Episode 26 - Balancing Business, Family, and Growth with Faith Maldonado

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, it's Libby with Fearlessness. What is fearlessness? It's the underlying grit

[00:00:04] that empowers us to forge ahead. Even when hope seems distant, it's the courage to walk through

[00:00:10] those fires of hell knowing that we're going to come out stronger and better on the other side.

[00:00:14] Stay tuned and learn how to get fearlessness. I'm Libby DeLucien, your host, and today's guest

[00:00:20] is Faith Castillo. Or actually, you don't go by Castillo. I'm sorry.

[00:00:27] No, that's okay.

[00:00:29] So, Faith, go ahead and introduce yourself.

[00:00:32] Well, as she said, my name is Faith and I have a cleaning company, a residential cleaning company

[00:00:39] in Tyler, Texas. And I have been cleaning houses since I could drive.

[00:00:46] So I've been cleaning since I was about 15, 16 years old. And actually started as a part-time job

[00:00:53] like most people do with their businesses. It started as a part-time job and eventually it just

[00:00:58] took over and that's where it was. People were calling me and I kept saying yes and

[00:01:04] hence the business was born from there.

[00:01:09] So how many years has it been then?

[00:01:11] Oh, let's see. It's been about 17, almost 18 years now that I've been in business.

[00:01:22] Wow. So that's a long time. I just interviewed Beth and she's celebrating 20 years

[00:01:29] since she has started her service company as well.

[00:01:34] Yeah, it's crazy. And it goes by so fast. And some days are really slow. You're really

[00:01:39] tired and don't know what to do. And then other days it's like, wow, it's already been

[00:01:44] two years. So it's crazy how fast it goes.

[00:01:50] So let's talk about your journey. So recently, Faith, because I know you personally

[00:01:56] and professionally, your journey in this business has changed. You've added a few

[00:02:02] family members. Yes. Just a few. Two specifically.

[00:02:07] Added two. Yeah, I actually...

[00:02:10] So tell us about that. Like what caused... Well, adding up the one and the other one

[00:02:17] while we know. Yeah. Well, what happened is when I decided to go, long story short,

[00:02:23] I was a gymnastics coach and I cleaned houses. So I did gymnastics and then before school,

[00:02:29] I would clean houses and then after school I would go and coach gymnastics. And then after

[00:02:33] about eight years of doing that, I decided I got to pick one here because I'm getting

[00:02:37] burnt out. I'm working 14, 15 hour days. I'm getting tired here. So I decided just to pick

[00:02:43] house cleaning. Loved coaching. I absolutely loved it. But then I said, I want my weekends

[00:02:50] back and with coaching you do give up a lot of your free time of weekends. So I went to do

[00:02:54] house cleaning full time from there. So I did that for about three years, two or three years

[00:03:01] on my own, just full time on my own. And then I actually moved to a different city.

[00:03:07] So I left my old coaching job and moved within the same two or three month period.

[00:03:12] So I had no turning back. I had to make it or go with it. There was nothing else that

[00:03:16] could happen. So I built up my clientele in the other city and I commuted for a little

[00:03:22] while to my old town and I went back and forth as I built that up. And then eventually

[00:03:27] I faded the other one out and made the new one here where I live now here in Tyler.

[00:03:32] And probably about two years after living here, I met my husband and we started dating.

[00:03:41] And one thing led to another and I was like, all right, I guess we're getting married.

[00:03:46] Oddly enough there was no formal proposal. We just both decided we're going to get married.

[00:03:50] So then three months after we get married, he says, you know what?

[00:03:54] He called me one morning and he says, I'm done with this workplace. He had been working there

[00:03:58] for 15, 18 years. And then he was done working there. And he said, okay, he asked me,

[00:04:04] how many houses do we have to get to replace my income? And I laid there in bed at seven

[00:04:08] o'clock in the morning doing the math. And I said, this many houses. Okay, well,

[00:04:12] let's make that happen because I'm going to quit my job. I said, okay. So hence

[00:04:16] was the first employee for Anchored Cleaning Services. That's awesome. And we can get into

[00:04:23] the other family member that you added here in a minute, but I want to ask you some questions on

[00:04:29] bringing your husband into the business. What are the pros and cons? What are the things that

[00:04:37] you hate about it? And what are the things that you love about it?

[00:04:43] What I hate about is that I'm not always right anymore.

[00:04:47] So you learn that you have another opinion, you have to balance here and you have another

[00:04:52] viewpoint on here. You're not the end all be all in there. The pros is kind of the same as

[00:05:01] the cons. The pro is that it's not the only opinion and you have that other viewpoint.

[00:05:07] I tend to be more pessimistic just in things, decision making, more negative,

[00:05:12] and he tends to be more positive. So if I say, well, this won't work out, then he'll

[00:05:17] say, well, yes it could and this is why. So it gives me another perspective.

[00:05:20] And then in retrospect the same way with him. So we perfectly balance each other

[00:05:26] with business and not everybody can. So there's a lot of

[00:05:31] bickering that we figure out along the way and this says, you know what? Let's try it.

[00:05:34] And it ends up working. That's great. I think me and my husband have the same thing. He's

[00:05:42] more glasses half empty, like it's half full. But I love seeing what a small business can do

[00:05:52] to a relationship. It could be great. It can be amazing but it can also be horrible.

[00:05:56] I've been on the other side of the great. I've also been in the horrible side

[00:06:00] with a prior relationship. But the fact that I see so many home service business owners that

[00:06:09] their spouses are quitting their full-time jobs. They've been there like Gabe was there

[00:06:13] 15 years to come in and work. And not to just play down our cleaning company,

[00:06:21] but they're just little cleaning companies. But they can do so much.

[00:06:25] Yeah. We were just talking this past week, what is our next steps that we want to do?

[00:06:33] And I told him, I said, I don't know if we can make those next steps that I can see it in my

[00:06:39] head. But I just don't know how to play that out. And he told me, he said, well,

[00:06:43] I believe in this company. I believe in the vision you have for it and the vision that I

[00:06:46] have for it. So let's just take those steps and figure it out along the way.

[00:06:50] And I said, okay. And that's not like me. I have to have the game plan. I have to have

[00:06:54] the roadmap to know where to go. And he's just, let's just go. But yeah, a lot of people

[00:07:01] they'll quit there. And he quit a job with benefits and retirement and everything. And

[00:07:07] he said, you know what? It's not the benefits of those jobs weren't worth

[00:07:13] the waiting period to get there. He wanted to do his own ideas, have his own voice and be able

[00:07:20] to do those plans that he had to do that. Because he has a big gift for people

[00:07:26] and relationships. I tend to be more of the statistical money person on this. I'll manage

[00:07:33] the books and he manages the people. And he was able, he's able now to practice those gifts

[00:07:39] that he has in there too. And it helps take that pain point off of me because it can be hard

[00:07:45] just me to constantly be people, people, people, people, people have to have this

[00:07:50] spurts but he can, he can constantly go with the people.

[00:07:54] Yeah, I love that combination of the two. You know, my mom quit a better paying job

[00:08:02] to come work for our cleaning company. And now she runs it. But she had called me no,

[00:08:10] she didn't call me. She actually applied for an office admin job without telling me.

[00:08:17] I was, it was still when I was in the office and I was looking through like who had applied

[00:08:24] getting ready for the interviews. And I'm like, I look over at Chris, my husband, I said,

[00:08:28] I think that's my mom, like on that application. She had wanted to quit her job because she left

[00:08:37] for the last day crying because the boss was so disrespectful. Yeah. And if you have a great

[00:08:45] company, no matter the size of your company, I think that you can make a huge difference in

[00:08:49] people's lives and pay always isn't always the number one thing. Right? Right. It's having a

[00:08:55] voice and being cared for, being understood. Yep. And we can have that impact. So I love

[00:09:02] that story. So fast forward how many years and then what have you recently added to your

[00:09:06] business? In 2020 is when he quit his job. So he quit his job in August of 2020. So

[00:09:14] I had already actually closed down the business for about almost two months, from March to April,

[00:09:21] May to about mid-May is when I started to go back and call my clients and said, hey, you're

[00:09:25] ready for us to come clean your house. And they were ready. They would say, yes, please come

[00:09:30] clean my house. They were concerned about COVID is about the dirt in their house.

[00:09:37] They were ready. The kids were all home. They needed the house clean. So yeah, we started,

[00:09:42] he started cleaning with me in August and I started training him. And then slowly we just said,

[00:09:47] we need a higher help. We're starting to get maxed out here. So we started hiring employees

[00:09:51] and that began a whole, that was still in 2020. We started hiring employees and learning

[00:09:55] how to just wing it, Googling how to run a business. Then you'd get overwhelmed with the

[00:10:02] results. So you said, well, we'll just pick this and go with this. But then now,

[00:10:06] four years later, we actually have in January, we had our first baby and he is three months old

[00:10:17] now. So he's been our newest addition to the family and to the business. And he has,

[00:10:24] our colors are orange, orange and blues. So he has a little orange onesie.

[00:10:29] I'll fight you over that orange.

[00:10:30] I was navy blue.

[00:10:31] I'm joking.

[00:10:32] No, I think, yeah, it's fun though. We've got him in orange colors all the time and I'm always

[00:10:39] like on Amazon for another orange outfit to get him. So yeah, he's three months old and

[00:10:44] we love him. The employees love it when we bring them to the office. They just,

[00:10:47] whenever we have a staff meeting is everybody just gets a turn on him. So

[00:10:51] it's a lot of fun. It's definitely a lot of fun.

[00:10:53] So how did it, for you Faith, like business owner, then now bringing your husband into the game

[00:11:03] and then adding a baby to the mix. First I want to ask what were your fears of the anticipation

[00:11:09] of what the baby was going to do to the business?

[00:11:13] That everything would stop because we are, we own our business but we're still

[00:11:21] self-employed. If we don't work, the bills don't get paid. So me knowing that having a baby and

[00:11:29] we had both wanted a baby for a long time. So I also knew I wanted to enjoy this baby in

[00:11:35] the sense of I wanted to unplug from the business and spend time with the baby and not

[00:11:39] be worried about it. So we had to, as soon as we found out I was pregnant, we both looked

[00:11:46] at each other and said, okay, let's get out of this day to day. That was our decision.

[00:11:51] I was like, oh my God, now we got to go to work.

[00:11:53] Yeah. Now we have a nine month countdown here. We have to learn how to get out of the day to

[00:11:57] day in nine months. And it was learning what to get out of my head so that somebody else

[00:12:03] can take on these roles. What gave me is to get out of his head to someone else taking

[00:12:06] on the roles. And it was very overwhelming and didn't, not that we didn't know where to start,

[00:12:13] but it was just thinking of, could we even make it? What are we going to work this far?

[00:12:17] And then we weren't ready on there. So it was probably about a year ago that we were

[00:12:24] a little over a little about, yeah, about a year ago, we were trying to figure out

[00:12:27] what's the next roadmap. What's the next step. We were starting to get a little bit

[00:12:31] burned out in the business at that point too. So we were a little overwhelmed on where to go

[00:12:36] from there. We had different options that we could look at and they said, no, let's just,

[00:12:41] let's stick with this business. Let's make it work and let's, we want it to make it.

[00:12:46] Don't let the business run us. We're going to make up what we want it to be.

[00:12:51] And if we want to be available 24 seven for the business, then that's what we're going to

[00:12:55] do. If we want to be available eight to five for the business, that's what we're going to do.

[00:13:01] So it was just creating that roadmap and finding others to help us get there. Also,

[00:13:07] I had some, I know I had some calls with you, some coaching calls with you in the business

[00:13:14] network that we're both in that you're a coach in and had some calls with other people that are

[00:13:19] kind of in the same boat that had gone through that same path of, okay, I'm having a baby and

[00:13:22] I'm in the business. What do I do? And they were very, very helpful in just saying,

[00:13:28] it's okay. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just do what you can. That's all it is.

[00:13:33] And we did. And then he was born and for about almost two weeks, I was really not involved in

[00:13:40] the day to day. And it was really, really good. I think maybe after three or four days

[00:13:46] after the baby, then I decided to log onto my computer just because I wanted to.

[00:13:50] Yeah, it was you that did it.

[00:13:52] Yes. Yes. It's because I wanted to get back to work. I didn't have to go back to work.

[00:13:57] And that was a gift. That was a really big, that was a gift I gave myself,

[00:14:01] is that I was able to get that time for me and the baby and just being.

[00:14:09] So I love that. I had Yaya right after I launched our cleaning business, organize it.

[00:14:16] And I was scared to death because I was like, I don't want to have her and then go right

[00:14:23] back to cleaning houses because I was still cleaning houses six years ago when she was,

[00:14:26] or five, yeah, six years ago. And it's amazing what we will do when we're like our back is

[00:14:34] up against the wall. Like it's amazing how we can make things work when they have to work.

[00:14:40] Yep. So I love that. So now that you've had,

[00:14:45] had him and now that you've, you had the fears that were set in your head.

[00:14:49] Now, what is, what is it actually like after having him?

[00:14:53] It's way easier than I thought it would be. He is, the baby's really, he's, I am very blessed.

[00:14:59] He's a very, very good baby. He is very, he's very quiet, oddly enough.

[00:15:07] But he, he's in the office with me. He's in his little baby swing.

[00:15:11] He's on his little feeding schedule and he's three months. So he's still on the bottle.

[00:15:15] So I'm waiting for the day he can hold his own bottle. So I don't have to stop and

[00:15:19] get off the computer, but it is, it is fun. But it's, it's a really good dynamic

[00:15:26] having the baby there because it, it reminds us to stop working. It's that in your face,

[00:15:31] it's time to stop working. You know, oh, he's smiling. We need to stop and enjoy this

[00:15:36] baby smile because he's going to, he's going to grow out of it. You know,

[00:15:39] it's all these phases he's going through now. And then it reminds us that even though

[00:15:45] sometimes I, when he would take naps and things like that, I would take advantage

[00:15:47] that I'm going to go to work now that he's taken a nap and then it would be tired and cranky

[00:15:51] when Gabe would get home from work. And so this isn't gonna, this isn't gonna work.

[00:15:55] I can't, I need to be able to enjoy our family time when we're family here outside of work

[00:16:02] hours on there. So that's been really important for us to put those boundaries in there that no,

[00:16:08] we're not answering this call. No, we're not checking our phone. We're just enjoying each

[00:16:12] other. We're going to go out to eat and we're not going to be checking the work email.

[00:16:15] Absolutely. So I love that. So for any of our listeners that are adding additions to their

[00:16:22] work family, you know, having a baby in the middle of a business that's growing or just

[00:16:27] launching or even in a seasoned business can be scary, but it's not the end of the world.

[00:16:33] You can get through it. So Faith, what are some tips that you can give any of our listeners

[00:16:37] if they are expecting or adding a baby to the mix of an, you know, a family ran business?

[00:16:45] What are some things you did that kind of helped ease that?

[00:16:49] Oddly enough, I put my house on the cleaning schedule. I actually didn't have my house on

[00:16:54] a regular basis on the cleaning schedule. And I said, okay, I'm getting my house cleaned every

[00:16:57] single week now. It was kind of sporadic and being there every two or three weeks whenever

[00:17:02] I felt like the house needed to be clean. But then I put myself on the schedule. So

[00:17:06] if any business you're in, get a cleaning company to clean your house. If you're having

[00:17:11] a baby. Find a house cleaner. Yes, yes. Find one and get that done for you. You

[00:17:18] won't regret it. You won't. But another thing is to really just, I mean, find out what you're,

[00:17:30] what you want. And in a very literal sense, like I want to not wash dishes.

[00:17:38] Okay. So what are we going to do for you not to wash dishes? As silly as it sounds,

[00:17:43] Gabe and I sat down and we said, this is what I want. This is what he wants. And there's,

[00:17:47] I don't wash dishes. I like unloading the dishwasher. I don't like putting them in. So

[00:17:52] if he does that and I unload the dishwasher, it's as simple as that. It's kind of defining

[00:17:55] what do you want in there? And then with having the baby, it just, just go with the

[00:18:02] flow. Don't feel like you have to have everything scheduled out, planned out and

[00:18:07] family trips and this and that and out. And just, if you go with the flow, it's going

[00:18:11] to be so much easier. I try to right now, I'm working in the afternoons and Gabe works in the

[00:18:18] morning and I work in the afternoon. So we don't even have a babysitter. We were just able,

[00:18:22] because of our work, we're able just to swap out our work schedules.

[00:18:26] I love how you guys organized that to save money on a sitter.

[00:18:30] Yes. And it's been so helpful because he does all his morning, he does our interviews,

[00:18:34] he does all the hiring for our company. So he does interviews in the morning. He does one

[00:18:39] on one meetings with the employees in the morning. Then he'll come home for lunch. We eat lunch.

[00:18:43] And then at one o'clock, I go to my desk and he has the baby. So like right now it's the

[00:18:48] afternoon. It's his time to have the baby. And he has those bottles in the refrigerator.

[00:18:55] He can feed the baby. I don't have to know anything of what's going on. And then at five

[00:18:58] o'clock I walk out of my office and say, okay, now what? What are we going to do for

[00:19:02] dinner or we can plan our day from there. So we're able to not stress out about who's

[00:19:08] doing what and tag team and your head and randomness. And it can be very chaotic,

[00:19:14] but that's not verbalizing what we both want out of this so we can both enjoy it.

[00:19:21] So I love that. For me, I think one of the hardest things to

[00:19:26] get over was like the fact that when I was answering a phone,

[00:19:29] like Yaya could be making noise in the background, like who cares?

[00:19:34] Yep.

[00:19:34] Like who cares if your dog is barking or your 10-year-old is making noise or your newborn is

[00:19:39] crying? It makes us more real as small business owners and more relatable. And I would say since

[00:19:46] COVID and the work from home era has started or trend, it's normal. We see people like on

[00:19:52] NBC News filming from their bedroom with like their baby walking in on the walker.

[00:19:58] I remember that.

[00:19:59] Yes. Yes. I remember seeing that. Yes.

[00:20:03] Yes. We actually, we had that. We had that happen last week where I, we, for our company

[00:20:09] that somebody called to get their house clean and had a very, very large house.

[00:20:13] And we have kind of this golden rule that if it's over a certain square footage, then

[00:20:18] we'll do a walkthrough if we need to for it. And this one, I said, well,

[00:20:22] let me go ahead and come into a walkthrough for your house. I'm leaving. It was about

[00:20:27] five o'clock, 4.45. I said, I'm leaving my office now and I have my three-month-old baby

[00:20:32] with me. So if you don't mind me bringing my baby, then I could take, I can come and get

[00:20:37] your house because she needed it clean like in two days and it was crazy schedule.

[00:20:40] I promise I won't bring it to the cleaning.

[00:20:42] Yes. Yes. Yes. And she said, oh, that'd be great. I love babies. And I joke with my,

[00:20:47] with Gabe, my husband. And I said, she, she ended up, you know, we ended up cleaning

[00:20:51] her house and everything. And we had somebody who cleaned her house on Friday. And I joke with

[00:20:57] Gabe. I said, I think it's cause we took the cute baby that she just wanted the house cleaned

[00:21:01] just because of the cute baby on there. So it was that realness factor on there that-

[00:21:05] He closed the sale.

[00:21:06] ...that people want. Yes, he did. He closed the sale. He didn't even say a word.

[00:21:12] Awesome. So, you know, now that you're, you have this family dynamic going on,

[00:21:16] you know, you have the baby of Gabe working with you, growing your business.

[00:21:22] You know, what are some tips on what people can do if they're, if they want to work with their

[00:21:28] spouse or they think their spouse is interested in quitting their job and coming into the small

[00:21:33] family business? What are some tips you can give our listeners?

[00:21:37] Ask them what do they want and listen to and work to make it happen.

[00:21:42] What are their dreams? What is their ideal workplace? What do they want?

[00:21:48] For Gabe, he wanted to have a refrigerator at the office. I'd never thought of it.

[00:21:53] And he said, yeah, I want to have a fridge. I want to have cold drinks.

[00:21:56] At my other workplace, we had a fridge and it was always empty.

[00:21:59] And I said, well, we're going to keep our fridge full. It was that tiny little thing

[00:22:04] on there that he wanted. So when the fridge is empty, we go in and we restock the fridge

[00:22:08] and we have snacks and all kinds of stuff in the fridge on there.

[00:22:12] But really just knowing what do they're quitting for a reason.

[00:22:15] They're quitting their job for a reason. They either went to school for that job,

[00:22:19] they've worked there all their life, they have security, whatever it is.

[00:22:22] The reason they're quitting their job is because there's a pain point.

[00:22:26] And as a spouse, partner, best friend, it's the best gift you can give them is to hear that

[00:22:34] pain point and work with them to heal it. And for them to be able to, they're quitting

[00:22:40] their job because they want to be empowered. So give them that empowerment to fix that problem

[00:22:45] on there. So I know with Gabe, in his old job, he had a really hard time getting

[00:22:52] equipment for his job, getting, he worked outside. He worked at a school district where

[00:22:59] he did the maintenance outside. And he had a hard time getting equipment and having

[00:23:07] cold water in the fridge, things like that. So he always had to hammer about,

[00:23:11] I need to get this equipment. I need this equipment. It's tearing down.

[00:23:14] You want me to do this job, but I don't have the equipment to do it.

[00:23:17] And so he reminds me constantly, our cleaning technicians keep their caddies in good shape,

[00:23:25] give them good equipment, invest in those better products and tools so they can do their job

[00:23:31] in there. Rather than me, the penny pincher trying to get the cheaper thing in there,

[00:23:36] he helps me to find a better quality thing in there. So that's one thing that I've learned

[00:23:42] in working with your spouse is just when you give them that freedom to grow in what

[00:23:46] their pain points were or what they wanted to fix and what they want this place to be,

[00:23:50] maybe they're going to give back into your business a lot of times more than you could

[00:23:57] in there because their strengths are usually your weaknesses and your weakness might be their

[00:24:01] strength. So you're feeding off of each other in there. So just listening to what they want

[00:24:06] and what their dream is in the business, for the business and from the business in their

[00:24:13] personal life. I love that. I see on Facebook all the time people posting like,

[00:24:18] oh, my sister wants to come work for me, my husband, my mom. And so many people will reply,

[00:24:25] no, no, no, it's a terrible idea. Don't do it. It's horrible. And I think once you nail

[00:24:33] what kind of communication it takes to work with family or friends, it can be a phenomenal

[00:24:40] relationship because you get trust. Like you get someone that you can trust. And I think it's

[00:24:46] because we don't have good communication skills at the beginning or when we try it or our

[00:24:51] expectations are misaligned. And so I love that communicating, like you said, get what they want.

[00:24:59] Chris came to work for us and I didn't want it to happen because I had a prior experience

[00:25:05] where it was horrible. And they kept asking me to bring Chris in. And I'm like, no,

[00:25:11] it's okay. Like, no, I'm good. And then when we did bring him in to recruit, I said, okay,

[00:25:17] I don't want to be his direct report. Somebody else needs to manage him or hold him accountable

[00:25:22] because I don't want to do that. I've done that and it's not great. But that being said,

[00:25:30] it was because maybe I wasn't mature enough at the time with my ex

[00:25:35] for it to work out. But now we've removed that layer between us. I am his

[00:25:41] direct report. He's almost as even as I am in the company and does probably more than I do.

[00:25:48] But it can be a great thing because of the amount of trust that you can have

[00:25:54] in someone that's like a family member or a very close friend.

[00:25:58] But because it goes south once, it may be a maturity level thing or like you're not great

[00:26:04] at communicating. And once you learn those things, I totally think you should lean into family

[00:26:11] because it can be a great relationship. It can be a great mix.

[00:26:15] Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. When you learn what he means and what she means and

[00:26:21] when you're talking and to understand it, it does, it completely changes how you're

[00:26:27] listening to them too on there. So when they say, hey, we need this,

[00:26:32] if Gabe tells me, hey, we need to buy trash bags for the office. And I'll say, oh, okay.

[00:26:37] And I'm ignoring it. I forget. I just forget to buy trash bags. And he says, no,

[00:26:41] we need trash bags. It reminds me, oh, I need to give them good equipment. That's something

[00:26:48] that he's wanting to do here. That's something in his vision and I can do that.

[00:26:53] And it's a small trash bags. But what it is for him is a trigger.

[00:26:57] Right. Because if you don't do it, it anchors to that past experience.

[00:27:02] Yes. Yes. Exactly. And it's a domino effect. It's a trigger. Yep. It's a trigger. So Chris has

[00:27:08] the same thing because he looks young for his age and the way he grew up, it's a whole

[00:27:15] another story, but he has triggers. And it is, and you don't know these things unless

[00:27:19] you ask and you have open communications, but his trigger is why did you do that?

[00:27:26] Because he grew up where he was kind of like with a family member that was very condescending,

[00:27:34] like very micromanaging. Like why did you do that? Yes. And if he wouldn't have shared

[00:27:42] that with me, I ask that question all the time. I ask it to my kids because I'm curious.

[00:27:46] But now I know I never say those phrase, that exact phrase, because it is a trigger. It

[00:27:51] makes him feel bad. So I love that part of the equipment. I have a similar trigger with

[00:28:00] it. It's very similar like that. My mom would constantly ask me, well, what were you thinking?

[00:28:06] Like, oh, I don't know what I was thinking. I wasn't thinking. I don't know.

[00:28:11] So he said it's why would you do that and what were you thinking

[00:28:14] were the two that he told me that are his triggers that it does something in his mind.

[00:28:19] So as like managing him, if I didn't know that I would constantly be knocking him down.

[00:28:26] Yeah. Yep. And now that I know that, like I never say those phrases, I'm thinking in my

[00:28:31] head, I'm like, oh, trigger words. Like don't say that. Yeah. That's the alternative

[00:28:35] phrasing. Yeah. I reframe it to a different, and you could see it when I say it to him,

[00:28:42] just like deflate. Right. So love that topic. So last question, as a mom, new mom working with

[00:28:52] your husband, how do you stay motivated? How do you stay motivated to stay up with a newborn,

[00:28:58] to make time for your spouse, to run the business? What are the things you do to stay

[00:29:03] motivated? Because when, let's see, that's a really good question. How do you stay motivated?

[00:29:11] Well, you have, especially on a bad day, a joke, the bad days happen, but you enjoy the good days.

[00:29:19] And then the good days remind you that the bad days aren't going to be very long.

[00:29:26] How do you stay motivated? Well, behind me I made this sign, behind me, you can see it

[00:29:34] just says, it says keep going. And that's how I stay motivated. This is in my home office now,

[00:29:43] and this is actually the baby room too. So it's the nursery and home office.

[00:29:47] And I put it in the nursery and home office because I'm going to come in this room a lot

[00:29:52] when I'm tired and cranky and don't want to come to work. And it might be two o'clock

[00:29:56] morning and I'm keeping in there. And it's rewarding. That's what I would say, is that

[00:30:05] we stay motivated because we're rewarded, even the little things. This morning I was

[00:30:11] rewarded. I was kind of dragging, I didn't really want to get on the phones and go

[00:30:16] to work today and things like that. But a new client called us and she said,

[00:30:22] hey, you cleaned my friend's house on Friday. And I was calling because she referred you.

[00:30:26] I hadn't even called that client yet to see how her cleaning went and get some feedback.

[00:30:30] But that was the feedback on there is that she had already referred somebody and we

[00:30:34] already booked her and we're cleaning her house this Thursday. So that was the reward.

[00:30:41] That's how we stay motivated. And I still had a bunch of other owner things I had to do

[00:30:45] today that were the most exciting things, but they're on the owner's list. So I had to do

[00:30:49] them. But just that one high, it was good on there to say, hey, we're winning. This is good.

[00:30:57] We're keeping going. We're going to keep going here and things are up and up.

[00:31:07] It sounds cliche, but now that we have a future plan, now that we have the baby,

[00:31:12] we see things we want to do with the baby and we have things we want to do for ourselves.

[00:31:16] But then now we want to go on there. Right now, we're planning a trip to go to the zoo

[00:31:24] and we want to go with the baby. It's something to go and do with the baby.

[00:31:27] And we don't really want to be bothered when we're at the zoo in the middle of the week,

[00:31:31] in the afternoon. So the phones are going to get taken care of. The employees are getting

[00:31:35] taken care of. So we can go and have fun without that, without having to bring work

[00:31:42] with us. So we work to live. We don't live to work. We work to live on there. So that's

[00:31:50] really what keeps us motivated is just knowing that it's not all work. We play a lot.

[00:32:02] We have a lot of fun. Awesome. I love that faith. And we're going to end on that note.

[00:32:09] We work to live. We don't live to work. And I want to thank you for being a guest.

[00:32:14] And for our listeners, if you enjoyed this podcast, you can find more episodes at

[00:32:17] thefearlessness.com. I want to thank our sponsors, Woot Recruit, for always sponsoring our

[00:32:22] amazing podcasts where we can learn more about other entrepreneurs and business owners

[00:32:26] and their journeys. And so that's a wrap guys into the heart of fearlessness.

[00:32:29] Remember every step we take is a move towards our own strengths and courage.

[00:32:34] Keep walking through those fires because on the other side of you lies a version of

[00:32:37] yourself that's unstoppable. I'm Libby reminding you to embrace your fearlessness.

[00:32:42] Until next time, stay brave, stay bold and keep pushing forward.