full time childcare.

Brandon:

And the government has now imposed a regulation where if a child shows up a day care with a stuffy nose, the daycare is legally allowed to still charge them for the day, but send them home because they have covid symptoms.

Brandon:

So then they’re calling the office at seven in the morning and going, oh, well my daycare just said that they can’t take my kid, I have to come get them and now there’s also finds involved.

Brandon:

So if you still send your kids to school with the stuff, you know, if you’re going to get a fine.

Brandon:

So it’s just, you know, there’s one thing after the other that make it hard just for employees even go to work at this point, you know, and they feel awful because they have an obligation with me.

Brandon:

They also have Children.

Brandon:

And so though it’s like a whirlwind of constant issues that we are dealing with.

Brandon:

So with that, you know, even back to the original question that you asked me about being resilient and preparing for these things, we’ve now hired standby staff?

Brandon:

So we have hired and trained as we normally would with all of our staff and now we’re paying people to basically be on standby.

Brandon:

So if somebody calls in at seven a.m. Because their daycare center kids home, we are now going to call this person that we’re paying for the day to wait for us to call them and they’re going to come in and take that person’s spot for the day.

Brandon:

Yeah. Like it’s things that we would have never thought that we would have had to prepare for it, but it’s something that we’ve had to do. But again, we’ve had to implement it quickly because as much as a lot of people are understanding, you can only call your clients so much and say, hey, listen, your cleaners are coming again today because their daycare set their kids home and they have to stay home.

Brandon:

Thanks for your understanding. We’ll see you again in three months because it’s been three months since we cleaned your place, you know, so there’s so many things that were battling and we’re trying really hard to overcome and there’s so many days, I’m going to be honest, as much as I love this company and as much as I have worked my butt off to get where I am today and it led me to so many opportunities and you know, I love it.

Brandon:

There’s days sometimes when I wake up and I go, why, why why am I even bothering you know, this company is hard right now with Covid?

Brandon:

If I just shut it down, reopen again and you know when Covid is gone, things will be so much easier.

Brandon:

And if it wasn’t for my own, I couldn’t just sit on the couch for six months, I’m gonna be honest.

Brandon:

Right?

Brandon:

Really?

Brandon:

Because you can barely sit in that chair.

Brandon:

But yeah, I know, I know.

Danielle:

So yeah, I mean that and then, you know, I have employees again, if it was just myself, it would be an easier decision.

Brandon:

But I also have employees that have families that need to be fed.

Brandon:

And then that little quote from I think, yeah, I think it was Winston Churchill that said that like never don’t take advantage or never don’t don’t miss the opportunity of taking advantage of a good crisis.

Brandon:

Kind of sit there because I go, you know what, as hard as it’s been, look at where this crisis has put our company, I mean we have pretty much tripled in size just in a year and a half.

Brandon:

Like that is extreme growth.

Brandon:

I mean it’s taken off, It took me three years to hit that first point and then, you know, we’ve done that in in less than a year, right?

Danielle:

Because of Covid.

Brandon:

And so I’m thankful I’m very appreciative that we are able to come out of a crisis so well and continue going through.

Brandon:

But man, is it stressful?

Brandon:

It is hard and God bless my company for, you know, sticking through it and dealing with the problems that they have been.

Brandon:

And I’m just being dedicated because it’s definitely difficult right now with everything.

Brandon:

So I’m thinking that you have these people on standby, you’re paying them basically your profits.

Danielle:

I don’t want to say you’re going out the door, but they’ve got to be razor thin at this point because you’re paying two people for the same job effectively, right?

Danielle:

Yeah.

Danielle:

So that was something we obviously had to work with. So when I, when I pay them, I’m not saying it’s bad.

Brandon:

I mean it’s a reality of the situation, right? To ST doors open.

Danielle:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And, and no, it’s not bad. I mean it’s a great thing and you know, it kind of helped us in other ways as well. So for example, when we were first looking into doing the stand by staff, we had them there and we were just saying, okay, we’re going to basically pay you a flat rate for the day a week, a month, whatever it may be, sit there, hang tight, you gotta be ready between the hours of nine and five monday to friday.

Brandon:

We also have standby staff for weekends as well, just in case.

Brandon:

And uh, so then when people call in sick, I go, hey listen employee, whatever, you know, called in, we need you to go on right there trains their ambitious, they want to work, that’s fine. But then also on top of that, it’s been helpful because then we’re seeing a huge surge in real estate right now. So so many people are selling their homes and so we actually partnered with a lot of realtors on the residential side that use our services to prepare homes for listing and then to close out the home.

Brandon:

So move them out, you know, clean the whole place ready for the new owners and they clean their new place ready for them to move into this year, despite Covid has been the busiest year for that section of our, of our business.

Brandon:

But we’re getting it so quick because so many people are, you know, monday morning are going, I might sell the house called the realtor Tuesday, it needs to be cleaned, Wednesday is getting listed, thursday it sold.

Brandon:

That is literally how quick things are happening right now.

Brandon:

So then with the same by staff, it’s kind of been benefit because we’re not sitting here and you know, realtor jim has called and went, hey, listen, I have a client that needs to sell their house for Wednesday and it’s Wednesday and it’s monday night right now and he goes, can you guys clean tomorrow afternoon And I’m like, yeah, we got standby staff that can go in and do that for you.

Brandon:

So it’s been beneficial, profits really.

Brandon:

We haven’t seen much of a difference. It’s, it’s been pretty much the same. It’s a cost. It’s an investment I think to have that sitting there because I also don’t believe in, you know, just saying we’ll just call you when you need you, you know, so you can work three days a week.

Brandon:

You know, I’d rather have somebody kind of there and committed to us and uh, and be there all of the time. So it’s definitely investment. We haven’t seen much of a profit loss because we’re still making up for that loss.

Brandon:

Well, I like that. The pressure is really on you to fill the time.

Danielle:

Yeah, brilliant.

Danielle:

So how are you attracting people?

Brandon:

This whole thing about hiring people seems like a big problem, especially in service business like yours. I mean, and and it, it flows over into anything that creates or requires people write like restaurants and all this stuff.

Danielle:

So how are you attracting them?

Danielle:

I hate to say get off the couch, but maybe, or maybe they’re traveling and spending money? I don’t know what’s going on. But how are you, are you having to give them a bonus? Are you paying above a normal rate? Are you giving them health insurance that you maybe didn’t give before.

Danielle:

What are the perks?

Danielle:

Okay, so down to just basic, right? We have always paid above minimum rate, pre covid event, you know, I think the government has made minimum wage like 1480 or something like that here, we always start no matter what, even for training at 17, so we are always above industry and government minimums.

Brandon:

So that’s an attraction to be honest on its own, like even for example our local importance here, they have like the biggest billboard I’ve ever seen in the world to go is like now hiring 15 80 an hour or something like that.

Brandon:

Right, so the dollar above government standard or whatever that may be.

Brandon:

And so I mean they’re struggling, they had to shut down their dining rooms.

Brandon:

So you know the fact that we’ve always paid more but we are also on that reputation of a luxury service, right?

Brandon:

Like we, we provide great service, so we are expected to charge more, therefore were expected to pay more.

Brandon:

That’s always been kind of a thing that we’ve had to do which is great and I love doing it, so that’s always been an attraction and one thing is really important for me.

Brandon:

Yes, we do training for the service. Yes, we have, our biggest thing is obviously taking care of our clients but we also have great company culture and that’s always been a huge thing for me.

Brandon:

I have worked for and heard of awful stories and and just read up on stories, you know, I’ve done a lot of leadership seminars, webinars camps books, the whole nine about being a good leader, good boss, good team player and what does that look like and all of my staff in every department and every team all know that I literally show up every day, seven days a week and I’m there like they call me and and they can get me.

Brandon:

So I think that’s really important and I think having that it’s a big attraction, so whenever we’re doing an interview for example, we go through the basic interview stuff and we always start our training and things like that.

Brandon:

And then one of the questions that we always ask them is tell me about your favorite boss and why.

Brandon:

So I always like to ask the questions and I think when actually you and I were first speaking when I was in Montreal when I first got our first client base, how I was able to find the best foundations and practices for the company.

Brandon:

I asked my clients at the time what their previous cleaning companies or businesses did what they hated about it and I wanted to make sure we never did that.

Brandon:

So I did the same thing when I first started hiring my first people, it was, you know, tell me about your favorite boss and why were they your favorite boss?

Brandon:

And a lot of people said, oh you know, probably my favorite, but I mean he wasn’t great, but the only thing that I really liked about him was that, you know, he always was there, he was always motivating or you know, always good energy are always positive praised me when I did something well.

Brandon:

So we’ve really taken that as part of our company culture.

Brandon:

It’s been very difficult with Covid.

Brandon:

But you know, every monday morning we have a company call, we talk about the mission, the focus on what we’re all working on together.

Brandon:

So the beginning of every call and I can guarantee every single one of our residential side, the company can quote unquote the opening paragraph of our monday morning team called. It’s always the same. I always talk about the mission, what we’re doing and the definition of those things in the mission every monday morning, you repeat the exact same thing, just a paragraph.

Brandon:

I know I’m just no, I think it’s I think it’s a good thing.

Danielle:

I think it reminds people what we’re doing right?

Brandon:

Like here’s why we’re here.

Danielle:

So yeah, I actually didn’t really think about that until now Danielle because I don’t do that.

Danielle:

I’m wondering, it sounds like a good idea.

Danielle:

Find that like you said, it reminds everybody what we’re working towards.

Danielle:

I mean, you know, every day comes with its own challenges, but there you’re in the tech industry, the cleaning industry, the service industry, whatever you may do, you’re dealing with the regular public and there’s always challenges that come with that.

Danielle:

So I like to remind people what we’re part of before dealing with the everyday public nonsense.

Danielle:

So, you know, first thing monday morning 8:30 a.m. Everybody steps on a conference call and you know, I start and I can tell you, you know, for example, our reputation and everything, our mission statement is providing a luxury or having a luxury commercial and residential cleaning company that provides sophisticated and professional service.

Brandon:

It’s a plane.

Brandon:

It’s simple, but it gets the point across because back when we were talking before, majority of cleaning businesses don’t have that professionalism.

Brandon:

They don’t have that.

Brandon:

Sophistication.

Brandon:

Things aren’t top luxury service.

Brandon:

What does that mean?

Brandon:

What does that mean?

Brandon:

Like luxury service?

Brandon:

I mean you clean extra.

Danielle:

I mean, I’m halfway joking, but not really like is it is it because you’re thorough?

Danielle:

Yeah, yeah. I mean Brandon, we’re gonna get into so many things like, no, I just like is it I’m just saying let’s just stick to that because I want to stick to this monday morning meeting stand up, which is a great idea.

Brandon:

Monday meetings I believe should happen.

Danielle:

I don’t, I think they set the tone for the week, they get everybody going.

Danielle:

But I’m just listening to you.

Danielle:

I’m like, what is the lucky?

Danielle:

And it’s okay?

Danielle:

Like if it’s marketing, I I don’t know.

Danielle:

But is it because you show up on time? Like how do you define that piece that differentiates you from some other cleaning service that knocks on my door and says, well, you know, they never say I’m regular, they say, well, I mean you know, they clean your house.

Danielle:

I mean it, I mean be honest with you, getting someone to clean your house is actually a really, really hard thing because and I have a lot of friends who have struggled over many, many years.

Danielle:

I’m not, I won’t even say on here who are cleaning lady is and gentlemen, because I don’t want anybody to take them because it takes so long to get someone because they’re in your personal stuff.

Danielle:

I mean in residential, in your commercial they’re going through people’s desks, I don’t mean through them but they’re cleaning around the desk.

Danielle:

If there’s something on desk they can see what’s on the desk.

Danielle:

I mean, so That’s what yeah.

Danielle:

Going back to my question to your point, we could go off on like 50 things this morning but or or mid morning for you.

Danielle:

The what, how do you define that?

Danielle:

Okay, so back to our mission statement about like I said, you know, having that luxury commercial residential cleaning company that provides professional and sophisticated service.

Danielle:

So after that and I’ll explain this and then I’ll go to your question may be able to answer it.

Danielle:

So when I always start on monday morning meeting with that and then the definition of professionalism and then the definition of medication.

Danielle:

So there’s things like that professionalism for example on time reliability, just things like that.

Danielle:

Like you said, you know, just having those those traits and you know, sophistication, I believe the actual definition and I’ll have to look at my team call and as much as I say it every week, I can’t remember the exact definition, but it’s about, you know, having successful refinement or something to that effect.

Danielle:

And so when that success from refinement refinement, yeah, I mean I can actually pull up our, our monday little blurb and uh, and tell you what you actually read it.

Brandon:

Yeah, I write them every week.

Brandon:

I write our monday morning team calls every week and I say I’m the one that does the calls monday mornings, it’s my thing, I love doing it, we do it for the residential side on the commercial side, two different kind of businesses, even though it’s the same one as two different kind of scopes of work.

Brandon:

But the residential side I find is a very much more in, I don’t say intimate, but it is more intimate, like you said, personal space, so our team is more, you know, together, we are working towards that same goal together, so I’ll pull that up for you after, but basically we kind of pride ourselves on something stupid is, and as silly as our uniforms, I don’t think that’s stupid.

Brandon:

I think that’s a, it makes you feel like there’s some level of professionalism, like if somebody shows up in different clothes, if you’re hiring a service, there’s a lot of freelancers that clean house, right?

Brandon:

But, but if you if I were to hire a service now, I think that’s not stupid at all.

Brandon:

I think that’s, I think having that uniform gives a sense of this company has got their act together, at least they get everybody to wear the same clothes, they can clean my house.

Brandon:

It’s true, right?

Danielle:

And I don’t be stupid as, you know, stupid food.

Brandon:

But I meant it’s silly, it’s something very small, but that is like, number one in our employee manual or our employee handbook is, you know, this is our dress code, and if you can’t do that, even on your birthday of training, we don’t want you, because, like you said, it really does set that tone for hiring it right?

Danielle:

Like that, they don’t clean in heels, do they?

Brandon:

No, Okay.

Brandon:

I know where, I’m just asking, I see you ladies in these pictures, they all wear heels, and I was like, I hope Daniel doesn’t make these people, you know, like wear heels, I mean, it would be okay, I guess, but it seems painful.

Brandon:

But the, you know, there’s these hairdresser things that or not things businesses that are like, I don’t know, I’ve seen get your hair cut with from a woman in bikini or something.

Brandon:

I’m not saying it’s right, I’m just saying that it’s sort of like a Hooters thing, right?

Brandon:

I mean, you live in Brandon, I do not, I’m not living there, I’m just observing, and I’m sure people are like, oh my God, here we go, Brandon’s doing now.

Brandon:

I mean, I’m not judging it, I’m just saying it exists, right?

Danielle:

That’s, you know, whether you agree with it or not, that’s the, the, I don’t, what do you call it, like big scam?

Danielle:

It’s not a scam.

Danielle:

It’s like a, it’s branding, what is it?

Danielle:

It’s branding, its marketing.

Brandon:

Yeah, it’s like, that’s the thing, right?

Brandon:

I mean, the thing is, isn’t coffee, is it socially accepted on our front?

Brandon:

Maybe not, But you remember them?

Brandon:

Yeah, it’s marketing, right?

Danielle:

And uh, so no, we don’t go to that extreme.

Brandon:

I do think it’s a cool branding technique, you know, that will probably set off, I’ll probably just set off like every woke movement in the world just now, like, and I’ll be honest with you, Danielle, I’m tired of it.

Danielle:

Like, I’m, I’m probably opening a whole can of worms here, but I’m tired of it.

Danielle:

Like, just, I think you’ve got to be responsible.

Danielle:

Here’s what?

Brandon:

Uh well, you know, it’s a morning show here, so why not?

Danielle:

The, he, I think a lot of people kept their mouth shut for a really long time and I think you’re a prime example of a business and I’m not saying that all businesses folded over every business owner who’s in business that I know is gonna fight, right?

Danielle:

But you know, people struggle with all sorts of things and they can give up and not give up, but you know, say, hey, I’ve had enough is enough.

Danielle:

I’m worn out.

Danielle:

I can’t do this anymore, which is totally fine.

Danielle:

There’s times when you absolutely have to do that, but this whole movement that all these people are victims, I find absolutely disgusting and you’re a prime example of a person who could have easily roll over.

Danielle:

You were broke.

Brandon:

You don’t have enough money to buy candy bar, which I actually talked about you over the last few weeks.

Danielle:

By the time this comes out, maybe that episode will have come out, but you could have easily rolled over.

Brandon:

I mean, you you had a relationship, you actually had a baby with a relationship and even if it’s not yours and it’s taken away, like that’s a major thing.

Brandon:

I mean this is not like, oh well, hey, you know, I mean it’s just, it’s just, I can’t even, I don’t even know how to say it, but if you’re listening then and you can imagine what that’s like and you could have easily rolled over and been like, oh, I’m a victim, you know, women are not supported in business and all this crap and you didn’t do that and you, you made it happen.

Brandon:

So this whole victim thing is old and I’m not saying that, you know, the people say, well Brandon you are privileged.

Brandon:

I don’t know, I don’t know if that’s true.

Brandon:

Um I grew up with a single mom who worked her ass off to put us through good schools.

Danielle:

But but it wasn’t like I had this this golden ticket and you know what, even if you did get born into a rich family, you don’t get to pick on them.

Brandon:

They didn’t choose that right?

Danielle:

You know I listen, I don’t know if you’ve heard this, this lady who escaped from north Korea Yami park, Have you heard her yet?

Brandon:

I don’t think so.

Danielle:

Okay.

Danielle:

So she’s making her ways around the U.

Danielle:

S.

Danielle:

She was on joe Rogan.

Danielle:

She was on Jordan Peterson who you know is controversial but very good interview there.

Danielle:

But she longs short of that.

Danielle:

She escaped from north Korea.

Danielle:

Mhm lived in north Korea and in north Korea.

Danielle:

If you and I have to say that I probably believe the woman who lived in north Korea right?

Danielle:

Like you know people be like oh that doesn’t happen.

Danielle:

We were so far from your monday meeting right now.

Danielle:

But oh good.

Danielle:

I love it.

Danielle:

I love it.

Danielle:

My brain done that all the time.

Danielle:

So she escapes.

Danielle:

I’m gonna I’m gonna try to have her on the show.

Danielle:

She escapes from north.

Danielle:

She lives in north Korea.

Danielle:

She escapes basically has to be a prostitute for lack of better word because they take advantage in china.

Danielle:

She hikes to south Korea gets in south Korea basically does all that.

Danielle:

She gets to America and telling her story and I think it’s an important story to tell because not a lot is known about North Korea obviously because it’s so close.

Danielle:

Well it turns out Danielle that if you commit a crime in North Korea You are punished for three, 28 generations.

Danielle:

No way way this is this is true story.

Danielle:

So and not used any family member and the idea.

Danielle:

So apparently there’s a story that one person committed the crime and the North Korean regime killed like 32,000 people who were 4th cousins have no idea about this, right?

Danielle:

So that’s that’s an extreme and people can believe it or not.

Danielle:

You know that place is crazy.

Danielle:

So I tend to believe that you know, they’re doing a lot.

Danielle:

They’re basically starving their people and it’s a great story if you haven’t heard it.

Danielle:

But so bringing it back to where we are with this.

Brandon:

You know, you said something earlier about this covid vaccine thing, you know, segregating the population and everything.

Danielle:

But it’s and it’s also been a time where people who didn’t have or haven’t had or feel like they haven’t had a voice and are a quote unquote victim of society have taken advantage of this time to basically try to get some control of some narrative, right.

Danielle:

The rich are bad.

Danielle:

This this whole I don’t know if it’s in Canada but certainly in the United States about discrimination and everybody is a racist and all this stuff.

Danielle:

And you know I don’t know if that’s true or not because it would be crazy not to think that the environment that you grow up in has some sort of influence of of course it does.

Danielle:

Mhm.

Danielle:

But as blinding flash of the obvious as a white male, I did not choose to be a white male, right?

Danielle:

No more than you chose to be a brunette woman, right?

Danielle:

Brandon.

Danielle:

I could add so many and maybe we’ll have to have a whole show or a day or 10 shows on, you know, the current woke culture, victim culture.

Danielle:

But one thing I will say just so we’re not going off until dinner with Brandon is you know my story, I don’t think I’m the only one that has had a bad childhood or you know rough upbringing or not upbringing by my parents, but just you know, just a shitty time when I was younger and then made something of myself.

Brandon:

There are thousands and thousands of people who have done that.

Danielle:

And honestly and this may make me sound insensitive and this may make me sound like a privileged white female that doesn’t know the regular day to day issues of being a minority.

Danielle:

But honestly it comes down to the person.

Danielle:

We all have so many circumstances and I told you like my my kind of full mentor motto is you know, don’t let your circumstances to find you and I know rich white males who went to Harvard and our lawyers and you know have the perfect housewife family whatever, but then they have a heroin addict and they end up on the streets.

Danielle:

I also know people who were abused and you know were brought up by heroin families and with alcohol issues and I went to rehab 10 times and then ended up turning something around creating a tech company and now they’re sailing their yacht in Turks and Caicos.

Danielle:

It’s the person.

Danielle:

And are you going to let the circumstances define you?

Danielle:

Somebody’s story is going to be harder than the other.

Danielle:

You know my story I was able to get out of, Would it have been harder if my mom was not there or would it have been harder if I was two years younger or would it have been harder if you know, I was $600,000 in debt instead of $60,000 in debt.

Brandon:

Of course, but I would have done it would have taken me longer.

Danielle:

Right?

Danielle:

So you don’t know like I have a really hard time dealing with people who blame their their life and their issues.

Danielle:

I mean of course there’s days where I’m not in the greatest mood and I’m like, you know, thinking about it, is that true?

Danielle:

I can’t imagine you’re not in a good mood.

Danielle:

I didn’t see you smiling and moving and doing all sorts of fun stuff.

Danielle:

I mean I say bad road.

Danielle:

I don’t uh no, it’s true though.

Danielle:

I try not to ever let my new change.

Danielle:

I mean of course it doug, but I don’t, you know, sit in my office and wine and bitch for 20 hours, you know, I just kind of sit there, I have my little moments and then I deal with it.

Danielle:

But you know, even if I’m at the office, I’m like flustered because Danny saw a squirrel and ran out the door and I spilled my coffee and of course I’m going to be picked off about that and like, you know, spilled my coffee, but then sometimes I sit and I go, okay, like daniel chill out, like that is such like a minor thing, right?

Danielle:

But then there’s these people that take those things that happen and it literally defines the whole day, like they literally have the worst day all day and it could be the worst week and you know, you talk to them on thursday and I go, it’s been a week and then you’re like, oh my God, you know what happened on monday morning, I spoke my coffee, you know, downhill from there and like there are those people out there and unfortunately I again it may might make me sound insensitive, I try to give them as much positive energy or like, oh and I also crack a silly joke and go, oh well at least your coffee this morning was hot and fresh or like, you know what I mean, like something quirky to try to switch their mindset.

Danielle:

But unfortunately some people are just stuck in that rut of an awful negative mentality.

Danielle:

They’re always grumpy.

Danielle:

There’s always something a bit about and a lot of it unfortunately or things that they can’t control.

Brandon:

I have a friend who his whole life is literally dictated by our government like he is so emotionally invested in what the government is doing that.

Danielle:

It’s scary.

Danielle:

And you know the other day I saw him and he just looked deflated and I said are you okay?

Danielle:

And you know I’m not you know what’s going on?

Danielle:

And he said you know that’s the whole government thing, the whole government thing.

Danielle:

What are you talking about?

Danielle:

He was a world inflation and the Covid thing and this and that and I do like we can’t we can’t control that.

Danielle:

Like you gotta get through that.

Danielle:

You know if the government saying we can’t go out for rest or to restaurants next week because you’re not vaccinated.

Danielle:

Well then go and have a parking lot party with your friends like like you know what I mean?

Brandon:

Like you really have to switch it and people are struggling with that now especially because of Covid didn’t pre Covid there’s just so many people that they always have that victim mentality.

Brandon:

They always use excuses, they always have something to bit about and you know those are people that I really try not to give my energy to, I’ll try and if we’re in conversation and I’ll say, you know, something to try and switch their mentality.

Brandon:

But then it’s, you know, something back.

Brandon:

And I’m like, okay, well, have a good day, see you later because there’s there’s nothing we can do about it.

Brandon:

Yeah.

Brandon:

You reminded me of, like, my mom says something, people be like, oh, Margaret, we haven’t we haven’t seen you in so long.

Brandon:

You really haven’t been around her.

Brandon:

You haven’t done this.

Brandon:

And she’ll say, I know, I know it’s so true.

Brandon:

And then people don’t know what to do with it.

Brandon:

You move on, just what you said, remind me.

Brandon:

But I will say just as like Brandon’s golden parachute here coming in at the end for every listener who’s mad or possibly could be, maybe you’re not, maybe you’re excited, but you should be.

Brandon:

But is everybody catches a bad break and needs help.

Brandon:

You know, and and that’s true.

Brandon:

But when you continually quote unquote, catch the bad break and it becomes a pattern and then it becomes an excuse.

Brandon:

That’s where I have some issues.

Danielle:

So let’s just go back to the monday meeting real quick because because I don’t want to listeners hanging and you’re probably right.

Brandon:

You know, dinner with Brandon is not bad, but when you start at brunch and you probably have to do a few proposals or in my case do a bunch of work, then that could become a problem.

Danielle:

But so monday meeting, you have a monday meeting every morning.

Danielle:

You have two divisions, you have a residential and commercial.

Brandon:

Every meeting you recite for lack of a better word.

Brandon:

I’m not making it on authentic, but you purposely say what the company’s mission is and discuss why I think that’s the important thing, why we are doing what we are doing and why we’re here today.

Brandon:

Right.

Brandon:

So I actually pulled it up for you.

Brandon:

So for example, this was this past week.

Brandon:

So you know, good morning diva.

Brandon:

Happy monday.

Brandon:

Hope you had a great weekend.

Brandon:

I wanted to start the monday morning meeting as we always do with a reminder of our company vision and goal that we are all working together to create.

Brandon:

Okay, because some of them have been with me from the beginning, right?

Brandon:

And they’ve seen the growth from the beginning and like that excites them alone, you know, they’re so proud to be a part of the company that we built together.

Brandon:

They’re not coming in 20 years later with just a company that’s just obtaining a new client here and there.

Brandon:

They have seen everything from our 1st 10 to our 1st 100 to our 1st 1000.

Danielle:

And so they’re excited about that and they’re proud to be a part of that, you know, So then I’ll say our number one mission is to have a luxury commercial and residential cleaning company focused on bringing professionalism and sophistication to the cleaning industry.

Danielle:

The definition of professionalism is commitment and confidence, responsibility, dependability, honesty and ethics and appearance.

Danielle:

All of those things which ironically are our company like values and ethics.

Danielle:

Then the definition of sophistication is quality due to refinement.

Danielle:

So I follow up with that while saying which here domestic divas cleaning co we work day in and day out to have refinement of our whole company, the best cleaners which we do the best products which we do.

Danielle:

I don’t know if you know that we have our own cleaning product line but look we can get into that another time.

Danielle:

The best equipment which has been trialed and tried and used and abused You know we figured out the best equipment over the last five years the best uniform which I told you you know we do have and we purposely have for that sophisticated put together look the best checklist and the best system We could get into that in operations but again it’s taken years of trying things and seeing what the best thing was when we first had our first two cleaners and 10 clients we use Google Calendars you know to try and figure out our scheduling.

Danielle:

We use paper like we tried everything, we’ve tried Salesforce, we tried so many things and you know we we really come down to our system and you know so all of those things really do add into our definition of being that sophisticated service which was again what our clients when we first bought them, he used to say so you know, yeah, they come and do the service, but you know, take three weeks to get an invoice and half the time the invoice wouldn’t have the correct name on it or they want cash or they wouldn’t give us an invoice or like you know what I mean, like there was always things like that, so we have everything systematized and protests and of course every day we are learning new things, we are implementing new things like we have just added onto our payroll system to be able to do our on boarding process through that.

Danielle:

So it combines two instead of doing a process or a step for payroll on boarding and then a processor step for our, you know, client employee onboarding.

Danielle:

So we’ve emerged that, which is exciting for me, you know, I was super excited to tell our managers like check this out, we don’t have to have a separate zoom call with our training manual or an employee handbook because it’s all there, they have it before they even come in.

Danielle:

So it’s efficient.

Danielle:

We’re not spending money on time for us having a zoom call an office meeting.

Danielle:

So you know, those are things that excite me and we really try to refine that process.

Brandon:

That’s such a smooth process for everybody involved.

Danielle:

Well that’s awesome.

Danielle:

I think we’re, you know, I got a million notes and we’re supposed to talk about operations today, but we’re not going to talk about operations and software, but we are going to talk about that next time.

Danielle:

Maybe, I don’t know.

Danielle:

Maybe maybe it’ll turn out like today I, which is totally fine.

Danielle:

Right?

Danielle:

I don’t know.

Brandon:

But with that, let’s wrap it up for today, Danielle and thanks for joining us and I love having coffee with you.

Brandon:

However brunch, I don’t know, I haven’t had food yet, but maybe one day that will be in person and we’ll actually do that.

Brandon:

I was actually just thinking that I thought you know what maybe when Kobe is not so crazy and we can do in person.

Brandon:

We will actually do like a brunch on the recording.

Brandon:

I think that would be super cool.

Brandon:

That’ll be cool.

Brandon:

Hey, make it a great weekend you as well and we will talk soon.

Brandon:

Thanks everyone and enjoy your weekend.

Brandon:

Brandon.

Brandon:

Thanks for being generous with your time and joining us for this episode of the edge.

Brandon:

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