Ep 60 Transcript: From $100 to Six Figures Cleaning Homes with Holly Oldham

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and I am here with a fantastic and entertaining guest today. So Holly Oldham, or also known as Holly Oldham, not Newham. And she is with Pause Reflect Move Forward, and she is a freelance writer and author, comedic poet, a solopreneur. She is a mom of four. She is a grandparent. She has lived a life, let me tell you, and she has done it all.

And a big part of this has been actually centered around having a cleaning business. And that's one of the reasons why I'm so excited to bring her on here because she has such a unique story to tell. And I can't wait for her to share it with you all today. So Holly, welcome. Hi, Hi, Sean and Lynn. Thank you so much for having me. Just like we were talking about earlier, just past daylight savings time and we have extra daylight and

One of the things that I like to do is I'm a daily beach cleaner for the last four and a half years. So when it was darker in the evening, because I'm not going, I'm in Florida, so I'm not going to be in direct sunlight. So I'm either there first thing in the morning or the latter part of the day. And now I get to, you know, we had this extra hour or so of daylight. So should I run later on jobs or if I have other things going on, I can still go to the beach and, you know, keep it here. So when you guys come down and visit, it's nice and clean.

And I love that you take like you take cleaning to the extreme and like in all cases, basically like you just this is literally a part of who you are. Like you live and you breathe it. And I know we had a little bit of a pre conversation, which, by the way, for anyone who's watching the video version of this, we did not plan our outfits today. But how fabulous is it that we're both wearing our leopard print? But we were talking a bit in the pre interview and talking a little bit about what you do with the cleaning business and how you are living your dream life right now.

all because of everything that you learned from being a stay at home mom and turning that into a profitable business. That's pretty powerful, I think, for people to hear about. Tell me a little bit about, let's just give a bit brief background. There's so many facets to who you are. Like I said, I love that you're cleaning up the environment at the same time that you're cleaning indoors as well. So just give us a little bit of a brief synopsis, like who is Holly?

Oh, Holly is a multifaceted woman. Thank you very much. This is actually my second cleaning business, the first time doing as a solopreneur. And I refer to myself now as a house manager. So post-divorce in 2020 from my high school prom date, I knew that there was no way that I was going to be able to sustain a lifestyle that I'm used to living.

working for someone else. During the separation time Andrew and I got a divorced, was driving for rideshare at the time. At the very end of the year, my birthday is December 30th, in case anybody's taking notes. My registration, if you can remember back when COVID in 2020, the mail was just terrible.

I paid for the registration in October. I didn't receive it till February. The problem with ride, share, and lift is you have to upload your registration to show them that you're okay to drive. Well, it was okay in the DMV, but not with Uber and Lyft. I was like, what do I do? I decided to make an old idea better.

So my first cleaning business, I had a traditional cleaning business. However, I did start that solo and grew it. I had 309 clients in three different counties in five years time. My kids were very young. I was training for a marathon at that time as well. So, and I had no idea what I was doing with nutrition at the time and I'm attempting now to.

run another race myself. Because I'm running a marathon later on this year as well. Just throwing that out there, Well, you know, I find that the more active I am, the more profitable I am too. So, you know, just like you, you know, you're sitting down, I'm sitting down right now. I work part time in the janitorial industry. I work for high-end clients, millionaires, entrepreneurs, executives. Okay, that's the only people that I clean for unless

There are people that desire the luxury care like laundry, wash, dry, fold, iron, put away, discard, organize, color code, all the things, clean out your pantry, clean the fridge, make your protein shakes, make your dinner. I'm doing all of these things for just a couple of clients and they love me for it. And I love them for it because I'm able to provide the life that I love, the lifestyle that I love.

When during the divorce, I was not entitled to any of the savings, the real estate investments, nothing. I barely walked away with custody of my two minor children at the time. I don't know if you've ever heard of parental alienation before. I'm a huge advocate for parental alienation. I've gone to Vegas, spoke at, done poetry. I'm a poet as you know, in case you didn't know it.

anybody that's listening. you know, it's a worldwide epidemic far worse than divorce. my goodness. OK, so and I know this goes a little bit off topic, but I actually want to know a little bit about parent alienation and what exactly that is, because it sounds like there's probably some some stay at home moms or not even necessarily stay at home moms, but just moms listening to this.

who are looking at or who are facing similar circumstances. And the whole point of this podcast is to help to empower them to be able to live the life that they wanna live. So it sounds like this is something they should probably know a little something about. So let's dig into it just a little. Absolutely. So parental alienation, in the past, it happens to fathers, daddies, right? Where the mommy or the significant other does bad things about the other parent.

to manipulate the child for one reason or another. And so this happened to me when I decided to move forward from the relationship and I left with a hundred dollars in my wallet and I haven't looked back since. And I went 339 days with no communication with my children.

Wow. No text, no telephone call, no smell, no hug. Even went to my son's school and found out that he was withdrawn without my permission. Wow. I'm sorry you dealt with that. Geez. Well, here's the thing. It happens more than you know it. I didn't even know what it was. I didn't know there was a term for it until after six months of it actually happening to me.

And family law is interesting. I'm not an attorney. I didn't have an attorney by my side. I was not, told you, I did not have any access to any of the family income. I was taken off of all of the things. And so I had to rebuild my life. from, this is my living room that you see here. you know, walking away with a hundred dollars in my wallet, knowing that

It wasn't the money that I was after at all. It was really to try to repair my family. However, it was so far gone that I knew that I had to leave in order to be the example, even though it took me 19 years, well, 15 years. The marriage was 19 years. I wanted to be an example to my children that it's not okay for certain things to be said to you, your ideas, your...

your your feelings, all of these things matter. And at the time it just didn't. And so I walked away from my first cleaning business after finding out that my name was no longer on it. okay.

I thought that that was the best thing for me to do. And then of course I was resented for it because it was your business. The 309 clients that I had built, they kind of walked away and I never meant to leave my employees, my clients in any kind of way. However, it was what I needed to do at the end of the day for my own peace and to try to figure out what it was I was going to do to move forward.

I filed for divorce August 2016. March of 2016 is when this divine download of pause, reflect, move forward came. So it became my business. It is a poem. It has become more than that. It's tattooed on my arm. It is a daily mantra. And some days I'm better at the practice of pause, reflect, move forward than I am others because it's not easy. know, because once you pause,

once you reflect, once you move forward, you end up having to pause, reflect and move forward once again. It's just the circle of life. And the more I said it, the more I did it. And I built my business based upon hope.

So that I can make all of this happen for myself so my children can see because I have two of them, all four of my children are adults now, the two younger ones choose not to communicate with me for one reason or another, most likely because of the parental alienation that happened during the separation and divorce and all of the things. It's what it is, right? So as much as I'm telling you this now, I mean, when this was happening, I couldn't breathe. Sure.

I couldn't breathe. I cried more days than I breathed, I think.

Again, with the pause, reflect, move forward, the more I said it, the more I did it. Some days are better than others. I reached out back out to my network of people that I'd worked with in the industry before with my first cleaning business. And I ended up going to networking meetings. I've never once paid for advertisement. You know, if you have a...

unwaveringly focus on what it is that you're trying to do and the task that you're trying to accomplish, you will accomplish it. However, if you're surrounding yourself with people that I noticed that I was surrounding myself with people who really just didn't have any goals and directions, and I needed to just really shut that out. When I divorced, I moved myself to Singer Island. I 68 cents in my account when I signed that lease.

and I had no idea how I was gonna do it. And when I moved there is when I started the daily beach cleanup. mean, every time I bent down, I would say how I was grateful for something because that gratitude path that I learned when I was living in the property that I squatted in for a little over a year, it was my real estate investment. Then I found out that it was empty and I moved in and I...

did everything I could to pull myself together with Lyft and Uber and right. then September, I moved to Singer Island. Then December, the registration that January, I started the business and I had a bookkeeper at the time when I told her after the first year I had made $40,000. I told her I was going to double it. The second year she laughed at me. Well, I doubled it.

The third year I made just under a thousand dollars the third year from my second one. And then last year was my most successful year. Now I've set myself up going into my fifth year now to be six figure business, working part time for people who need to focus on their businesses. They need to focus on your podcast, right? They need to get all of this information in to know that.

You're not the only one out here fighting for your life, fighting for your family, fighting for your business, because no matter what color we are in business as women, we're the minorities. And we need to continue to show up even on days when we feel like hanging our heads. You know, it's important we have somebody around say, woman, you need to get your head up. Come on, we've got stuff to do. Go put your lipstick on or, you know, spray some

essential oils on you, something to just help you move forward because we don't have time to wait anymore. Would you agree? I would definitely agree. I mean, this is such a powerful story of resilience that you're telling here. And there's a few things that I kind of want to dig into a little bit more. You you mentioned that you started this with hope, but it's clear that you had more than hope. You had a passion as well. And this is very common for a lot of our listeners. They follow a passion. You you talked about how when you have this unwavering idea of what it is that you're doing,

It's not just that I can tell by speaking with you in a bit from our pre-interview as well as now that you don't just know what it is that you do. You just explain how you help people. That is the key to your success. Right. There is a you know clearly how to position what is it you're doing in a way that benefits somebody else. You're not just saying I'm to come and clean your house. That's absolutely not what you're saying. And, know, for everything that you're talking about, all these different extras.

You know, this, feel like this can resonate with both sides of, you know, the woman who's looking to get back out into the workforce, looking at how she can take all that she's learned from being a stay at home mom and turn that into a profitable business on her own terms, working her own hours the way that she wants to. But I can also see where this also plays into the busy female entrepreneur who doesn't have the time to take care of these things herself. Because I think that, you know, I've got a few friends in the industry.

colleagues in the industry and we talk about like one of the first things you should do as an entrepreneur is hire someone to clean your house. It is not where you should be focusing your energy. You need to be working on the level 10 tasks in your own business, not on not on cleaning your house. And so my own business coach, he's a massive advocate of he takes it to the next level. He is constantly emphasizing what is your level 10 task? What is it that you should be working on? But beyond that, he also says, don't just hire someone to clean the house, hire someone to

run your errands for you. Hire someone to do your laundry. Hire someone to cook your meals. That's one of the biggest things that he encourages his clients to do is to get someone to cook their meals and it is game changing. I will admit there are some of these that I struggle with because and probably like most entrepreneurs, especially female entrepreneurs, I find them therapeutic. So I enjoy the break of them. And at the same time, I'm also aware that that's not necessarily the best use of my time. If I have an hour to do something therapeutic, I should probably go for a walk. I should probably go

exercise, I should probably do something else aside from the daily tasks around my house. And so having someone like you that offers more of like a concierge service from the sound of it, then that's why you're, you you mentioned you're a house manager. You're not a typical quote unquote cleaner because there's so much more to it. But at end of the day, you still have to have those essential skills as well. People today are looking for non-toxic

environments that they can raise their family. I have four cats as most people who listen, especially those who watch the podcast know because they pop up behind me all the time and I care a lot about what's on my floors because those kitty cats are going to be licking and chewing on everything. So I want to make sure that the things that are being brought in are safe and environmentally friendly. So if you know what it is that you are offering to these people, you are not offering them just a clean house. Sure, that's a great perk right there.

you are offering them so much more beyond that. That clearly to me has been a big part of your success. And then add on top of that, just your can do and I'm not giving up kind of attitude, which I think resonates probably with so many people because I think we have all had those moments of just wanting to throw in the towel, give it all up, curl up in bed, turn off the lights, wake up tomorrow and hope it's a better day. But you kept going, you kept moving forward despite so much being thrown at you.

I mean, can we just take a moment to congratulate you on that? Like, good for you. Like, this is inspiring. Yeah, pat yourself on the back. Well, know, just like you said, I'm not just a cleaner. from the very beginning, I had from the first day, four years ago, January 6, 2021, when I began my first client for my second cleaning business, I didn't own a vacuum cleaner.

I didn't have the money for a vacuum cleaner. And at the time, do you know what I said? And I still to this day say it, well, it's COVID and my other clients, this is what I said, my other clients, they don't want me bringing a vacuum cleaner in that was used in one house or the other. So I would just assume you use yours. Is that all right? Oh yeah, sure. That makes sense. I never had to buy a vacuum cleaner. And that's one of the main things for cleaning.

business owner is to purchase it. The vacuum cleaner. No, what you need to do is purchase my program that teaches you from solo cleaner to essential house manager. That $300 or $297 includes a contract. It includes strategic increase of your hourly rates. It includes strategy conversations.

of one-on-one accountability, handholding during the whole course. And it's all right there. And then you can hire me to do one-on-one questions like, what would you do in this situation, Holly? I know you've seen those bracelets, the WWJD, what would Jesus do? It's WWHD, what would Holly do? Right, in this situation. mean, because of the experience I had with the 309 clients,

I was a stay at home mom for 11 years. My house was my castle. My house still is my castle. And as an empty nester, there's not one thing in my house that's out of place. So I need to clean somebody else's house, right? But I don't want to do it all the time, right? Because I have a life of my own. But I look at it as, as I age, I'm a grandmother now, it keeps me active. If I bend, I twist, I turn, I'm cooking and doing all the things where...

As I live by myself, I'm not doing all those things anymore. I have a tortoise now. My tortoise, she's outside playing on the balcony. And just like you with the products, it's important to have non-toxic products. It's important to have non-toxic environment. And for me, it was the one thing that I was allowed to have control over with the money and the family was the groceries.

So I was able to switch to an online wellness company. If you're interested in learning about that, I can share that with you too. And it's also in my program, you know, because if you're giving your body what it needs to succeed during the day as a service professional, you're more likely to not be sore at the end of the day. I have different ways of cleaning. I teach you hand washing floors. I teach you foot washing floors so you can exercise.

whole time it's safely and gets paid for it. So who needs a gym membership? Well, because gyms are dirty in the first place. I had had a gym membership post-divorce. Every time I joined a gym when I was pregnant, I got pregnant four times. So post-divorce, because I had a hysterectomy in my mid-30s, I no longer can get pregnant, I joined a gym. Well, here's the thing.

I look up and there's dirt up above me. So I offer a specialty service where I clean seven feet and above in commercial properties. What does that mean? Anything above seven feet, 20, 40 feet in the air, I'm going up in scissor lifts and I can hire people to help me too to do that. And I also can teach you that process, but I'm not gonna teach you it for free because it includes the conversations, the emails, the texts.

da-da-da-da-da-da, everything you need in order to succeed. And how wonderful that is in an industry where, look, when you're in a cleaning business, when I tell people I'm in the cleaning business, it's not the same as when I tell people I'm a freelance writer. The energy exchange is different because janitorial, it's kind of the low woman on a totem pole, right? But wait a second.

at the top of my industry, people are wanting to know how it is that I'm doing, what it is that I'm doing, and I'm not telling people to brag, I'm telling people to educate them. Like this opportunity is out there. Obviously, it's about strategy. It's about etiquette. You have to be in the mindset of millionaires in order to clean for them. Does this make sense? Well, yeah. mean, you talk about, so one of the biggest conundrums for entrepreneurs who are in a service

provider type of role is you are trading time for money. And so there is a finite amount of time. There is not a finite amount of money. So you have to find ways to ensure that you are maximizing your time. And that means getting paid your worth. Now, if you are just walking into a home and cleaning for a couple of hours and, OK, yeah, I'll take your 20, $25 an hour kind of cleaning service, no big deal, walk out and don't get me wrong.

That is still a desired service. It's still a needed service. There are businesses that have built massive companies based on that type of service. So that's totally legit by all means. But what you're talking about is again, taking to that next level, offering things that what does someone get if you do their laundry for them? What does someone get if you cook their meals for them? If you do their grocery shopping for them? get time. And what is that worth to them? What can they do with that time?

That is so valuable. So you are finding what is it that they need and you are filling in those gaps and even talking Well, but here's the thing, darling. They don't even know what they need most times. Right. Right. So you're telling them. Well, you're right. Because somebody needs to take charge of the house. Somebody needs to manage the house. They're so busy doing other things. Yeah. Their family, their friends, relationships, business, all the things.

They don't want to worry about if their ceiling fan is clean or if their drain in their shower has been taken apart and taken all the dust or the hair out. So when their guests arrive that there don't have any clogging issues and these things matter. Right? These things matter. Ironing pillowcases matter. Ironing tea towels matters and you can get paid for this ladies and gentlemen. If you were a stay at home parent, you have skills.

that other people may think aren't valuable, but then you also have skills that people do think are valuable, such as, can you fold a fitted sheet? I mean, I worked as a stager for 15 years. I can definitely fold a fitted sheet. I know you can. But it is a challenge, let me tell you. I actually have run games at events for contests of who can fold a fitted sheet. And it's amazing how few people can, yeah.

Well, and just like you were saying, you we were talking about earlier that, you know, you were going to California and you visit and things. Well, I traveled the country doing this. I've gone to Maine, I've gone to New Hampshire, I've gone to Wisconsin, Michigan, all over the country, United States, paying for people, for airfare, paying for Airbnbs, paying for food, for DMs, paying, paying, paying, paying, paying.

So they don't have to do it themselves. I mean, who am I to deny someone if they want to pay me $82.50 an hour to clean their flipping house? Thank you. Yeah, but you've made yourself indispensable, though. Again, there's not someone else who's- my best. But you're making it so that there isn't someone else out there trying to take your job away from you because you're doing what other people aren't doing. So when you come in, you don't have competition. And this is one of the biggest things that I tell entrepreneurs is when you create

this service that fills in the gaps your clients truly need, and you identify that and you niche it, like figure out exactly what it is that you are focusing on who your target client is. I mean, the reality is at the end of the day, you're not going and working for someone who's bringing in $20,000 a year in annual income. That's not your client. That's monthly, if that, and more than that, actually. Right. So you know exactly. And they're happy to tell you.

No, this triple Holly, it's not 20,000 a month, it's 60,000 a month. Well, thank you very much, because we want to keep them successful so they can keep paying my check. Exactly. Or my invoice. mean, it's, we're helping each other out. Is it a, mean, look, I have had, because of what I charge and because of the industry that I'm in, not very good conversations sometimes.

What are you doing for that amount of money? I've had a couple approach me, proposition of some sort, yeah. A sexual proposition, like I'm here to clean your house. Like I'm not interested. Like it's a client, like that's, no. That's not, no.

No. Here's the thing, at the end of the day, I know that I can say that I've never participated in any of that. When people do start disrespecting me in that way, I don't work for that anymore. I'm not trying to be around that energy. No. That's the thing. In the program, I talk about boundaries. The boundaries are so important. have to set them from the very beginning, especially when going into someone's house.

The cars, the Maseratis, the Porsches, the Mercedes. It's just, there's so much responsibility for the clients that I care for. They have 24 hour a day access to me. Holly, on my birthday, one year, which closet is my green cashmere sweater in? At 9.30 at night. Sure. And oh, it's upstairs on the right in the second room on the right-hand side, the bottom side of the closet.

on the and it's folded. So you're not going to see it on the regular hanger because it's folded on a dry cleaning hanger. Right now, if you ask me where my glasses are, even when they're on my face, I don't know where they are. But I know where that cashmere sweater is. You know, it's my responsibility to know it's what they pay me for. Right. It's why they pay me in advance. It's why they pay me months in advance. Why? Because they know that they can rely on me. The clients that I have now, my residential clients, they were referrals. Right.

I've told you I've never paid for advertisement in my business. So it is possible to start a cleaning business. However, if you've not taken the business courses, I'm not a college graduate. I barely graduated high school. I was one of the kids. Oops, the hand thing went up. Did you see? yeah. Raise your hand. The hand goes up on this. But you know, I.

I wanted to be able to share my story with others because I know that divorce isn't easy. I know what it's like to be taken advantage of when it comes to the income that you saved for your family and you're not entitled to it. I know what it's like to be laughed at because you do have a vacuum cleaner in your car. I know what it's like to be laughed at when you're waking up at four o'clock in the morning and everybody else is sleeping. But here's the thing.

I live differently so I can live differently. I love that. Yeah. It's so key. Thank you. I encourage you, any of you listeners, just like Sean-A-Lynn was saying, if you own a business, hiring somebody to care for you during that crucial time of owning a business and growing your business will save you more in the long run than not. Absolutely.

It's, yeah, it's no, it's you're buying the mental space. You're buying them physical space. You're like there is so much that that they are getting from what it is that you're offering. And I think that, you know, I I know for myself, I've I will also say, by the way, I have never liked when a cleaner is brought in their own vacuum cleaner. I've paid good money for my and I'm very particular to mine. And I don't like the idea of a cleaner coming in from somebody else's house into mine. And when their toilet wind.

Yeah, and and voice vice versa though. I have four cats. People don't want that going into their home if they've got allergies or anything like that. Like I love the idea of use their vacuum cleaner, but sorry, I digress a little bit. But the point is that like people can can do so much more when they are given that opportunity, when they're given the space to be able to do that. So if you are finding yourself being pulled in a million different directions, then hire this stuff out. Like there's there are.

valuable people like Holly. don't know that there's anyone actually like Holly to be clear, but there are, you I love that you are, you are training the next generation of house managers to be able to offer this premium service to clients that desperately need it because I don't think there's nearly, there's nearly enough of them.

This comes with a high level of trust, a high level of intimacy. When you're going into someone's home like that, it needs to be respected. And it's clear that that's exactly what you do. Your clients trust you so much. And to your point of, you know, building this based on referral, even if you are someone who is able to do the marketing and looking to the marketing wants to expand and and there's obviously, mean, as someone who I do marketing, obviously, like it works. But the best marketing ever done for me is when it's done by somebody else.

And that is that referral marketing. I remember when I was when I operated my staging business, all of my real estate agents pretty much had the same spiel when they would refer my company to someone else. They would always say they're not the least expensive, but they are the best. That is the best referral I can get. They've already primed them to understand that they're going to be paying premium rates with me, but they're going to pay it so that I take care of everything for them so they don't have to worry about it. The same thing when it comes to my coaching business.

My clients are focused on the results that they get from me. And when they refer someone else to me, that's exactly what they're talking about. They're like, listen, just whatever it is that she's asking, just pay it because I'm so results oriented. I am not that coach that you call and book a call once a month just to chat about whatever the heck is going on in your life. We set clear goals and we work towards them. And every single session builds on the last one so that you know when you start working with me what that deliverable is going to be at the end of it. You know exactly what you're going to get.

So my coaching clients, when they refer someone else to me, they're basically saying like, listen, like she might have a waiting list. You might not be able to get in with her right away. She is not the least expensive. And I'm in a couple of industries where some of the coaches are charging a fraction of what I'm charging. So I've certainly had people say like, but so-and-so coach over here only charges like a quarter of what you're charging. Yeah. And we just do things differently. So I have to say that coach doesn't have value, but I am offering them.

Results, not a conversation, not a sort of on a whim of like, I'll just help you grow your business vaguely. We're going to focus on specifically what their business needs and we're going to focus on results the same way that you do. You're going into your clients homes and you're saying these are the results that you are going to get. This is the lifestyle that you're going to be able to live because of the things that I am doing for you. Your kids lunches are going to be made. You'll have meals on the table every night. Your your closet will be so organized and spotless and you'll be in a healthy environment. That's so key.

If they're trying, they want to take care of themselves. They want to make sure they have the time to go to the gym and to be active, but they don't have time to do that and make the meals and clean the house and everything else. You are buying all of that for them. Like that's. Yeah, I never, I never thought that when I was a stay at home mom, that this is how my life would be almost at 50. Right. Right. I just never thought I'm, and I remember when I was a child, I was a, of.

the youngest of four, three boys than me. And the boys didn't want me playing with them. and there was no, like they had the Atari game. So I wasn't allowed to play Atari. They had the game system. So I was cleaning my mother's refrigerator or I was playing Barbies, right? And I was playing house. So I've been playing house since I'm a little girl and I was never paid for laundry. You know, in the fifties and sixties women or the state home, the state home mom, wife used to get an allowance

for taking care of the home, allowance? What? So on Friday night, the new season of You is coming out, right? And so I'm just watching you on Netflix, right? But I'm watching you, and I was being paid to do laundry. Thank you very much. I mean, when I hear my washing machine going, because I wasn't able to stay, there wasn't enough time, so.

Sometimes I wash my clients' clothes. Why? Because it's my clients' clothes. My clients that I care for, the ones that I've had now, I've had them for well over a year a year and a half. In the past, I've been hired because I do detailed cleaning to look for alcohol, to look for drugs. I find the guns, I move the guns. I'm doing all of these things. I'm scheduling the pressure cleaner, I'm scheduling the pest control.

All of the things, all they have to do is pay the invoice. And then obviously there's lots of communication involved in between too, because that's key to running a service that I'm running. And with this, from Solo Cleaner to Essential House Manager program.

I do a lot of personal development in the program. know, like talk to yourself in the mirror, ask yourself, I believe that I'm worth $50 an hour? And then ask yourself, how does that make you feel? Because if you don't feel you're worth $50 an hour, nobody else is gonna think you're worth $50 now. you know, my background is sales. I was a Girl Scout for nine years. I sold the most cookies my last year. Like I was always in sales.

and communication and etiquette and professionalism is so important. Obviously, because I have the entertainment background where I have done poetry and standup comedy. And when I host their parties for July 4th, when I host their Christmas parties, right? Not only are they getting me to tidy their home and pick up after their guests, they're also getting an entertainment too, you know? So I'm having fun.

They're having fun, not having to clean up. I drive them home because I don't drink alcohol. So when they have parties, I can drive people home. I used to drive for Uber and Lyft. I have commercial car insurance for these reasons in particular. My client's safety is very important to me. Now, I don't know whether they know that I care that much about them.

You know, you care a little differently about your clients than they probably realize that you do too, I'm sure. And because I care so much and I care about their success, I care about their emotions. Gosh forbid if there's anything wrong, just tell me. Holly, I need you to iron those pants because I don't like the cuff on them or whatever. Just tell me or bring it to the dry cleaners. I do grocery shopping. I'm telling you.

all of the things and people, there is a service out there. However, not everybody's gonna pay it. So for sure. And here's the thing, even if you can hire me on a quarterly basis, on a semi-annual basis, or even an annual basis to come in and just do your garage. So if you wanted me to come up and clean your garage in Ontario, I could, Shauna Lynn, right? Right. But for the right price, right? Because obviously there's a lot of time involved in that.

And you can cater to your clients just like you do, I'm sure. Every client is different. They need a little bit of this and a little less of that or a little more of that. And I love cleaning. It's part of who I am. You cannot thrive in a chaotic environment. I mean, for example, if my home was dirty and I'm doing this podcast, do you think that I would be as successful as I am communicating with you now?

If I had all the chaos, I'd be worried about, my gosh, she sees the laundry. And actually you can see some laundry over there because that's my clients that I'm bringing back to her on Wednesday when I go see her. It's appropriate. And it's folded and in the hampers. But the thing is, it's all figureoutable in the janitorial industry. There is an opportunity here to grow and create financial freedom for yourself.

I've taken myself on dream vacations. I've created a life for myself that

I swear it's been because of my community service that's made such a difference. Helping Mother Nature keep this planet clean is no joke. It is more involved. I mean, it's very windy here today. And of course, there's a full moon happening this week, right? So the tide is changing. Yesterday was very flat and there wasn't any garbage on the shoreline. I go there this evening.

they're gonna have, there's gonna be garbage on the shoreline. And they say that in 50 years, there's gonna be more trash in the ocean than fish. So wait a second, I'm a Floridian. I've lived here all of my life as much as I love to travel. If we desire for Canadians or anybody else for that matter to come visit, more people need to be out here volunteering, cleaning, and not just after hurricanes. It needs to happen daily.

And I've been asked before, what organization are you with? organization? Me. It's just me, dear. Waste is good for your waste and your wallet. mean, yeah, exactly. I mean, everything that you're talking about, you're living the dream that so many entrepreneurs have of you're getting paid for your passion and you're getting paid well for your passions. You're able to live the lifestyle that you want to live.

And with that comes the opportunity to be able to give back in a meaningful way as well. Because I think that if we're all just taking what we can from the world and not giving back, we're not experiencing that fulfillment, that life that we really need. And to your point of, know, it's what you put out there, that energy that you're putting out there, you're gonna be getting that back. You're going to, you you're helping others and that's going to be paid forward in some way. And we all need to ensure that we've got those special causes.

If you're not cleaning up a shoreline, what are you doing to be able to give a piece of yourself even when you have no money? Even if it's your, you know, it doesn't matter what you, what, what state you're in, you always have something that has value and that should never be forgotten because if you, if you remember that you have something of value, can give that, you can give value away for free in ways that will be paid forward, but you can also make.

earn a very solid living off of this and make money, make the money that you deserve. I love that you talked about how you focus on the mindset as well in your course that you're not just, it's not just about here's how to clean a house, here's how to hand wash floors, here's how to foot wash floors. No, no, we're talking about the business side of things as well. And because that's the main part of our audience, I call them my accidental CEOs, I very affectionately call them this, but they're people who have followed more passion than plan.

And so your course gives them that step forward to be able to take the things that they know, the skills that they have and be able to apply it. And that's a beautiful thing to be able to live the life that you want to live doing something that you already know how to do something that you enjoy doing and providing that in a meaningful way for someone who needs it. Whatever you, I shouldn't, I was gonna say whatever you are selling, someone else needs it. Not necessarily, there's not necessarily, you know, a hole for every peg so to speak.

because sometimes we're trying to sell a product that nobody needs or a service that nobody needs. But what you are talking about is something that is absolutely essential that people genuinely need. There is a market for it, but you need the skills to understand not only how to do it, but how to promote it, how to find those conversations with the right people and then use those conversations to understand what is it they need and provide those solutions.

the more solutions that you can provide to problems that they have. And again, to your point, they don't necessarily know what the problem is, but they know that they need help. They know that they need someone help. And when you're providing the solution where they're like, I don't even know how I ever lived without Holly, like that right there, you have solved something massive that they didn't even know that they needed until you gave it to them and you've made yourself indispensable by doing that. So good job. Thank you so much. And the law of reciprocity really factors in in business.

Right? mean, between the customers and the employer, all of these things, it needs to flow. Right? And I would like to touch on the parental alienation that we spoke about earlier, that even though those were my most trying days, I was still able to pull myself out of.

the muddy waters, right? And become this beautiful lotus flower. as I continue to repair my family, the best way that I can and work with my family with as much as they'll give me, in the meantime, they can see that mommy pulled herself together. Because I was, I...

we were in a very toxic environment. It wasn't healthy for anyone. And I took it upon myself and decided that I can't live like this anymore. My children can't live like this anymore. And no plan, just passion that I had like you just mentioned. So anybody that's out there that is a parent that may be experiencing parental alienation, please Google it and educate yourself. Because if you're a parent,

it can happen at any time and you never know what's coming. cleaning. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. Yes. And like you said, you you don't mind doing some of the laundry that it's therapeutic for you. Like I get it. Cleaning is therapeutic for me too. I mean, I still at this point do not have communication with two of my children and it is challenging. And when it's challenging on some days more than others,

Yeah, yeah, it's definitely it's, you know, there's a lot of science behind why it's so therapeutic, which I'm not going to get into because we are definitely out of time on this episode. But the point is that you need to find what what are the releases for when you have those moments? And I love your, you know, pause, reflect, move forward. I've spoken on previous episodes about my dad who lived with them as for 30 years and had his 15 minutes each day that he allowed himself to feel sorry for himself. And then it was time to move on because you miss out on too much.

good in the world and in your life if you spend it feeling sorry for yourself. So you have to move forward. And I know that there are some days that that feels like a heavy weight and almost impossible. But finding those moments of things to be grateful for. So one of the exercises that I have a lot of my clients do, especially when they're having some challenging days and I can't take credit for this. This one came from The Gap and the Gain, a fantastic book if you want to check it out. But at the end of the day, I want you to write down the

three wins that you had for that day, three things that you're grateful for, three things that went well because every single day has them. But it's up to you to find them and reflect on them so that you can move forward. So I love that that is your mantra because I feel like so many people can benefit from that exact mantra. So thank you so much, Holly, for sharing your story today. I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Pause, reflect, move forward. That poem has blessed me in more ways than anything. And if you take anything away from this podcast, if you take that four words of just practicing moving forward, it will cat distraction. Sorry. Yeah. No, no, but I had to say hello. I had to recognize the baby, right? So those four babies are important. But we have to.

continue practicing life because it changes all the time. And if we continue to keep surrounding ourselves with powerhouse women such as yourself, how could we go wrong? And on that note, that is a perfect note to close off this podcast. So I will make sure that the link for your course is in the show notes. So if anyone is interested, but they can also just Google Pause Reflect Move Forward.

and you will find it, but it's a fantastic course in training that Holly is offering. We'll also be sure to have all of your social media handles in our show notes as well, because let me tell you, she is absolutely hysterical. You will want to find her online, I guarantee it. And just the energy that you bring, I think we just all need more of that in our lives. So thank you. Thank you so much. Pause, reflect, move forward, y'all. Amazing. So listen, if you are listening to this episode, what we are saying here today is,

is resonating with you, then I want you to take a moment, please leave us a review. Don't forget to subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform. And of course, as always, the absolute best way that you can show your appreciation, not only for us, but for your fellow powerhouse female entrepreneurs is to share this episode with someone that you know really needs to hear it today. That is the best way that we can all continue to support each other on this journey that we call life. So until next time, everyone keep thriving.