Hi cleaning nation! Today on the podcast, we have Mike with Luis Vega of DMS Pro Cleaning Services in July of 2019. He fell into cleaning when things were pretty rough with his previous job. He quickly learned that if you have a knack for business, you can be successful as a cleaner without the costly bills of higher education. Though his Frisco, Texas business is now thriving, he is ready to get out of cleaning but telling himself a story that is disempowering and unproductive. Listen in as he and Mike chat about how to tell stories that affect real, empowering change in your life and how the energy from that place is one that will motivate you to get to where you want to go.
One thing Luis said when he was introducing his business that is really important to note, is the way he has decided to structure his business. They have decided not to work Friday night, Saturday or Sunday. So currently they are making good money working Monday through Friday, no nights or weekends. Pretty good gig right? it’s easy to say- man I wish that were a possibility for me! But I could never do that. Wrong my friend. It is simply a matter of choosing to make scheduling a priority. Just like getting out of cleaning, you have to make a conscious decision that you will not work on the weekends. Period. If your client wants someone to work on the weekends, you either hire someone to do it or tell them your company is only available during the work week. You’ll have some customers who are frustrated by this policy and others who respect it. But the only way to make it happen is just to decide. it really is as simple as that.
Lewis started talking about wanting to get out of cleaning but feeling like they weren’t really profitable enough to make that happen. He talked about the fact that hiring others to clean meant they would make less money and he was kind of stuck because he didn’t have the money to hire but couldn’t grow until they hired. Mike points out to him that the story he tells himself isn’t reality, it is just a story. And if we’re going to make up a story, we may as well make up one that feels good and motivating to us.
Before you can go from an extremely negative story to an extremely positive one, you first have to neutralize the story. So saying something like, we don’t have the money to hire probably isn’t necessarily true unless you’re in the middle of a pretty extreme financial circumstance. And even if that is the case, chances are it won’t be permanent. So, rather than telling yourself you can’t afford something, you can neutralize the story by saying, I’m scared that this will negatively affect our financial situation, but I’m open to figuring it out. That makes the story more honest and more neutral.
