Keep It Clean! - A Pro Cleaning Industry Podcast Dane Gregory

Keep It Clean! has Rob Hanks this week for a very entertaining story of an older brother convincing his two younger brothers to help him in his carpet cleaning business. They had little training and little support, but big dreams and a lot of drive. Those three brothers started one of the largest carpet and restoration supply businesses in North America.

Listen to how their partnership worked, how they planned and looked for, but also created opportunity after opportunity throughout their entire careers. Forty two years of hard work and dedication payed off with a sale to a larger firm and a well deserved retirement.

Rob's message of never giving up and finding ways to innovate and market to a wide audience is not lost today on successful people in the professional cleaning and restoration industry. 

BK Semandic came to the US from Serbia and decided to make a life here. He has an appreciation for the land of opportunity. And what an opportunity it has been! BK applies himself through the power of visualization and creating a future that is attainable. 

He tells his startup story from learning the language to understanding how the cleaning and restoration industry actually works. Along the way he breaks many of the traditional rules that we commonly associate with operating and managing a  cleaning and restoration company.

He inspires us with some powerful messages on how people should treat each other and how a responsible manager takes ownership of problems and create solutions to get things accomplished. This is a very inspirational story that needs to be heard!

An Interview with Bill Yeadon, all around nice guy, lover of business books and one of the pioneers of the professional cleaning industry. Bill has been a carpet cleaner for many, many years and a pure lover of marketing this industry.

Bill talks about his early days as a carpet cleaning professional in Florida in the early days of on-location cleaning operations, building a multi-truck operation and then working for Bane Clene Corporate showing others how to do the same thing in their markets.

Working with Bill Bane and taking training on the road was where Bill learned the lessons of being a road warrior and how much fun it was to help fellow pros learn about this wonderful industry. He continues that march today as a trainer for JonDon with instructing carpet cleaning courses, but also as a trainer in their flagship training program, "Strategies For Success".

Bill has read almost every business book ever published and is always ready to offer help to our industry colleagues. Listen to Bill tell his story of starting up in our world. 

Craig Jasper has spent a lifetime in the professional cleaning and restoration industry. Starting as a very young adult, he learned literally from the ground up to clean floors, carpets and fabrics. As most of us do, he then journeyed into the professional Restoraton industry and has become one of the most sought after instructors in the industry.

His down home instruction style fits well with his Chicago upbringing. He tells it like it is. Listen to the story of his startup and the obstacles he overcame  on his way to the top of the industry food chain. Some of the historical names he brings up will trigger memories in all uf us that listen.

If you are in the professional cleaning industry and you have not heard of Courtney Lee, you have been living under a rock. This guy is everywhere on FaceBook and many different cleaning related pages. Always a positive person and always willing to lend a hand to fellow cleaning professionals, Courtney had found himself struggling with some of the same issues we all face, busy vs profitable. 

After coming to his own "moment of clarity", he completely changed his business model and is now enjoying a much more comfortable lifestyle and less stress compared to his early days in our industry.

His startup story starts out very familiar to others we have heard from in past interviews but takes a dramatic turn at a fast food drive up window. Listen to a very inspiring story of Courtney Lee on Keep It Clean.

Jessika James has been around our professional cleaning and restoration world for 37 years, seeing many new changes and challenges for the industry. She is a pioneer of contents processing from the middle 80's and a pioneer of contents processing education by recently organizing an IICRC class dedicated to this venture.

Jessika got her start in the family business, doesn't that sound familiar? By working with her families cleaning and restoration business first as a carpet cleaning technician and floor care specialist. No easy roads for most owner's children in our industry!!

As an approved IICRC Instructor and a frequent guest speaker on many different topics related to restoration and cleaning, Jessika is one person from our industry that should get your attention. She tells her startup story from beginning to today and has some fresh advice for those just getting started. 

Please give a listen to Jessika James on the Keep It Clean podcast!!