Cleaning Business Life
Cleaning Business Life is your must-listen weekly podcast for cleaning business owners who want to scale smarter, not harder.
Hosted by Shannon Miller, founder of Klean Freaks University, and Jamie Runco, CEO of Above All Cleaning Company, this podcast delivers the strategies, systems, and insider knowledge you need to build a thriving, profitable cleaning business.
No matter where you are in your journey—whether you're launching your first cleaning company or scaling to seven figures—Cleaning Business Life gives you the tools to streamline operations, maximize profits, and grow with confidence.
Each episode dives deep into topics like:
✔️ Building scalable systems that create efficiency and long-term success.
✔️ Product reviews & recommendations to equip your team with the best tools.
✔️ Expert interviews with industry leaders sharing real-world insights.
✔️ Q&A sessions tackling your most pressing business challenges.
✔️ Industry trends & strategies to keep you ahead of the competition.
Tune in every week and take your cleaning business to the next level! 🚀
Want to get a hold of us, please email us at cleaningbusinesslife@gmail.com
Cleaning Business Life
CBL Episode #121-Building a Clean Company Culture with Michelle of White Rhino Cleaning Co.
When your employees rarely see each other face-to-face, how do you build a strong company culture? Michelle from White Rhino Cleaning Company joins us to reveal the strategies that have helped her 56-employee commercial cleaning operation thrive for nearly three decades.
Building culture in field-based businesses requires intentional design. Michelle walks us through White Rhino's approach, from their collaboratively developed core values (community, quality, excellence, equity, and integrity) to their comprehensive communication strategy. The monthly newsletter featuring employee spotlights, regular leadership gatherings, and annual appreciation events create connection points that overcome the isolation field employees often experience.
What sets White Rhino apart is their commitment to professional development. Michelle explains how they've implemented DISC assessments to improve team dynamics, created specialized training for "live" versus "closed" cleaning environments, and developed protocols for handling unexpected situations. Her approach to giving feedback—using the "sandwich method" and emphasizing that corrections are "for the business, not personal"—demonstrates emotional intelligence that permeates the organization.
The conversation offers practical takeaways for any service business owner, from leveraging free community resources like library meeting rooms to participating in local chambers of commerce. Michelle's insights on community involvement, including sponsoring holiday light displays and participating in local festivals, showcase how external engagement reinforces internal culture.
Whether you're leading a commercial or residential cleaning operation, this episode provides a blueprint for creating a cohesive team that delivers consistent, high-quality service—even when team members rarely work in the same physical space. Learn how thoughtful leadership, clear communication, and strategic team building can transform your cleaning business culture.
https://whiterhinocompany.org/
The July 2025 Promo Course is this link:
https://klean-freaks-university.newzenler.com/courses/best-seller-pricing-blue-print-master-class
Erica Paynter is the brains behind My Virtual Bookkeeper, a bookkeeping firm for cleaning companies, and the creator of Clean Co. Cash Flow Academy and the Clean Co. Collective. She’s on a mission to help cleaning business owners make sense of their numbers without boring them to tears! Erica’s all about turning messy books into profit-packed powerhouses.
It can be crowed when trying to figure out who you are going to learn from
Questions? Feel free to reach out!
Shannon Miller: cleaningbusinesslife@gmail.com
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Nuggets.
Speaker 2:Welcome everybody. Today we're joined by our superpower, Michelle of White Rhino Cleaning Company, and today we're going to talk about company culture and a variety of other things. So, michelle, you were just telling us before we started how you have been listening to the podcast and how you've actually applied a lot of the podcast episodes into your team meetings. So why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Shannon. Yeah, and thanks for welcoming me to the podcast today. I'm excited to be here. So I am a weekly listener. I don't remember exactly when I started listening, but I added a couple cleaning podcasts to my regular weekly listen, and yours is particularly helpful. The topics that you cover, even though our business models are different where mine is explicitly commercial and yours is a blend of commercial and residential a lot of the things that we face are all the same, and so one of the topics that you covered in particularly in one of your podcasts that I brought up in a team meeting was the one about the, the person that passed away while at work at the at the bank, I think.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, that was just like yes, that was so sad. What to do, right, yeah, and like, yeah and like guys, what? What will we do? Because we come into these offices after hours and could likely walk into that scenario I mean knock on wood hopefully that don't happen.
Speaker 1:But yeah, we, what would we do? Yeah, what would you do? That's great. That's great. So that that brought that, brought uh, this podcast brought that to the force center of your company. And that's whenever you had like a meeting and was like, let's start implementing some of this stuff of how would we handle this. I love that. I love that it's helping.
Speaker 2:How did people respond to that? Were they like, shocked? Was it something that they hadn't thought about? I mean, what was the end result with that? Did you create a company policy?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we basically just use what we already have in place of a protocol for a typical emergency, but just talked about, like you know, the shock factor you could have when you would walk into this might be a little different than something else and you know how to respond. And so we just talked about the protocol and what we would apply to this and, yeah, people were shocked. We were shocked and, you know, really happy to talk about some of these real life scenarios that can happen, Because you know you don't, you're just going day to day to your job to do your job. You're not expecting to walk into something like that. So, right, yeah, I think I received really well. Right, yeah, I think it was received really well. And we just talked about existing protocol and how we would just continue to follow that, even though it might be really alarming, and so, yeah, so I appreciate that.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to think, if there's another one that comes to mind about contracts, Shannon and Jamie and you were I was recently looking to upgrade ours and the language in it, and you were talking about the policy around. Well, you were giving the example, someone was giving the example of someone got punched. Oh, that was me yeah, yeah, that, really. That really stood out to me and I don't think we have those, those episodes, but we we have language in like our handbook around behavior and stuff like that, and we have language, but we didn't have any language in our contract per se. Right, it was like you know. It really gets me thinking like what do we need to have included for these? You know, set expectations around things you don't think about yeah, anticipate.
Speaker 2:Right In the past, it was just the we came to provide a service and everyone was excited and on their best behavior. And I think, especially since COVID, it's this whole dynamic of how how can I get away with something if I misbehave? And it's I don't know if it's a malicious intention, but certainly people are misbehaving and acting poorly towards us, and not just us, but to everyone, and it just becomes a whole thing and it was a learning lesson for me. I did not like I.
Speaker 2:It was an unexpected event that could have been handled 50 different ways, but it changed the dynamics of how we handle situations like that. Like we just we have your credit card on file, we'll just bill you, we'll pull off, we'll just bill you for a full cleaning and see you later. It shouldn't people should not feel that they have to kidnap your cleaning techs to get a job finished. I mean, what dynamic, where in your mindset does it go when you're like I'm taking this cleaning tech and they're not leaving until they're done? Wow, it's just what do you do in those situations?
Speaker 1:Right, right, yeah, yeah, like, who has a handbook for that? Yeah, exactly, and that, honestly, that's whenever. That's where we start implementing the life 360. There's an SOS on there. All they have to do is hold that as long as the the app is up and it's in their hand. All they have to do is shake it like down by their hand, you know, and the police will be right there and we pay money for that.
Speaker 1:we pay money for that to make sure that our team, our most valuable asset in our company, which is our teams, is protected. But whenever it's commercial, it's kind of different. You don't normally have a credit card on file, it's kind of different. You don't normally have a credit card on file. No, you normally get paid, you know, monthly. So yeah, to handle something like that, be a little bit different. You still get charged, though, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so our contract has language in it Like, yeah, I mean, so you're still going to get charged. Language in it Like, yeah, I mean, so you're still going to get charged. Obviously, our contract has language in it about you know, uh, acts of God and this, and that you know, like, reasons why we can't clean, but you would still be charged for it. Um, so, yeah, it's a little bit. It's a little bit different and chances are, a lot of our circumstances we're not going to be in contact. You know a lot of our buildings are closed, but some of them that we're in are live, and so we have the client that we might be working with and their members and maybe the people that are coming into their building, their customer, their clients.
Speaker 2:So explain what live is for the people who don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I call it live, and so we have two different settings that we work in. One where you're closed your business was eight to five and it closed and we come in and you're closed and we clean your spaces for you. Then we have circumstances where you're so open because your facility is 24-7. So you could have you know your customers coming in and out.
Speaker 3:You have your staff that's still working, and so that's a live environment and that's a very, very different cleaning experience than coming to a a closed building. Yeah, yeah, it very much is we have that yeah, and so, uh, that's I call I. Can I consider that live? It's just the language I use I know that I love that.
Speaker 1:I'm going to actually write that down and implement that and and for my commercial contracts.
Speaker 3:Going live, yeah, and so I compensate you know differently for those situations as well, because that's a whole. There's a lot of additional things.
Speaker 1:I don't mean to over-talk you, yeah no, I'm sorry, I might be talking too much. No, it's me. I have a tendency to do that. I get really excited. I don't know. You can tell whenever you listen to the podcast.
Speaker 3:I love it. Yeah, I love your dynamic.
Speaker 1:I'm just so nerdy over this stuff. So, um, yeah, no, it's more. Do you pay them?
Speaker 3:less. Yeah, right, yeah, so I actually pay more for that, because there are also additional safety protocols that you have to go through. You know, I have a lot of expectations on how we act and interact with the staff and the client.
Speaker 2:And these are.
Speaker 3:W-2s, right, yeah, I should say that right off the bat, all of my staff are W-2s. Okay, perfect, yeah, so, yeah. So I think that there's a lot of added stressors to performing the services in that environment than there is when you're kind of just, you know, in the environment, free to just do your process without people moving around, and service. You know they're the cut. Your client services are happening, right, right.
Speaker 1:So and so you pay your team even more than um.
Speaker 3:okay, yeah yeah, I do. It's a different rate per building for me and the rate is sort of based on the circumstances around that cleaning and you know the expectations and you know when we're cleaning in a building where staff are present, where client staff are present, you become the front line, you become the face of our company, because what they see in those live environments is who they think we are as a whole. Totally.
Speaker 3:I feel like this is a great segue into company culture, because your company culture is exposed, then it's like on, like on, you know, like there for everyone to see. These folks are a reflection of your company, as you know as a whole, and so I feel like they have a higher responsibility being seen than working in an environment where you're not seen. Now, every job is super important, right, all the environments being cleaned are important. There's just nuances. Just when you guys describe the houses, I'm like whew, it's interesting too. I just want to add this in so in the building that our office space is in next door to us is a house cleaning business, and I have gone and I've chatted with the owner of that business periodically and I've said, hey, I was listening to my podcast and this happened. Does this happen to you? And so I'm just like wow, and so it kind of gives me a person to ask about those questions, as I'm like oh, beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 1:And you can steer them to the podcast too.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I've shared your podcasts on our Facebook page too.
Speaker 1:I love it, thank you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Yes, so with the company. It's really hard. I know I speak to 50 to 100, if not more people every single week. Just getting the feel of the industry, what's going on. Company culture is a huge piece and it's the dynamics of describing what company culture are and actually providing and implementing steps to get company culture is hard. It's a gray area, like how do you build a team and make people happy, right? So you brought up some really interesting things to cover for, like why does company culture matter?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So I think that I just want to say that I'm excited to be talking about company culture. You know what it really means, how we build it in a field corporate environments, professionally, and I've been exposed and experienced multiple different types of culture, different types of culture. And when you're working in a smaller organization even though we have 56 employees in our organization, you know we're still small, right, and so that changes the dynamic too. You can't just come in with this. Well, I didn't feel comfortable just coming in with this really broad like a corporate mentality for a small group of people, and so one of the things that I think, first of all, company culture is you know a reflection of your leadership, right?
Speaker 3:So who I am, how I talk to people and how I and how I show up consistently in my business to my team, to my customers, you know, and I really feel like that sets a tone. So, who your leaders are or who's in your leadership roles, I feel like it's super important. And then communication, I think, is the next thing, and especially in our field based businesses, right, we're not all sitting in an office all day together, right, chatting on Slack and Teams and just going to lunch.
Speaker 3:I mean that was that's a challenge. You know it's a different dynamic and I think it can be. I think you can be really successful at it if you prioritize that. So I know one of the one of the recently. A couple of years ago, I made a priority to sit down with my leadership team and actually hammer out core values in a mission statement Like what are we?
Speaker 3:what are we all here for Right? And I remember I was talking to a friend of mine about it and she goes small businesses are doing core values or whatever.
Speaker 3:And I was like, well, all businesses should right we should all know what we're doing here and the common goals, and so I thought it was funny, but I was like, yeah, I really, I really always want to be able to come back to this, right, come back to why we're here. We're here to serve the community. We want to make people's workplaces cleaner and safe, which include healthcare facilities and childcare centers. We all visit those places, right, it's all in our community.
Speaker 1:And so we all want to do a good job.
Speaker 3:Yeah right, yeah right we want to go there and be in a healthy way.
Speaker 1:The community, the community is your client.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 1:That's the way I'm perceiving that is.
Speaker 3:Yes, oh, I like that so our core values that we hammered out as a group together are community, quality, excellence, equity and integrity. I like those, and then we just have like a brief statement for each one and you know, I would suggest that when people create those because I was also thinking of this for myself that we review those from time to time, and one that, yeah, gotta align Not not a goal, or it's gotta align with what we're doing. With who we are. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And sometimes we can create core values that we maybe want to have. You know, like that we're working more towards, but I think starting with like who we already are, and then we have a mission. Know like that we're working more towards, but I think starting with like who we already are, and then we have a mission statement, which mine is probably too long. It's not your typical one. I did some research in a class I was in an HR class about mission statements and some of the larger companies that have very short ones and like maybe three core values, and so it's just all what you really want to do.
Speaker 2:So tell us the statement I want to know now. Oh yeah, it's, it's kind of long, it's okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's in our handbook.
Speaker 2:I want to know, so go ahead and take it.
Speaker 3:Part of our I just want to preface it really quick and say part of our company culture includes doing an in person orientation in which everyone gets a handbook in the handbook, which we read through because we're going to have you sign that you understand what's in here, so we actually take the time to read through it and in in it includes what our mission is and our core values, sort of in the beginning of that.
Speaker 3:So our mission statement is that White Rhino Company is passionate about doing work that contributes to the safety and wellness of our communities. And then we have White Rhino Company is committed to delivering services our customers want listening closely to customer expectations, taking a proactive approach to identifying and defining customer needs, building the best partnering relationship possible, always acting with honesty and integrity in all aspects of our business, being professional in doing our job, delivering a consistent quality of work and then high quality service is the pinnacle of White Rhino Company's mission and will be accomplished by continuous development of our quality control systems and training to ensure that the obligations of our company and the needs of our customers are a top priority.
Speaker 2:Lovely, I love it. I do have a question for you, though, because it's another question and it's a little segue off topic. But yeah, um, you're the creator of this business, correct?
Speaker 2:I am not the creator of this business oh, okay, I was going to ask you how you guys came up with the white rhino name. I mean, yeah, the premise behind the white rhino and how it's rare and it's. You know that, out of the jungle it's the superior being, because rhinos can move fast if they want. They're like hippos in the water. Um, you know, out of the jungle it's the superior being, because rhinos can move fast if they want. They're like hippos in the water. Yeah, do you know any information on how they came up with that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's sort of exactly right. It's just at the time the person that created the company was also donating to like the white rhinos and how they are unique and not like the rest of the. They are rare, yeah, and how, comparing that to like the service we give you standing out a little bit from the rest, and so, yeah, it's served us as a great name so far. I did find out that there's a white rhino coffee in Texas. Oh, when I was searching.
Speaker 1:Oh you're. I really love the commitment that you have, even even though you didn't create this about about the whole company, about your employees, and that just says so much. That screams uh, top the top, that, that screams.
Speaker 3:You're at the top, you know thank you, yeah, yeah, our people like as you said, jamie, our people are the biggest part of our organization and um without them, what I mean?
Speaker 1:there is no right yeah, so better grab that stuff and get out there and do it yourself.
Speaker 3:You work all the time right, right, seven days a week, right holidays, just do it. Yeah, yeah, it was wild.
Speaker 1:So um, you guys are well, obviously, yeah, if you're medical. Okay, I see, I was gonna say seven days a week, but of course you're, you're doing medical and everything. So, yeah, um, so, um, whenever you. How often do you you have these, um, these leadership meetings?
Speaker 3:yeah, so we have them once a month. Yeah, yeah, we have them regularly on the third Saturday of the month and we create an agenda. We create a safety topic within the agenda.
Speaker 2:You're doing a safety meeting then too? Yeah, exactly, I love it, signing and everything.
Speaker 1:Two for one, where's White Rhino located?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we're actually in the Madison Wisconsin area. Our address for our business is in Middleton, which is just right next door to it, yep, yep, okay, which is Dane County, and so that's our area that we primarily serve. And White Rhino celebrated its 29th birthday this month.
Speaker 1:Oh, congratulations. Happy birthday. White Rhino celebrated its 29th birthday this month.
Speaker 3:Oh, congratulations. Happy birthday, white Rhino.
Speaker 1:Yes, and are you guys doing anything special for that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we considered doing something special. We are going to do something in our meeting this month which is actually coming up, and then we sent out a memo. Yeah, so we use Constant Contact as a form to send out. We do a newsletter every month or a bulletin, and we also have a safety topic in that, and so we send that out. And we send out anniversaries of who's ever working, and then we always ask an employee if they want to be featured in the newsletter and then we have them sign something saying they said yes and they send us a photo and what they like working about with the company, because we don't all see each other so sometimes we don't even know, like like who's part of who's working where yeah, right, oh, I've been here five years, yeah, exactly, into company culture.
Speaker 3:So yeah, connecting all of the dots, yeah, exactly, and that's sort of my yeah, and that's sort of what I wanted to touch on is that communication piece. So part of our company culture is supported with these small things the meetings, the new double, the bulletin, the um, you know, recognition that it's your working anniversary you know those small things that keep us connected. Yeah, um, for us that are working out in the field um, so that you do the in-person email.
Speaker 2:Angela Brown, who was interviewed, I believe, last year or the year before, I don't remember. She actually reserves spots on Mondays and that's their opportunity for all of her people, because she has a remote team to check in and that's how she provides company culture as well. So I find it interesting to listen to the different aspects of what people do in their businesses. But communication is huge. When you don't have communication is when you have problems, because everyone makes assumptions, whether you, you know you send a text message, and how many times has that been miscommunicated? Why are you using all caps? Why are you yelling at me?
Speaker 1:I'm like, well, my capital button was broken, or I'm voice texting, right and and then you know, yeah, we do it all the time and it's like wait, that's not what I said and it's already sent in an email. Just so you know I'm doing talk to text driving.
Speaker 2:So do you hold regular office hours just for communication, and or do you, or that is, in addition to the regular office hours? How does that work for you? For that?
Speaker 3:Yes, so right now we have office hours Monday through Thursday, 10 to 3 30, and then um Friday, saturday, and Friday and Saturday are by appointment only, and we try not to hold meetings on any Sundays. But, um, yeah, at any time, you know, based on the needs of the business, based on the needs of the staff, uh, we will schedule impromptu meetings. Um, you know, if there's, there's something particularly urgent in the office, yeah, so we have people walk in, we have people call in saying they need you know, they need extra support, they have a question about something, and so I do have an HR administrator. She's in the office Monday through Thursday. We also have people come in who are looking for a job sometimes, and so, while our application is online, we do now have a station set up where you can go on the computer and apply online. So maybe, your trip was wasted?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you can kind of then be in our office, which I think is also a piece of who we are like, how our, how our office space is set up, which is new to us that we didn't always have that. So what did you do prior? Yeah, so we, so I wanted to talk about that. Thank you for asking. I encourage people who don't have an office space to use their library. I encourage people who don't have an office space to use their library. You can rent, at least here in Wisconsin. You can rent reserve, not rent conference rooms, and so we would do safety trainings and stuff and reserve conference room space. And you know it's free, it's the library, it's your tax money paid for.
Speaker 3:I love it I love it, yeah, and so you just get really resourceful. In a place I was in before we had a community room area, so I would reserve that for our leadership meetings before we had a space. And so we've even gone as far as asking our clients sometimes if we can reserve a conference room in their space, if we need to have an on-site during the you know, during that meeting not not often, but depending on the circumstances, right. So, yeah, I strongly encourage people to look into their community when they're looking for space. Um, just great idea it was free right, awesome.
Speaker 2:So you're communicating um attendance, requests for time off, um questions, safety, holidays, employee feedback and then your newsletters. And how often are you sending out your newsletters to your team? You had mentioned monthly, but is it like consistently once a month, or is it every two weeks? Is it weekly, what is it? Yeah, so it's.
Speaker 3:it's on the 15th of every month the newsletter comes out.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, and then.
Speaker 3:Yep, and so we have dedicated to that and we also sometimes send out notifications that way. If there's like here we have inclement weather issues, we have inclement weather issues, so sometimes we want to broadcast quickly out like, hey, these buildings are closing early or you know something, something like that, and we've sent out newsletters.
Speaker 1:You know the bulletin, just like that out to everyone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so it's been helpful. That's that's new for us as well. We've just implemented it's been something I've been trying to do, you know, like creating folders, saving things. This is what I'm going to put in my newsletter. This is what I'm going to put in my newsletter but finally got it off the ground and launched it probably a year ago, so I have to say that I think it's been. It's been a great piece to keep us connected.
Speaker 2:I love it. And then it says um, for your field-based team, you're doing disc assessments for team collaboration, are you? You're not doing disc assessments prior to hiring to see if they're to fit in those categories?
Speaker 3:we're not we're not so it's just something that we got introduced to as a team. So here in Wisconsin there is a small, there's a business school and they connect with small businesses here from the UW, and so I sent my HR admin to attend one of their trainings and she did a disc assessment in the training.
Speaker 2:And then we brought it back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like, hey, let's, let's do that for our leadership team and discuss, you know, like all the differences and stuff like that. So I think you know, when we're hiring folks, we're doing some, we're doing an assessment, right, we have questions, we want to see if you're going to get a feel for you, if you're going to be a good fit for our team, and vice versa, right. So I wouldn't call that we do a disc assessment with them, but it was really interesting to do it with the leadership team and then you know how it will give you all this information about what you do well, what you do not. So you know, like, what challenges might be. And I know it was kind of it was even some humor involved in it when we went around and kind of discussed each person's result. So you make it fun too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, great, and then we don't all need to be the same.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then we don't all need to be the same. It's actually really important if we have all these different areas where we all need to be the same. It's actually really important if we have all these different areas where we have people that fit into, because that's what makes your group great.
Speaker 2:I have a question in regards to the DISC assessment. Are you paying for the DISC assessment or are you doing the free version?
Speaker 3:Yes, I did pay. Okay, yes, I did did, and then it sent a link out and then I got access to all the results as well okay very cool.
Speaker 2:CISC for the audience. Um, it's called a disc assessment. It's actually a really interesting like overall view of your. I've done it a few times for because and it changes sometimes- it's one way and then other times it's another way, depending on my mood or what's going on. It's kind of similar to the DMV or the MVD driving test, right they give you the word and you're like, so what is the answer you're looking for?
Speaker 3:Who do I want to be?
Speaker 2:today. Are you going to be a good driver today? Are you going to be a good driver today you're going to be a bad driver. So, um, I think it's a. It's a great way to have that be part of, to see if you really are going to be a good fit and and vice versa. Not every employee who's out there who wants to work is a good fit for that environment that they're looking into and it kind of says hey, you know you took this test and doesn't look like you're gonna be. A of says hey, you know you took this test and doesn't look like you're gonna be a good fit at this time. You know, thanks so much for coming in, or thanks for your time, and blah, blah, blah. But yeah, I love it. It's always fun.
Speaker 1:Do you do? You do that whenever you're not whenever you're onboarding, but hiring.
Speaker 3:Not right now, not as part of our process. That's what shanna was just saying, so I I'd love to consider that, adding that right yeah, we're all writing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm here to learn too. I just me too. I just I, I love doing this stuff.
Speaker 2:And then it says you have annual training of BBP, HIPAA, BPE and client-specific. Tell the audience what all of these mean to you. Like, what is BBP? I don't even know what that is, so bloodborne pathogen training.
Speaker 3:Oh, there we go. I know you'll know when I say it, I use too many acronyms. Yeah, yeah, leave it to the government to make an acronym for something and make it more complicated.
Speaker 2:But yeah, oh, that's perfect. I think that's important, especially in the medical field, because you just never know when you're going to come across something that you shouldn't be touching.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and that's uh, uh, yeah, I, that's here, california. You have to go down to Sacramento, I'm, I'm probably about five hours away from there, and, um, we have to do training, we have to pay for it. It's like $1,800 for day, day class. All I have to do is say California, yeah, that's all we need to say. So everything's way more expensive here. But, yes, bloodborne pathogens. And then for everybody that does, don't know what's H I P, a, a.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so HIPAA, and I'm going to tell you cause I tell you in my video what it is, and I'm gonna tell you because I tell you in my video what it is, but let me, let me type it up. So it's health insurance, portability and accountability act very complicated.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and why is that important? Most right like why is that important? And so when you're in different environments, especially anything related to health care, you could see something, maybe that was thrown away in a garbage. You could see a file that's sitting on someone's desk while you're cleaning in an office, and so you have to understand that there are rules and regulations about how to handle information number one to eat, about how to handle information number one and then number two about what you're allowed to repeat or or or stuff like that. And so all of our healthcare stuff is is highly protected. And even we go so far as, even if you're, let's say, you're, working in that environment and it's live, and you see someone come in, that you know, uh, we don't, we don't um, go up and talk to anyone that's there for service, right, like, how's that? How's?
Speaker 1:it going. Yeah, oh, it's my name you remain. Congratulations on the baby right exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:You might not know that, you might not know that coming in Right, so yeah. So there's just information that we need to give to everyone and then constantly remind people about every year.
Speaker 1:It's just yeah, yeah, and it's kind of almost like an NDA Mm, hmm, mm, hmm, and each employee signs one. Yeah, and it's kind of almost like an NDA Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm, yeah, and each employee signs one. Yeah, right, confidentiality, zip it.
Speaker 2:And then with client-specific things. Is it like just depending on the environment? Like with, for example, we had a financial advisor for a really long time who worked out of the bottom level of this house. Financial advisor for a really long time who worked out of the bottom level of this house and we didn't dust any, even though it was very tempting because there was like this much dust on everything. But he did. He would, um, he would close up all his files or he would watch us the entire the cleaning tax, the entire time they were down there because there was so much confidential information. So, um, yeah, it could be something similar to that.
Speaker 2:It doesn't have to be health related. There's a lot of private information that once you see, you can't unsee, but you can't discuss it. It's against the law and you don't want to get yourself in trouble because they could actually prosecute you. In extreme circumstances, you could go to jail. It's like, wow, I had no idea, I'm like you have to pay attention. It's like, wow, I had no idea, I'm like you have to pay attention.
Speaker 1:Well, there's a bank we do several banks and there's one that's going through an escrow right now. Well, they're moving all their stuff, so right now. It wasn't always like this, but for now they have to have somebody on site while one of my cleaning techs go. And you know, here let me feather dust around this, and you know, yeah that makes very yeah, very, very important to implement all of that.
Speaker 1:And again, some sometimes they don't know, you know, you know you gotta make sure that you have these meetings to refresh memories and sign off on it. And you know we went down the list here yep, exactly, and then we have some yeah.
Speaker 3:So for us we have like a med room, for example. They have to be opened by the client and they stand there and then we dust and clean the floor and that's on a scheduled basis because it's not a space we enter and then they just have some other. Some of our clients have some other clients. Trainings, too, like one for a live environment, is about how to identify abuse and neglect, and I don't think that we are really thinking that that's going to happen for us to identify for patients. But I think, because we're in that space, it's just like a broad thing, like, hey, we're just going to make sure everyone who's working in this space knows what this is right, yeah, and what to look for?
Speaker 1:um, I think that we're. I mean, that could go both ways. I even in the residential um uh this is uh. What is that court reporting?
Speaker 1:Yeah, mandatory reporting, yeah, where you know you see something you need to implement or take the steps to let your family manager name. Yeah, you need to be held accountable because we see a lot of stuff, you know, and that's on both sides of the spectrum, commercial or residential. You know, sometimes you can turn a blind eye. You know, feather dusting a whole thing of guns, which I don't recommend. I don't, I don't allow my client, my, my staff to do it. But, um, I've been asked, oh, can you just and it's like, but, uh, knowing whenever, especially abuse children are in the home, there's elderly people that are being taken care of by other organizations that come in to help the elderly. You know, we, I think, got to be visual and mindful of that and that's I'm going to write that down, that's I'm going to write that down.
Speaker 1:These are some great meeting topics that I would love to implement, especially DISC, the DISC assessment. I just love that. I really like that.
Speaker 2:That's actually covered in one of the modules in the Structure Scale and Profit. Yes, it is.
Speaker 1:If I recall off the top of my head, it is it's going back to the elderly and seeing abuse.
Speaker 2:You have a duty to act. When I was a restaurant manager, they called me to act and occasionally I would have to act, I'd have to give CPR, I'd have to get in the middle of something or I'd have to throw someone out. But there's been multiple times where I've had seniors little you know, little Mary who's 92, suddenly has Steve, who's 37, drinking beer sitting on the couch and is not a relative. I'm like I've had to call the food issuer and say, hey, I just want to let you know this person, I need someone to come check this out for me. This person doesn't have any family. I don't know. You know she's a widower, you know she's 92. She's lonely. I totally get it.
Speaker 2:But it's just, it's a dynamic that isn't, shouldn't be allowed, that someone should say, hey, I need you guys to step in and check this out. Not that I want to take Mary's rights away, but I want, I don't want Steve living there, off of you know, drinking beer, watching the game. It's just, it happens Definitely, wow. Then I want to talk about a little bit this is the most interesting thing, because everybody has a different way they handle this the employee appreciation picnic Cause these are. You can give us all of the download on what you do for your company picnic. What if you give away prizes, if you give away cash, or you know how do you get everyone involved with that type of thing? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So how I get everyone involved? We send? I send out an actual invitation. I use a software called Punchbowl and it sends out an invitation and it says how many you and your guests are invited um and then it gives all the details of the picnic and um. So the first year that we did the picnic, we did actual, like you know, picnic style picnic. You know, we rented a pavilion, we had food and entertainment catered um, we decorated the pavilion, we had some games and different things, but we did not do a raffle or anything at that time. The last couple of years, we have the pleasure of being pretty close to an area called Wisconsin Dells. Okay, so we have gone to a water park.
Speaker 1:I, I I've been to a company picnic before with my family and we did that up at Cedar point in Ohio and it was yeah, that was great, those were fun. Um, also, we've done a 4th of July company picnic. Yeah, those are great ideas.
Speaker 3:When we opened our office we did do like a little grand opening thing where we invited all employees to stop in and then we did do a raffle and we raffled off mostly just like gift cards, small things and we did a cookout.
Speaker 3:We cooked burgers and stuff outside and um created like a slideshow putting the whole office together and just had that playing on the background and it was just kind of festive and you it was more like a drop-in like come on in, stop, put your name in the raffle, get a burger, say hi, you know, head on out, and I think that went well too. Yeah, but the parks are nice. We have people be able to bring their you know some of their family members with them, and so we all eat together and then you know, you're just off with your family pretty much after that, and I did charter a bus so that it would pick you up from our office and then we all went up together or you can drive and pay for parking. But, um, it's been pretty fun.
Speaker 2:Good, we've been lucked out with good weather, yeah it's crossing my fingers you're going rain or shine rain or shine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's how I know that's what's in my chest. I'm like I don't care what no yeah right, great, I love it.
Speaker 2:And then, um, what type of community, community event participation and sponsorships are you doing with your business?
Speaker 3:yeah, so in middleton, where our office is located, we're also part of the Middleton Chamber of Commerce, but they have a festival every year and we donate to that, just a small donation. I mean, we're in, it's a good neighbor festival, it's called, and you know, we're in the community, we're part of the community, so we do a small donation for that and then we also have done we only once. But our zoo here in Dane County is free. It's funded by the county and it's located in Madison. Have a thing called boo at the zoo where your business can sign up and be sort of a station for trick-or-treaters, for kids to come through trick-or-treating. And at our zoo we have a white rhino named harman.
Speaker 3:Oh, we participated in that one year. Yeah and uh, you just have to be able to commit to like a certain dollar amount expected for candy and then you can set up a booth. So we did that. We've also donated to a golfing event that was raising money for NICU in our area. Oh, love that. And then the last couple of years we've donated to a lights display. So there's a local union that creates these different light displays that are really great. It's free to drive through. It starts in November and runs through January and it's called Holiday and Lights and you can sponsor a light, and so we've done that. We've actually had clients say, hey, we saw you when we drove through with our families through the lights and yeah, well, no, it's a great um organic way of marketing, yeah as well, so, um so those are the small things that we've done so far.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so.
Speaker 2:I love it white rhino. I could just see it being like you know, giving away like t-shirts with the white rhino on it. I could see where I could go. It's just, it's it's always fun definitely and it just really blends and flows.
Speaker 1:Well, the name, how it came to be, I just really it does. It stands out. I love the whole marketing behind it. White Rhino yeah, I like that, it's great.
Speaker 2:And then it says that you're also providing leadership training on emotional intelligence, conflict resolution and feedback, and those are three very broad, huge topics. But you can just give us a brief synopsis of each one of those and what you do, because it really does come down to emotional intelligence. I mean, there's a lot of attributes that come down to people making good decisions versus bad decisions, so why don't you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so one of my goals for that particular year I always like you talk about on your podcast you know you set goals for your organization was like a continuing ed piece and making sure that we all have heard some of the same information about the same topics to get some continuity. Exactly what you're saying can be so broad. I could think one thing, you could think another, and so how do we bridge that? And so I did a lot of searching around and finding information, and so I found some different trainings that were about an hour long and just supported, like I went through myself and made sure that they were things that I wanted to incorporate and, um, then we just do the hour trainings and then just have discussion afterwards. Um, you know how, how, um, we talk to each other is really important. How to talk to staff is really important, because you can misinterpret so many things right. You can misinterpret the volume of your voice, the look you gave me a goofy look, yes your body language.
Speaker 3:So we talked about you know, sitting like this, yeah, your body language. So we talked about.
Speaker 1:You know sitting like this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know also, if there's stuff that you want to talk to your teammate about or you need to address, you know, talking it over with your other leadership team before you have that conversation can be really helpful. You know, get it. You're not alone out here. You don't have to go and make decisions. You know to talk to so-and-so about this or that. You know we're here, so come, come in, let's have a conversation and then we'll I'll get on the same page and, you know, go ahead and address that. And also, you know, know like we make mistakes, so that's okay. We then, you know, course correct and that's part of our culture as well, like acknowledging those taking accountability and then course correcting, because we're always, we're always going to make mistakes. Hopefully we're going to make, make different ones, ones the next time, right, not keep making the same one. But yeah.
Speaker 2:Remind people that walk on water. Every once in a while you get someone who's just way out there in left field and then they go. I go, you know, if we could walk on water we'd be doing something else. And that just stops them. Because then they think about it and like, yeah, you can't walk on water. I'm like, yeah, we don't walk on water. About it and like, yeah, you can't walk on water. I'm like, yeah, we don't walk on water. We're human. Humans, we make mistakes. I'm not perfect.
Speaker 1:The reason why I'm in the position I'm in is because I've made thousands of mistakes yeah, and it's really good to have a leadership team, because it can get very lonely up here at the top sometimes and and to not be able to collaborate, get with your team, discuss things. You know you didn't get up to the top by yourself, so you need to incorporate, bringing that in and really, because if you try to do it all yourself, it's just going to sidewind you. You know, and it does, it gets very lonely. I've been there. It says all by myself yeah, it's very lonely, it's very lonely up there at the top. I like that you kind of are working the chains, even if it is going back down and bringing it, because everybody deserves to feel like there's a part of something bigger than getting that buy-in right it's right when you're in a service based business.
Speaker 3:I think the key to your success is going to be your buy-in. Every single person may not buy in, but like, if you can get that really great core group of buy-in on what we're doing here, and then I think you can really just you know, right, yeah, and grow the buy-in. I'm writing that down.
Speaker 2:And then my last question, or one of my last questions, I promise.
Speaker 3:No, I'm having a great time. Thank you, oh my.
Speaker 2:There's always a good way and a bad way to give feedback, and feedback equivocates nine times out of 10 to either verbal feedback or a written feedback. What are some of the things you've learned along the ways to give people feedback so that they're more receptive to the feedback? Because people you know automatically become defensive. They don't want to hear what you have to say because they know everything. There's so many different little elements that go into just that piece. What is some of your experience for just that?
Speaker 3:yeah, so some of my experience for that certainly been varied, and I don't always execute it. You know, yeah, and you have to. You have to know it helps to know who you're talking to, and so sometimes when I'm giving feedback, especially if it's on a one on one with a leadership staff, you know I'll strategize it where I'll give you the positive feedback first.
Speaker 2:Hey here's a sandwich.
Speaker 3:Yeah, here are the things you're doing really, exactly the sandwich. Here's the things you're doing really well. Here's the things that I see. That didn't, that need some work. And then I try, I really try to show you either visually, you know, taking you through the email, or taking you through photos of whatever wasn't clean, right or something, and saying, hey, you see, you see what I'm seeing when we got customer feedback on this stand, when I'm saying, now, if you're, you know, overly emotional about it or whatever, maybe you're not even going to receive it. That's a risk too, but you still have to deliver it.
Speaker 1:and sometimes you do have to circle back around and try sometimes it's hard to to pull up your big girl panties, or big guy panties, or undies, whatever you call them, and go in there and just here's what's going on and that's what uh sets you apart.
Speaker 1:You are the business owner. You know the owner or the leader. We have to have this discussion? Yep, and sometimes they are hard discussions. They are sometimes, but we always end up, like you said, the sandwich. We always leave off with something good as they're, you know, make sure that they, you know you're doing great, but here's what we need to work on. Are you seeing what I'm seeing?
Speaker 2:We could have a whole podcast just on the sandwich method.
Speaker 1:Oh, I just Really yeah.
Speaker 2:We could go into great detail about the sandwich method and why it's important to really master that when you're giving feedback, because it kind of it's like when you were a kid and you had to take medicine and you knew, like cod liver oil I'm dating myself. When I was a kid there was some notion that my mom was convinced of that I had to have cod liver oil to make me better. My mom was convinced of that. I had to have cod liver oil to make me better. If anyone has ever taken a teaspoon of cod liver oil, you would know that it tastes bad every single time, doesn't matter what it's mixed with.
Speaker 1:I just make it. I can smell it through my nose right now.
Speaker 2:So it's great for your skin, it's a great antitoxin, but ingesting it is probably not the most ideal thing when you're eight. But yeah, you just. It just takes practice to have the buy-in and to get the feedback. But yeah, it's the sandwich method. We'll definitely have to do a podcast.
Speaker 3:I think the other thing too I just want to add really quick on the end here is that sometimes I just have to be matter of fact and look directly at people and say you know what, this isn't personal, this is just business Right, because the language I use consistently with my team is, you know, to meet the needs of the business. So if I'm approaching you about correcting something, it's to meet the needs of the business right, not to meet my personal whatever, or the emotion out of it.
Speaker 1:No, no oh, that's so brilliantly put, and especially for people that are newer, um, as myself, to this, uh, taking the motion out of it and saying this is for the business. Oh, I like that, I really like that. It's just taking the motion out of that.
Speaker 3:Sometimes I have to tell myself that when I don't want to have those conversations right Me too. This is for the business. You have to do this.
Speaker 2:The Rocky theme is done, done, done, done okay I think that, um, for the continuing education piece you have that marked here and the continuing education development, now are you sending all of your crew? Is it just management lead? Are you just providing little like segments that segue longer lasting learning? What are you doing to provide continuing education and development for your team? Yeah, so I'm just continuing.
Speaker 3:As I network and I'm part of different organizations like recently joining the Madison Chamber and part of the UW School of Business program and constantly watching that program, I'm just always looking for something that we can train on either I can send you to or we can watch on zoom, or maybe it's a really good idea, but that's not exactly right. So then I'll go looking for it and I just make sure to make that. Part of my job as your leader is to know that I don't want the business to be bottlenecked by me or any you know anything limiting us because we don't have the information. So I feel like part of that not happening is for me to one learn more information, but to also bring that information into the group and then deliver that as I see best needs Right. So first with leadership, because it's always top down.
Speaker 1:So start with me, go to the next group.
Speaker 3:And then you know, if there were instances, maybe, where someone had a write-up or disciplinary action and it could be related to anything that we've been doing training on, I could require that person to do that training Right as part of like how am I going to help? Here's what happened. Here's what we need to do to improve this. How do I help you reach that goal? How does your supervisor help you reach it? And maybe it's to take one of these trainings.
Speaker 2:Maybe I have another question pertaining to the first question with the and you may not know the answer to this, and you may what is the percentage of your gross that you spend, or the amount of time sitting there with the education and development piece? Is it like an allocated 7 percent, a 3 percent? Is it just something that is on an as-need basis? How do you determine how much to give to get, so to speak?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I guess I don't have it quite broken out yet in a percentage.
Speaker 1:When I had.
Speaker 3:It was my goal the one year. I just made my focus of what I wasn't giving into the other parts of the business. Right that attention out there you kind of got to give some time to see, like, how is that actually showing up in your business, right? Do you see an impact? You know how do you measure that?
Speaker 1:Incorporate it. Is it being recepted?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you know, because if it's not contributing to your culture and people aren't learning it, then I would discontinue it or look for something else or change it. So yeah, so I think it's a smaller part now, but for me I kind of address it quarterly. Okay, I'm always looking at my business in quarters and I'm always a quarter and a quarter or two ahead. I came from I used to work in a media business where we were always at least two quarters ahead, okay. So I'm always like, okay, now what are we doing in September?
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it, I do Me too. It says you have creating more company culture is through community partnerships. You list some schools here, so are you teaching in those classes? What do you do?
Speaker 3:I list the schools there because those are. So those are the. So the community uw school of business, the svdc, is who we've taken courses through um, who have offered, reached out to the small business.
Speaker 1:So I've taken some financial planning small business development yeah we, and I think every state county, has something like that I'm sure they do I'm not. Yeah, it's uh and um, some of that stuff and it's free, some, yeah, um, but you know you can also pay into it um yeah, there are local which is great, because we need those kind of development centers for small businesses.
Speaker 3:We do. People don't have degrees that are doing jobs, and that is okay because they have experience, and so then when you add just a little bit of stuff to it, you know a little bit of training, a little bit of, you know, professional classroom training, that's helpful. Madison College I've taken courses there myself for in HR. Just as things come up as I'm like, hey, I need to know more about this, I need to learn more about this. Yes, I can get a contractor, but if I'm ultimately over this issue in my organization, I'm ultimately over this issue in my organization. I feel better if I have more information and support. And also, it's great networking, right, those kind of courses. I mean it's amazing networking and then the chamber events.
Speaker 3:Love them. Yeah, the chamber events.
Speaker 1:I mean, you have your monthly events, but then they also offer trainings. I just joined another chamber what was it the day before yesterday? Nice, and there was this. So I'm part of three and it's in the midst. Here we're very sparsely scattered. I mean, it's very easily 200 miles each direction. You know, as the county, it's the largest county outside of Los Angeles, in California, but only 100,000, like 120,000. Maybe people, okay, spread out, so we are when we say 120,000, and maybe people, okay, spread out, so we are when we say rural, we're rural. However, sometimes it can be a hit and a miss with some of these chambers and that's just a, I think, something that you're just going to like oh, that didn't work, that my no ROIi, no roi, came out of that, you know, uh, there's not. They're not really into their chamber as much as say, um, the chamber that I'm at in fortuna, or the chamber at at mckinleyville, so, um, but there's several of them in each little town, you know. Do you guys have that over there too? You know several different.
Speaker 3:We do and I'm newer to joining chambers. Middleton was my first chamber. I joined even before we had our office.
Speaker 3:And it's just because they have their what with their advisors or whatever they have? Or ambassadors, excuse me. And it's just because they have their what with their advisors or whatever they have are ambassadors, excuse me. And I was renting for the first time those, you know, those offices that you can rent like the shared office, right, yeah, so I was like you know what? I'm going to rent one of those for six months and see how it goes. Well, the person running that happened to be the ambassador of the chamber. She was super great outgoing helped me with all these connections. And when you're in running your business and you're like running, running, I'm running my business.
Speaker 3:And then you're like, oh, but I want to be at this chamber meeting, I want to be at this, and so I joined that one. Know, like I joined that one, I went to a few.
Speaker 1:I see the emails and then join, join the other one, so the new one that I just joined a greater Madison area, I think, encompasses some of those smaller areas, so you can be included in that.
Speaker 3:but it's, it's, it's big.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then they, they have it at a state level. It's big, yeah, and then they have it at a state level, yep. Yep, and then they have the US, the United States Chamber of Commerce, so they have them at all different levels.
Speaker 3:And then we have also, like the Latino Chamber of Commerce, a Hmong Chamber of Commerce, and so we have different. I mean there's, you could join a lot, so I was wondering how many people belong to. So I'm glad you shared with me that it was three so far for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and there's more.
Speaker 3:but, like I said, how can you go to all?
Speaker 1:of them and they look, they set it up. It's in the middle of the month every month and then they'll start. They start down south on a Tuesday, then they'll come up to the next city, start on Wednesday, then they'll go up to the next Thursday, okay, so that you're able. They're moving around. Yeah, they know, you know, they know that. Okay, if they're a, they're moving around. Yeah, they know, you know, they know that. Okay, if they're a part of this chamber, in this chamber, so they've made it to where we can don't have to miss any of the the meetings.
Speaker 1:So I'm excited to see, um, how it works at this one and, like I said, it could be a hit and a miss and getting out there. There's also the Rotary Club, the Kiwanis. They do a lot with the kids, just there's. Also, I would like to collaborate with people that are. You know, my company is pink and black. That's my company colors, right? Well, there's this thing called the pink can crushers and it's trash cans, but it's pink trash cans that you can purchase for a hundred bucks, right. But their organization is for breast cancer research, all sorts of stuff, and I'm like boy that would cause we take the trash out. You know I was like that would be a good. So we've been supporting the it's called and I'm going to give them a shout out the California Cancer Crusher or something like that. And we've met at these chamber events.
Speaker 2:So these chamber events, going there and networking, you know, giving out business cards, getting up there, learning to speak in front of an audience you know, sometimes hard, but you know they really bring so much networking, so much learning and they, they offer a lot of um classes and and um, yeah, so I love, I love. I don't want to take up most of your day, so, um, michelle, do you have any questions for us? Um, I always ask at the end because there's always, of course, I have a ton, yeah you'll think of a billion whenever, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, no, I don't. I just this was such an important topic and I just want to thank you for letting me come on and join you and talk a little bit about White Rhino Company and what we do, and get some great advice from you both on the topic as well, and I look forward to listening to your podcast every week.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you so very much. Thank you for coming on and taking the time. We really do appreciate it. I know everyone's super busy and then, as soon as this gets ready to publish, I'll reach out and let you know. The podcast comes first and the video comes second because we're a small two, two woman show, so they don't come out at the same time. It's just the way it works and it makes it easier on everybody. That way we can promote both instead of just one. So thanks so much for your time again and I look forward to chatting with you. Take care, thanks.
