Episode 13 - Breaking Boundaries: Summer Abram on Software, Success, and Family

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, it's Libby again with Fearlessness. What is Fearlessness? It's the underlying grit that empowers us to forge ahead even when hope seems distant.

[00:00:09] It's the courage to walk through those fires of hell knowing that we're going to come out stronger and better on the other side.

[00:00:17] Stay tuned and learn how to get Fearlessness. I'm your host Libby DeLucien and we have a very special guest because this is actually she said her first time doing something like this.

[00:00:29] So Summer introduce yourself, tell our listeners a little bit about you, what you do, who you are, all that good stuff.

[00:00:36] Sure. Hello everyone, I'm Summer Abram. I am CEO of Maids and More in Austin and in Houston and I also run a software company called the Cleaning Software.

[00:00:47] A little bit about me is I'm from the country. I am, I actually live on the same road my entire family does.

[00:00:54] Family is super important to me. So is my team and coworkers, they're basically extended family.

[00:01:00] And yeah, so that's a little bit about me. So I love that you said you live on the same road almost that your whole family lives on?

[00:01:09] Yes ma'am. We go up and down. I mean, I came back home about 15 years ago after, you know, trying to find my place in the world.

[00:01:18] Well, it was always right here. So I've got aunts and uncles and cousins and they're all right here within walking distance of me.

[00:01:28] So I really, I really never thought that that would be so important to me, but it is a huge part of my everyday.

[00:01:35] I think we are when we're younger, like we don't think that we should listen to our family or parents.

[00:01:44] And as we get older, I think that becomes more and more true. As we probably, I think as you approach to your late 30s and into your 40s,

[00:01:55] it's like that missing thing or it's calling out to you to kind of because I just bought property back in Oklahoma because I'm born and raised in Oklahoma on the Texas Oklahoma line.

[00:02:06] So a lot of people don't realize where Hugo Oklahoma is, but it's about 12 miles from Paris, Texas.

[00:02:14] So that's where I grew up. I grew up in Choctaw County, so I'm half Native American and half Mexican.

[00:02:20] If we wanted anything like even a haircut, like I had to drive to Dallas for anything prom dress,

[00:02:26] Walmart, now they have a Walmart. But back when I was a kid, like we had to drive to Dallas for literally anything.

[00:02:33] Yeah, that's kind of us here. Although you can make temple or Waco work, but yeah, we're pretty

[00:02:41] an hour out from any major city and not really major, I would say, semi-major. So I feel your

[00:02:47] pay. But now I live in Florida and I just bought property to kind of go back and visit. And I think

[00:02:53] you get that calling to you as you get older and a little bit more comfortable too in your life.

[00:02:58] Yeah, absolutely. And when I had kids and the kids started getting older,

[00:03:04] you know, I wanted to have them to have some, because I was a single mom until I came back here.

[00:03:11] So that was tough, but I wanted them to have other people in their life.

[00:03:16] So once we made the move, it was like the best thing ever, but you're right. As a teenager,

[00:03:21] you could not tell me anything. I was doing what I wanted to do. So that's a great topic to kind

[00:03:26] of segue into, you know, when we're kids, when we're younger, you know, in your CEO journey,

[00:03:35] you know, of running the company because you guys have two locations and a software.

[00:03:42] What would you say is probably the one thing or not even because there's so many, like what

[00:03:47] would you tell that younger version of yourself when it comes to finding that place?

[00:03:53] What should you have listened to? Like what would you tell the younger version of summer

[00:03:56] when it comes to like trying to figure out what it is to do or even to invest more time in?

[00:04:04] That's a great question. And you know, Libby, I'm a firm believer in the journey as part of it.

[00:04:11] So even though there was hard things, I put myself through dumb decisions. I made wasted 15 years

[00:04:17] just, you know, not getting anywhere. And I could be maybe like Miss Sarah on a beach in Hawaii right

[00:04:24] now as the income rolls in. But that's not the thing I made. But I think that the good Lord

[00:04:28] wanted me to go through those trials and tribulations and make it back out. And when I

[00:04:34] say back out, I mean, you know, come back full circle to realize what was important, what wasn't.

[00:04:40] So as much as there were some very painful things or dumb decisions I made,

[00:04:45] I don't think I would change a thing because I wouldn't be where I am today. I wouldn't have went

[00:04:49] through the things I went through. I wouldn't be the person I am. And then I wouldn't be the CEO

[00:04:54] I am for my companies. And you know, I wouldn't understand the work ethic that it takes.

[00:05:03] I completely agree with that. I think part of the journey is what teaches us to be stronger

[00:05:10] to really lead those. So, you know, during that journey or during any of the journeys,

[00:05:16] especially in business, you know, what business journey were you faced with

[00:05:23] that was really that moment of fearful like fearness? And how did you overcome it? Like,

[00:05:29] what would you say is one of the most fearful journeys that you went through or experiences

[00:05:35] as an entrepreneur or CEO? And how did you kind of work yourself through that? Like, what was that?

[00:05:43] Oh, yes, to pop out in my mind, very, very big. I'll just go over it real quick because, you

[00:05:50] know, we don't really want to go into that. But it's, you know, when COVID come, we did have

[00:05:55] to shut down for a week. And I just felt like all the years of the work was gone.

[00:06:02] But, you know, as soon as we were all laid out, you know, we all shut down.

[00:06:07] And the main four came back and just worked behind the scenes getting things rolling.

[00:06:12] And we were back rolling within a week. So that was very traumatic. And I know a lot of

[00:06:16] business owners out there, that was such a PTSD up and down, policy changing, shifting,

[00:06:21] stressful. I mean, it just hasn't been the same since then. But I will say

[00:06:26] that this building a software and then going live with it, as you know, with WeatRecruit,

[00:06:33] it's a whole nother, it's a whole nother ball game. And so, and then you're, you know, all of this,

[00:06:39] you've done it, you know, you've worked with your developers and you've gotten this product

[00:06:42] right and you're like, it goes to launch that day launched. And I was just so afraid. But,

[00:06:49] you know, I was like, whatever comes our way, we can figure it out. We can do a workaround.

[00:06:53] We still have the old system and just fought those fears the whole way. I'm going to fail,

[00:06:57] you know, kind of even my past fears, you're not good enough to do this,

[00:07:02] you know, all of those things. And then once it rolled out and I'm sitting in the office and

[00:07:07] everybody's like, just quiet and smooth. I just start crying, you know, just like this

[00:07:13] release of energy and stress and just, yeah, I would say that that would be my most recent,

[00:07:20] like fearful. And I kind of fight that. I think we all don't, we have those fears that are just

[00:07:25] built in us, you know, taught it taught his kids or we learned his kids and they sneak back up on

[00:07:30] us and we, you know, we just have to say get behind us, you know, we're going forward.

[00:07:35] Well, that's kind of this podcast is it's fearlessness, but we all have that fear inside

[00:07:40] of us. Like you said, it came to us when we were kids or, you know, unfortunately, some of

[00:07:44] us go through some really bad or hard times in our young adult life. It's like I came from,

[00:07:50] and I don't talk about it a lot, but in abusive, mentally abusive relationship of 14 years.

[00:07:58] And those, you know, really jack up your mind because you still are it's still in the back

[00:08:04] of your mind. Like, oh, like you had just said, Oh my gosh, you know, do I know what I'm

[00:08:07] doing? Am I good enough? And trying to like get through those for us, definitely COVID. But the

[00:08:15] last one for me was, you know, when my cleaning company we got leveled by Hurricane Ian, I mean,

[00:08:21] just leveled and we are still trying to fight our way out of that. And it's just not the

[00:08:27] same. We're just not back to the size recurring customers. And you're like, Oh my God, is it

[00:08:33] ever going to end? Yeah, someone just brought up hurricane season. Last night I went to dinner

[00:08:41] with a friend and I was like, I told my husband, I said, Oh my God, I can't, can't even think about

[00:08:44] it. Like hurricane season again. I'm like, please don't make me think about it. And definitely the

[00:08:51] software. I'll be honest, I have no clue what I mean. I have a clue now what I'm doing because

[00:08:57] I've spent a lot of money and learning SaaS companies. But when I first started, I had no

[00:09:02] clue. And then when I bought out my partner just last year, the imposter syndrome really kicked in to

[00:09:09] like Libby, you don't know what you're doing. You can't do this by yourself. You can't do this

[00:09:13] by yourself. Like, you're just some Mexican. You're just some Indian girl, like you have no

[00:09:21] idea what you're doing. And these thoughts to this day, you know, you get better and you

[00:09:25] you put exercises in place and you read books and you, you know, take a long time and you

[00:09:30] exercise and meditate and all that jazz. But you know, those thoughts never stop creeping into

[00:09:36] your brain ever. No. And the only way you can get you can find them and then less they'll talk to

[00:09:42] you is the more you push through and face that fear and just keep going because then you look

[00:09:46] back and you're like, you'll kind of laugh about it. You're like, why was I worried about

[00:09:50] that? Look at this, look what I've done and or look at what we've done. I'm kind of having

[00:09:55] those feelings Libby about the Austin event, you know, it keeps riding, popping back up.

[00:10:00] I feel like there's a lot of people there, a lot of good business people. I mean, great business

[00:10:04] people, very smart minded college educated, how many high school dropout, you know, and I'm

[00:10:10] supposed to get up and tell them how to, you know, or, you know, give advice on how to sell.

[00:10:15] I'm like, who am I to get up there? I'm just like, yeah. So me and Summer along with a few

[00:10:22] other people are going to be at a Houston event and it's actually just next week. So it's for the

[00:10:30] residential cleaning industry and so gracious I sit on the ISSA residential council and then

[00:10:38] it's a great, it's a great organization if you own either commercial cleaning because they have

[00:10:44] ISSA like international for commercial and then we have ISSA residential as well if you want to

[00:10:50] like residential cleaning company. But as far as, you know, our entrepreneur journey,

[00:10:58] journey, what do you say are some of the key traits because you kind of got into it? Like,

[00:11:02] what are some of the key traits that just help you get through that fear to come out on the

[00:11:09] other side besides just keep doing it? Like, what are some other traits that you feel are

[00:11:15] important? Well, you have to have faith. Faith, you know, I believe in, you know, God, whatever

[00:11:25] faith that you believe in, you're going to need that support system key. You know, you need your

[00:11:33] cheerleading team just as much as anybody else. And, you know, I would say be kind to yourself

[00:11:42] because I'm typically the hardest on myself and it makes it worse, you know, right? Because

[00:11:48] it's just adding on top of that fear and then it adds anger and regret and all kinds of those,

[00:11:53] you know, feelings give animation to matter. Meaning that if you're anxious and your heart's

[00:11:59] beating fast and you can't think straight, if you're angry, your face is all messed up and,

[00:12:04] you know, you want to hit something but if you're, you know, fear causes that same anxiety

[00:12:10] but, you know, if you're happy and loving then you're going to be smiling, you're going to be,

[00:12:15] you know, talking positive. So that feeling, whatever feeling you have is getting an

[00:12:19] animation to matter. So if you feel that way then you're going to be that way.

[00:12:26] So a lot of those redirecting techniques refocus in.

[00:12:30] It's like, isn't that like sales? If I smile and I'm saying it, I sound happy or like one

[00:12:35] of those fake animation, fake it till you make it, right? Yeah. I would say that would be one of the

[00:12:41] toolboxes and let's see. I think that that, and, you know, you're just okay if you need to talk

[00:12:51] to someone, you know, if you're really, you know, a lot got a lot going on like we've had

[00:12:56] lately and I know you have too, you've got the same kind of thing going on and,

[00:13:00] you know, it's all, we all have our own circus, right? Your own monkey, your own

[00:13:03] circus, but basically essentially the stress is the same and if we didn't care about it,

[00:13:10] then we wouldn't be successful. So part of that fear is the driving force for us to be successful

[00:13:18] and like face your fears. I'm afraid of birds, but you know, I have 18 chickens.

[00:13:22] So I kind of do that kind of thing. I'm afraid of heights. I went and, you know,

[00:13:27] bungee core or not bungee corded, but did some crazy stuff opposite of blind and some

[00:13:31] suspension bridges. So, and I didn't die. So now I'm not afraid of it anymore. So

[00:13:36] I guess you kind of, anyways, I'm rambling. Go ahead. Oh, it's okay. Yeah. You know,

[00:13:42] I always tell my kids that it takes the same amount of energy to be happy or to be mad

[00:13:48] or to be sad. It's a choice in the moment. Like it's a choice in that moment of am I

[00:13:55] happy right now? Or am I mad? Or am I sad? It takes the same amount of effort. It's just

[00:14:01] which, which way are we directing that effort? Yes. And also too, we have this thing,

[00:14:08] internal locus of control and external locus of control. So when we do an external locus of

[00:14:13] control, that means well he did this or they did this to me, right? But when we start owning that,

[00:14:19] you say, well, I could have done that better or I shouldn't have waited till last minute to

[00:14:25] accept that video call invite, right? So when we start taking control of those things,

[00:14:31] then we're now in control of our, of us and we don't feel helpless like blaming others. And I

[00:14:37] think it's, but it's okay because we'll go through that, you know, we'll get mad at people

[00:14:40] and we want to blame them. But you got to come around full circle, accept your responsibility,

[00:14:45] forgive and move on because you don't want to drag that, that bag of regret and hate

[00:14:51] behind you, laughs too hard without it. Oh 100%. One book that I'm circling back to,

[00:14:57] it's a book I read a long time ago, but I don't think I was mentally ready for the book.

[00:15:02] And I'm rereading it again. And I mean, I've read like chapter four, probably six times

[00:15:07] chapters, different chapters like there, I love a good book. I'm in the middle of

[00:15:10] three right now. Well, it's Think and Grow Rich. Oh, that sounds good. It's,

[00:15:16] it's an old book is written in the 50s. You know, I think that some of the better books,

[00:15:21] like I love me some go ahead, go ahead. But in the book, you know, it's all about how,

[00:15:26] how successful people are built. Like what do they do? And it's all mind. It's like the sixth

[00:15:32] sense they call it. And it's all this mind and how you build things around you support systems.

[00:15:41] But you reread this book. And when I read it yet, when I was younger, probably in my 30s,

[00:15:46] and I'm rereading it now, and they say in the book over and over and over, if it doesn't resonate

[00:15:50] with you, if you don't understand it's okay, it's because you're not ready for it yet.

[00:15:55] Come back to it. Keep saying come back to it. Right. If I had this opportunity back when I

[00:16:01] was younger, I would have screwed it up. Yeah. And I didn't get it. And now I'm reading it

[00:16:06] again. I've been reading it off and on because it's a very heavy book. So, but it's all around your

[00:16:13] mindset and having a group of peers creating that mastermind with two or three people,

[00:16:20] understanding yourself. It's all these things that you hear really successful people talk about.

[00:16:25] But that's what he did. He studied the most successful people in the world

[00:16:28] and created a frame framework. So for my organized people out there,

[00:16:32] a framework of how to get this, how do you be this way? Yes. I've been using a lot of journaling

[00:16:40] lately. Like, well, we're so planning like I want to list the top three things I want to accomplish

[00:16:45] today. Let's just check, put, you know, VIP things for the day and a quote, you know,

[00:16:51] whatever that affirmation of the day. Yes, I'm big on that. Well, I used to be and I need

[00:16:56] to get back to it. You know, your right, three things, goals, affirmations, and you put

[00:17:00] them everywhere. I used to have sticky notes for the kids everywhere. Everywhere they turn,

[00:17:03] they would have their affirmations. I need to get back to that. Well, I got one like I got mine

[00:17:09] right here, right? Oh gosh, I gotta get on it. It's kind of the it's a taped above my computer.

[00:17:16] But as far as daily journaling, I used to and I was really good at it. And because I was

[00:17:23] using a book but with my travel and you don't always have a book with you, I got into it

[00:17:28] and I started using an app that's really helped me get back into it because I always have my phone.

[00:17:35] Yes, it's called day one. It's a journal. It's really cool. It helps track your streaks and you

[00:17:42] can add goal tracking because I try to review my goals three times a day plus journaling so I can

[00:17:48] kind of have them in one spot. Yeah, that's been good. It's pretty funny because I'm not

[00:17:56] super consistent. I'm okay, but it tells you the days that I'm consistent on the same days.

[00:18:04] So for some reason every week I miss like Wednesday,

[00:18:08] but I always do Monday, Tuesday, Sunday. That's so weird. I'm gonna do it and then

[00:18:14] everything blows up in the air and you're like you look up and it's Friday. And then you're

[00:18:17] like Sunday, I gotta get my crap together. So I'm like that's so weird. But that's okay,

[00:18:24] right? Because this is your journal and that works. 30 days better than nine, right?

[00:18:29] Yeah, I'm like that's so weird. I'm oddly inconsistent but consistent on the same day.

[00:18:32] That's okay. But the book is great, but it's like everything we talked to you about giving

[00:18:37] yourself grace, having faith, to talk about faith in the book. Not so much religious faith,

[00:18:42] but faith in yourself or faith in something. You have to have faith in something,

[00:18:47] whether it's yourself or God or a God, you have to have faith in something.

[00:18:55] But it's a really good revisit to that book and it's really helped me lately kind of reestablish

[00:19:02] and realign because it's a struggle. I'm not gonna lie. Having multiple companies and different

[00:19:08] teams. I'm not sure with your software and your service industry, do you have a

[00:19:15] different set of, I would assume, different set of employees for the software versus service?

[00:19:20] Well, you're looking at the employee for the software. Now as we know, we just took up a

[00:19:25] coaching program because we know cleaning. We know cleaning top to bottom, right? We've

[00:19:30] done 15 years, 7 million right now. So the system was built off of that journey. So it's

[00:19:38] like 15 years of experience built into automation, right? So our really focused, made that make

[00:19:43] sense, made it simple. But going from that to launching a SaaS company. So I was like, Holly,

[00:19:52] we got to grab us. We got to get us a good coach and she agreed and we got into the SaaS academy.

[00:19:58] And it was so strange. You had just been at the convention two days before when I had set

[00:20:03] the appointment. Had no clue. Caught him on a video. And I'm telling you, Libby, the fears

[00:20:08] have like flown out the window now. We feel like we have direction, right, Holly? How would

[00:20:12] you like it? Yes. Yeah, I've been in SaaS Academy two years now. It's great. Yeah, I see that all your

[00:20:19] everything you're doing and I'm like, how are we going to do this and this and that? And

[00:20:24] so right now it's just me and Holly. And then we're doing the eight week launch program. And

[00:20:30] we're trying to get to, you know, that that medium where we can get our first team member

[00:20:36] hired so that we can, we want to do this right and professional and not just flop around for a year

[00:20:43] trying to figure out our way. We're going for it. Awesome. We started that same way. Like it was

[00:20:49] just me and Paul, my original co-founder. He helped me build it out and then we hired my

[00:20:55] husband as the first employee. And we now have 17 remote employees. Just for the software.

[00:21:03] Oh, it's a major, it's a machine. It is now bigger than, I always say this, it's bigger than me and

[00:21:10] my husband now. Like it's bigger than us. We have things like policies that run it and COOs that are

[00:21:18] not us. It has out, it is bigger than us when things come up and happen now. There are people

[00:21:25] that we have a full leadership team. It's been great. So just so we can look down the road

[00:21:31] in two years. How does that look for you in two years with Woot Recruit? Are you doing,

[00:21:35] you kind of focus more on like being the face of the company and getting,

[00:21:39] I'm doing things like this podcast and yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So we have a full CMO. She's

[00:21:47] head of marketing. We have, you would call it like head of ops, but we call her customer

[00:21:53] success where she manages the account managers and quality and, you know, customer issues.

[00:21:59] We have a head of finance and HR and then we have a head of product and development.

[00:22:05] So in two years, I don't do hardly anything in the day to day anymore. I'm just sitting

[00:22:10] in mainly meetings because we have a fractional COO and he and I are kind of splitting that

[00:22:16] because we need to hire a full time. At this point, we've kind of outgrown his name's Jim,

[00:22:22] love Jim. We've outgrown Jim a little bit. He was phenomenal. He came in, he came from

[00:22:27] Microsoft. So we hired very, very high level. So we decided to go fractional because we couldn't afford

[00:22:33] someone of that caliber and level if they weren't a fractional.

[00:22:38] Right. Yes. So he has really helped us and then SAS Academy on top of that and having

[00:22:43] all of those resources have helped. So in two years, we went from zero to a million in two

[00:22:51] years. I'm just so glad to hear that. When I seen that, I was like, oh my gosh,

[00:22:56] now we have somebody that's actually in it. It's been through it and that just made my heart warm

[00:23:02] when we see that. Yeah, it's already helped so much like bridging the gap between the actual,

[00:23:07] you know, my husband's a home builder and I have this, and we're in the service industry.

[00:23:11] Like something you could touch, like a whole new world. And the whole world.

[00:23:16] Holly's just really rec and started recognizing it. Like that it's a real thing, but you

[00:23:21] know, because you it's not really something tangible you hold. No. I'm like, come on,

[00:23:25] Molly, come on. She's like, I can't, I can't, I can't, you know, but now she's,

[00:23:30] she's put it out there. So I'm very proud of her and yes, I'm more of a operational and person

[00:23:36] and definitely numbers. Summer is the inventive creative genius that can see things that I

[00:23:41] can't. I'm like, I'm sorry. If you're going to have to wait. I'm just going to bring my

[00:23:47] cash flow sheet over here to make sure that everything's out. Okay. Yeah, she's the money.

[00:23:51] I like to spend it. Maybe we're very proud of you and what you've done at work. And I have a lot of

[00:23:56] friends in the cleaning industry that use you and they're just

[00:24:01] very happy and I heard you and I don't know where if it was on a podcast or something

[00:24:06] I was listening to you said, what is the name of the hiring place that everybody,

[00:24:11] indeed you said, Oh, indeed. I'm going to put indeed out of business and I said,

[00:24:15] I'm going to take them down. She's taking them down. So you know what I said the other day,

[00:24:19] similar in a similar situation. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? But yeah,

[00:24:24] I thought she had the confidence to say that and that's a big statement. Oh yeah,

[00:24:28] because I still use that we still use them in the recruiting. We can we integrate with indeed.

[00:24:34] So I can't let them. Okay, there you go. I froze for a second.

[00:24:38] Okay.

[00:24:47] Okay.

[00:24:49] Okay, sorry. Yeah, sorry. We froze for a second. Yeah, so I do my goal is to change the way the

[00:24:55] service based industry hires. Right? That indeed platform was made for more C-suite,

[00:25:01] more higher level and it has turned in over the years into service based industries,

[00:25:08] high turnover industries recruiting off that platform but it's not made for us.

[00:25:12] It's not. And so I my goal is to take them down. That's why I need to grow, recruit because I need

[00:25:20] the money. I need the money to create the new platform that we're building to really

[00:25:29] be a competitor against them but I can't get them mad at me yet. That's why I don't say it too often

[00:25:35] out loud. Like inside my podcast, I'm fine because right now we currently integrate with indeed.

[00:25:44] That's why we currently integrate with the platform because we're sourcing.

[00:25:47] There's nothing wrong with that because I'm sure that there's plenty of other entrepreneurs out

[00:25:51] there that have the same top, you know, that are, I mean there's different places you can

[00:25:55] hire from right, you know, go get a job. Oh yeah. And they're probably, you know, that's the name of

[00:25:59] the game. You're a business. Your name and for that number you want to be the best in the industry

[00:26:04] and best for your specific. So built specifically the industry it's a different,

[00:26:10] it's a different thing that it's not the same as real estate, you know, all the all the

[00:26:15] different things. And it's with getting down into the residential cleaning part that's

[00:26:22] what my goal is is to be the best residential cleaning company software and be scalable that we

[00:26:32] don't have to go through and keep moving to softwares, you know. Yes. As far as like going from

[00:26:39] the service-based industries to SaaS, I don't know about you but when I first moved over,

[00:26:43] I had to like study acronyms because I couldn't figure out what the heck they were talking

[00:26:47] about all the time. Like SDRs and BDRs and all the acronyms for the positions, AMs. I'm like,

[00:26:57] what? I have no idea what none of this means. Yes. Now I feel like I can hold my own,

[00:27:02] I can sit in the room and I know what they're talking about. Yeah, that's also, you know,

[00:27:05] when I watched, that's the reason I picked SaaS Academy because I watched, I typed in

[00:27:09] literally it was a burnout day. I was like, I can't do it. There's too much going on.

[00:27:14] I'm trying to launch. I've got this event. I'm trying to run maids and more. We're doing

[00:27:18] yearly planning. I mean, it was overwhelming to the mental day. I'm in my bed and I type into

[00:27:22] YouTube. I'm starting a SaaS company. I know nothing about and I'm over-stressed and Dan Martell

[00:27:28] popped up and I've watched a lot of these coaches and video, you know, and they're talking,

[00:27:32] I don't know, they're saying Dan instant connection. He makes everything very clear

[00:27:37] and I was just, I was like, oh my gosh, three videos in. I booked that appointment,

[00:27:42] told Holly we got to be there. We were like this with the credit card. Take it, take it, take it.

[00:27:47] We did that. So yeah, I'm sure I'm going to be, and then you're in the room full of all those

[00:27:53] coders and people that know all this jazz. You know what I mean? Like,

[00:27:57] they just think the stuff up. They've never been in the industry, right?

[00:28:01] And they think of a program and then they program it. I just, I don't know if I could

[00:28:04] do that because mine's based off of knowledge of the current, so is yours. Yours is based off

[00:28:09] of knowledge of hiring for your cleaning company or organize it. So I don't know, it's just so,

[00:28:14] so smart. You know though, I feel like we have an advantage though because we're selling a proven

[00:28:21] process. We're not selling theory. Yeah, or your niche customer, well I'm like,

[00:28:28] I'm already niche down to as low as you can pretty much get it. Now you're able to,

[00:28:34] which you have to, right? Because you can't go too narrow on that. But your service industry, but

[00:28:41] you know once I'm getting down to this, my software operational would work for a few

[00:28:45] service industries, but I'm focused on cleaning companies right now. Absolutely.

[00:28:52] So I have one last question before we wrap up. Sure. And you know, my question is,

[00:29:00] what is the, what do you think is the most proud moment? Right? Reflecting on your journey,

[00:29:09] could you share an experience of your most, that you're most proud of while running your business?

[00:29:14] A lot of proud moments. A lot of proud, a lot of people. So okay, narrow that down for me.

[00:29:19] Proud moments as in in my company or in my coworkers or proud moments as me in business

[00:29:25] or in personal or like, let's do a funnel here. Let's build your out a little bit for me.

[00:29:32] I would say it could be in your in business, you as CEO or even a proud moment with maybe

[00:29:38] your employees. What comes to top of mind? I would say that my proudest moment was

[00:29:44] that I was able, we had hit a point, we were about four million and our software wouldn't

[00:29:50] keep up. It was glitching, looked in the industry, nothing would work for us. So panic mode,

[00:29:57] two years ahead in the sand, patching up things to make it work. And when that software went live

[00:30:03] and all of my employees were not working until seven and eight at nine to keep up with our volume

[00:30:09] and they all relax in that it was that moment. And it was at the end of that week.

[00:30:14] I just was so thankful because everybody was paper shuffling,

[00:30:24] clicking. It was, I mean it was, you know, but Zenobos from 730 until you'd get out of there.

[00:30:33] And my proudest moment was to give them that relief. Now walk in and I'm like,

[00:30:37] Hey guys, what can I help with? Because usually come in they're like,

[00:30:40] here do this. Now they're like, I don't know we got it, we're gonna have lunch, let's have lunch.

[00:30:44] And it's just so uplifting and I'm just, that would be my proudest moment.

[00:30:49] That's awesome. So before we wrap up, what's next for summer? What's, okay, any big things in the

[00:30:57] works? What's next? Is the software actually live for other people or did it just launch for

[00:31:01] you guys? Right, so it's been live, my, you know, had start somewhere. So it has kind of a

[00:31:07] rough interface. I mean it works, it's automated and it's grown us from 4.7 to 7 million in two and a

[00:31:15] half years and not having actually excuse me with having actually less management. And

[00:31:22] so I have been working on 2.0 from the week after we went live. I'm like,

[00:31:26] I look at it and I'm like, I had to step away this week because I look at it and there's

[00:31:31] everybody else is like, ooh, I'm like, oh, I wanted to do that and I want to do this.

[00:31:35] I was just, you know, cutting it feel like I had to step away. Right? Yeah. So the launch,

[00:31:40] we're pushing 2.0, which is a big, a big update user interface that's going live Tuesday and Wednesday

[00:31:47] after our event. So next week, we'll push it Austin first to make sure everything is good

[00:31:52] and stable. Then we'll push it to Houston. When I get back, I'm going to Greece, March 22nd

[00:31:59] through the 31st. My daughter, she goes to West Point and that's their spring break and

[00:32:04] they have family. Her boyfriend or fiance has a family that live, they have a house there.

[00:32:10] So I've never left really. I don't even think, I think I went to

[00:32:14] Germany's the only time that's started. Anyways, so I'll have a 10 reprieve,

[00:32:20] 10 day reprieve and I promise myself I'm working as hard as I can. 10 days, I'm cutting it off.

[00:32:26] I come back, I'll push the launch in Austin. Then end of the month, we go to Washington to

[00:32:32] push it to our first customer. And in the meantime, I'll be using SAS Academy and a program

[00:32:38] to set up our logins. And so I'm planning to be live, live to the public. I can go live sooner.

[00:32:46] People are out there wanting it. I can push them a login into test and stuff, but

[00:32:50] March 1st is when it'll be live. And then I've already started working on 3.0,

[00:32:54] which add cells in. So that's the main thing I'm missing.

[00:32:58] That's big. It's pretty big and it's pretty powerful. And I'm going to customize it completely

[00:33:04] to what you'll see in Austin when I talk about my cells. Oh, awesome. Great.

[00:33:09] That's my layout. Yeah. Okay. Well, I want to thank you for being a guest on Fearlessness.

[00:33:15] We'll make sure to put Summers contact information and anything about the software.

[00:33:19] If you guys are interested, you could check it out in the show notes.

[00:33:23] And I want to thank our listeners. And if you want to find more episodes like this one,

[00:33:27] you can visit Libby D.com or the Fearlessness.com. And that's a wrap for today's journey into the

[00:33:33] heart of fearlessness. Remember, every step we move towards, towards our own strengths and courage,

[00:33:39] keep walking through those fires of hell because on the other side lies a vet better version

[00:33:45] that's unstoppable. I'm Libby remembering to embrace your fearlessness until next time.

[00:33:52] Stay brave, stay bold and keep pushing forward.