The Cleaning Journey

What if one local influencer could bring your cleaning business 20 new inquiries overnight? That's exactly what happened to Courtney Nunes, founder of Green Leaf Cleaning, when her very first client shared her experience on social media. In Part 2 of The Cleaning Journey, Courtney joins Misa to break down the marketing strategies that helped her grow Green Leaf Cleaning into a business with 18 emp...

What started as a way to support her family turned into a rapidly growing cleaning business with 18 employees, approximately 100 recurring clients, and a second location. In Part 1 of The Cleaning Journey, Misa sits down with Courtney Nunes, founder of Green Leaf Cleaning, to discuss how she went from being a stay-at-home mom looking for flexible work to building a successful cleaning company in l...

Kimberly Zorrilla came to the United States from Venezuela with a background as an attorney, little money, and no English. She started cleaning out of necessity. Today, nearly 10 years later, she has built a cleaning company generating more than $100,000 per month with a team of roughly 30 people—and she's now focused on building the systems, leadership, and infrastructure that can take the compan...

What can 46 years in the cleaning industry teach you about building a business that actually lasts? In this episode of The Cleaning Journey, Misa sits down with Kevin Kluth, who started doing janitorial work at just 18 years old in 1980. What began with a few office-cleaning accounts eventually grew into carpet cleaning, specialized rug washing, a team of employees, and more than four decades of l...

  What if your clients stopped seeing cleaning as another expense—and started seeing it as an investment in their business?   In this episode of The Cleaning Journey, Misael sits down with Eddie Dauti, founder and owner of Accurate ProClean, a commercial cleaning and facility maintenance company celebrating 20 years in business.   Before entering the cleaning industry, Eddie worked as an executive...

In Part 2 of our conversation with Greg Sack of Pinch, we shift the focus directly to what it takes to grow and scale a commercial cleaning business. Misa and Greg dig into a question many cleaning business owners eventually face: If you're already great at cleaning, why not just go sell commercial accounts yourself? Greg explains where Pinch can fit into that equation—but the conversation quickly...

Commercial cleaning can be a huge opportunity—but behind the contracts are challenges most cleaning business owners don't see coming. In Part 1 of our conversation with Greg Sack of Pinch, Greg shares how he went from building and selling an international logistics company to FedEx to helping build a technology platform connecting cleaning companies with commercial opportunities across the country...

How do you train cleaning employees in a way that creates consistent results without expecting perfection? In Part 2 of RJ Patel's return to The Cleaning Journey Podcast , RJ and Misael Avalos move beyond individual cleaning techniques and dig into the systems behind building a well-trained cleaning team. RJ shares how his own training process has developed over the years, why training should evol...

What if one of the biggest problems in your cleaning business isn't your employees—but how they're being trained? RJ Patel returns to The Cleaning Journey Podcast for a deep dive into the value of professional training and the difference between simply cleaning for appearance and cleaning for health . In Part 1, RJ and Misael Avalos discuss how cleaning business owners can create stronger standard...

What happens when your cleaning business can't operate without you? In Part 2 of The Cleaning Journey's conversation with Adam Povlitz of Anago Cleaning Systems , Misael and Adam discuss how cleaning business owners can transition from doing everything themselves to building a company powered by systems, processes, delegation, and accountable people. Adam explains why one of the most important ste...

Build systems before you build a bigger business. In Part 1 of this conversation, Misael Avalos sits down with Adam Povlitz, CEO of Anago Cleaning Systems , to discuss the mindset and systems every cleaning business owner needs to stop being the bottleneck. Too many entrepreneurs spend their days putting out fires instead of building a business that can grow without them. Adam shares practical str...

Victor Mijangos built The Mighty Maids into one of San Diego's highest-rated residential cleaning companies with more than 800 five-star reviews. But getting there required much more than working harder. In this episode, Victor shares how hiring virtual assistants, building repeatable sales systems, focusing on customer experience, and investing in leadership helped transform his business from a s...

What separates the cleaning companies people remember from the ones they forget? In Part 2 of our conversation, Lisa Macqueen shares why branding, leadership, and marketing have become just as important as delivering a great cleaning service. Lisa explains how she intentionally positioned Clean Corp away from every other cleaning company in the market by changing the company's messaging, website,...

What happens when you stop running your cleaning company like a cleaning company—and start running it like a business? In Part 1 of this conversation, Lisa Macqueen shares how she helped transform Clean Corp from a $700,000 business into a multi-million-dollar commercial cleaning company by focusing on marketing, systems, automation, and brand positioning. Lisa discusses why relying solely on refe...

In Episode #36 of The Cleaning Journey, Misael Avalos speaks with Marcelo Matos, owner of Prime Cleaning Services in Columbus, Ohio. Marcelo shares his remarkable journey from immigrating to the United States in 2015 to building a cleaning company that now performs approximately 2,000 cleanings per month with a team of 54 employees and 16 vehicles. The conversation covers the challenges of losing...

Episode Summary Finding clients isn't the hardest part of running a cleaning company. Finding and keeping great cleaners is. In Part 2 of this conversation, Victoria Westcott shares the hiring systems, employee retention strategies, recurring revenue model, and leadership lessons that helped her build a successful residential cleaning business. Victoria explains why many cleaning business owners f...

Episode Summary In this episode of The Cleaning Journey Podcast, Victoria Westcott explains why she believes the traditional cleaning company sales process is outdated and how modern cleaning businesses can grow faster through online booking, transparent pricing, automation, and customer-focused systems. Victoria shares her approach to running a residential cleaning business that prioritizes custo...

Burnout, Systems & Scaling a Cleaning Business Too Fast Misael Avalos sits down with Shania Gladwell, founder of Beskar Cleaning, to discuss the early years of building a cleaning company during COVID and the reality of scaling too quickly. Shania shares how she went from working in government recruitment to managing more than 80 employees while raising a newborn and trying to keep her business af...

In Part 2 of this conversation, Misael Avalos sits down again with Shania Gladwell, founder of Beskar Cleaning, to dive deeper into the systems and strategies that helped her build a premium recurring cleaning company operating across multiple locations in Australia. This episode focuses on recurring revenue, premium clients, hiring systems, automation, retention, and building a business that runs...

How do you schedule 150+ homes per day without chaos? In Part 2 of this episode, Holly Moore breaks down the systems, scheduling strategies, hiring mindset, and company culture that helped her scale Maids & More into a massive residential cleaning operation. In This Episode We Cover: • Why most cleaning companies schedule the wrong way • How map-based scheduling changed everything • The software H...

What if saying no to clients is actually the thing that helps you scale? In this episode of The Cleaning Journey, Holly Moore breaks down the mindset and systems that took her from a chaotic $300K operation to building a multi-million dollar residential cleaning company with 150+ employees and 150+ homes serviced per day. Starting with just $1,200 from a school teacher's bonus, Holly built Maids a...

What does it really look like to walk away from corporate careers and step into one of the most emotionally demanding industries out there? In this episode of The Cleaning Journey , Katie and Kyle Wilson share how they went from successful corporate roles to becoming co-owners of a Spaulding Decon franchise in Tampa, Florida — a crime scene and biohazard cleaning business that demands both operati...

What if starting a cleaning business from scratch isn't the fastest way to grow? In this episode of The Cleaning Journey , Justin Ducharme breaks down exactly how he bought a cleaning business for under $100K, moved from Canada to San Diego on an E2 investor visa, and scaled it from just $5K/month to over $100K/month in recurring revenue — in only 8 months. This is a real, behind-the-scenes look a...

Cleaning business mindset is the real topic of this episode — and it's the one most owners avoid. In this episode of The Cleaning Journey, Misael Avalos sits down with Cheryl Hajjar , founder of Sisters Who Scale and creator of the Drop the Mop and Scale system. Cheryl built her cleaning company from $0 to over $850K — while reducing her workload to just 15–20 hours per week. But the real story is...

How do you hire cleaning employees — and actually keep them? In this episode of The Cleaning Journey, Misael Avalos sits down with Johnny Robinson of Home Service Academy to break down the exact systems that took him from hiring "the worst of the worst" to building a reliable recruiting machine. If you've ever felt stuck, understaffed, or held hostage by your team — this episode will completely ch...