--:-- [Podcast intro plays]
--:-- JJ Virgin: Hey, JJ Virgin here. On my podcast, Well Beyond 40, we ditch the idea of aging gracefully and go all in on aging powerfully. Every week I host powerful experts who can give you powerful insights on building muscle, boosting your energy, and feeling amazing no matter what your age. This is your one life. And trust me, being smarter and stronger are superpowers that can turn lifespan into strength span. Listen to Well Beyond 40 wherever you get your podcasts.
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--:-- Paul Alex: Welcome to the Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together. Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now.
--:-- Paul Alex: What's up guys and welcome back to the Level Up Podcast. My name is Paul Alex and today we have another interview with another successful serial entrepreneur. You guys are going to love this. You know I usually interview people that start from humble beginnings just like myself. You know I was in law enforcement, I was in corporate America, I did ATMs, I did credit card machines, consulting now. And now I have mentees from Harvard, from Penn State, all these Ivy League schools. And man, it is awesome.
--:-- If you ever wanted to build your dreams, this is going to be the interview that you're going to want to listen to because it's very inspiring. I want you guys to meet my special guest, Yanni. Yanni is a school teacher that is transitioning now to a serial entrepreneur in the cleaning space. Yeah, you heard it right. In the cleaning space. You're probably like, "What is that, bro? Like, what do you mean? Housekeeping?" Guys, you're going to hear it. So if you've been looking for any ideas, if you've been looking for inspiration, this is the story to listen to. Yanni, welcome to the show, brother.
--:-- Yanni: Paul, thank you so much. Thanks for having me here.
--:-- Paul Alex: Absolutely, dude. How are you liking Miami?
--:-- Yanni: It's phenomenal. The weather is a bit warmer than Chicago, I'll tell you that.
--:-- Paul Alex: Yeah. A bit warmer than Chicago.
--:-- Yanni: Fourth time here. But I'm just super, super honored to be here today. Thanks for having me at your place. Great studio. Appreciate it. And looking to share beautiful things with like-minded people.
--:-- Paul Alex: No, absolutely, dude. And that's what it's about. The Level Up Podcast, we've been able to scale quite fast for the podcast that we've had now for a little bit over a year and a half. And it's simply because it's about self-help, dude. It's about what's in here, right? The heart. Just like our conversation. Guys, if you guys didn't know because it was just us and Emilio back here, we had like an hour and a half conversation. It should have been recorded.
--:-- Yanni: Time flies when you're having fun, right?
--:-- Paul Alex: It was fire, bro. But to go on with that, now it's your guys' turn to listen to Yanni's story. Yanni, talk to us. Why the cleaning business? Why are you already painting that vision that it's going to be a $100 million business for you, dude? What do you see for yourself in the cleaning industry?
--:-- Yanni: A little bit by myself, I actually started a cleaning business back in 2021, which is just after COVID. My background is actually in education. I've been teaching for almost 10 years, P.E. and health teacher for third, fourth, and fifth grade. So I do have that background, that level of experience when it comes to working with children, working with adults and teachers, collaborating, and wearing different types of hats.
--:-- I always knew in the bottom of my heart that I wanted and needed more in my life. I come from a Greek family, born and raised here in Chicago. My parents were immigrants from our motherland. Just seeing my dad over the years, growing and scaling his restaurant business for almost 40 years, really inspired me. Being in hospitality, being in customer service, I always knew that I always wanted more. To give and provide, right? To make some kind of impact.
--:-- I feel like cleaning, specifically cleaning, what's interesting is it's a multibillion-dollar industry and it's still growing.
--:-- Yanni: I got into it because I always had a passion in cleaning. I had a passion in teaching. So I kind of meshed those together during those COVID years. It was kind of crazy. I'm like, "How do I start any business?" It was my first real business venture. I started cleaning houses of my own. I was very hesitant in the beginning, walking in people's homes. I didn't know about commercial cleaning. I only had one vision, fixed-minded on housekeeping, on residential cleaning.
--:-- Pretty soon, clients started to like my service. I love to clean. It was my passion. But I quickly realized within six months, I'm like, "I can't be doing this by myself." So I started hiring cleaning techs, house cleaning ladies. Made a lot of mistakes, overpaid people. I didn't know how to manage and hire and recruit the right way. It was a great learning curve for me.
--:-- Fast forward five years, we have a team of 25 cleaners. We have partnerships with other cleaning companies nationwide in different states. We're collaborating on bigger commercial cleaning contracts now. So essentially we have two divisions within our company: residential and commercial cleaning services.
--:-- Paul Alex: Wow, I love that. So let me ask you a quick question. It started as a side hustle, right? Because it wasn't your main source of income in the very beginning.
--:-- Paul Alex: It was the same thing for me, man. When I started my very first business, I've been a serial entrepreneur now for like two decades. But I stopped in the entrepreneurship game to go work in corporate America and in law enforcement, and then came back in the game. So with that being said, it started off as a side hustle. At what point, what was the moment? Paint the picture for us. I'm a big storyteller, I love movies, bro. So paint the picture of the day that you were just like, "I can scale this. I think I might have to transition into actually being an entrepreneur, and I know how I'm going to make it work."
--:-- Yanni: Very good question. My first aha moment was six to 12 months into the business from 2021 to 2022. I was teaching there in a day. At the time we were teaching remote on Zoom, right? So we would finish at one o'clock.
--:-- Paul Alex: So this is right in the middle of COVID?
--:-- Yanni: Just after. But there's still restrictions and masks. People freaking out. Different times then. But I think because of COVID, that was almost like a catalyst for me. I'm like, "Wow, people are now really prioritizing cleanliness and quality control in terms of cleaning services for their facilities." I've connected over the years with other commercial janitorial cleaning companies and they were doing electrostatic disinfecting and they were making a killing. But I was more focused on what I was good at, so I focused on residential first.
--:-- My first aha moment: me teaching, making $2,000 to $4,000 a month extra by myself. I mean, I was hustling. I would be cleaning during the weekends. I would be cleaning in the evenings after school. That was my life for the first two or three years, while also helping and assisting my dad at the restaurant. So I've always worked long hours.
--:-- The second aha moment was year two to year three. At this point, I had about 10 cleaners, revenues growing, did not know how to manage. I was learning along the way, heard business coaches along the way. I captured and observed a lot of good knowledge and information, most of it was just fluff, until I found someone that actually understood the game. I hired my business consultant two years ago. I do get a lot of love and respect to him. He now lives in Europe.
--:-- Paul Alex: I love that.
--:-- Yanni: We're so connected to this day. I'm doing great right now. But the aha moment was back in 2021, the first six to 12 months. I'm like, "I could scale this thing. This is a scalable business." Why? Because the cleaning industry is a high demand industry. It's not the most sexiest business for certain people. I'm not selling cars. I'm not selling jewelry. I'm selling cleaning services. And I quickly realized there's different niches. There's different avenues within the cleaning industry. There's strip and waxing. There's Airbnb, which I've dabbled a little bit, which I may revisit in 2025. There's floor scrubbing. There's window washing. There's carpet cleaning. There's daily janitorial. There's one-offs. There's kitchen cleaning. The list goes on.
--:-- Fast forward five years now, almost four, almost five years. The vision here is to grow this thing and focus more on the commercial side because I've reached in the past eight months, almost a year, on scaling nationwide. To be honest to answer your question, I had a lot of breaking points or aha moments. It's kind of hard to remember exactly the year and time.
--:-- Paul Alex: No worries, dude. It happens. It's entrepreneurship. At the end of the day, it's about the journey. With every new level, there's a new devil, just like we were talking about.
--:-- Paul Alex: So essentially, as you grow, I'm pretty sure you're going to have other aha moments. So with that being said, why choose going to what you said, the industrial side or the corporate side?
--:-- Yanni: So there's three divisions: residential, commercial, and industrial. Industrial is more like factories, assembly lines, warehouse spaces. Commercial is more office spaces, a space like this, providing cleaning services for common areas such as the bathrooms of this building, the elevators. There's a niche for that still.
--:-- Paul Alex: There is.
--:-- Yanni: And I don't believe AI — a whole different topic. I am leveraging AI in certain aspects of my business. But in terms of cleaning, the actual labor itself, I believe for the long term, it won't be taken away by AI. But warehouse spaces where there's less foot traffic, overnight cleaning for big 100,000 square feet, 200,000 square feet warehouse spaces, we could put a robot in there and clean. But daily janitorial, weekly cleaning services, you need an actual physical person to do that job.
--:-- I do see the future in growing this business. There's so much opportunity out there. There's property managers, facility managers that I'm working with nationwide that are subbing out contract work at a national level. They have corporate clients like the Walmarts, the insurance companies. And I've tapped into those networks a little bit the past eight months. That's why I've seen such a huge growth spurt.
--:-- But also acquiring the right skill sets, fine-tuning my sales skills, fine-tuning my collaboration skills and negotiating conflict if there's any conflict. How to empower people within my business. We have a whole onboarding process. We conduct weekly group interview calls for techs. Let's say five people show up or ten people show up. We have a whole onboarding process once they've reached the first checkpoint. And now I'm training my admin assistants to do that. So delegation was another breaking point for me. I really started delegating a year and a half ago when I met my business consultant.
--:-- Paul Alex: So here's my quick question for you. How are you finding your leads right now?
--:-- Yanni: Good question. It's a combination of different things. I would say heavily more on cold calling and networking. I've dabbled in Facebook. I've dabbled in Instagram. I didn't see great results. I don't know what I was doing, I'll be honest.
--:-- Paul Alex: Something that I would believe, like LinkedIn for B2B.
--:-- Yanni: I was going to say B2B. LinkedIn is very powerful. I've made some great connections through LinkedIn because there's that level of credibility. People see your resume, your background, your history, your experience. There's that level of not just respect but credibility and trust. Anyone can make an account on Facebook. There's a level of credibility and qualifications on LinkedIn.
--:-- We're using an AI tool where we do outreaches every day. Maybe 20 to 40 connections and then a certain amount of messages that we send out. I'm fine-tuning the follow-up game. That's the bulk of your business, right? Following up with the right people and following up the right way. And then networking calls, networking events.
--:-- I have been so busy with time constraint with the teaching job. And by all means, listen, I'm not doing all this because I hate teaching. I'm doing this because I'm grateful for teaching.
--:-- Paul Alex: Of course.
--:-- Yanni: If it wasn't for teaching, I wouldn't be the man I am today. I don't regret one bit of teaching. It is still my passion. I love kids. I love students. I love working with teachers and parents. Bridging home and school is very important. Me working at a tier one school in low income areas, some kids live a very rough upbringing. You need a certain personality. You need a certain level of empathy for these children.
--:-- Paul Alex: Yes, you do.
--:-- Yanni: I teach third, fourth, and fifth grade PE and health for about 10 years now. I've learned a lot in that career. And I've been pouring in certain skill sets from the teaching job to my businesses. As you know, I started the ATM business a couple years ago with A-Team together. By the way, if you guys are serious about building residual income, you should definitely sign up with ATMs together from A to Z — how to start, scale, and even exit your ATM business, which I just did recently. I had six ATMs. My vision was originally 30 ATMs, but I decided to take the route of cleaning.
--:-- Paul Alex: Yeah, dude. And again, not to bash ATM. ATM is an awesome business model. But once you find something that really works and you love and have a passion for, you double down on it.
--:-- Paul Alex: That's one tip I could say. I always tell people there's stepping stone businesses. So ATMs, for me, when I first came back into entrepreneurship and I was serious about it back in 2018, man, while I was in law enforcement myself, I was just like, "Dude, I'm not going to do ATMs forever, but I'm going to do ATMs now." And I didn't know ATMs was going to lead me to the online space, which was remarkable because now I'm able to connect with good entrepreneurs like you, dude. Other people, all the different people that I work with now are associated with opportunities that I've gotten through the online space and just the connection. Because you meet your tribe, dude. You meet people that you want to be around. And it's very hard to find that in your city sometimes.
--:-- So with that being said, number one, I love the fact that you talk about your core values and how being a teacher actually built you up to be an entrepreneur. If it wasn't for teaching, I would not be here today.
--:-- Paul Alex: It gave you the skills. It gave you the skills to have empathy. It gave you the skills to look at it from a human aspect, especially with children. But I believe employees are not children. At the end of the day, employees, you have to have some emotional intelligence to run a business as a leader.
--:-- Paul Alex: As a leader, dude. Because there is such a thing as being a good leader and just being a boss. People do not like working for bosses anymore. I preach that with my people. Not be bossy, but be a leader.
--:-- Yanni: I preach that too. I think that's our job as business owners to start developing leadership within your organization as soon as possible.
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--:-- Paul Alex: What do you think is the number one, or let's say top three characteristics that someone who is looking to be a CEO, somebody who's looking to be a business owner, needs in order to run a successful company?
--:-- Yanni: That's a very good question. I actually wrote these three down. I've kind of revamped three, four, five things over the years, and I take notes of myself and how I've developed in my business.
--:-- Number one is having faith in God. It all starts from above. Praising the Lord and having faith in God, which ultimately will empower you to have faith in yourself. There's times where you'll be stuck in a rut, and nobody will be able to help you. Sometimes you gotta find that strength, that faith within.
--:-- Number two is surrounding yourself with the right people and environment. And by doing that, you gotta have some level of the right mindset. So that ties into number three: having the right mindset.
--:-- Some people have the right mindset but they live on a scarcity lifestyle or negative type of thinking or lower level thinking. They could be great, awesome people. They could be angels. But unfortunately, some people don't have that right mindset. Most importantly, have the strength to take massive action.
--:-- When you first develop or create something, it's going to be very challenging in the beginning. You have no idea what you're doing. That's what I did for the first three, four, five years. I'm still learning to this day. By no means am I mastery in what I'm doing, but I've learned a lot and I'm grateful for it. I'm looking to not just scale the business and make more money, but really empower people, bring opportunities for them, for their children. That also ties into teaching. For me, that makes my day. If I know I made a difference for this cleaning tech or my supervisor. I've prepaid people in advance for appreciating their hard work and their dedication.
--:-- Going back to your question, I go on tangents sometimes. God, mindset, and massive action. Those are the two main ingredients.
--:-- Yanni: If you don't have those three things, 90% of businesses fail in the first five years. Opa Cleaning will be in the trajectory of profitability moving forward.
--:-- Paul Alex: I love that, dude. And that's what it's about. That's why you're doing it full time now. That's why you're going to scale it. You have your vision of hitting your numbers, eight figures, nine figures. For a lot of people, they can't even see running a successful business to start off with, especially when they're starting off as a side hustle. They can't even conceive it.
--:-- Yanni: It's very true, man. But how are you supposed to conceive something that you're not familiar with? The majority of humans, especially myself, I'm an average guy, blue collar guy, came from poverty, came from an immigrant family. My mom, very hard worker, single mother. At the end of the day, she showed me how to work hard. She showed me good morals. She showed me core values. But she didn't show me how to work smarter.
--:-- Paul Alex: Just like you said, there's so many different ways to make a million dollars. There's two things that we want to figure out here, guys, especially you guys listening right now on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube, especially with Yanni's story. We had this conversation for about an hour and a half before the pod. There's so many ways to make a million dollars, dude, but which way do you want to take? And how long do you want to invest as far as time to get there?
--:-- Paul Alex: And that's the thing, dude. I'm 37 and for me — you look phenomenal at 37, by the way.
--:-- Paul Alex: Like 30, 31 at the most.
--:-- Yanni: Thank you, bro. I appreciate you.
--:-- Paul Alex: But what I tell people is just like with me, I had my mindset of like, "Hey dude, I need to hit the pavement running in entrepreneurship because I feel like I started late." People will tell you, especially on social media, you have a lot of 20 year olds glorifying, "Hey, you gotta be a millionaire before you're 21, otherwise you haven't made it in life." So you hear that on a daily basis and you're just like, "Shit, what did I do wrong?" It's not real, dude. It's not sustainable.
--:-- The average person, when they hear that, they get discouraged. They make up excuses. They don't even try, or they just dabble and they quit. People like us who are built differently, we know we're built differently. We hear that, we feel that for many years, but that's just a motivator for us to push us harder. And then surround yourself with people that want to challenge you in a good way to push you forward so we can all win together. I'm all about that model.
--:-- Yanni: No, absolutely. That mindset.
--:-- Paul Alex: No, absolutely. Same. So what it comes down to, and the reason why we're saying this, is because Yanni, you did something that I think every single entrepreneur needs to do when they're starting any type of business. What you did correctly when you told me right before the podcast is, "Okay, dude, as I was doing this as a side hustle, figuring out the clean business, I was working the logistics. I was actually doing the work, actually doing what my employees do now." It is key to lead by example.
--:-- Everything that I have done from day one, I've done everything, dude. Customer service. I've been the email threads. I've done the marketing. I've done the sales. I've been the guy on the camera. The cleaner. I've done it all. And to think at this stage of the game for me to be like, "No, I don't do that because I get paid too much money" is complete bullshit. I will still go ahead and do that entry-level position if I have to. That's what a true leader does. That's what I like about you, Yanni.
--:-- Paul Alex: You actually did the foundation work. Now you're able to skip your 9 to 5 and start your dream of starting a cleaning business, which is going to be your first stepping stone into building wealth for you and your family, your future wife, your future kids. You're going to make it happen, dude.
--:-- Yanni: I'm going to make it happen. There's no way of going back right now.
--:-- Yanni: All the way.
--:-- Paul Alex: That's it. I think there's different levels of mindsets when you grow spiritually, financially, physically.
--:-- Paul Alex: So let me ask you this, man. Your dad. I want to talk about your dad real quick. He built a restaurant for the past 40 years. Did you ever get like a mentorship from him? Did he ever say, "Hey, Yanni, this is what it takes to run a sustainable business for 40 years?"
--:-- Yanni: First of all, I learned a lot of good life learning lessons from my dad. If you have an immigrant parent, which I know you do too, coming from their motherland, they have natural wisdom and knowledge that still applies to this day. I'm grateful for that. A lot of famous quotes and metaphors which have to do with the mindset, which have to do with having a good soul and helping other people around you. I've learned not just hospitality, but I've learned how to serve other people. My purpose in life is service.
--:-- Yeah, I get paid last. But I want to make sure people get happy. I want to make sure they're happy, because if they're happy, that really makes me happy. I don't rely on their happiness, though. I'll make that clear.
--:-- I'm grateful to be Greek. Being Greek is a big part of our blueprint, part of our identity as Greeks. I'm sure you've met some Greeks before. I've learned to persevere. I learned what hard working actually means. I've learned what it means to work your 9 to 5 from teaching and then go straight to the restaurant and help cook food.
--:-- Quick side note: if you guys haven't visited, Mr. T's Euros in Schiller Park, Illinois, which is 10 minutes away from O'Hare Airport. We're known for our gyro sandwiches. We're known for our Greek chicken.
--:-- Paul Alex: I love that.
--:-- Yanni: So if you guys want some Greek food, think of it as a taco stand but for Greeks. It's not a sit down, it's more of fast food. Greek American fast food. They've been there for almost 40 years.
--:-- I've helped my dad develop his website, connected, integrated Uber Eats, Grubhub, all that good stuff, online ordering. I'm grateful for my dad. I'm grateful for my mother. I'm grateful for my family. I've learned a lot from them. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here.
--:-- There are certain things, though, that our immigrants still hold to this day, which sometimes does not always align with how we operate here. There was more risk. There was more fear coming from the country. They did not know the language. My dad went to school. He got a degree, a bachelor in engineering or computer science. He ended up being a restaurant owner. He was working multiple jobs. My mom got married at 17. He's 8 years older. He was 25 years old sleeping 3-4 hour days for multiple years building his business. That was always inspiring to me.
--:-- It's kind of funny, ever since we were little, my dad goes, "Don't get into the restaurant business." Parents are always going to warn you. They want to protect their kids. Would I want to operate a business? No, because I know how it is. I would prefer to operate a cleaning business, what I'm good at. I would love to be an investor, maybe, or an owner or co-founder of a restaurant to help build it. But to operate it, not my thing, because I've been there.
--:-- But I've learned certain ways of communicating with certain people. I learned Spanish along the way.
--:-- Paul Alex: Yeah, my man.
--:-- Yanni: I'm not 100% fluent in Spanish, but un poquito en español. Se habla. And just to communicate with student workers my dad had in the past, and then hiring the right people. Not just paying them the right way, but treating them the right way. Culture is everything.
--:-- Paul Alex: Culture is everything. That's how you keep people.
--:-- Yanni: I didn't learn about the culture aspect from my father. That came from teaching. That came from my personality. My dad has zero tolerance and he has zero patience. It's kind of funny. He's more old school. But I love and respect him. If it wasn't for my dad, he paid for our colleges. I'm one of four kids. I'm the second kid in the family. If it wasn't for my dad and my mom, I wouldn't be here today either.
--:-- Paul Alex: It all stems from that. Having your identity and your roots is so important.
--:-- Paul Alex: So important. But I also believe having your own personality or flair is also amazing.
--:-- Paul Alex: It's also impactful. Right?
--:-- Paul Alex: So, yeah, I learned a lot about hard work from my father. I learned a lot about perseverance. I learned about customer service and the customer is always right kind of mentality.
--:-- Paul Alex: Got to serve. And that's what kind of drove me into the service-based business, which is cleaning services. I love that, dude. I love that. Humble beginnings. You're sharing your story, family values, core values that your dad brought up to you. And you helping in his businesses probably inspired you to start your own and guided you to have that entrepreneurship spirit and mindset.
--:-- So let's talk about mindset real quick. Then what we want to do is a little mini master class on the initial steps that someone can take. One of our viewers or listeners on Spotify or Apple or YouTube, guys, make sure to share this with a friend. This is a very valuable interview I have here with Yanni, where you can get your first initial three to five steps on how to set up everything you need to do a cleaning business, dude. Because you know it. You're the man with the plan. So let's talk about mindset real quick. How old are you right now, Yanni?
--:-- Yanni: I just turned 30 on February 20th.
--:-- Paul Alex: Dude, prime. 30 years old. I love that. Man, I can still remember when I was 30 like last year, man. 37 years later, guys. So, all right. Dude, let's talk about mindset. When did you initially think of becoming an entrepreneur? What year? What age were you?
--:-- Yanni: 2018. First job after college was as a teacher assistant for a P.E. department at a different school. That job got me this job. I was always researching, reading. Big fan of Tony Robbins, by the way.
--:-- Paul Alex: Oh, yeah. Tony Robbins is awesome.
--:-- Yanni: Carnegie. And that was the very beginning of building the foundation of my mindset. I always knew that I could do more. My older brother had different businesses in the past. Now he's into food prepping with his wife. Seeing my dad being an entrepreneur and a restaurant business owner, and then seeing other people online after reading and researching, I thought, pretty soon I could be doing the same thing. Pretty soon I could be my own boss. At the time, I didn't think of empowering or leading others. I just thought of having a side hustle. So I did start as a side hustle first, but I did have some level of a mindset where I won't let anything or anyone stop me from persevering. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work out. There's a list of a million things you could do. Start crossing out the ones you don't want to do. That's what I did. So around age 21 to 22.
--:-- Paul Alex: Okay. Around age 21 to 22 is when you first started entrepreneurship. You started doing your due diligence. You started researching, reading Tony Robbins, Dale Carnegie. Great books, man. I love that. Rich Dad, Poor Dad?
--:-- Paul Alex: Robert Kiyosaki.
--:-- Yanni: Yeah. You got it.
--:-- Paul Alex: And you're listening. So now you're finally going into your 30s, living the dream, transitioning full time into entrepreneurship, building this seven to nine figure cleaning business. With that being said, what do you think was the delayed gratification between the age of 22 to 30 that kept you from going full time into entrepreneurship?
--:-- I always tell people this. Take my life for example. I was 18 years old doing nightclubs from 18 to 24. But around the age of 21, I was working in corporate America, so I was double duty. The reason why is because my mother, my parents, my siblings, my ex-girlfriends at the time, they were just like, "Hey, get a real job." So it was always that voice in the back of my head saying, "Should I get a real job? What should I do?" Did you have a similar experience, or did you try multiple ventures and just fail? What was your journey, dude?
--:-- Yanni: Yeah. So this was my first year after college, getting my teacher assistant job, a TA position for a different school. And like I said, that job got me this job. Looking back, it's like, wow, all these things happened.
--:-- Paul Alex: What was the delayed gratification from age 21, 22, where you first started, to age 30, where you're now going full-time into a seven to nine figure cleaning business? Why did it take so long? A lot of people think that once they start researching or studying entrepreneurship or invest in a first program, they're ready.
--:-- Yanni: Analysis paralysis, my friend.
--:-- Paul Alex: Okay, so that's what it was for you. Analysis paralysis.
--:-- Yanni: A combination of that, but also time constraints with my corporate job.
--:-- Yanni: I knew, and I even told my parents, and they were very hesitant about me leaving last year too. They said, "Are you sure? You shouldn't do it. There's benefits."
--:-- Paul Alex: Yeah, but there's way more benefits on the flip side if you actually grow and scale a successful business.
--:-- Yanni: Absolutely. I've always been a risk taker. I had a couple of other business ventures in the past. I wanted to start a wholesaling real estate business with my ex-business partner. We parted ways, but it was a great learning experience. Then I got into trading Forex, crypto, and stocks. Made some money, lost a ton of money. That was a great learning experience for me too. Then COVID hit. Along the way, I was building certain skill sets: communication, confidence. Once you start winning, you get more confidence.
--:-- Paul Alex: No, absolutely.
--:-- Yanni: Then I got into the cleaning business right after COVID. I thought, what else can I do? I love cleaning. I've always been a clean freak in the family. I'm one of four kids, and I was the one in charge of assigning different cleaning tasks. My mom would tell them what to do, and I would assign it to my siblings. "Use the Hoover, vacuum. You wash the dishes. Take out the trash." Fast forward five years, I have 25 players on staff right now, collaborating with six other cleaning companies and facility maintenance companies nationwide. I always thought small, now I'm thinking big. The market is huge. Just Chicago alone, which complimented me branching and growing in Indiana as well and landing those grocery stores.
--:-- Paul Alex: I love that, dude. So, our listeners focus primarily on mindset, self-help, self-education. That's why people listen to this podcast. We grew to the top two business podcasts now up to this year in 2025, guys. It's such a blessing. I got to give it up to Emilio, the guy behind the camera, guys. Emilio is the shit.
--:-- With that being said, a lot of our listeners, whenever they DM us or send us a message or email, they always say, "Hey, dude, we really love the fact that you bring on these different guests and they actually give us advice." So if right now somebody was to ask you how to get started, and here's the test, because I like tests.
--:-- Yanni: Clarity. Clarity is everything in business.
--:-- Paul Alex: Clarity. A confused buyer will never buy. That's why I bring on the experts in specific niches and industries, guys, because you're the go-to in the cleaning industry. You're going to blow up, dude. I know you are. You have a heart of gold and you're going to inspire a lot of people.
--:-- Yanni: Thanks for that.
--:-- Paul Alex: So with that being said, give us a short master class. Let's say five minutes or less, dude. Just let the audience know how they could jumpstart a cleaning business and land their first job.
--:-- Yanni: Amazing. This would be relating to me when I first got started. I had a different mindset, but I always knew I wanted more. I think the number one ingredient to success is God. Having faith in God. Submitting to God can be challenging for some people, but that alone is the umbrella. Having the right mindset and taking massive action. I was always the risk taker. I always wanted to learn more, absorb more, and then start taking actions. I knew from the beginning that I would make mistakes. So I started to clean houses by myself. I wanted to test it out. The test went well. I think it was three to six months. I got incorporated in January of 2021.
--:-- Paul Alex: Do you think it's important in the very beginning stages of building a one-man or one-woman cleaning business? Because it started off as a side hustle, now you have 25 employees. Do you think it's important to take out an LLC?
--:-- Yanni: Absolutely. Operating any business, you have to have a certain entity for different reasons: for protection, security, tax advantages, and structuring yourself for success in the future. That ultimately helps you and other things you may venture into, like real estate, and protecting and preserving your wealth against inflation, which is crazy right now.
--:-- Paul Alex: It is. It's always changing.
--:-- Yanni: From starting, an LLC is very easy. You can go to your attorney, you can do it yourself, you go straight to your state. You can make an LLC in Wyoming. There are benefits. Mine is in Delaware. But if you live in Pennsylvania, Texas, or Illinois, go through the state. If you want to make it even easier, I created my Illinois company through a service. It used to be called Ink File, now it's called Bizee.
--:-- Paul Alex: Bizee. Two E's, three E's?
--:-- Yanni: Right. Then from there, you have to focus on your RGAs: your revenue-generating activities. What are you doing every hour of the day? What are you doing every day of the week to attract the right people and get business in the door? Every day is a launch in the beginning. This is why most businesses fail in the first five years. I think 80% or 90% of all startups fail. One of the reasons is cash flow, mindset, and not focusing on your RGAs. I learned that a year and a half ago from my business consultant.
--:-- Paul Alex: Cash flow. Cash flow, baby. Sales cures everything, guys. It fixes everything in business.
--:-- Yanni: So you set up your LLC, and then you have to allocate a certain amount of money to cleaning supplies. For a beginner doing a one-man, one-woman show who wants to land their first client and doesn't want to overspend, I would say under a thousand dollars.
--:-- Paul Alex: Really? That's remarkable, dude. A lot of people think they need tens of thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars. You're not buying a business for $50,000 or a million dollars. If you want to start from the ground up and be the CEO of your own company, you have to start from somewhere. So for cleaning, less than a thousand dollars to get everything set up?
--:-- Yanni: All your documentation, your articles, all that good stuff. Start getting basic supplies. Start cleaning small houses. Start cleaning barber shops on a weekly basis. Things just start adding up from there. You need your vacuum cleaner. I get Shark, which is one tier below Dyson. I think Dyson is a little overpriced, but they're a great model. Shark is one of our repeating pieces of equipment. We also use Tornado backpack vacuums for more commercial spaces. You need your mop bucket, your mop, some gloves, Windex, paper towel, your toilet bowl cleaner. That's $100, let's be real.
--:-- Paul Alex: Absolutely.
--:-- Yanni: Then you buy in bulk every so often and find a good vendor to supply. As you scale, you'll find a vendor that can help you maintain your materials.
--:-- Paul Alex: Any good vendors you would recommend for the audience that's listening?
--:-- Yanni: Yes, I do. They changed their name from Seaway Supply Store in Bellwood, Illinois, or Maywood I should say. Now they're called Brady IFS. They're a national cleaning supply store. Just let them know you heard it from Yanni.
--:-- Quick side note: Part of my vision is to be a full in-house facility maintenance company. We won't just be doing cleaning here long term. We'll be doing maintenance for the entire building. We'll be building and starting our own supply janitorial store where we could supply chemicals, vacuums, and distribute nationwide. That's how I'm going to hit $100 million.
--:-- Paul Alex: That's huge, dude.
--:-- Yanni: So you have your foundation, you have your supplies, your logistics. Now let's talk about one of the most important aspects of business: sales.
--:-- Paul Alex: Sales. Sales. Sales. So how do we generate leads? How did you generate leads in the very beginning? What would you recommend for a beginner? There might be people listening who have no sales experience. They might be scared to talk to people. What's the path of least resistance?
--:-- Yanni: Leveraging platforms and building your skill sets and being comfortable and confident talking to people. I started with basic platforms. One is called Nextdoor.com. Another one is called Care.com. You make a little profile of yourself. "Hey, I'm Teresa. I'm a housekeeper. I'm a nanny. I'm a dog sitter. I'm a dog walker." You put your credentials and how much you charge. I started getting testimonials and reviews. In the beginning, before I got incorporated, I was getting clients who loved me. At first, I was very hesitant walking into people's homes and cleaning, me being a male. But people eventually loved me. Cleaning houses and selling cleaning services for houses is so much easier than commercial spaces. I will tell you that from experience.
--:-- Paul Alex: Oh, yeah.
--:-- Yanni: Then leverage Facebook, make a Facebook profile for your business, an Instagram page. Just start small. Post once a week, then seven times a week, then seven times a day. That's my goal.
--:-- Paul Alex: No, absolutely, man. That can become easier with processes and automations. Maybe after the podcast, we could give you a few tips and strategies on how to do that.
--:-- Yanni: I would appreciate that, yeah.
--:-- Paul Alex: But, yeah, brother, what would you say is a good starting point for a beginner to charge for their services?
--:-- Yanni: That's a very good question. It's difficult to answer because it's based on square footage and other variables. But let's say a 1,200 to 1,500 square foot house. There are variables: scope of work, how many bedrooms, how many baths, is it an apartment or a single family house? For a standard cleaning, $100 to $200 per visit. If it's a recurring client, weekly, biweekly, or monthly, we have incentives. If we can lock in consistent cleaning for a homeowner, there's a discount. But that's the range: $100 to $200. For deep cleaning during spring cleaning season, which right now we're freaking busy, it ranges between $300 to $600 per deep cleaning. We do a lot of move-ins and move-outs as well. We have a great relationship with Keller Williams based in Lincoln Park, Chicago, so we do a bunch of move-outs for their real estate firm.
--:-- Paul Alex: So since you started off as a one-man team and now you have 25 employees, what is a reasonable size portfolio for one person to handle?
--:-- Yanni: You mean for one cleaner? It comes down to their availability and commitment levels. Let's say you have a full-timer for 40 hours a week.
--:-- Paul Alex: What would be reasonable to start delegating? Because my mind is thinking like an operator. If I get five cleaners working 40 hours for me, how many houses can I delegate?
--:-- Yanni: We'll do the math. It comes down to the hours. We typically pay labor costs $16 to $22 an hour depending on experience and reliability. The first three months we onboard them with a preliminary phase. If they pass the evaluation with no bad reviews from customers, we give them a dollar raise. We typically charge $40 to $50 an hour depending on the house and the city.
--:-- Paul Alex: So what's the average cleaning time?
--:-- Yanni: Four hours. Four hours per cleaning job, probably 10 houses a week.
--:-- Paul Alex: So two houses a day. That's actually a cleaner's dream to do two houses a day. 10 houses a week. That's pretty good.
--:-- Yanni: But not all cleaners work full-time. They have other jobs. It's a part-time thing, and that's where you could start. That's where you could leverage as the business owner and accommodate their schedule. I've had cleaners who quit their jobs to work full-time with Opa Cleaning.
--:-- Paul Alex: Wow, that's awesome.
--:-- Yanni: I have three or four cleaners who have been with me since the beginning for four years now. Shout out to Jose and Teresa.
--:-- Paul Alex: It's hard to find good people to work for, man. That means you're leading by example. You probably showed them that you did this, and they respect you for it. That's huge in sales. You're going to sell the vision, not just to the client, but also to your providers and your cleaners.
--:-- Yanni: Absolutely. Everybody. The sales process never ends. Customer service is part of sales.
--:-- Paul Alex: So with that being said, we're coming up to the end of our interview. Let's say you have 100,000 people listening to this, which is very possible, right Emilio? They're going to be inspired. They're going to say, "That's badass. He was a schoolteacher based out of Chicago, now a full-time entrepreneur doing his own cleaning business." And they're going to ask, "How can I connect with this guy? How can I network with him?" Because your network is your net worth, guys. So, Yanni, give us a few words of encouragement to the person who wants to start this business but is unsure of themselves. This is about leveling up and helping other people. What do you have to tell that viewer right now who's listening on YouTube?
--:-- Yanni: Number one, like I said before, have faith in yourself, have faith in God. Number two, have the right mindset. Number three, surround yourself with the right people. Number four, take extremely massive action. Don't be afraid of failure. Start today. Don't keep pushing the deadline to next week. Start today. Accept that failures and mistakes will come, and that will build character in you. I've learned in business that you have to fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee sometimes.
--:-- Paul Alex: Muhammad Ali.
--:-- Yanni: Muhammad Ali. That's right, brother. So take a leap of faith in yourself and try it out. Never quit. Keep surrounding yourself with the right people. That's part of the model here. Keep leveling up. That's why I came in today.
--:-- Paul Alex: You have to keep leveling up, guys. As you level up, there's always going to be obstacles and roadblocks. But with good people, good culture, and good surroundings, you can get over anything. Life is short. Go for it. Make it happen.
--:-- So with that being said, where can they find you, my man?
--:-- Yanni: You can find us at opacleaning.com. That's our logo: Opa Cleaning. We named it Opa because it's a catchy name and it's Greek. We have a lot of European customers in Chicago. I think Opa is a very universal phrase. Even with the Hispanics too.
--:-- Paul Alex: Absolutely.
--:-- Yanni: So we love Opa. Our customers love it. "Where are your Opa cleaners?" But yeah, www.opacleaning.com. You can find us on Instagram: Opa Cleaning. Facebook: Opa Cleaning, O-P-A-A, two A's, cleaning. You can also find us on LinkedIn as well.
--:-- Paul Alex: Love that. There you go, guys. Yanni, the owner of Opa Cleaning out of Chicago, Illinois. That wraps up this episode. This is The Level Up Podcast with Paul Alex. Guys, make sure if you're listening on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube, leave us a five-star review. We have been top two in the past few months in the business category, not just because of who we are, but because of what you guys are making us out to be. We're here to help people. At the end of the day, your network is your net worth. Just like Yanni said, if he could do it, you could do it too. Make it happen for yourself. I'll catch you on the next one.
--:-- [Outro music begins]
--:-- Paul Alex: Thanks for listening to The Level Up Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family, friend, and everyone you know who's ready to level up. Leave a five-star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you tune in. It really helps spread the word. And don't forget to check out officialpaulalex.com for more episodes and resources to kickstart your journey. Let's level up together.
