Filthy Rich Cleaners: The Cleaning Business Podcast

What happens when your whole sense of worth comes from how hard you work, and then your body stops letting you work? In this mental health episode, Stephanie sits down with her consulting client Leah Izadi of Bless This Mess, who took over her mother-in-law’s cleaning business with a newborn and cleaned for 23 years. Leah talks openly about chronic nerve pain, a financially controlling first marriage, infertility, and the belief that she was only worthy if she was doing physical work. She also explains how she let go of her residential clients, rediscovered her strengths, and is relaunching as Innate Cleaning Co., a cleaning company serving medical and wellness offices.

📌 What You’ll Learn

— How to let go of residential clients with honesty and care (and why most of them will understand)

— Why tying your self-worth to physical work keeps cleaning business owners stuck in the field

— How strength assessments like CliftonStrengths can help you see what you’re good at beyond cleaning

— Why financial literacy and control over your own money matter so much, especially for women business owners

— How Leah used summer pool and event-space cleaning to keep income coming in during her pivot

— What changes when you move from residential to commercial cleaning: speed, checklists, and not over-detailing

— How a feedback survey with commercial clients helped Leah tighten communication and earn referrals

— Why talking to people about your business everywhere you go creates opportunities (including your next hire)

— Mental health tools that helped Leah: therapy, an ADD coach, breathwork, healthy eating, strength training, kind self-talk, and boundaries

Resources Mentioned

— CliftonStrengths (StrengthsFinder): https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/252137/home.aspx

— The Happiness Lab podcast: https://www.drlauriesantos.com/happiness-lab-with-dr-laurie-santos-podcast

— ZenMaid: https://get.zenmaid.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie’s Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ 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

Stephanie dressed up as a poop emoji for Halloween 💩 It fits, because this episode is all about the sh*t she didn’t expect when she opened her cleaning business. 7.5 years after opening Serene Clean, Stephanie goes through the surprises that hit hardest as she grew the business from zero to $1.4–$1.5 million a year. She sorts them into employees, clients, costs, and her own mindset. The list runs from a first hire who ghosted on training day and turnover that never ends, to a $30,000 workers’ comp audit bill, turning down whole categories of work, and more.

📌 What You’ll Learn

— Why initial cleans take longer than you think, and how production rate auditing keeps your time estimates honest

— How to keep hiring from making you cynical when it’s a permanent part of owning a cleaning business

— The one question to ask yourself before giving an employee a gift: “If they leave tomorrow, will I still feel good about this?”

— Why clear boundaries and direct conversations help your team as much as they help you

— How granular checklists close the gap between what a client thinks “deep clean” means and what you deliver

— The real cost of insurance and workers’ comp audits, and why shopping your policy every year can save you thousands

— Why you should target $50–$60 per labor hour and raise your prices as your costs go up

— How to keep fear and self-doubt from making your business decisions

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid (scheduling software): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— ClickUp (task management software): https://clickup.com/

— ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— Filthy Rich Cleaners episode: Stephanie’s first 10 employees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q44G2knlyEM

— Filthy Rich Cleaners episode: Top five craziest staff member stories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idwEDKueAKU

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie’s Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ 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

Ashley O’Keeffe’s cleaning business is growing so fast she’s about to start turning down work. She’s never hired a W-2 employee who stayed, yet she has to quote the biggest house she’s ever cleaned. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Ashley, owner of A.O’K Pristine Clean in Hanover, Virginia, for a hands-on coaching session. Ashley built her client base almost entirely through word of mouth and Facebook tags, and she's now at the point where she needs to hire, but her first W-2 hire lasted a day and a half. Stephanie walks her through hiring, getting out of the field, pricing a 4,000 sq ft home, staying out of side services, setting up client guidelines and checklists, and more!

📌 What You’ll Learn

— How to price a large home using square-footage production rates and your target hourly rate

— Why big houses often expect a “quantity discount,” and why you shouldn’t give one

— How to quote a first-time clean and then lock in a maintenance price after the first few visits

— Why you should never give a price during an in-person walkthrough

— The discovery questions to ask a lead, including “Why today?” and “Have you had a cleaner before?”

— Why saying no to window washing and other side services protects your business

— How client guidelines and a physical checklist protect you and help you close sales

— Why owner-operators should clear their own schedule before they start hiring

— How weekly group interviews keep a hiring pipeline full so one resignation doesn’t sink you

— How to use clock-in data and AI to build your own pricing calculator

Resources Mentioned

— Serene Clean Client Guidelines (available on Serene Clean’s website): https://serene-clean.com/wp-content/uploads/2025-Client-Guidelines-112025.pdf

— Rescue My Maid Service Cleaning Tech Boot Camp: https://rescuemymaidservice.com/cleaning-tech-bootcamp/

— Sharon Tinberg’s video training modules: https://www.cleansmartacademy.com/#training

— Cleaning for a Reason: https://cleaningforareason.org/

— ZenMaid digital checklists, service ratings, and clock-in/out: https://get.zenmaid.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ 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

Stephanie just got back from CleanCon Austin 2026, and Serene Clean is already running differently because of it.

In this solo episode, Stephanie breaks down her biggest takeaways from the conference, including Kristen Hadeed's keynote on leadership, Drew Larison's "why today" approach to sales, and Molly Moran's Shine Protocol. She shares what Serene Clean has already put in place, from AI agents that log into ZenMaid and send daily reports to plans for a dedicated salesperson and weekly check-ins with new hires. She also explains what she's choosing not to change and whether CleanCon is worth attending next year.

📌 What You'll Learn
— How the FBI feedback framework (feeling, behavior, impact) replaces the compliment sandwich
— How the One Three One framework teaches your team to solve problems without running everything by you
— Why giving managers a spending threshold lets them fix problems on their own
— Why asking "why today?" closes more sales than talking about your company
— How Molly Moran's Shine Protocol helps owners treat their health as part of the job
— Why Stephanie is separating sales from customer support at Serene Clean
— How Serene Clean uses Claude to log into ZenMaid, pull reports, and automate lead follow up
— How weekly one on one check-ins with new hires can cut early turnover
— What Stephanie is not changing, including how she pays her team

Resources Mentioned
— CleanCon (next event is in the fall of 2027, plus their online mastermind group): https://mycleancon.com

— Live Bright, Molly Moran's coaching program: https://mollymoran.com

— Permission to Screw Up by Kristen Hadeed: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34437136

— The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin: https://www.readbrightly.com/books/9781524760915/the-four-tendencies-by-gretchen-rubin

— Claude (the AI behind Serene Clean's automations)
— 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/

📋 Apply to be a guest on Filthy Rich Cleaners: https://get.zenmaid.com/guest-application

⚠️ Content advisory: This episode includes discussion of suicide, death, violent crime, and blood cleanup. Listener discretion is advised.

If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US). Outside the US, visit findahelpline.com.

Blood cleanup, unattended deaths, violent crime scenes, houses packed floor to ceiling, and more. This is the part of the industry that most of us never see. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Alex Philbrick, owner and operator of T.A.C.T. Central Arkansas, a franchise that does biohazard remediation and hoarding cleanouts, to talk about what it takes to run a business built on the jobs nobody else wants. Alex shares how he went from buying and selling sports cards to taking over the franchise in 2023. He covers how he prices hoarding and bio jobs, how he staffs one-time jobs with independent contractors, how insurance billing works for trauma cleanup, and more!

📌 What You'll Learn

- How hoarding cleanouts are priced, and why dumpsters are the highest cost

- Why a $2,200 to $2,700 day rate is a useful starting point for estimating hoarding jobs

- How homeowner's insurance billing works for biohazard cleanup, and what documentation to send

- How to pay independent contractors fairly when a job's value doesn't match the hours worked

- Why the franchise route makes sense for a niche like trauma cleanup

- How residential cleaning companies can partner with biohazard and hoarding specialists on deep cleans after a cleanout

- How to run a hoarding cleanout like an assembly line, and why a good relationship with a local dumpster company matters so much

- The heat exhaustion lesson that changed how Alex handles safety in hazmat suits

- How asking "what range were you looking to be in?" helps you win jobs and fine tune your pricing

- Why being local and answering your own phone wins bids over bigger companies

Resources Mentioned

- T.A.C.T. Central Arkansas: tactcentralarkansas.com

- T.A.C.T. Central Arkansas on Facebook: facebook.com/TACT-247-Emergency-Biohazard-Decontamination-Service-103126401915515

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ 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

What happens when your ex-husband opens a competing cleaning company with almost the same name as yours? Rebecca Emberson went through just that, but she kept her business and her brand, and she's building a better name than ever. Stephanie recorded this episode in person with longtime listener and cleaning business neighbor Rebecca Emberson of Dells-Maid Cleaning Solutions. Rebecca shares how she started in 2018 with five vacation rentals, rebuilt after a messy divorce, and now runs teams that handle same-day turnovers around the Wisconsin Dells. They talk about flat-rate pricing, turning down property manager requests, party house surprises, caring for elderly clients, and more.

📌 What You'll Learn
— How to protect your business if your marriage goes south
— Why you shouldn't panic when a former employee starts a competing cleaning company
— How to let go of a client without burning the bridge
— How Rebecca handles linens, flat-rate pricing, and teams for high-volume vacation rental turnovers
— How to respond when owners ask you to haul firewood, run the pool vacuum, or treat the hot tub
— Why you need to check every drawer, closet, and shower in a party house
— How to run walkthroughs that build trust instead of making the client feel ashamed
— How Stephanie's team used AI to find a close-rate gap on estimates between $400 and $700
— Why elderly clients should have a second contact on file

Resources Mentioned
— ZenMaid (job photos, service ratings feedback): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Cleaning for a Reason: https://cleaningforareason.org/

— Mark Limeberry's Filthy Rich Cleaners episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWVD2CXG3Ks

— Dells-Maid Cleaning Solutions: https://dellsmaidcleaningsolutions.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ 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

Everyone says cleaning is a "low-cost of entry" business, but Allison Diamond found out the hard way that's only true when you're the one doing the cleaning. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Allison, owner and founder of The Clean Collective in Atlanta, Georgia. After a career in corporate marketing (plus a body movement studio and a commercial greenhouse along the way), Allison launched her cleaning business without ever working in the field, which meant funding payroll, software, and marketing from day one. She and Stephanie get into the systems she built to make it work.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why "low cost of entry" is a myth when you're not subsidizing the business with your own labor

— How a Canva onboarding packet plus automated welcome texts got clients to actually read the policies

— The weekly team meeting structure Allison has run since day one (core values, recognition, games, and monthly outings)

— How to turn a Facebook giveaway into a lead-gen funnel with a secondary offer for everyone who enters

— Why the same question coming up twice means there's a hole in your training, policy, or communication

— How switching to subscription billing on the first of the month nearly eliminated cancellations

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid (scheduling): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Go High Level (CRM, funnels, and automations): https://www.gohighlevel.com/

— The Clean Collective: https://atlcleanco.com/

— The Clean Collective (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/thecleancollectiveatl/

— The Clean Collective (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576887479073&ref=PROFILE_EDIT_xav_ig_profile_page_web#

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ 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

A cleaning company can look profitable on paper and still lose money on nearly every job. Before you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a business, you need to know what's behind the P&L. In this solo episode, Stephanie explains why she would almost never buy a cleaning business (yet why she seriously considered buying one anyway), and talks about a consulting client's rough experience after buying a mostly residential company.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why commercial accounts are a safer purchase than a residential client list

— How to check production rates and profit per hour on every client before you buy

— The red flags hiding behind a profitable-looking P&L, like owner labor, low pay, and staff turnover

— Why missing client notes create a mess for a new owner

— What to learn about a company's team and culture before making an offer

— Why Stephanie would rather put money into marketing than buy a client list

— How messy bookkeeping can stop you from getting the loan you need to grow

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— ZenMaid Newsletter: https://zenmaid.com/newsletter

— Filthy Rich Cleaners episode with Marco (Chicago) on buying a long-standing cleaning business: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7fC5SLJQGo&vl=en

— Stephanie's YouTube video on managing your money as a cleaning business owner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVZbZWbhKoA

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ 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

Meghan Caicedo went from crying after shifts at a senior home to running her own cleaning company with her husband — and getting booked solid just four months after making it official. Now, she's hit the wall every owner-operator knows: she can't let go. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Meghan, owner of Caicedo Cleaning in Alberta, Canada, to work through the fears that keep new owners stuck in the field. Stephanie lays out the systems that make handing off clients' work, plus a live teardown of Meghan's website and marketing.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why standardized checklists are the foundation of getting out of the field (if surgeons need them, so do cleaners)

— How to transition long-time clients to a new cleaner without losing them

— Why client notes in your scheduling software stop customers from having to repeat themselves

— Why a card on file matters most on move-out cleans

— How Google My Business beats Facebook groups for finding clients who are ready to buy

— The pie analogy: what happens to your income when you hire your first non-family cleaner

— Why your website has to answer "why you?" instead of listing generic services

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid (scheduling software and client notes): https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Serene Clean's client guidelines: https://serene-clean.com

— Caicedo Cleaning: https://caicedocleaning.ca

— Caicedo Cleaning (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61589992966246

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ 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

Raising prices on 97 clients sounds terrifying...until you see the numbers 👀 In this solo episode, Stephanie answers listener Lorraine's question about how Serene Clean's flat rate transition is going. After seven years of hourly residential pricing, Serene Clean rolled a flat rate switch and a price increase into one change, and Stephanie shares the financial results, learnings so far, the pushback they got, and what she'd do differently.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why to roll out flat rate to new clients first, then transition existing clients in batches

— The real numbers: $7,693/month gained, $3,321/month lost, and a 12% cancellation rate

— The exact price increase email Serene Clean sent, plus and how a five-year client negotiated to a middle ground

— How to handle clients who think in hours, and how "priority cleans" replaced limited hour cleans

— Why production rate auditing is critical once you charge by the job instead of by the hour

— The mistake Stephanie made by not telling her cleaners about the switch, and why your team should always be in the loop

Resources Mentioned

— Flat Rate Email Estimate Template ($20) — available on Stephanie's website along with her checklists, documents, and bundles: https://serene-clean.com/downloads/flat-rate-estimate-email-template/

— Serene Clean's cleaning checklists — available on Stephanie's website: https://serene-clean.com/bundles/

— ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— ZenMaid's weekly newsletter: https://zenmaid.com/newsletter

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ 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

What do you do when a hotel calls and needs 10–15 cleaners a day, seven days a week, and you only have until the weekend to deliver? If you're Nick Spagnolo, you hit the ground running. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Nick, president of Spag N Shine LLC in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Nick left a banking career during COVID, started cleaning houses with his mom, and has since grown to around 20 staff members by becoming the "one-stop shop" for apartment buildings — janitorial, turnovers, carpet cleaning, floor stripping and waxing, and more.

📌 What You'll Learn

— How to become the one contact property managers call for everything, and why that builds unshakeable contracts

— How to break into carpet cleaning using your chemical vendor's free demos, training, and equipment support

— Why joining your local apartment association can unlock a whole new tier of commercial work

— How Nick priced and staffed a hotel contract requiring 10–15 cleaners a day during COVID

— The real cost of company vehicles and the $500 car allowance system Nick uses instead

— Why staffing agencies can tarnish your name (including the story of a drunk worker, a gun, and a parking lot fight)

— Why staying on top of your insurance broker matters

Resources Mentioned

— Spag N Shine (website): https://www.spagnshine.com/

— Spag N Shine (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/spag_n_shine/

— Spag N Shine (Facebook page): https://www.facebook.com/p/SPAG-N-SHINE-100063507854791/

— ZenMaid Software: https://get.zenmaid.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ 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

What happens to your cleaning business when your key employee goes on vacation for a week or two? For a lot of owners, things break. That's why in this episode, Stephanie shares how Serene Clean is preparing for office manager April's upcoming three-week absence, a situation that would create total chaos for a lot of businesses. Stephanie talks about the documentation gaps that April's prep work uncovered, how she's been breaking April's role down into daily, weekly, and sporadic tasks, how they're replacing SOP booklets with quick Loom recordings, and how they ran practice payroll rounds months in advance just in case.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why to treat a planned absence like an audit, not an emergency

— How to break any role into daily, weekly, and sporadic tasks (and assign each one a due date)

— Why quick screen recordings beat a 30-page SOP nobody will read

— How practice runs expose the gaps in your documentation before they cost you

— The field-tested handoff method Serene Clean uses for both clients and office tasks

— What to pause during an absence to keep the workload steady

— Why thorough documentation makes your business more valuable to a future buyer

Resources Mentioned

— Buy Back Your Time (book): https://www.amazon.com/Buy-Back-Your-Time-Unstuck/dp/059342297X

— Loom (screen recording software): https://www.loom.com/

— ClickUp (task management): https://clickup.com/

— QuickBooks (auto-invoicing): https://quickbooks.intuit.com/

— ZenMaid (client details and invoicing notes): https://get.zenmaid.com/

👉 Try ZenMaid free for 14 days: https://get.zenmaid.com

📞 Stephanie's Consulting & Resources for Purchase: https://serene-clean.com/resources/

✉️ 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

Dave Camenga started cleaning houses in fifth grade (yes, really). 11 years later, he owns a thriving commercial janitorial company in Baltimore with 30 cleaners and hundreds of monthly cleans. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Dave, owner of Dave's Cleaning Consultants in Baltimore, Maryland, who shares how he skipped college to go all-in on cleaning. His nightly janitorial teams of 4–6 people clean eight offices a night, and he shares why old-school direct mailers still land him massive commercial contracts. Dave also talks about the hardest parts of the business, including letting go of a five-year employee, firing disrespectful clients, and protecting a zero-drama company culture.

📌 What You'll Learn

— How Dave structures teams of four to six cleaners to service eight offices a night

— Why "hire slow, fire fast" and always-open interviews protect your best people from burnout

— The direct mail system that landed a $150,000-per-month commercial contract

— When to fire a client — even one worth $7,000 a month

— Why being coachable matters more than 30 years of cleaning experience

— How to command respect as a young owner by never asking staff to do what you wouldn't

Resources Mentioned

— The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591842158?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

— Q&A with Dave and Carolyn Arellano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dzZLaEjX1k

— Dave's Cleaning Consultants on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davescleaningconsultants/

— Dave's consulting services: https://www.davescleaningconsultants.com/

👉 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

What software does it actually take to run a $100K+/month cleaning business? In this episode of Filthy Rich Cleaners, Stephanie goes through every single tool she pays for, including what it costs, who uses it, and why she picked it over the alternatives. You'll hear about how her team relies on ClickUp for task and lead management, QuickBooks for bookkeeping, OpenPhone for client communication, Slack for team communication, Gusto for payroll, Loom for process documentation, and more! Stephanie also shares how AI has transformed her operations, and how you can use similar takeaways for your own business.

📌 What You'll Learn

— How Stephanie uses ClickUp as her CRM, task manager, and weekly time-blocking system (especially helpful for ADHD brains)

— Why every cleaning business needs bookkeeping software, even if you have a bookkeeper

— Why you should never use your personal phone number as your business line

— How to use Loom + AI to create SOPs and delegate without repeating yourself

— The case for regular software audits and being ruthless about canceling what you don't use

— Why the first-response speed of AI tools is becoming a competitive advantage for owners

Resources Mentioned

— ClickUp: https://clickup.com/

— ProcessDriven (Layla's YouTube channel and ClickUp course): https://www.youtube.com/@LaylaPomper

— The ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— QuickBooks: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/

— OpenPhone (Quo): https://www.quo.com/

— Slack: https://slack.com/

— Claude: https://claude.ai/

— ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/

— Acquisition.com: https://www.acquisition.com/

— Indeed: https://www.indeed.com/

— SignRequest: https://signrequest.com/

— Gusto: https://gusto.com/

— Loom: http://loom.com/

— Trainual: http://trainual.com/

— Canva: https://www.canva.com/

— Guideline (401k): https://www.guideline.com/

— The Gift Card Cafe: https://www.thegiftcardcafe.com/

— MailChimp + Zapier: https://mailchimp.com/

— Best Damn Bookkeeping Service (Dan): https://bestdamnbookkeeping.com/

— CleanCon (Austin, TX — end of September): https://www.mycleancon.com/

👉 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

Ty Severa is a former dispatcher and police officer who walked away from a guaranteed pension to build a 98% commercial cleaning company staffed by first responders and their families. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Ty, Owner of First Response Building Services in Roanoke, Virginia, who grew from three accounts and $1,600 a month in recurring revenue to 12 accounts by year-end. He shares how cold calling became his highest-leverage marketing channel, and how flat-rate pay lets him maintain a blended rate around $33 an hour while keeping margins healthy.

📌 What You'll Learn

— How to leave a stable career and replace the income with recurring commercial revenue

— Why cold calling gets easier the moment you reframe it as solving a problem instead of selling

— How to use the gatekeeper as an information source instead of an obstacle

— Why commercial sales cycles take months, and how to build a follow-up system that survives them

— How flat-rate pay works in practice, including the buffer Ty builds into every bid

— How to build a blind inspection system triggered by staffing changes and suspiciously fast clean times

— Why written scopes of work and infestation clauses protect you on deep cleans and post-construction

— The hardest truths about commercial: low-bid government contracts, after-hours phone calls, and big accounts with no juice to squeeze

Resources Mentioned

— BNI (Business Network International): https://www.bni.com/

— First Response Building Services (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/p/First-Response-Building-Services-61564978374874/

— First Response Building Services (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/firstresponsebuildingservices/

👉 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

A national big-box retailer offered Serene Clean a $50k-a-year account to clean three bathrooms. Easy work, centrally located, daytime hours, yet Stephanie declined to bid it. In this solo episode, Stephanie walks through exactly how that decision got made, including the pros and cons her manager brought to the ops meeting, the one non-negotiable that outweighed every positive, and the counter-offer they made before walking away. She also gets honest about why her answer today is different from the answer 23-year-old Stephanie would have given, and why comparing your year one to someone else's year one will lead you to the wrong decisions.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why the fastest path to growth depends entirely on what you're actually willing to sacrifice

— How to evaluate a large commercial opportunity by its worst-case scenario, not its best

— Why weekend work carries a management cost most owners never price in

— How to counter-offer and reshape a job before you decline it

— Why "I don't want to" is a legitimate business reason once you've built the foundation for it

— How to tell the difference between discomfort that means grow and discomfort that means walk away

— The real test of whether something is actually a non-negotiable for your business

Resources Mentioned

— The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt (the ZenMaid Retreat book club read): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1565114248?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

— CleanCon — Austin, Texas, end of September: https://www.mycleancon.com/

— The ZenMaid Mastermind on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— Serene Clean: https://serene-clean.com

— Filthy Rich Cleaners Ep. 108 with Yari Isling on walking away from a large post-construction bid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEF0xJm1DQI

👉 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

Courtney Nunes' first cleaning job was a 6,000-square-foot house, and she cried after working it for 12 hours straight. Two years later, she has 18 cleaners and is pulling in over 10 leads per day. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Courtney, Owner of Green Leaf Cleaning, who went from waitressing in California to running a 10-acre farm in upstate New York to building an 18-cleaner operation across two states in under two years. She talks about why she switched from independent contractors to W-2s within six months, how consistent social media posting took her to 10–15 leads a day, the incentive system she built to get her cleaners to produce content for her, and more!

📌 What You'll Learn

— How Courtney went from her first solo clean to 18 cleaners in under two years

— Why she switched from independent contractors to W-2s at the six-month mark, and how she handled the pushback

— The direct link between posting consistently and lead volume

— Why you should treat Google like a social media platform

— How to build a ticket and rewards system that gets your cleaners filming content for you

— The 30-second content hack for owners who are still cleaning full time

— Why holding onto a cleaner you love can cost you recurring clients

— How to know when a job isn't worth taking, no matter what it pays

— Why production rate auditing is impossible without accurate clock in / clock out data

— How to spot the clients who need a price increase, and why resentment is the signal to listen for

— What changes when you run the same brand in two very different markets

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid — scheduling and operations software: https://get.zenmaid.com/

— Green Leaf Cleaning on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/green_leaf_cleaning_md_fl/

— Green Leaf Cleaning: https://greenleaforganics.org/

— Courtney's email: admin@greenleaforganics.org

— Serene Clean: https://serene-clean.com

👉 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

No one likes confrontation, but sometimes it's necessary. In this solo episode, Stephanie shares the pattern she sees in nearly every consulting call and also recognizes in herself — clocking unacceptable behavior but only saying something when it hits a breaking point. She walks through real examples from Serene Clean, including the employee who stole a wallet from a church, and the manager she nearly lost because she waited months to say what needed to be said.

📌 What You'll Learn

— Why avoiding a hard conversation now guarantees a bigger blowup later

— The difference between a genuine mistake and a blatant disregard for standards (and why they require different responses)

— How your best employees lose respect for you when you let bad behavior slide

— Why delegating every difficult conversation away costs you the skill of having them

— The 48-hour rule Stephanie set for herself when she's sitting on unsavory information

— Why stating a consequence and not following through teaches your team not to believe you

— How avoiding the conversation steals your employee's opportunity to improve

— Why "you don't need anybody" is the harsh truth that saved her culture

— What core values mean and how allowing one exception makes them worthless

— How self-respect is built by action, and why you can't command respect you don't have for yourself

Resources Mentioned

— ZenMaid Mastermind (free Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— ZenMaid Weekly Newsletter (free, no ZenMaid account required): https://zenmaid.com/newsletter

👉 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

A client claimed a 15-carat ring vanished from under a shampoo bottle, but little did they know that Shaquille spent 15 years as a fraud investigator. In this episode, Shaquille Richards, owner of Miracle Cleaners of Georgia in Atlanta, sits down with Stephanie to talk about building a five-star luxury cleaning business from scratch after losing her job three years ago. She breaks down how she landed the luxury high-rise work through a resident-app partnership, the parking and concierge logistics she manages by hand every day, and the after-photo system that protects her cleaners and her business.

📌 What You'll Learn

— How Shaquille broke into luxury high-rise cleaning through one relationship

— The parking and concierge workflow she uses so cleaners never get booted or locked out

— Why she gives customers a three-hour arrival window her cleaners never see

— How her before-and-after photo process protects cleaners from false complaints

— How she's handled awkward conversations with compassion

— Why she says high-end clients are simpler than you think

— How a 15-year fraud career made her better at running a cleaning business

— The difference between cleaning and repairing, and how to set that expectation before the job

— How she sets availability expectations in interviews so cleaners stop being shocked by their paychecks

— Why fear of Google reviews is costing owners more business than a bad review ever would

Resources Mentioned

— Miracle Cleaners of Georgia website: https://miraclecleanga.com

— Miracle Cleaners of Georgia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miraclecleanersofgeorgia/

— ZenMaid (Shaquille's scheduling software): https://get.zenmaid.com/

👉 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

Serene Clean just had its highest-revenue month ever (over $130,000 in July), and Stephanie is opening the books to show exactly how it happened. In this episode, she breaks down the July numbers at Serene Clean: record revenue, 350+ recurring clients, 29 first-time cleans, and the highest net MRR the company has ever added. She walks through the metrics driving the growth, plus the areas that still need work, including undercharged travel fees and why none of her 2026 hires have made it past 90 days. It's a number-heavy look at what's working inside of Serene Clean!

📌 What You'll Learn

— How Serene Clean went from a $97K January to a record $130K+ July

— Why tracking net MRR (monthly recurring revenue) is the most important habit for growth

— What a "whale" client is, and why no client should be more than 10% of your revenue

— How switching to flat rate pricing made clients say yes to recurring service faster

— Why recurring close rate matters more than close rate alone

— How to normalize your profit and loss for 5-payroll-run months so you're not comparing apples to oranges

— Why most travel fees are undercharged

— What Stephanie learned from digging into why 14 employees left in 2026

Resources Mentioned

— Serene Clean's MRR tracking spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rO8m4mlE9-jHKavGDAo7kLyzvjTJuQYZdb3tOVY0Tro/edit?gid=890978938#gid=890978938

— Stephanie's flat rate estimate email template (~$20 on her website, linked below): https://serene-clean.com/downloads/flat-rate-cleaning-estimate-email-template/

— Serene Clean's active Indeed job listings: https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Serene-Clean-6/jobs

— ZenMaid Mastermind Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zenmaidmastermind

— CleanCon in Austin, Texas: https://www.mycleancon.com/

👉 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