Adam (00:19):
Welcome to Masters of Home Service, the best podcast for home service pros like us. I’m your host, Adam Sylvester, and I want you to crush it in business. The home services are dominated by men, but there are so many women that are crushing it in business, and there’s a lot to learn from them. Ladies, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here. 

Kelly (00:37):
Thanks for having us. 

Savannah (00:38):
Thank you. 

Adam (00:39):
Savannah, why don’t you introduce yourself, tell us who you are, a little bit about your background, all that. 

Savannah (00:44):
I’m Savannah. I’m from Colorado. We are an eco-friendly cleaning company named Earth Love Cleaning. 

Adam (00:50):
And how long have you been in business? 

Savannah (00:51):
10 years next year. 

Adam (00:53):
Awesome. 

Savannah (00:54):
Yeah, coming up on that sweet spot. 

Adam (00:55):
That’s a long time. Awesome. 

Savannah (00:57):
Yeah. 

Adam (00:57):
Well, thanks for being here. Kelly. 

Kelly (00:59):
I am Kelly Guerrero with HomePro Coaching. And previously, my husband and I owned a landscaping service for about 15 years before we sold it. 

Adam (01:08):
Awesome. Cool. Well, glad you’re here. Tell us what is it like running a business in the home services? Tell us what it’s like. 

Kelly (01:15):
As a woman? 

Adam (01:16):
Yeah. 

Kelly (01:18):
There’s not a lot of women. The representation is not what it should be yet. It tends to be mostly cleaning services, but we are seeing a lot more women enter into entrepreneur roles and not just admin roles for a variety of different home service businesses. 

Savannah (01:35):
Yeah, definitely. Obviously, with me being in a cleaning company, that is a female-type industry, I guess. But I have seen a lot of friends of mine open landscaping like that. And there’s also a lot of other cleaning companies in our area that are owned by men and they don’t do as well because there isn’t that emotional connection that women can bring to the table exactly. Usually women are also the ones that are hiring for the cleaning in the home. So with that, it’s definitely going to be easier, I think, to connect with people as a female. And then can be harder for the male type stuff. I don’t know if I would be able to sell landscaping as well as I could sell my cleaning services. 

Kelly (02:19):
Well, sure, you could sell landscaping. It’s actually because you’re still dealing with the woman who’s making the decisions. 

Savannah (02:25):
Right. Very true. Yeah. Because the woman always calls the shots. 

Kelly (02:29):
Right. Right. So what we see as women, we know how to talk to other women. We know how to market the services. And so it’s a win-win. 

Adam (02:38):
The differences are giving you just a whole different perspective on the business, and it’s creating different results. What are some of those differences, and how do they work themselves out in the world at people’s houses, on the phone, with your team, that kind of stuff? 

Kelly (02:53):
It’s not about what’s better, a woman or a man. It’s about what different things we can bring to the table. I think too, that women tend to be more detail-oriented. So we notice a lot of the little things that, not to say that men don’t notice, but a lot of times they don’t. 

Savannah (03:09):
Yeah, absolutely. 

Kelly (03:11):
With the same sharp eye that we ladies have. 

Savannah (03:14):
Yeah. So when I first started my cleaning business, I was cleaning by myself and I was listening to this book called Integrity by Dr. Henry Cloud. It’s spiritual on the Christian side, but it also really talks about morals in the workplace and what that looks like. And taking everything that I was learning from that book and moving it into my company is what I always say is the biggest reason we were successful is because how do you act when you’re behind closed doors when no one sees you? And the feminine energy tends to adopt that mentality a lot easier than the masculine. What is able to morph and feminine energy is the creator. So we have created so much, and we can continue to just create from thought and connection and bringing, I guess the pieces out that people don’t always touch on. Men might be scheduling something in a certain way and as a woman might schedule something and touch on like, Yeah, I totally get why this is really important for you and why we need to get this scheduled right now. 

Kelly (04:13):
I feel like as women, we tend to be more collaborative and not so much following just a checklist like boom, boom, boom, boom, Boom. Men tend to be more rigid in a lot of situations. 

Savannah (04:23):
Exactly. That’s a good word for it. 

Kelly (04:25):
And I feel like we’re just more collaborative and looking for solutions with empathy. 

Savannah (04:30):
Right. 

Adam (04:31):
How else do you think your leadership is different than men might be in the workplace? Because obviously men, women are different. How is your leadership with your team different as a woman? 

Kelly (04:41):
I think with our employees, it really helps to understand what they have going on in their home life. 

Savannah (04:45):
Absolutely. 

Kelly (04:46):
What they have going on outside of work. Instead of just being very rigid and say, Well, no, I’m going to check up on this employee and make sure that they’re meeting X, Y, and Z standards. We kind of give them a little bit of grace and maybe understand that they’re going through a tough situation, or their kids are giving them a hard time, or whatever the case may be. 

Savannah (05:05):
You know you say that, that’s like one of the first things that I tell people when I hire them is that I am human too, and I go through the same things that you go through every single day and mine tend to pile up a lot more with 56 people working for me and having to hold all of the weight of their problems. And I tell them, If you’re having a bad day, if today’s not the day that you really should be going to work, but you can’t afford to miss the money, tell me so that we can send somebody behind you to support you through this, to make sure you didn’t miss anything, to make sure you weren’t off in the way that you could have been off. And how do we create that connection in the forefront before they even get going to know that, Hey, my boss, I can call her. I can tell her, my boyfriend just broke up with me. I’m devastated. I can’t stop crying. I’m trying to make this bed and I’m just flowing tears. 

Kelly (05:56):
And that builds loyalty too. 

Savannah (05:57):
Right, absolutely. 

Kelly (05:59):
They’re not quitting after six months because somebody offered them 50 cents more an hour. 

Savannah (06:03):
That’s something people always say is, Savannah, how do you hold the staff and how do they stay with you for six years? Cleaning businesses have this high, high revolving door. And I’m like, I don’t really know the answer other than treat people like you want to be treated because they are the backbone of the business. They are why the clients love you. They are why they think your team is so amazing. 

Kelly (06:23):
And when they feel respected, they then respect the clients. 

Savannah (06:26):
And they show up for their job. 

Kelly (06:27):
And they get that value of making the clients feel respected. 

Savannah (06:30):
Absolutely. 

Kelly (06:30):
Which then just builds your business, and it just, it becomes a snowball effect essentially, and just keeps growing your business. 

Savannah (06:36):
If I could tell you how many people have quit and come back, you would be amazed. 

Adam (06:41):
Oh, wow. 

Savannah (06:42):
Yeah. People will be like, I’m going to go take this other job, and thank you so much for the opportunity. 

Kelly (06:47):
We had that same, 

Savannah (06:48):
And then within three months, they’re like, You’re the best boss I’ve ever had. This is the best job I’ve ever had for granted. I took it for granted. Can I come back? 

Kelly (06:55):
We had that too. It was kind of like we would kind of, Okay, go. We wish you all the best. There’s always a place for you here. 

Savannah (07:00):
That’s what I would always say. 

Kelly (07:01):
You are welcome to come back. And then three months later, Oh, can I come? Yeah, come back. 

Savannah (07:05):
Yeah, you can come back. 

Kelly (07:06):
We’ve got a space for you. 

Savannah (07:07):
And then the clients get excited to hear the name again. And that’s one of my favorite things is knowing that I’ve created a community. And within Colorado, a lot of the time in these Facebook groups, people will post, Looking for work with a cleaning business, maybe cleaning Airbnbs. And I am always one of the first people from all over like, Hit up Savannah. Get in touch with Savannah because she does that. She helps people find and fill the gaps. And that’s just really cool to have that kind of community and know that people see you as somebody that they can come to if they need help or support because I always said I didn’t know what I was going to do for a living. I’ve done so many different things from being a criminal justice major, working in a law firm, to actually my very first job when I was 15 was cleaning, which I did not remember until years later just dawned on me one day. I was like, My dad made me do that, and I hated it and I did it for three months. And here I am 20 years later owning a cleaning company, just going through all the motions and finding what, it wasn’t about what I was going to do, it was about how can I help people? Because that’s what fulfills me is how can I bring light to the world and what I’m doing every day? Because that is what, it’s like the energy of giving love to something regardless of what it is. You could be cleaning out trash cans, you could be doing pet waste cleanup, right? All different things, but how do you do it? How do you show up in it? And that’s that word integrity that comes up in that book. It’s like, who are you when no one’s watching? What is the energy you’re putting out? Would you be proud if people saw you when no one was actually supposed to see you? Right. 

Adam (08:50):
I want to pause for a minute, talk about why we love Jobber so much. We’ve talked about scheduling and managing our time. How has Jobber impacted your business with your time management? 

Kelly (08:59):
I love the customizable quotes. Now you can have all the different templates for the quotes, so you can set it one time and then you’re buying back time every time you go to do a quote because you’ve already got the template set for that type of service that you’re offering. 

Savannah (09:13):
For me, it’s been the checklist features. Everything is organized. The clients are getting the forms all in one. They know that they’re going to get three forms at the end of the day, and it just makes the job seamless, right? 

Adam (09:27):
Yeah. Jobber makes our job easier, and it makes it a better experience for our clients. 

Savannah (09:32):
Absolutely. 

Adam (09:32):
And that’s what matters to all of us. If you’re not using Jobber, you need to today. Go to jobber.com/podcastdeal and start using all the features Jobber has today. 

(09:41)
How do you shape the cultures of your company? 

Kelly (09:44):
I think to bring that mom energy, I mean, not to stereotype that, right? But I think as a mom, your job is to raise children and give them all the tools and the skills that they need to go out and be successful. And so I feel like we celebrate the successes of our team, and that makes them love us even more if that makes sense, right? Where it just becomes a cycle of just showing up and being there for your team, giving them the skills that they need to succeed, and celebrating when they win. And I feel like it also gives the balance to maybe their different way of managing a team where my husband would go out in the field with his team, and he would be the ones that he would set the pace. And so they would have that balance along with Mama Bear’s caring and tools, et cetera. 

Adam (10:31):
What’s that balance look like being married, having kids? What’s that like? 

Savannah (10:37):
It’s incredibly difficult. Well, my situation is, as a single mom, trying to juggle, especially before my manager came on three years ago, trying to juggle cleaning sometimes still the backend computer work, the client management without Jobber would be absolutely nowhere because it just has given me a lot of time back, time freedom to run the company in a way that was more efficient. But my kids always have said, You’re on the computer ’til nine, 10 o’clock at night sometimes. And yeah, you are, right? When you’re a single parent, and you spend so much time in the thick of running from school to soccer practice to trying to make sure there’s a dinner on the table, and then that they took their showers and did their 30 minutes of reading and practiced their music all before eight o’clock at night and you get home at 6:30. How do you make that happen? So a lot of the time for me, it looks different than what other people see. It looks like my laptop in my car while they’re in music lessons. It looks like a phone call in the soccer field. It just looks so many different ways, but it’s one of those things where I always say I’m present with them, right? I’m here with them and that dynamic is not something everybody gets to get. 

Kelly (11:59):
Well, and that’s still time management though. So don’t set yourself short on that because you are making the most of the time that,

Savannah (12:05):
I try. 

Kelly (12:07):
And then when you’re with your kids, you’re present with your kids. 

Savannah (12:09):
Exactly. 

Kelly (12:09):
While you’re waiting for them to come out of their activities or whatever, you’re on the computer. 

Savannah (12:13):
Well, I mean, it’s fun sometimes, and nowadays they’ll be in the car with me and I’ll get a call and they’ll be quiet because the call will come over car play and they’ll know that it’s time for mommy to be business and that mommy has to handle this, and they’re quiet. And when I get off, there’s all these questions and asking me, Why are you going to charge them this much or what are you going to do? Or do you need to see pictures of the house? And so that’s always been really fun for me because I know that I am unknowingly in a way instilling entrepreneurship in them. My daughter thinks she’s going to own all these businesses, and my son says he’s going to be like an independent painter. So they’re already thinking way outside of the box, which I was as a kid as well. So it makes sense why I ended up here. But it’s fun to see that going into your family and your children in that way, right? 

Adam (13:08):
Do you all feel like because of all the external responsibilities, in addition to running the business, does that force you to be more efficient with your time? 

Savannah (13:16):
Absolutely. People always say, How do you do all of it? And I’m like, What do you mean? That’s such a silly question. You wake up in the morning.

Kelly (13:23):
 And you have to get it done. 

Savannah (13:24):
And you do it. You wake up at whatever time you need to get up to have the time that you need to do all of it before you got to start doing the stuff that is likely out of the home, right? Because I also do a lot of other things than just my business with fitness and personal training. So it’s like, how do you juggle all of that? Well, you time block and you pick what’s most important on the specific days, and you make it work and you say no when you can’t, right? And you also give yourself some grace. 

Kelly (13:51):
Well, the other thing too is that we don’t have to do absolutely everything. There’s some things we can outsource. I was reading a book, and the lady was talking about, she had outsourced her laundry, and before she did it, she wouldn’t ever imagine that she would do things like that, but in the end, it was the best thing she ever did for herself because she bought back her own time. And so I think we don’t have to do it all just because we’re a woman and just because we’re the mom, we can utilize services that make our lives a little bit easier and let us buy back some of our time, especially as we continue to build and grow and then focus on your highest priorities. 

Savannah (14:29):
Right. Well, you say outsource. And it’s funny because that’s what I have done, especially over the last few years as the business has grown, it’s been easier for me to find that sweet spot of outsourcing. I don’t cook really because I have a meal lady that delivers my food every Thursday, and they’re in these big containers and we do a partial trade for cleaning. So it works out for everybody. And there’s so many different things that you can outsource, but you have to get extremely creative and find where is my biggest pain point? And food was my biggest pain point. 

Kelly (14:59):
Now see, for me, I love to cook. 

Savannah (15:01):
I hate cooking. 

Kelly (15:02):
My biggest pain point is laundry and cleaning. 

Savannah (15:05):
Well, I have lots of laundry too. 

Kelly (15:06):
In every morning and does that for me. So it’s just what that looks like. 

Adam (15:10):
What other hacks have you guys found that help manage your household, your business, your personal life, all that? Any other tips for our listeners? 

Kelly (15:20):
I automated in my personal life, in my business life, whatever I could automate. And of course with business, Jobber, hands down, that goes without saying that Jobber automates so much. But even things in my personal life, I would have reminders in my phone that certain things that I have to do pop up at certain times. Uniforms ready at eight o’clock at night, the backpack with the gym clothes ready. 

Savannah (15:42):
I really like lists. I make paper lists because for me, visually seeing it crossed off, obviously I’m always on my phone and I don’t want to always be looking at my phone for tasks. So I love to have a hard paper planner, and then I have a task list per day, and I’ll write everything out in the night. And sometimes if I know it’s a really busy day, I will literally block my day by 30-minute increments so that I know, okay, you have 30 minutes to do this. If you don’t finish it, the rest of your day is going to be off. So you might have to X something, right? You might have to let something go, or you might have to decide to come back to this. 

Kelly (16:17):
I love that. 

Savannah (16:17):
Yeah, because if you plan it all out by the minute, I know it sounds a little extreme, but that’s how you can do it. If you really are trying to have a full day or a couple days a week where you’re just on the ball. 

Kelly (16:31):
It helps, I think, to brain dump like that too, right? 

Savannah (16:33):
Everything that you need to do. 

Kelly (16:34):
All that’s living in your brain out either on paper or into a tool like ChatGPT. 

Savannah (16:38):
Yeah. I mean, I use ChatGPT for so much support and question answering, and just kind of navigating sometimes more difficult situations. It could be, how am I going to answer this email in a way that proves my point, but also doesn’t make me seem like I’m being spicy or,

Kelly (16:58):
Petty. 

Savannah (16:59):
Petty, right? Yeah. I mean, I would say write everything down as much as possible so that it doesn’t feel overwhelming. You’re not like, Oh, I have to do that later. I hope I don’t forget. 

Adam (17:08):
What are your thoughts on branding your business as a woman-owned business? What do you think about that? 

Kelly (17:15):
As a consumer, I know for me, if I find a plumber, for example, that’s a woman-owned business, I am going to 100% go with them first because I know they’re going to have the attention to detail. They’re going to care about my home. They’re going to respect me. And I feel like more women need to enter these service businesses to give us these options. 

Savannah (17:34):
Right. With my business being women-owned, we definitely have people bring that up. We’ve used our website to build out interview stories that I’ve done and stories on how did we get where we are and who am I? And am I just a person behind the screen or am I an actual real person? And how do I draw that connection with them? And it’s a picture of me and my two kids and it’s a little bit about us where I’m from, where I went to college, how long I’ve been out here out in Colorado. And a lot of the time when people come, they’re like, I read your story and it’s so nice to talk to you. And then when we get off the phone, they just love me because they’ve connected with me. Even though they haven’t physically met me, they’ve seen a picture of me, they’ve seen my kids, it’s warm, they know that it’s a real person, and there’s trust, right? There’s that, I’m drawing a blank on the word for some reason, but there’s that connection that’s made so they feel safer moving forward with you. 

Adam (18:38):
Do you find it’s easier to build rapport with people? 

Savannah (18:40):
That’s the word. So the rapport is just already automatically there because they have so much feedback on you from something they read online. 

Kelly (18:49):
So I think too for the listeners that are male-owned businesses, they might want to start thinking about getting some women in operational management positions or not just admin, not just the bookkeeper, the girl in the office, but in those positions that are going to be working more with the clients and feature the story of the women who work with them, that’s how they can at least kind of move that needle a little bit and compete with all of these women owned businesses.  

Savannah (19:14):
I mean, they could even put their story of them and their family. I mean, I assume a lot of them are married, right? 

Kelly (19:19):
Sure. 

Savannah (19:20):
I assume a lot of them have children at home. Maybe learning how to connect with their clients as a male would help in that sense. 

Kelly (19:27):
Yeah. 

Adam (19:27):
There’s a lot of women listening right now, and they’re looking for inspiration, mentorship. They’re looking for someone to come alongside of them and just be in their life, in their business, help them. What would you say to them? How would you help them find that mentorship, find an accountability group, find help, just support. Any thoughts on that? 

Kelly (19:49):
Even as a coach myself, I have a coach that I work with. 

Savannah (19:52):
Every coach needs a coach. 

Kelly (19:53):
I have a coach. And I found her on social media to somebody that I connected well with. And I just really loved her content and reached out and now we work together. 

Savannah (20:02):
I mean, that’s what I’d recommend, right? 

Kelly (20:04):
Tons of people. 

Savannah (20:05):
TikTok, Instagram. 

Kelly (20:06):
Absolutely. 

Savannah (20:06):
I mean, you have to obviously be very careful because some of the packages are very high and have over promises, but find somebody that feels energetically connected with where you’re trying to go. 

Kelly (20:19):
Well, YouTube university is a thing too. So there’s tons of content you can get before you have to pay a dollar. 

Savannah (20:24):
I did an entrepreneur game show called The Blocks, and it was in Oklahoma about seven months ago. And what happened there was probably one of the most expansive in business that I’ve ever gone through. It was basically an entrepreneur bootcamp for a week and we’re in class all day long and we get quizzed and that really changed my life. So look for something out there. There’s tons of stuff that will just bring so much experience and knowledge. 

Adam (20:51):
This is a lovely conversation. I’m going to break it down in three things I think our listeners can take away from this episode to really boost their leadership and their business. Number one is empathy does not mean that you’re soft or that you’re weak. It means that you’re a good listener. It means that you care about your people, about their personal lives. They’re not just a worker. They’re a person that you care about. If you treat them that way, then they will treat you back well and will probably be with you loyal for a long time. Number two is you have to fill your cup first. You have to take care of yourself. And then if you do, everyone else will get that good version of yourself and not just it’s the depleted, exhausted, burned out version. And number three is embrace that you are woman-owned. If you’re a woman-owned business, talk about it, promote it, and it just creates a buzz around your business that you may not have if you weren’t. 

Kelly (21:40):
And also to celebrate diversity. Even if you’re not women-owned, you’re black owned or you’re veteran-owned or whatever that may look like for your business and celebrate that. 

Adam (21:49):
That was a really great conversation. I appreciate all you ladies being here. How do people find out more about you, Savannah? 

Savannah (21:54):
You can visit us at earthlovecleaning.com. We have some intake forms on there, our email, our phone number, all the good stuff. 

Adam (22:02):
Kelly? 

Savannah (22:03):
All the social handles @homeprocoaching and homeprocoaching.com. And just so you know. 

Adam (22:09):
That’s awesome. You’re crushing it each view in your own businesses, in your own towns, your own families. Keep it up. You have a lot of responsibilities, and I’m just thankful for you guys, so keep it up. 

Savannah (22:20):
Thank you. 

Kelly (22:21):
Thank you so much.  

Adam (22:22):
On the next episode, we’re breaking down how the fastest businesses are winning by giving quotes within 24 hours. We’ll talk about how speed, automation, and smart systems can help you outpace competitors. Book more jobs and give customers the instant experience they come to expect. Follow or subscribe today so you don’t miss out. And thank you for listening. I hope that you heard something day that will inspire you, especially if you’re a woman because women are crushing it in the trades. I’m your host, Adam Sylvester. You can find me at adamsylvester.com. You can interact with me there, tell me what you like about the podcast. I want to hear from you. Your team, your clients, and your family deserve your very best, so go give it to them.