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Smart Cleaning School

Ken Carfagno

500 episodes

2 months ago

I started this podcast on October 10th, 2019. I never imagined that cleaners would listen to me talk. Listen to these stats for the Smart Cleaning School Podcast: 20 years of cleaning experience and 8 years of coaching accessedDownloaded in all 50 states and 150 countries.500 total episodes3 individual episodes with over 1,000 downloads175,000 total downloads1,000 hours of my life invested into training solo cleanersI am so proud of this work. It has been meaningful and transformational for t...

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Entrepreneurship

Self-Improvement

All content for Smart Cleaning School is the property of Ken Carfagno and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

I started this podcast on October 10th, 2019. I never imagined that cleaners would listen to me talk. Listen to these stats for the Smart Cleaning School Podcast: 20 years of cleaning experience and 8 years of coaching accessedDownloaded in all 50 states and 150 countries.500 total episodes3 individual episodes with over 1,000 downloads175,000 total downloads1,000 hours of my life invested into training solo cleanersI am so proud of this work. It has been meaningful and transformational for t...

Show more...

Entrepreneurship

Self-Improvement

Episodes (20/500)

Smart Cleaning School

Smart Cleaning School Season 1 Finale

I started this podcast on October 10th, 2019. I never imagined that cleaners would listen to me talk. Listen to these stats for the Smart Cleaning School Podcast: 20 years of cleaning experience and 8 years of coaching accessedDownloaded in all 50 states and 150 countries.500 total episodes3 individual episodes with over 1,000 downloads175,000 total downloads1,000 hours of my life invested into training solo cleanersI am so proud of this work. It has been meaningful and transformational for t...

2 months ago

15 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Celebrating 20 Years in the C3 Experience

“Introducing the C3 Experience” released on October 14th, 2021. I had just given our family cleaning company a major brand change from the solo residential business to a commercial cleaning company with a team. Our family had “A New Freedom Vision” to live in Florida for the full month of February 2022. The company model would have to change. Over the next 8 months, we poured ourselves into this company to create the C3 Experience. We wanted to attract new customers and employees to our compa...

3 months ago

21 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Patience Vs. Prudence

I purposely re-released “Excellence Vs. Perfection” last week. Many solo cleaners struggle with perfectionism. They are under a belief that ‘good enough’ is when the perfectionist is finally happy… and they are never happy. Over-cleaning is problematic for multiple reasons. It costs the solo cleaner time and money because they are at each house or office a lot longer. It also dissolves trust with the customer because they don’t want you in their house for 6 hours! Do you know what customers w...

3 months ago

21 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - Excellence vs Perfection

Perfectionism is a big problem in the cleaning industry. It took me over 15 minutes to say it in the podcast. It's really not that complex. Perfection is working hard to make YOU as happy as possible and you may never get there. Excellence is working hard to make THE CUSTOMER as happy as possible and you absolutely can get there. How do you know if you've made them as happy as possible? You ask them how you've done. I consult with cleaning company owners all over the country and so many...

3 months ago

16 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Roadmap to Freedom

There are too many overwhelmed, overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated solo cleaners. They want more than showing up to clean every day. They want to get traction with their businesses. Optimizing accomplishes this. You want more margin, more choices, more balance, and more freedom in your life. Why else would you be running your own business in the first place? Optimizing accomplishes this. I share a third straight Solo Elite clip in this episode. The first two addressed these two poin...

3 months ago

21 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

3 Steps of Optimizing

We are getting closer to the end of season 1 of the Smart Cleaning School Podcast. We are in the middle of a series on the 3 S’s, which stands for Stay, Scale, or Sell and represent FREEDOM for the solo cleaner. In the last episode, I shared a clip from a Solo Elite Membership Call from late 2024 focusing on creating margin. Margin is vital. We need margin to make more choices. We need more choices to have more balance and freedom. This episode shares another clip from Solo Elite. This one sh...

4 months ago

14 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Create Margin and Earn Freedom

In this episode, I share a short clip of a Public Service Announcement I made last November in the Solo Elite Membership. It’s a PSA for all struggling, overwhelmed solo cleaners. First, let me say a few things. You are the one that overscheduled yourself by never saying ‘No’. Take ownership of that. You are the one that priced as little as you did. Take ownership of that. You are the one that didn’t know your numbers and acted without any strategy. Take ownership of that. Great, you took...

4 months ago

15 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

I've Done Everything I Teach

I have an announcement to make. This is episode 493 of the Smart Cleaning School Podcast. I will be ending season 1 at episode 500. Why? What does that mean? All these questions will be answered in these final 8 episodes, where I’m focusing you on the end of the solo optimization rainbow. It’s called the 3 S’s. That’s the series that season 1 will end with. What do you do when you get to the top as a solo cleaner? In the past 2 episodes, I’ve discussed the 3 S’s or Stay, Scale, or Sell and wh...

4 months ago

14 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - When a Solo Should Scale

I am excited to share this clip from the Solo Elite Membership! A few weeks ago, I ran my first Zoom call for the members to meet each other, dive into a topic, and ask questions. It was a great call. Afterwards, I pondered the idea of sharing a portion of the call with my podcast audience. It's a 16 minute clip from a 90 minute call, where I shared my journey openly on scaling with employees. Many ask me when can I hire and scale. I firmly believe that you need time and money margin to prope...

4 months ago

18 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - Stay, Scale, or Sell

The summer is finally here! This is both literal and figurative. We just celebrated Memorial Day as the weather is heating up. Just like the 4 seasons of nature, my business is entering a new season. After selling my 1st solo business in 2018, we moved to our hometown and stayed indoors. I tried everything in my power to build my coaching and consulting business in 2018 and early 2019. I stayed indoors as much as possible as I didn't want to clean. This was winter. Ultimately, I needed to get...

5 months ago

35 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - You Need Quality Control

Let's continue the Control Series! My first episode was "You Must Let Go of Your Control", where I shared a few major breakthroughs in my recent ability to let go and trust others. It was an important therapy session. I continued this recently with another breakthrough about your business is not you and viewing trust and control like a rope. Check out part 2 of the series called "The Trust Rope". This is the 3rd part that goes the complete opposite direction! Are you ready? I shared a Faceboo...

5 months ago

10 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - Scope Creep

This week started with content batching. Batching is an optimizer's tool for ultra productivity. Every month, I create blogs, podcasts, and videos for Carfagno Cleaning and Solo Cleaning School. It takes a ton of time to do each week. I used batching in my cleaning business and in other areas of business over the years. When Teresa's mom was available to watch the kids overnight, we jumped on the opportunity and grabbed a hotel for the night. I got so much done as I batched blog after blog af...

5 months ago

22 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - The Stuff I've Broken

I've broken a lot over 15 years, but it's all relative. I have two mindsets to discuss before I share my cleaning misdeeds. Your auto insurance company keeps actuarial tables and knows exactly how much an accident costs on average. These numbers are taken into account when you get and pay your annual insurance premium. In fact, it is designed to be a win-win. If you get into an accident or not, the insurance company still makes money. They win. Plus, your accident or claim is covered so you d...

5 months ago

24 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - Safeguard Your Clients

I've been cleaning homes since 2006 and have noticed a dramatic increase in home security as technology improves. Alarms have gone from wired to wireless. Cameras surveil various angles and locations of the home. Garages have keypads. Families are more secure than ever and they can do so at an expense less than it used to cost. This happens so predictively that economists give it a name. The early adopters pay the most like cell phones in the '90s or tvs in the '50s. Once the technology reach...

5 months ago

21 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - Train Your Clients

I host an accountability & mastermind call every Monday for the SMART Cleaning Tribe. We are a family of cleaning service owners with teams (that used to be solo). I'm the architect of this group of amazing people, always looking for the 1% that desires to set monthly SMART goals and be held accountable to their achievement. Check out the episode "The Accountability Roadmap" to learn more about the 1% club We had an interesting discussion this past week on the topic of client scope creep....

6 months ago

18 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - The Time I Fired Myself

In 15 years of solo cleaning, over 75 families have hired me to clean for them. However, I sold my business with 17. What happened to the others? It's simple. This is a seasonal service for some and a lifetime for others. I never tried to figure that out. I just served. I have lots of experience getting "let go", "moved on", "fired", etc. Some let me know face-to-face with a month's notice. Some stopped immediately through email, phone, or text. Others just disappeared (literally a UFO got 'e...

6 months ago

16 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - Lifetime Value of a Client

This is a story that will cost a cleaning supplier a lot of money. First of all, I hope you all know me by now. I am not vindictive. I did not have a bad experience with the company I'm going to mention. However, I chose to do my 3-stars out of 5 review to the world because it will illustrate a vital lesson on the lifetime value of a client. I purchased my Mosquito Carbon Lite vacuum cleaner from my friend Joshua Burnstein, owner of Sawgrass Cleaning Solutions, Boynton Beach, FL. Joshua is a ...

6 months ago

17 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - Keys to Solo Longevity II

In "Keys to Solo Longevity I", I established a few foundational principles. First of all, there is a clear difference in a Ford and a Honda. I prefer my cleaning machine to operate more like a Honda. They last longer and require less maintenance... and I shared this from my experience having owned 4 Fords and 8 Hondas in 30 years. Secondly, we deconstructed the domination and longevity of all-time sports greats Tom Brady, Cal Ripken, Jr., Serena Williams, and Roger Federer. Each of these grea...

6 months ago

22 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - Keys to Solo Longevity I

This 2-part podcast was inspired by a Solo Cleaning School Elite member, Dave Reeks. Dave started implementing the ISO Model in early 2022, operating The Finest Clean in South Wales, Australia. I am so proud of his diligence and commitment. Dave has grown from an Initializer to the Stabilizer phase of the ISO Model in 6 months. I recently did an Optimizer's Workshop with him to help him hit his next goal. He is a male solo cleaner like I was and growing quickly with almost 20 house cleaning c...

7 months ago

25 minutes

Smart Cleaning School

Best Of - Basic Safety for the Solo

Last week I kicked off a 11-part Retention Series for the Smart Cleaning School Here’s the basic question. What good is it to only teach you GET great customers if you can’t KEEP them?! It makes no sense at all. You’re right! That’s why I’m compiling these episodes for you over the next few months. I highly encourage you to study these and implement them. Do you know that retention is one of the major factors that investors look at when evaluating your business for sale? This is one of the ...

7 months ago

24 minutes