Filthy Rich Cleaners: The Cleaning Business Podcast

In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Juan and Regina Jaramillo of Bright Corners Cleaning Service in Ocala, Florida to talk about all things commercial clients, including cold knocking, follow-ups, repeat clients, walkthroughs, bidding, systems, and more! ✨
 
Juan and Regina share how they started in residential and why they stayed obsessed with commercial, even when it took six months to land the first client. They also share a haunted-building story that’s now officially in Filthy Rich Cleaners' history 👻 If you're thinking about taking on commercial clients, this one's for you!
📌 What You’ll Learn
— Why Mondays are the best day to land commercial accounts
— How they approach cold walk-ins, follow-ups, and relationship building
— What to look for during a walkthrough (measurements, photos, blueprints)
— Why “one production rate” doesn’t exist in commercial cleaning
— How they simplify training (including limiting chemicals to reduce confusion)
— How they use a photo documentation system to “tell a story”
— When it makes sense to lease equipment instead of buying it
— What accounts are most profitable (medical, private schools, car dealerships)
— The red flags that make them walk away from a prospect
— How they think about scaling leadership, i.e., lead tech vs. field manager vs. subcontracting
Resources Mentioned
Bright Corners Cleaning Service: https://brightcornersservices.com/
The ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group (free to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Book a Consulting Call with Stephanie: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
 
🎙️ Listen to the Podcast:
📖 Read the full transcript: (link)

Overpriced, underpriced, or just right? In this episode, Stephanie is brutally honest about the pricing story she’s been telling herself and the fear that kept Serene Clean stuck at $55 per man-hour for way too long. She talks about what finally pushed her to treat pricing like an experiment and why it's not actually an emotional decision, even though it often feels like one. Stephanie also shares numbers that matter and the margins you should be looking for when evaluating your pricing strategy.
 
📌 What You’ll Learn
— Why “the ceiling in my market” is usually a fear-based story, not a fact
— How to raise prices without destabilizing your schedule (batch increases vs. blanket changes)
— The new Serene Clean pricing split that separates recurring vs. one-off/first-time cleans
— How to use pricing to incentivize recurring revenue and hit monthly MRR goals
— What to review when bookings drop
— The role of social proof, follow-up systems, and value-building in closing higher rates
 
Resources Mentioned
— Newsletter Sign-up: https://zenmaid.lpages.co/newsletter-sign-up/
— Steven and Anna's podcast episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBJCvAXymgs
— ZenMaid Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Book a Consulting Call with Stephanie: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://zenmaid.lpages.co/newsletter-sign-up/
 
🎙️ Listen to the Podcast:
📖 Read the full transcript: https://www.zenmaid.com/magazine/on-pricing-fear-and-profit-margins/

In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Yari Ising, owner of a fast-growing cleaning company in Pennsylvania, whose story will light a fire under anyone who’s ever considered starting over. Yari shares how a surprise pregnancy, a move to a brand-new community, and a sudden shift in federal work requirements pushed her to bet on herself — and turn a “side hustle” into a real business. She explains what’s helped her stand out in a competitive market, how she’s building systems with Notion, and more.
 
📌 What You’ll Learn
— How Yari validated demand instantly by calling local builders
— Why Google visibility and reviews can unlock “big-league” opportunities
— The early client strategies that worked (Thumbtack, referrals, and consistency)
— How to build an operations hub with Notion (SOPs, tasks, candidates, content)
— What to focus on when time, staffing, and growth all hit at once
— How to stop overthinking and get better at fast decision-making
— Mindset shifts like “Your business isn’t for everybody” + “Everything is figureoutable”
— Why asking for help is a scaling strategy
 
Resources Mentioned
— Notion: https://www.notion.com/
— Thumbtack: https://www.thumbtack.com/
— Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com/
— ClickUp: https://app.clickup.com/
— Pink’s Window Cleaning: https://pinkswindows.com/
— The Financial Diet: https://thefinancialdiet.com/
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Book a Consulting Call with Stephanie: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
 
🎙️ Listen to the Podcast:
📖 Read the full transcript: https://www.zenmaid.com/magazine/how-yari-ising-called-2-builders-and-accidentally-built-a-cleaning-company/

In this solo episode, Stephanie pulls back the curtain on what really happened inside Serene Clean in 2025 and takes ownership of the leadership choices that contributed to a revenue drop.
 
She shares an honest accountability review of the year, including how exciting new opportunities (podcasting, consulting, partnerships, speaking) unintentionally fragmented her focus, how she mistook comfort for safety, and why obsessing over lagging indicators kept her stuck in reaction mode. Stephanie also breaks down the numbers and talks about the mindset shift that’s fueling her 2026 comeback!
 
📌 What You’ll Learn
— The hidden cost of “shiny opportunity” overload (and how it fragments leadership focus)
— Why “stable” is not the same as “safe” in a cleaning business
— The difference between lagging vs. leading indicators (and what to track instead)
— How protected availability affects first-time cleans, recurring clients, and growth
— What Stephanie’s 2026 revenue goal is and the behavior changes she’s making to hit it
 
Resources Mentioned
— Extreme Ownership book: https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057
— ZenMaid Mastermind (Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind
— ZenMaid Cleaning Business Software: https://get.zenmaid.com/
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Book a Consulting Call with Stephanie: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
 
🎙️ Listen to the Podcast:
📖 Read the full transcript: https://www.zenmaid.com/magazine/leadership-mistakes-that-cost-serene-clean-120k/

In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Drew Larison of Five Door Media to break down why marketing “isn’t working” for many cleaning businesses, and how to fix it.
 
Stephanie and Drew walk through the “Five Doors” framework: choosing the right platform, creating scroll-stopping content, dialing in targeting, tightening up what happens after the click, and mastering the sales follow-up that actually turns leads into long-term recurring revenue. They also talk CleanCon, what to expect, and why this industry’s trust factor changes everything.
📌 What You’ll Learn
— How to tell fast if you’re advertising on the wrong platform
— Why video wins right now (and how to start even if you hate being on camera)
— The most common creative mistakes that make people scroll past your ads
— Targeting tweaks that improve lead quality (income, neighborhoods, service areas)
— Why homepages are not landing pages—and what to do instead
— How long forms, clunky pages, and too many questions kill conversions
— Why “speed to lead” matters (and how follow-up should actually work)
— What Clean Con is and why it’s built specifically for residential cleaners
Resources Mentioned
CleanCon Conference 2026: https://www.mycleancon.com/
Five Door Media: https://www.fivedoormedia.com/
SendJim Direct Mail Marketing: https://sendjim.com/
DOPE Marketing Direct Mail: https://www.dopemarketing.com/
Profit First Book: https://www.amazon.com/Profit-First-Transform-Cash-Eating-Money-Making/dp/073521414X
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Book a Consulting Call with Stephanie: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
 
🎙️ Listen to the Podcast:
📖 Read the full transcript: https://www.zenmaid.com/magazine/drew-larisons-take-on-google-vs-facebook-ads-for-cleaners/

Free cleanings sound insane... until you use them strategically 👀 In this episode, Stephanie breaks down one of Serene Clean’s “secret weapons”: Giving away free cleanings with guardrails, and how it’s driven real results across the business. She walks through four specific buckets where free cleanings create leverage:
1) Learning your production rates
2) Generating reviews and visibility
3) Building culture through giving
4) Reducing risk (especially when bidding commercial jobs)
 
📌 What You’ll Learn
— How Stephanie used 10 free cleanings before opening Serene Clean (and why it mattered)
— Why first-time cleans take longer than you think — and how to track room-by-room timing
— The #1 rule: set guardrails (hours + scope) so “free” doesn’t become a disaster
— How to turn free cleanings into reviews, social proof, and lead generation
— Why Google reviews matter more than Stephanie realized early on
— How giveaways drive visibility (and why Stephanie boosts the giveaway video)
— How “Cleaning for a Reason” and nomination programs build trust, culture, and retention
— A smart way to use free cleaning to reduce risk and collect bidding data for commercial
— How free commercial “sample cleans” can help you prove quality and avoid underbidding
 
Resources Mentioned:
— Cleaning for a Reason (nonprofit): https://cleaningforareason.org/
— ZenMaid Booking Forms / ZenMaid Scheduling Software: https://get.zenmaid.com/
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Book a Consulting Call with Stephanie: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
 
🎙️ Listen to the Podcast:
📖 Read the full transcript: https://www.zenmaid.com/magazine/the-free-cleaning-strategy-that-grows-your-business/

What happens when a homeschool mom starts cleaning “on the side”… and her corporate-leader husband realizes the numbers actually make sense? 👀 You get Grand Junction Cleaning Services!
 
In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Anna and Stephen Rodriguez to unpack how a single referral turned into a rapidly scaling cleaning company — complete with W2 employees, multiple revenue streams, five-star reviews, and a clear division of roles that actually works. They talk all things fear, anxiety, hiring mistakes, documentation lessons, customer recovery, fast growth pressure, and what it takes to move from being a great cleaner to running a successful business.
 
📌 What You’ll Learn
— How Anna went from solo cleaner to managing a growing team
— The mindset shift required to stop cleaning and start leading
— Why Stephen pushed hiring before Anna felt ready
— The real risks of hiring too late (and keeping the wrong people too long)
— How clearly defined roles save partnerships and marriages
— Why reviews matter more than almost anything else in local service businesses
— How they scaled to $400K in revenue after hiring their first employee
— What most cleaners misunderstand about W2 vs. 1099
— When adding services like carpet and floor care actually makes sense
— How stress tolerance grows over time
 
Resources Mentioned:
— ZenMaid Scheduling Software: https://get.zenmaid.com
— Cleaning Business Success (Stephen's coaching + book): https://cleaningbusinesssuccess.com
— Grand Junction Cleaning Services: https://grandjunctioncleaningservices.com
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Book a Consulting Call with Stephanie: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
 
🎙️ Listen to the Podcast:
📖 Read the full transcript: https://www.zenmaid.com/magazine/scaling-a-cleaning-business-as-a-husband-and-wife-team/

In this episode of Filthy Rich Cleaners, Stephanie talks about her business by the numbers in 2025 and how, unfortunately, Serene Clean shrunk by $120,000 in revenue. It wasn’t random. There were system problems, including staffing instability, fragmented availability, and a time-off policy that unknowingly crushed onboarding capacity.
 
She walks through the exact reports she pulled (ZenMaid, QuickBooks, ClickUp, Gusto), how she used ChatGPT to analyze patterns, and the key metric she wasn’t tracking at all — Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR). Then she breaks down the 2026 plan to turn the ship around.
 
📌 What You’ll Learn
— Why revenue decline is often capacity, not demand
— The difference between “coverage” and growth capacity
— How turnover creates schedule fragmentation that blocks new clients
— Why approving PTO based only on “can we cover current cleans?” silently kills growth
— The KPI Stephanie missed: MRR gained vs. MRR lost (and why churn alone lies)
— The minimum first-time-clean requirement (8–10 labor hours) and why 1–2 hour gaps don’t help
— The 2026 targets: 2–3 new recurring residential clients/month + 1 commercial account every 6–8 weeks
— Why Stephanie is stepping back into sales + follow-up to convert past clients
 
Resources Mentioned
— ZenMaid Scheduling Software: https://get.zenmaid.com/
— ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook Group (free to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind
— EveryDollar budgeting app (mentioned): https://www.ramseysolutions.com/money/everydollar?srsltid=AfmBOopRMU0IL8EQEUh-rtRGTw6gBgaYuGMVyyA5wqUDuu1D87aVmGiA
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Book a Consulting Call with Stephanie: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
 
🎙️ Listen to the Podcast:
📖 Read the full transcript: https://www.zenmaid.com/magazine/the-data-and-numbers-behind-serene-cleans-2025/

Starting a cleaning business sounds simple — until pricing mistakes, unreliable cleaners, scope creep, and money stress hit you all at once 🥴
In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Sidi, a 25-year-old cleaning business owner out of Philadelphia, to unpack what it really looks like to start and grow a cleaning company from scratch. He shares the wins, mistakes, and mindset shifts that shaped his first two years in business, and dives into things like pricing confidence, sales scripts, flat-rate estimating, recruiting cleaners, running 1099 teams, why charging less “just to get the job” almost always backfires, and more!
 
📌 What You’ll Learn:
— How Sidi's sales experience translated directly to closing cleaning jobs
— Why most new owners underprice and how to stop doing it
— Flat-rate pricing vs. hourly, and how Sidi estimates first-time cleans
— The real cost of “giving discounts” and loose money boundaries
— Why cleaners make or break your business
— Lessons learned from trying to run a cleaning company remotely
— How confidence closes higher-paying clients
— The importance of systems, scripts, and call recordings
Resources Mentioned:
— ZenMaid Scheduling Software:  https://get.zenmaid.com
— OpenPhone (now Quo) (call recording system): https://www.openphone.com/perks/zenmaid?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=partnerstack&utm_content=community_experts&utm_campaign=c92107ec7cc9&pscd=get.openphone.com&ps_partner_key=YzkyMTA3ZWM3Y2M5&fbclid=IwY2xjawMr03ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBleUtsVnZtUjlJa2h5ZWpwAR7Gp8p4NVVF-Y8WODTTXb-NJi57ltYrsQs-pyFmuaRR4gMrj6TGYWpL1zlA_Q_aem_Ey2JG_AkBSk_SI8w5kDOBA&ps_xid=iGpmmTBqEJNW4d&gsxid=iGpmmTBqEJNW4d&gspk=YzkyMTA3ZWM3Y2M5
— Cleaning Entrepreneur Academy: https://www.skool.com/cleaningacademy/about
— Sidi's TikTok (cleaning business content): https://tiktok.com/@sidi.inspires
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days:
📞 Book a Consulting Call with Stephanie: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
 
🎙️ Listen to the Podcast:
📖 Read the full transcript: https://www.zenmaid.com/magazine/sidi-thiam-on-sales-skills-and-pricing-confidence/

What happens when a college grad with zero cleaning experience decides to launch a residential cleaning company in one of the most competitive markets in the USA? You get Mighty Maids — now one of the highest-rated cleaning companies in San Diego!
 
In this episode, Stephanie sits down with owner Victor Migos, who built his business from the ground up after being inspired by watching his mom clean homes to support their family. Eight years later, he’s running 19 employees, two service areas, and a residential-first model that consistently delivers 5-star experiences.
 
Victor breaks down how he hires, trains, routes, handles walk-through surprises, manages upset customers, and develops his team, all while maintaining the personal touch that sets Mighty Maids apart ✨
 
📌 What You’ll Learn
— How Victor built Mighty Maids without ever doing the cleaning himself
— Why he runs teams of two in his business
— How to evaluate attitude vs. skill during training (and spot bad hires fast)
— What actually creates a “unique client experience” in residential cleaning
— The mystery-shopping strategy Victor used to out-serve competitors
— How to handle pricing mismatches when homes don’t match the client’s description
— Why emotional detachment is a leadership superpower in customer disputes
— The logistics challenges of a big city and how Mighty Maids overcame them
— How to create loyal employees who refer their friends and family
— Why your "why" matters more than chasing bigger revenue numbers
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Book a Consulting Call with Stephanie: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
 
🎙️ Listen to the Podcast:
🎧 Spotify: (link)
🎧 Apple Podcasts: (link)
📖 Read the full transcript: https://www.zenmaid.com/magazine/how-victors-residential-first-model-achieved-600-5-star-reviews/