Filthy Rich Cleaners: The Cleaning Business Podcast

It's not a matter of IF you'll break something in a client's home, but a matter of when 😬 It happens to every cleaning business owner, and in this solo episode, Stephanie talks about things she and her team have broken, damaged, and replaced over seven years at Serene Clean — from a faucet that snapped in her hand to a priceless glass statue that couldn't be replaced. She breaks down who's responsible when staff damages items, why you should never hide it, and how reducing risk in your kit and scope of work protects your business in the long term.
 
📌 What You'll Learn— Why the employer (not the employee) pays when staff break something— The exact email template Serene Clean uses to notify clients about damage— Why hiding a broken item can quietly destroy your reputation— How to reduce risk by removing harsh products and risky tasks from your kit— When it's okay to stand your ground and refuse to pay for a damage claim— Why charging good rates and carrying insurance protects you when expensive accidents happen
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter
📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application 
 

Hiring is hard, but firing is harder — especially when it's the first time you have to do it.  In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Lee Anne Chevalier, owner of SerenLumi in Ithaca, New York, just hours after she performed her first-ever employee termination! Lee Anne walks through her decades in cleaning, rebuilding her business from rock bottom after moving states, and the timely story of a manipulative hire who tried to pressure her into committing unemployment fraud. 
 
📌 What You'll Learn— Why "speed of trust" matters and how to extend it like a credit card, not a blank check— How to spot a manipulative hire before they poison your team— Why long-commute employees almost never work out long-term— How to protect your team (and your reputation) when an employee turns toxic— Why building a real brand from day one beats piecing things together— How to re-enter a market as a full brand after starting over
 
Resources Mentioned— ZenMaid (scheduling software, SOS feature, new app beta, Stripe + Mailchimp integrations): https://get.zenmaid.com/
— The ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind
— Serene Clean templates (purchased and adapted for SerenLumi): https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
— The Filthy Rich Cleaners episode with Cheryl Hajjar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9azk8CrpGE
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/
 

Stephanie used to spend nothing on job listings for years. That's all changed now, and in this solo episode, Stephanie walks through Serene Clean's real numbers behind a month of aggressive hiring. She shares the May 2026 hiring funnel — from applications started to retained hires — and how much she spent on Indeed to get there. 
 
📌 What You'll Learn— Why free job listing hacks on Indeed no longer work— Why Stephanie runs all interviews (group and secondary) on Zoom— What a 57% interview no-show rate really tells you about applicants— The full May hiring funnel: 395 applications started down to 5 retained hires— Why she refuses to call and remind candidates about confirmed interviews— What percentage of revenue to spend on recruiting (0.5–1.5% baseline, 2–4% during growth)— The mindset shift behind being willing to spend money to solve your biggest constraint
 
Resources Mentioned— ZenMaid Mastermind (Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind
— Indeed job post: https://www.indeed.com/job/daytime-residential-and-commercial-cleaning-technician-23e73d25ef635a46
— Previous episode on group interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzpln5-Z0-A
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/ 

Most cleaning business owners obsess over hiring, but few ask the people who actually stay why they stayed. In this in-person episode, Stephanie sits down with Ashley Seekamp, one of her very first hires at Serene Clean and now her longest-tenured cleaning technician at nearly seven years. They talk candidly about what it was like to build the company out of chaos, the growing pains of adding structure, the hard call to fire a beloved employee for theft, and the on-the-job moments that have shaped Serene Clean's policies.
 
📌 What You'll Learn— Why flexibility, safety, and being backed up by management beat a bigger paycheck for retaining staff— How adding "corporate" structure creates growing pains— Why you can't hire "hot bodies" and hope for the best— How to coach staff through trusting their intuition on unsafe client situations— The check-in process that makes employees feel like a person instead of just a number on the payroll— Why theft is a non-negotiable, no-second-chances firing — How good employees notice when you hold the line— The real skill behind professional cleaning that outsiders never see
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

Owners are often terrified to raise prices, and Stephanie Pipkin completely understands why. In fact, her team, including Serene Clean's Customer Relations Manager, Katie, just did it across the board, but they came out with their highest close rate in years. In this special in-person episode, Stephanie sits down with Katie to break down the whirlwind of May: a price increase on 72 existing clients, a full switch from hourly to flat-rate pricing, built-in travel fees, and autopay. They talk about Serene Cleans' numbers and why they believe framing a price matters far more than the number itself.
 
📌 What You'll Learn— How to roll out a price increase without losing the clients you want to keep— Why switching from hourly to flat rate made selling easier, not harder— The psychology of why long-term clients resist increases more than new ones— How to build travel fees into one simple price (the "Amazon free shipping" trick)— Why every hour of labor has to work as hard as possible when staffing is your constraint— How "priority cleans" replaced "limited hour cleans" to kill the time conversation— The production-rate auditing system that flags every job over or under target in 15-minute increments
 
Resources Mentioned— ZenMaid Software: https://get.zenmaid.com/
— Serene Clean website: https://serene-clean.com
— ZenMaid Mastermind (Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

ZenMaid wants to be more than your scheduling software. In this episode, Stephanie sits down again with Amar Ghose, CEO of ZenMaid, to talk about how ZenMaid is thinking about the maid service industry and the problems it's setting out to solve. They talk about using AI as a thinking partner instead of a decision-maker, the new tools coming out of ZenMaid (MaidPop, the customer portal, and a training/onboarding app), an exercise that helps owners design genuine customer delight, and more!
 
📌 What You'll Learn
— Why giving AI more context beats short, Google-style questions (and how to start using voice notes to do it)
— How to use AI as a thinking partner to find your blind spots — without outsourcing the actual decision
— The "12-star experience" exercise for designing customer delight at every level of your business
— Why "I can just do that" is one of the most dangerous phrases an owner can say
— How MaidPop captures website leads in about two minutes of setup
— Why the best companies use best-in-class tools instead of one all-in-one platform
— Three books worth reading: The Goal, The Algorithm, and Incorruptible
 
Resources Mentioned
— MaidPop: https://www.maidpop.io/
— Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application
— The Goal: 40th Anniversary Edition: A Process of Ongoing Improvement: https://www.amazon.com/Goal-Process-Ongoing-Improvement/dp/0884271951
— The Algorithm: The Hypergrowth Formula That Transformed Tesla, Lululemon, General Motors, and SpaceX: https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Hypergrowth-Formula-Transformed-Lululemon/dp/B0FFG5KFSK
— Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great: https://www.amazon.com/Incorruptible-Good-Companies-Great-Stay/dp/B0FWZZBPZB
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/
 

After seven years, Stephanie recently built a real career path at Serene Clean, but it looks nothing like what most cleaning companies do. In this episode, she unveils the new four-level career path she launched: Cleaning Tech 1, Cleaning Tech 2, Senior Cleaning Tech 1, and Senior Cleaning Tech 2. She breaks down why she intentionally left some roles vague to future-proof the business, how she tied two new monthly bonuses to attendance and compliance, and why she deliberately skipped titles like "team lead" and "trainer." She also walks through exactly how she ran the numbers with AI to make sure the bonuses were affordable at their worst-case cost.
📌 What You'll Learn— Why a too-simple structure can quietly cause turnover and stagnation— How to build a career path using behaviors you're already tracking— Why Stephanie set attendance qualification at 98%— How the rolling six-month attendance window actually works— Why she made the bonuses monthly instead of quarterly— How to calculate what a new bonus or benefit will cost you at its worst— Why she avoids team leads and the power dynamics they can create— How to future-proof roles by leaving responsibilities intentionally flexible
Resources Mentioned— Serene Clean Raise & Wage Guidelines (previous episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQngBPrIuWQ— Molly Moran (Live Bright Consulting): https://mollymoran.com/— Career Path Template ($15): https://serene-clean.com/downloads/career-path-template/
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

Matt Ricketts went from being a furloughed pilot back in the 2008 economic crash to owning a residential cleaning company doing $6M a year, but he didn't plan any of this. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Matt Ricketts of Better Life Home Services to talk about why he decided to own a cleaning business after being furloughed from his pilot job, and how he eventually scaled to 60+ cleaners across St. Louis. Matt shares the operational systems behind his "pod" model, why he switched from teams to solos, how he thinks about the numbers that drive growth, and where he sees private equity reshaping the industry.
 
📌 What You'll Learn— Why recurring revenue per week matters far more than your total customer count— How the "pod system" cuts drive time and keeps cleaners working close to home— The 500-to-1 hiring funnel Better Life uses to filter applicants— Why getting a new hire to 90 days predicts whether they'll last a year— How to fund great benefits with a customer-facing health and safety fee— The math behind spending $360 (or more) to acquire a single customer— The three pillars of "delight": operational excellence, custom experience, and memorable moments— Why solo cleaners generate more revenue per head than teams— How private equity and AI are about to reshape the cleaning industry
 
Resources Mentioned— Better Life Home Services: https://betterlifehome.com/
— Sight Stones (Matt's nonprofit — gifts for customers): https://sightstones.org/
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/
 

If you're prepping every cleaner's kit, tolerating time theft, or trying to force the wrong person into an office role, this one's for you 🥴 In this episode, Stephanie breaks down three examples from the past week of cleaning business owners doing too much, including why your cleaners should be responsible for their own kits and supplies, why time theft is a non-negotiable firing offense, and why pushing the wrong employee into an administrative role is costing you.
 
📌 What You'll Learn— Why owners should never be the ones prepping cleaner kits (and how to transition that responsibility)— How to pay cleaners fairly for 10 minutes of prep time so you can hold them accountable— Why GPS clock-in/clock-out is one of the most important features of any scheduling software— How to handle staff who turn off GPS tracking or clock in from home— Why "time theft" is still legitimate theft— How to spot when an employee is the wrong fit for an office role— Why problem-solving with technology matters more than knowing how to do something— How Stephanie's team documents SOPs using recordings + Claude to make processes plug-and-play— Why org charts and role clarity matter once you bring on admin help
 
Resources Mentioned— ZenMaid Mastermind (free Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind
— Claude AI (used for writing SOPs from recordings): https://claude.ai/
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/

Krista Radau didn't set out to build a cleaning empire; she just needed to help pay the bills! Six years later, she's running Extreme Clean Solutions in Oklahoma City with her husband, son, niece, and now her mom, and growing 30% a year without spending any money on ads 🤯 In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Krista to talk about starting a cleaning business in November 2019 (right before COVID), turning her husband's window cleaning company into a profitable upsell, why she walked away from a five-year Air Force Base contract, and how her TikTok handle "Queen of Clean OKC" is pulling in clients from other states.
 
📌 What You'll Learn— How Krista grew her business 30% per year using only word of mouth— Why she walked away from a five-year government contract mid-negotiation— How to combine window cleaning with house cleaning for a massive revenue lift— Her exact pricing on ovens ($50+), fridges ($80), and windows ($20 each)— Why "Google loves Google" and how to treat your Google Business Page like social media— How to build TikTok content that actually converts to bookings— Why systems, checklists, and policies protect you from awkward customer conversations— The squeegee method she preaches on every cleaning job— How to add coach light cleaning as a high-margin upsell— Why authentic, unpolished video outperforms scripted content every time
 
Resources Mentioned— Extreme Clean Solutions (Oklahoma City): https://extremecleaningsolution.com/
— ZenMaid (scheduling software): https://get.zenmaid.com/
— Angela Brown / Savvy Cleaner (systems advice): https://www.youtube.com/c/AngelaBrownCleaning
— Krista's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@QueenofCleanOKC
 
👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com
📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/consulting-services/
✉️ Subscribe to ZenMaid's Weekly Newsletter: https://www.zenmaid.com/newsletter/