Episode 4: The journey to becoming a leader with Angel and James

[00:00:00] Welcome to the art of transformational leadership.

[00:00:02] This is a podcast where we talk to leaders from all walks of life,

[00:00:06] from entrepreneurs to educators,

[00:00:08] to discuss their journey,

[00:00:09] their failures and their lessons learned that they used to become successful.

[00:00:14] Stay tuned and learn how to lead with confidence.

[00:00:17] I'm your host Libby and our guests today are Angel and James.

[00:00:22] Welcome to the show, guys.

[00:00:24] Super exciting to be here.

[00:00:26] Super impressive.

[00:00:27] Happy. to write to me. First things first, man of God. Second is a husband. And third is a businessman and entrepreneur. I love figuring things out. I consider myself more of an entrepreneur than an entrepreneur. So I like to tell people that I use to that have the big vision. And then I make

[00:01:40] sure that we accomplish your vision. So more of on janitorial sales. So we have a company, day porter, which then transformed into a podcast, which is now a new entity called the profitable cleaner, which led us to an event called cleaning profits. And we're about to host our second event.

[00:03:01] And along the way, we've just been's a little bit of everything. We have a little ecosystem for all. And you've seen our podcast and you've seen our event. So now it's like a little mini-content company inside of our actual company. But honestly, our biggest thing is pushing the cleaning company, CEO, who's an executive team.

[00:04:22] And to just believing that there's a bigger and something

[00:04:24] better and the best version of them.

[00:04:26] That's our true obsession.

[00:04:28] Awesome. We could do one together, but I haven't gotten into events yet. But what do you guys, what do you each do to push yourselves? And I want to know, like, what do you do professionally and personally? Because I think that we have another level of entrepreneurism in us. Um, that some people never reach or they don't know how to get to.

[00:05:43] How do you, what do you guys do?

[00:06:44] a man of discipline. And when like I say discipline, that's going to mean something different to everyone. But it's being a man of spirituality, a man of God, a man for that

[00:06:51] can lead a family and show up. And then also a man that can be accountable and run in a

[00:06:59] business aspect. And so, you know, there? He's a mentor of mine. He had said I was at one of his groups and he had said, if you think personal development is expensive, he's like, you should try getting a divorce.

[00:08:23] Because so many people don't want to invest in don't want to invest in their personal development, their relationship the son of God and this is my kingdom then I better act like this is my kingdom and I better go earn my kingdom. So as a first one, the second thing is investing. I put a lot of money into my like since the women, like I've mixed out credit cards, I've figured out how to help when I get in rooms. I love being inside of a room where I make I was

[00:09:41] one of like creative, uncomfortable. Um, so like as soon as I got married What did I do did that? Turn the cross for Jim was the second thing I did I put us into a financial plan perfect So paying off on my dad cuz she's gonna win the house at one point cool I figured out when her dream career was a G. Wagon and she wins a custom made at about $207,000

[00:11:02] So we're gonna go and figure out how to make that

[00:12:04] had to get to to get it so that he would let me in. And, um,

[00:12:10] and when I got in that room, I was so scared and I was so nervous that I, like I wanted to cry. Um,

[00:12:13] but I wanted to be in that room because there's people in that room making a

[00:12:17] hundred,

[00:12:18] somebody just posted in the Facebook group yesterday 104 MRR,

[00:12:22] 104 million MRR.

[00:12:25] And I'm sitting in that room and I love it more than anybody. So, you know, something happens. It's all night sick and then, or, you know, we got travel ball. And then you're like, I was working out so good for the last like three months straight. And then all of a sudden we got like something happened or a school event. You're like, Oh, I don't feel like getting up.

[00:13:41] And it's like street gone.

[00:13:44] And I think that's okay.

[00:13:46] It's okay to fall off the wagon.

[00:14:41] So actually I haven't even told Angel this. So I have a cousin.

[00:14:43] I'm actually starting, it's kind of funny

[00:14:45] how relationships evolve.

[00:14:48] I have a cousin, I wasn't close with growing up,

[00:14:50] but now in our adult life, we became close

[00:14:52] because value is aligned, right?

[00:14:55] Like his personal development,

[00:14:56] he doesn't do anything in business,

[00:14:58] but he's big on personal development, big on fitness,

[00:15:00] big on health.

[00:15:01] And he told me something really good

[00:15:02] about a month and a half ago.

[00:15:04] And it was like doing like homework outs and it's like because it's my priority and I just had to pivot it in just because tomorrow I could have two kids with 100 degree fevers and life does give me that day off. So it's just a different perspective. But I think that's growing into the

[00:16:21] identity of who you want to become because just 12 months ago,stop. Everyone's like, what is she on? And my husband's like nothing. She doesn't eat carbs and sugar, so she's just like... What about caffeine? Do you do caffeine still? No, I do caffeine still. Okay, so caffeine, no sugar and no carbs. I like it. And you just have this mental clarity that comes with it

[00:17:41] and so much energy that it's insane.

[00:17:45] And I did it to lose weight, and I did.

[00:17:46] I lost 50 I acquired it. I dropped everything that got me to acquire it. So I love that you cut out sugar because that's what I do. The only thing I do take, I do take carbs. That's just because I do all this weight and crossfit and I love the carbs, but I love that you cut out sugars.

[00:19:04] And I think James may be frozen on myself. And we weren't doing that at the same time.

[00:20:22] And he honestly felt like one,

[00:20:25] I was growing in a different direction but in business of course. But James, I'm the only new, I have a feeling that you have made to say about it and I do. And for everybody, we've gone through it. And all that for anyone listening. You have to know what fuels your partner's bucket and then what drains it. So like what fuels angel is like, he loves the work, he loves the grind.

[00:23:01] He's a marathon runner.

[00:23:04] And like that's freaking awesome.

[00:23:06] I'm the exact opposite.

[00:23:08] I get traveling. If it was up to Angel, I don't want to speak for him, but like he doesn't mind that at all, right? Like, or at least a lot less than I do. I would be a digital nerd that all day, baby. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So like we're different in that aspect, but we align on the core vision on the,

[00:24:23] on the core beliefs of what it takes to be successful.

[00:25:25] genuine then and you guys align. You guys can be different and figure it out.

[00:25:32] Yeah, I'll jump. Do you want to jump in before I jump in? Well, the only thing I was gonna say was to say a few things, but the main one was I feel like me and

[00:25:35] Angel could be like sisters or brothers from another mother. Totally, totally

[00:25:40] travel, work ethic, 80 hours at the Latina or Latino in us like hustle, man.

[00:26:44] want to be because he has more he has more experience more real estate has been a quiet that I've never been through so I know that that's one of his intentions

[00:26:48] to me so I'm okay with exchanging his intention of that for my and my purpose

[00:26:54] of working 80 hours I don't care if James were 30 hours 20 hours so if James

[00:26:59] wants to take a week off I don't care because that's not as a partner I don't

[00:27:03] have him as a partner to work I am as my by the way, before I'm going back to Houston and we made the most out of the seven months together. I don't know where he was supposed to go work in the office. And again, his prayers are different than mine. Right. If I fight with my life, I can work that day personally, because I just, like a hustle.

[00:28:21] James, if something goes down in life like that, the last thing he wants to do is work.

[00:28:26] He's got to get his mind right potential so that's something that we we always do for each other. Totally and I love that.

[00:31:02] Sorry I was going to add real fast like there's the visionary of the business. I can do vision, but that's not my thing. I love working. Like you tell me what the end goal is and then I'll not bet it for you. You don't even bet that half of you don't even bet that way about Ryan what? I'll bet about him.

[00:31:05] And when we get it,'t work out, like with the one that didn't work out for

[00:32:21] me. But you guys brought up so many points that's, that's, that takes about a year. Okay. Two years. How do I get there with them? You know, but how do we check them? We have quarterly calls, honestly, but we talk every day, but we have quarterly calls where their fractional CFO quarterly calls by ourselves. And then we for sure,

[00:34:47] And then we were, you know, in this case, we were at an event, but like we're going to go to Nicaragua here in like three weeks. I know those four days in Nicaragua were with our team, but him and I have a five hour plane ride together. Boom. We know, adapt? Well, I think that's a really, that's an interesting question. It's a really great question. I don't truly know, but I will say there's some common characteristics. And I'm gonna simplify this for everyone.

[00:36:20] At the end of the day, I wanna do good business

[00:36:23] with good people.

[00:36:24] It's just that simple.

[00:36:25] So like I actually start at the heart of the person.

[00:36:27] Do I believe they momentum comes out of that. So is it me? Not really. I really think the one good thing I've been able to do is just identify like, do I believe that person's a good person? And then we'll figure out if we're good at business together, because business is a contact sport. It's also a team sport when you're in a partnership. So, you know,

[00:37:42] Angel and I are way different partners three years into this than we were were and he started paying me what my regular job was paying me, which was not a little bit just so that I could be around him. Then instead of helping me know that I'm in, I know this they definitely didn't have the skillset that I had, but he knew how to guide it. It was going to sound crazy, but we've been business partners now for a bit,

[00:39:00] and I don't even have access to our bank information.

[00:39:04] I don't know how- like,

[00:39:06] if you ask me, can you write me up in invoice or can you make this But let me tell you what she actually meant. And that's almost like, I want to tell you what the team is. This is where she actually meant. This is what he said. This is what he meant. Everybody said, and then eventually he'll ground me back up. And I'm like, oh, sorry. I went on that even more with that. And he's like, Libby, you're just a crazy person.

[00:40:21] I, you know, when I first started the company,

[00:40:25] when I first to get it out of my head as fast as possible. There's another thing going on and other thought process, something else I'm trying to work

[00:41:40] on.

[00:41:41] And I just need to get it out or I'm going to forget it.

[00:41:44] Yeah. So I'm hoping the employees try to keep me in check Because I know it's a fault and so I always bring it up like You know, I'm sorry if I'm doing this or I'm sorry if I come off this way One of the things that hurt my feelings the most one we were going through the EOS process we had I hired an implementer and We were going through the leadership

[00:43:01] two-day training and we were doing the people analyzer and. And I was appreciative that they were open enough to do that. So we need to wrap up soon, but I want to leave with, I want each of you to give like, what is your best piece of leadership advice where maybe somebody that's newer or even

[00:44:25] not new. That's something tangible that you can do today. You can listen to on YouTube or whatever. I'm also going to give a shout out to our good friend, partner. He's teaching at our event here in September, Yagala Dotto. I met him through Angel, Angel is in mastermind with him. Yagala Dotto, I've been able not to just see what he provided to our attendees at our

[00:45:42] event, but his take on leadership is really, really infectious. virtually in Nicaragua, would have been really easy for Angel and I three years ago to be like, Oh, they're VAs. I hate the term VAs. I hate the term virtual assistance because to me, yeah, it just makes him feel like not real people. But then it's like, no, Elia Maurice, our employee relations manager is a real

[00:47:00] person in a tough situation.

[00:47:03] And our goal is to make her three okay sorry yeah just want to make sure we're gonna uh we're one i think what the to the book and you're going to um think you was gonna check i think that's always awesome but you said to keep light at the end of the tunnel one

[00:48:20] perspective and my mental frameworks are the most important thing stop. Sorry for causing, we live in this fake world that we've created for ourself and sometimes our egos can get a little in the way which can cause a huge problem with you know self- we're allowed to have just some conversations with people. But then yeah, some conversations. As far as... So the recessions in residential. Awesome. I know. So we're building that testing tour, and out two residential cleaning companies. And so I'm sorry, I'm having a conversation with you.

[00:52:21] So that's what's coming next for us.

[00:52:22] And what's coming next for us.

[00:52:26] And the landing.

[00:52:27] We're right. We's what's next. A video of the regions and I'll be getting out. That's what's next. Yes. And I used to say for 30 in the morning. But so I love the content. I have the saying that, you know, content is king, but context is God.

[00:53:42] And I love your speaker.