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 #124 Samantha Muncuso-From Toilets to TikTok: A Cleaning Influencer's Journey
Ever wondered what happens when a cleaning professional with a quirky sense of humor finds her voice on social media?
Samantha Mancuso takes us on a delightful journey from sworn teenage resistance to the cleaning profession ("I don't want to scrub anybody's toilets!") to becoming a viral cleaning influencer with over 300,000 TikTok followers.
The path wasn't straightforward.
After stints as a dental lab technician and school lunch lady ("the best, worst job I've ever had"), Samantha impulsively ordered business cards on her lunch break in 2015 and launched her cleaning business. Her social media presence began as a mental escape during her mother-in-law's cancer treatment, initially featuring just her hands cleaning surfaces.
As she gradually became comfortable on camera, her authentic personality and practical cleaning advice resonated with viewers.
What makes this conversation special is Samantha's passionate advocacy for solo cleaners. "I never want anybody to look at the solo cleaner like they're just some Betty with a bucket," she declares, challenging the perception that solo operations are merely side hustles.
She shares how professional solo cleaners can earn substantial incomes while maintaining the flexibility to prioritize family commitments.
Behind the scenes, Samantha balances content creation with maintaining high standards for her clients, filming in their homes with permission while respecting their privacy. She's transparent about the realities of social media monetization, acknowledging it's not consistent enough to replace her cleaning income. Her commitment extends to supporting small, family-owned businesses in the cleaning industry, using her platform to elevate others alongside herself.
Ready to connect with a cleaning influencer who keeps it real? Listen now and discover why authentic voices like Samantha's are transforming the cleaning industry's image and inspiring professionals to take pride in their essential work.
Samantha's Social Links here:
https://www.tiktok.com/@crazycleaninglady222
https://www.facebook.com/crazycleaninglady222
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
Join my FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583362158497744
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIjMz_-9YyiFvNVIgb61iYg
See Shannon's latest courses: www.KleanFreaksUnversity.com
Today on Cleaning Business Life, we are joined by Samantha Mancuso, a powerhouse cleaning influencer who's changing the way people see the cleaning industry Through her authentic content, product insights and behind-the-scenes look at real-life cleaning. Samantha has not only inspired millions to take pride in their spaces, but also elevated the visibility and value of cleaning professionals everywhere, which I personally love, samantha, so thank you. Her influence is helping shape a new era of respect, creativity and opportunity in the cleaning world. Stay tuned for the full episode. Oh, my God, everyone, I am so excited we have Ms Samantha cleaning influencer, cleaning industry leader, viral video creator, extraordinaire with us today and we're going to have a nice conversation. And you had just asked me to ask you about the lady, the 93-year-old lady, with a ceiling fan in the bathroom, so why don't we start off with that?
Speaker 2:So we're talking about, like, checking your own work, right? I pride myself on having a system top to bottom, left to right, doing all the things. Well, I'm cleaning for this lady, absolutely precious. She loves me, I adore her. She's a little bit hard to handle. She has no filter. So I'm cleaning one day and as I'm getting ready to leave, she looks up at me and she kind of looks over her glasses and she said did you get the sealant fan in the bathroom? I've been cleaning for her for well over a year and I said Miss Adi, what are you talking about? She said well, you never dust a ceiling fan in the bathroom. I said heck, I didn't even know you had a ceiling fan in the bathroom. Been cleaning for over a year and I walk in the bathroom. You could have planted a garden on top of that thing. Oh, it blended in with this, that thing.
Speaker 2:Oh, it blended in with this.
Speaker 3:It was just a solid year and never noticed that this woman had a ceiling fan in her bathroom. Never saw it. Oh no, that's where it starts snowing down on you.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, yeah, she said you got to start looking up. That's where it's all at, so we don't miss them now.
Speaker 3:Only two. No, it's only two, feisty.
Speaker 1:I'm feisty. How's that work out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, tabitha likes to come out. So my best friend's dad, probably in the 10th grade, gave me the nickname Tabitha. He has never called me any other name. Shout out to HK. And so when I started doing TikToks and videos, if I had a sassy topic or if I had a topic where it didn't need to be professional, you just needed to say what needed to be said. That's when we bring out Tabitha and Tabitha just kind of tells it like it is. She is no nonsense, and she really does say some of the things that comes out of that mouth.
Speaker 3:So how long have you been in? Uh, not how long have you been in the industry, first of all, my entire life I grew, I grew up in the business.
Speaker 2:Um, either my mom had a cleaning business going or my aunts had cleaning business going. We learned early on like how to do. I can remember being probably 10 or 11 and scraping paint off a new construction apartment windows, Like my mom just turned to Sluice at 10 with a razor and said here go, scrape windows.
Speaker 3:I guess I do that with my son.
Speaker 2:I swore as a teenager I would never like, I don't want to scrub anybody's toilets, I don't want to be a cleaning lady. It's degrading and I just that was not in my line of sight, I wasn't going to do it. And then I was a dental lab technician for years and then I went in to work at my kid's school as a lunch lady. It was the best, worst job I've ever had in my life. Right, I tell people all the time I did five to ten at the local elementary school because it was like a prison and when I left there it was kind of a wing and a prayer. I said okay, and it was 2015. I said I left work. I was mad. I said I'm never going back there, like I'm not doing this anymore. I'm going to finish out this school year and I'm opening a cleaning business.
Speaker 2:I ordered my business cards on my lunch break. I was the lunch lady. I love it. I went home and I told my husband. I said my business cards will be here by the end of this week. I'm opening up a cleaning business and he said, okay, if you can get it going by the time school starts again, let's do it. So that was in 2015. And then I think in 2018 is when he came on and started the construction side of my business. So we have like a home repair business and then we have the clean inside of it.
Speaker 3:Is it because, you know, my husband too is so supportive and then it's like gosh, I always hear him from this off the side. Well, if you keep, if you keep this up, maybe I'll quit my job and come over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, so we, so he works. It's the same company but we have two different sides of the company. Very rarely will we work together and he's no longer allowed to book me cleaning jobs. No, no, absolutely not. He has put me in some trying to be helpful. He's got me some of the worst jobs on the history of cleaning lady worst jobs. He's like no, it's really not that bad, it's a trap house and it doesn't have a door.
Speaker 3:It's a trap house. The windows are boarded up.
Speaker 2:SWAT team. He booked me a job one time where SWAT team and I've told this story before. When we're pulling up for me to look at the house, he tells me hey, don't be concerned. If there's not a back door on the back of this house, there's your sign.
Speaker 1:For those of you who don't know, explain to the audience what a trap house is.
Speaker 3:That's a red flag.
Speaker 2:It is a run-down slum house. It's just. In this instance it was actually just a really bad house in a really bad neighborhood. The police had went in both doors and it's a scary story because the bottom of the house looked more like a hoarder style home. The upstairs of the house was like a long hallway and all of the doors had padlocks on the outside of the doors so and they wanted some cleaning.
Speaker 3:Huh, yeah, was it. Was it just a slight, just a little dusting?
Speaker 2:no, I think. I think everybody knew what they were walking into, but me right so I was.
Speaker 1:you're in the South too, right, so there's no air conditioning, oh no we have air conditioning.
Speaker 2:Okay, good, that is a requirement for me.
Speaker 3:We don't up here in Northern California.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Uh, southern California, you know, beautiful, hot, nice, gorgeous. Yeah, constant 70. It's hot, it is constant 70. It's hot here whenever it's 70.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to go ahead and get off of this Zoom call. It's probably 96 and the humidity is so high today.
Speaker 3:Here it's miserable.
Speaker 2:It's miserable.
Speaker 1:I've been there. Here.
Speaker 2:And I have the dry heat. Yeah, where you at where?
Speaker 1:are you at shannon? I'm in northern arizona. Oh yeah, you're hot. I'm an hour away from sedona, so sedona is actually warmer than where we are, but yeah, it's um, but it's a dry heat.
Speaker 3:At least it's a dry that this humidity is like somebody's hot breath constantly on you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's this. Yeah, I'm not a nice person. I mean, we've got lots of equal opportunity.
Speaker 2:So is it comparable to Vegas.
Speaker 1:In the summer, vegas would be comparable to Phoenix. Vegas is actually hotter. I lived in Vegas for many, many years. Both my adult children were born there, but it's hot. We've had a lot of people move into my area, so let's change the climate. We've had a lot of houses built here in the last five years. I want to say we've had over 10,000 homes built. Wow, we're in another building boom and we always cater to the builders here. I don't know why, but taxes, I, taxes, I'm I'm assuming impact fees and all that Absolutely Um, but yeah, it's so. Yeah, it's been getting to 105. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm so ready for somewhere to be over.
Speaker 2:I talked to my. I talked to my. I was talking to my daughter last night. She said it was 106 where she's at over there and I'm like, oh my gosh, she's in Nevada.
Speaker 1:I've lived in Vegas. I've lived in Reno. I've lived in Carson City and Lake Tahoe.
Speaker 2:It's so beautiful Like we'll go hang out with her in Vegas and stuff and it's such a beautiful area. But it was never my first pick of places to go for a vacation and now that she's so close I'm like, oh yeah, we're going to Vegas, like it's one of our favorite spots. We love it.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, question Do you follow like the ISSA show and stuff like that? Possibly so.
Speaker 2:I just recently learned about the ISSA. When I tell y'all I'm out of the loop like I'm, so I stay so focused with my, my cleaning, and then, of course, when I get home from from doing all of that all day long, I have to come home and edit, crop, throw voiceovers on and get the videos out. But I'm learning. How do you learn? Yeah, so my daughter, she's a chef, so she actually worked the IBSSA show last year, I think.
Speaker 3:Really. Yeah, that's interesting. So, uh, so it's in November and um, shannon and I are going and it would be awesome to do a whole meetup of us Everybody, that would be cool. I would like that. I mean it's like a lot of the who's who's, that would be cool. I would like that. I mean it's like a lot of the who's who's you know, in the industry and the new and upcoming machines or a new product or I just it's a really big show. It's like a fair.
Speaker 2:That would be really fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's all about cleaning. It's cleaning related and nothing but.
Speaker 1:And we're not getting a booth intentionally. So we'll be doing lives and lots of, just on the spur of the moment.
Speaker 2:See, I like that. So you'll get to kind of look around and show everybody, and we're not tight.
Speaker 1:I like that Ten hours each day where we're meeting and greeting.
Speaker 3:We actually can walk around and meander and put the mic down for a second and be like ooh shiny.
Speaker 1:That's what I like. That's what we decided we're going to do. So, yeah, that's coming up in November. What made you decide to become a cleaning influencer? Was it just a random, by accident thought process? Was there a business plan involved?
Speaker 2:So it was random. There was there's still no business plan involved. I was going through a really rough time. We were taking care of my mother-in-law who was down at the time going through cancer treatments and stuff, and I needed kind of a way to check out. Like I needed a way to be able to, like, not think about the cancer and not think about doctor's appointments. So I was cleaning.
Speaker 2:You know, as we're going through all of this, I'm still cleaning and I started making just TikTok videos and then it kind of grew into just TikTok videos and then it kind of grew into okay, I never wanted to be in front of the camera, that was not my goal. I just wanted to wipe the counter. That was the video, and I'm done, or you know, clean the toilet, and that was it. And then, somehow or another, I just decided to start talking to people and giving them kind of my advice.
Speaker 2:I was watching other influencers who were amazing at the time and they're still amazing, but for me I was watching them like, okay, how do they do that? Well, I started kind of taking little leaps to get behind the camera and then get in front of the camera and then along the way I've had some just amazing mentors that were kind of already in the game and they were always kind of telling me, hey, this is what you need to try next, or they would do something that would inspire me to go that way. But I've met some of the most amazing people on social media and everybody thus far has been willing to help the next person level up. I love it, but there was no business plan. There was no business plan.
Speaker 3:And, like you said, there still isn't, it's just going. You're still just winging it. Yeah, you're going to ride this train until the wheels fall off, right?
Speaker 2:That's what I said last week. It's been amazing. Now. I intentionally did not jump over to Facebook because I mean, everybody from my hometown is on my Facebook. I own a business here. So when I started cross posting my content I was a little nervous. But then I realized these people been knowing me my whole life. They know I'm nuts. So all of my clients are. They're a hundred percent on board, like I have clients that actually will leave me TikTok tasks. They're like, hey, we got you some content.
Speaker 2:It's never anything that is too out the box, but they're so supportive of everything that I do and they could care less what comes out of my mouth. They don't care.
Speaker 1:I love that. Now have you had any of them say flat out no, don't do this in my mouth, they don't care. I love that. Now have you had any of?
Speaker 2:them say flat out no, don't do this in my house, I'm not comfortable with it. Yes, I've had a couple of clients tell me no, I am very straightforward in the beginning and I'll let them know. You know, hey, I do use content, but I try my best to be as respectful of your home as possible. Most of my videos are going to be in the kitchen and the bathrooms because I find those areas they can be less personable and harder to identify. So I'm always kind of aware that this is their home and I let them know that as long as I'm recording, I do my best to be respectful of their space. I've had a couple clients who were not okay with it, and that's always been fine with me too. That just means I'll get the house done faster, you know, Because recording content can take up time Right. So if I'm not recording, I tend to move a little bit faster. So I want my clients to be okay with it, and if they'm not recording, I tend to move a little bit faster.
Speaker 3:So I want my clients to be okay with it, and if they're not, I'm okay with that too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you have them sign a contract or anything like that? I probably should, but I don't. Now most of my interactions with my clients it's either through email or text messaging, so we always have something to confirm, right. But right now my business is probably at the smallest that it's ever been, just due to life, my husband's health issues and stuff like that. So most of my clients that are on my roster right now have been here for, I would say, five plus years, so they're all veteran clients, which is a good thing for me, because they know exactly what they're getting from me and I know exactly what they're getting you know, they know Right.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, oh, I like that up getting fired. And then it went to court and I because I didn't have a legal waiver. So make sure that and these are established clientele anyone knew I would make sure that you and your onboarding paperwork, that you have something that says, by the way, we, by accepting these terms and conditions, you agree to have your home. Yes, and I do know. Then they have to let you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do definitely need to step up my game, but I find that there's some content creators out there and I do like to. When I'm making a video and kind of telling other cleaners, you know, hey, you need to have a service agreement, I do always kind of let them know. My service agreement is normally either email or text. I'm solo, I have no employees and my roster is small. If you plan on growing this thing, don't wait 10 years down the line to put these things in place. Do it now, so you're not having to go back in and having to get veteran clients signing documents and they're like you've been cleaning for me for 10 years, right? Why are you doing this now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, just moving forward, right Moving forward. But he knew, yeah, yeah, those, those little documents do save you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Ask me how I know.
Speaker 2:I'll tell anybody. Anytime you're communicating with a client, make sure it's one through email or text. You have to have something.
Speaker 3:You have to have something and that goes for with employees too, yeah.
Speaker 2:Before and after pictures.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the before and after pictures. Yeah, the before and after pictures.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Uh-huh, Never have guessed. I mean, even a decade ago it was like totally taboo that you took anyone's photo inside of any home. I mean it was just like, it was just not. That I can't.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I yeah, yeah, everything is recorded and it's documented and everything else.
Speaker 3:And people are raising their hands. Oh, let me be on there, let me be on there.
Speaker 2:I can remember when clients having cameras in their homes was taboo Totally, and now they've never phased me. But now when I'm cleaning, I mean we're picking up cameras, dusting them underneath them, setting them back down down. They see up my nose more than anything because I'm like get a good.
Speaker 1:Get a good look at this angle over here.
Speaker 2:I got a wedgie, they're seeing it all that is too funny that's how it is too. Oops, yeah, it is, it is you're like, I don't even care wild, wild west there there's, there's cameras there.
Speaker 3:I was telling you guys, uh, that one episode where we, whenever it comes to guns and stuff and this guy's, everywhere have a problem with guns, and it was, I mean, an arsenal, and I was like, well, can you put those up underneath your bed or something, while my cleaning tech we're just going to feather dust those.
Speaker 2:So I'm from sportsman's paradise, so everybody hunts, everybody fishes, everybody owns a pew-pew. So most of my homes either have them visible or they're out. I mean, they're out and about, right, I will dust around them, I will avoid them, but even like with the cameras, I just I don't even see them anymore. I know where they're at. I've learned by clients to know this is here, this is here, this is here, and either I'll just avoid that area or I just don't even see it. Yeah, which?
Speaker 2:is kind of crazy because you go into this cleaning lady zone where you don't see their stuff. You're there to do a job, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:You're so zoned out. Yeah, I could totally see that I've seen like on social media.
Speaker 2:I've seen cleaners say you know I don't clean homes with, with guns that are visible and stuff and absolutely protect your business and protect your employees, especially if you have employees. But for me, being a solo cleaner in Sportsman's Paradise, it's very much expected for me to see these things and just to be respectful of them and dust around them and go.
Speaker 3:And if I'm not?
Speaker 2:comfortable. We just move away from that area.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you kind of get a feeling too. Sometimes there's that feeling you can get and sometimes you just need to track that instinct, but nine times out of 10, thank goodness, and I have it in my onboarding that you're going to come across because we are in it's called the Emerald Triangle, so everybody grows weed here. There's big, huge farms I mean huge farms and, like I said, it's also the wild wild west. A lot of people are off grid and so there's money counting machines out. There'll be guns sometimes. One time I went to go clean a piano and you know the thing that pulled out and there's just like two guns, just ready to go?
Speaker 1:I was like yeah, just in case you're playing Mozart or Bach.
Speaker 2:I got to go to the room.
Speaker 1:Nobody's interrupted I am not done with this song.
Speaker 3:Most people are really respectful and you know, we always make that very clear. Like, if you do have firearms, just you know, know that somebody's going to be in your home cleaning, right? Yes, and if you have littles, please keep them locked up, absolutely. If you have littles, that's a different story. I am past that stage.
Speaker 2:Thank you. You're an empty nester huh, we are an empty nester. We are 27 years married. I have a 29-year-old son, we have a 26-year-old daughter. Both are grown and gone and we love this stage. But, other than his health, we love this stage.
Speaker 3:I know, yeah, yeah, that was uh. We I've been following that and um, how is he doing lately?
Speaker 2:He is wonderful. He is wonderful. Um, I think we're still at a point where we're still trying to get the meds adjusted right for him. But as far as him making it through the quad bypass, he did phenomenal. Like I wasn't expecting it to be as great as it was, I mean, he had the surgery and within 12 to 24 hours he was up and on a step down unit, so he's done really well.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank goodness. Are you eating healthy? Are you? What's going on? I mean?
Speaker 2:I am not eating healthy. I would like to clarify. I am terrible at dieting. I suck at dieting. I love food. I'm from Louisiana. It's what we do. We have rice and gravy just about at every meal mashed potatoes and gravy. We live off of carbs around here. My best friend's name is Little Debbie, but I hit a number on a scale which I knew I had gotten a little bit thicker. I wasn't expecting that scale to be where it was, so I went to my doctor and I said hey, what do we do? And of course I'm doing the GLP-1. So I'm on a maintenance dose now. I've hit my goal weight and I don't know if it's the right thing to do. I know there's like a lot of controversy with it, so I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do, but it was the right thing for me and I have a physician that's monitoring it.
Speaker 2:So there it is no, I will say this it worked, I'm down.
Speaker 3:I'm down 35 pounds since April, april so that's flick, wow, yeah, good, yeah, and you can tell, you can tell it's hard core, wait, oh she's, it's a little different.
Speaker 2:Well, the look the look um is botox from my dr, joey shout out yes, I love botox. I became an empty nester. When I became an empty nester, I was like, well, I'm doing all the things yes, I'm doing all the things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm doing all the things. They used to have boat box parties. I've only done it once, but I was like, oh, and it only lasts for so long. And then I'm like, oh, yeah, you got to do it again. Yeah, I'm ready to do it again. She goes I'm going to just do this and it's just going to lift up your lip, just ever so. And I, oh, and I loved it.
Speaker 2:I was like so I haven't touched my lips yet, like I refuse to touch my lips. But we did a filler for the first time so I was that's new to me. But the Botox I've been doing for a little over a year I do not. I don't regret it because we have such deep wrinkles and you get like TikTok lies to people, because when you're recording a video on TikTok there is a little bitty button with a check mark and some stars around it I think that is called an enhancement filter and it just automatically pops up. So for about a year I told you I'm not real technology, I'm still learning. So for about a year I thought man, my skin looks great. I would go to record a video and I would just be like this is where it's at.
Speaker 3:But then I would go into my regular mirror and I'm like wait, what? Yeah? So, um, I'm blonde and I got tired. I'm like I'm so tired of having to put on mascara. So it started off with lashes. I've got the lashes, and then I moved on and, uh, this lady was running a cell. For she's really good, she's, she helps cancer patients with their oh, that's awesome the tattooing and she put she'll put a little and the the color is like you know amazing, that's amazing put a heart right there.
Speaker 3:well, she did my eyebrows uh, what is that Nano? And I was like, oh yeah. So yeah, I'm trying to do all the things.
Speaker 2:Trying it's fun, because now there's no. Like I'm not going to say there's not any guilt, but there's not a lot of guilt, like I'm like you know what? I'm going to be doing videos. I'm just going to do a little tweak here and a little tweak there, because I have a really bad frown line. Like sometimes people will say, hey, are you okay? And I'm like yeah, I'm fine, that's just my face just resting yeah, just rbf. I'm trying my best here.
Speaker 3:I never thought in a million years I'd be one of that person. You know, like, oh that's. But you know, and I do it whenever.
Speaker 2:I, oh, I was looking forward to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, now, now I yeah, yeah, now I do too.
Speaker 1:Samantha, how long did it take you from the time you started to get the amount of following that you have now? I forget what you have. You have an exorbitant amount of followers on TikTok.
Speaker 2:So I'm over I think I'm over three on TikTok, or 300,000 on TikTok, and it has been very slow and steady. I started in 2020 and here we are in 2025. So I didn't start gaining followers probably until it's been about two and a half years maybe, and I just got consistent. Um, I started connecting. I started watching these other content creators that I loved and admired, the ones that I felt like were kind of in my wheelhouse, like they had the quirky sense of humor or they had like the Southern smart mouth, and so I started following them. I started watching them.
Speaker 2:And then I started watching other influencers from different niches, and Bayou Brandy shout out. She just moved from Louisiana to Florida. She kind of encouraged me to start being more consistent. And I reached out to other cleaning creators like, uh, boss, letty Cleaning Hacks, and I'm like, hey, what am I doing wrong? And they would just give me little things to try. Um, so I started posting three times a day every day, sometimes more, sometimes less, but the goal was to get three videos out a day and what that does is that just starts putting you out into that algorithm. I don't know how it works other than that and, according to TikTok. No one else does either. So it's luck of the draw. It's just, it's a luck of the draw. It is, it's a luck of the draw.
Speaker 3:And then I was going to ask you do you feel like this is all by luck or by design?
Speaker 2:I think it's all by luck. I think that there may be. I think it's all about luck. I think that there may be other larger creators that may have um, I'm not going to say help to get to where they are, but they may have that backing to kind of get the growth up. But then I look at it and I'm like, but how? I can't figure it out. But you look at them and their content is phenomenal. Like when you see these large creators pop off, there's always that one thing about them that captured the audience on the FYP, that took them to that next level, and it took them there really quickly. I am, I like the slow and steady, like I don't want to do it all in one video. I don't want to go viral for that one video. I would like my content to be consistent and steady. So I gained those authentic followers, okay.
Speaker 1:Right For the audience. Tell them what FYP is.
Speaker 2:That's your for you page. So anytime you open up TikTok, you're going to have a couple of different options. You have the for you page, which is where the algorithm when you first started TikTok you picked the subjects that you like the most, so the algorithm is going to point you into that direction and they're going to fill that for you page with things that you like.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Or things that they think you'll like.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right. And then the more that you click on those, the more it's going to start.
Speaker 2:The more you click, the more you see the content that you like.
Speaker 1:Perfect, yeah, interesting Now is the payout. There's always the you don't have to tell us the amount but there's always the hierarchy of social media. Who pays the most? I actually got in discussion with my older son this last week this last week.
Speaker 2:So I have yet to figure out how the payout system works, because you would think, having over 300,000 followers, that you would be making money. A lot of the money I think that's being made on social media comes from branding deals, which I have no brand deals, and I kind of say that proudly because I can kind of promote what I want to promote when I want to promote it, but and I'm not bound by a contract. However, like the flip side of that is this there's no steady income. Like you might have one video that pays you $500, but then you may not make another $500 for another month. By consistently posting, you up your ability to make that money once you get into the creator monetization programs. But it's all about consistently posting and just kind of crossing your fingers and praying that the algorithm picks it up and slings it out to the masses, because that's really the only way you get paid. It's never been consistent enough for me to quit my job. I am still scrubbing toilets over here.
Speaker 1:Right, right. And then it's always interesting to see where the money is and how it works. Like I've heard that YouTube actually pays the most money out of all of them, so they bring up consistency. So I know someone who posts a 90 minute video every Sunday and then he does. He does it three times a week, but the Sunday show is the one that pays him the most because he's able to track.
Speaker 1:It's interesting to see how all of this works, and my son's a car guy. This guy's a car guy. That's the only reason why I know anything about this.
Speaker 2:There's so many things that you can look at to hone in on your audience, and there's the tools there to do the research, to figure it out. Like you have your analytics on every single video that you put out, do I look at those?
Speaker 3:No, I also think that sometimes people will zone in on those Like I'm not getting enough clicks, I'm not getting enough clicks, and then they lose the. That's whenever the depression comes in for some some, not all, and they're like you know they lose their.
Speaker 2:They lose their authenticity, they lose that, they lose that about themselves. Because, look, my first payout on social media, I think, was maybe $400. And I kind of I was like, okay, well, that's cool. I mean I went out and bought a new pair of shoes and took my husband out to dinner, but then the very next month it was a lot more. But I would say, on average I've never made like ignorant money off of one video, you know, and I've had videos that have gotten three, four million views. But that's normally where it taps out for me at my video history I have got some ride or die loyal followers because my views tend to stay under 20,000, sometimes under 5,000, like it goes through splurts. Well, you really don't start getting paid until that video hits 100K and then from there you know that's when you start seeing like noticeable money. And even then it all depends on what RPM is, which is how they pay you per video, Like it's.
Speaker 3:They don't want to tell the secrets of how this works. Tell us the secret. Yeah, tell us. Tell us.
Speaker 2:Tell us. For me, it's all about being consistent and just being yourself. Like there's sometimes where I feel like I have imposter syndrome because I'll roll in from work and I'm tired and I'm sweaty and I'm gross and I have to. Okay, what am I even going to talk about today? Let me see what I recorded. And then you almost have to kind of become like say, okay, this is not for me right now. I got to give the people what they want, you know, so you have to, but then you want it to still be yourself.
Speaker 2:You want to be able to connect with people who get your sense of humor or maybe that are looking for that little push to help them make a decision about a client. That's not a great fit for them, which is a whole nother thing that I love about social media is that I get some of the best, most heartfelt and sincere messages from so many people wanting just little bits of advice on how they can either run their solo cleaning business a little bit better. Or, if they have a toxic client or if they're in a toxic situation at work, what do I do to get out of it? And that, like, I love being able to kind of guide people into that direction, where I'm like, hey, this is exactly what I would do. I'm not saying it's for you, but I would have rolled out on that job the minute he gave me the ick factor, like I like being able to tell people it is okay to do these things. Yeah, I do too.
Speaker 2:That's the coolest part.
Speaker 3:I, I, I, I don't even know how, when or how. I started following you and I was like, ah, I can relate to you on on a lot of levels and I think, uh, me as the audience, um, from the audience perspective, can relate to you on so many levels, and I do, I see you.
Speaker 2:I want everybody to see I am a regular, sometimes five day a week, cleaning lady. I try to clean two houses a day and I do have this other side where I like to film content and post content, but I am genuinely just a crazy cleaning lady. That's what I tell people all the time. I'm not just a cleaning lady, I am just a crazy cleaning lady. That's what I tell people all the time. I'm not just a cleaning lady, I am just a crazy cleaning lady.
Speaker 3:So the best part about all this I wonder yeah, you almost, you're kind of a coach and a mentor. Have you ever thought about going into that direction for solo cleaners?
Speaker 2:I have. I've thought about it, me and my friend, chat GPT set. We discussed it one night, but I would actually love to do more one-on-one coaching with solo cleaners. Right, I don't have any experience in getting that set up, but it is something that I would love to eventually do, especially for the people who have found, okay, solo cleaning is meant for me. This is where my life's going to be If they're not looking to grow their business because I never want to deter anybody from growing their business but if you're in the cleaning business and you're solo, like I am, I want them to be able to embrace it and run it professionally. I don't want anybody to ever look at the solo cleaner like they're just some Betty with a bucket. We all have a place in this industry, whether it's solo.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if your business name is Betty with a bucket, we love you. But I never, I never want, I never wanted the solo cleaners to feel left out because they don't want that big business or that big overhead, and that was kind of my goal. I kind of felt like it was demeaning at one time to say I'm a solo cleaner, but it's not. You're still a business owner and if you want to run your business professionally, there's still things that you can do. There's checks and balances that even though you don't want to expand and have this big business, you can still be professional, you can still look professional, you can still act professional and you can still have professional ways of running your business to have your clients respect. Yeah, okay, that was the. That was the big thing is clients at solo cleaners Like we're out here. This is just a hobby Side hustling when treating it like a slide. You may be solo, but this is not your side hustle, right, right that was my big thing, and there's ways.
Speaker 3:Even as a solo cleaner, you can work part-time. I would say part-time. Still be there for all your kids, uh, everything for the kids, Um and uh, still may. Oh gosh, a hundred thousand a year isn't isn't um much nowadays? Very easy to do, even as a solo cleaner. Yes, yeah, A hundred, it's very easy. It's very easy to do, even as a solo cleaner.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's very easy. You know part-time and that's bringing home, not you know?
Speaker 2:$7,000 is not.
Speaker 3:Carrying all of it around.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's also carrying everything that you need, that's being insured, that's having your business license or your business registered through the state. That's taking care of everything that you need to do to protect yourself. Even with that overhead, you can still run a successful solo cleaning business with a full schedule and make a very nice living schedule and make a very nice living.
Speaker 3:Bank. That's what we're all in this about, you know. Show me, show me the money.
Speaker 2:Nobody is sticking their hands in a toilet for free around here.
Speaker 3:No, no, give me all the toilets. Yeah, yeah, I like that, Samantha.
Speaker 1:If you're interested in really developing that idea, I'm happy to work with you on it Down the road that would be great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would be fantastic Just to have the guidance from somebody to say, hey, this is kind of what you need to do. Clearly from my email this week. I need help with anything that has to do with technology.
Speaker 1:It's a lot to learn. People don't realize, like the kind I have, different content than you have. And having to learn how to write thank God for ChatGPT because it makes it way easier. But having to learn how to write ad copy, making sure you have SEO words and they're making sure that it has you know the structured right? How to email? Has you know the structured right? How to email? Has you know we? I have 5,000 people on my email. I was learning how to write an email where people actually respond instead of just going out into the abyss.
Speaker 3:Is there any out?
Speaker 1:there right Like does it read this crap?
Speaker 3:It's just I had to end up hiring a VA to just help me run the business part of my social media, so that I'm still front and center in my organically you know area, so that people don't think that I have forgotten or like I just I need it. I needed that help and now she does everything. She does, she does everything, she does, she does everything.
Speaker 2:I have absolutely thought about hiring my best friend just to answer my messages on social media, because I am still one of these creators where and I don't like to call myself an influencer as much as I do a creator, because that's I'm I'm creating my stuff over there, but I get so many messages from other cleaning ladies and I have it set up where they all. If we're not mutuals, it goes to another folder and there are days where I can't respond to everybody that's in the comments and I mean I have a small following compared to some of these bigger creators, small following compared to some of these bigger creators. So even with that, I still think everybody that person took the time to message me. They at least deserve some type of response, and it's hard to get to everybody. So I've actually thought about hiring my best friend and saying like, hey, would you please just help me respond? You know, because she knows how I think she could answer them easily, but I haven't done that yet.
Speaker 1:There's an interview with Angela Brown, I believe from 2023. If you get a chance, listen to that interview and she talks about how she has three shifts because she has such a large following and she's obviously not going to be awake in the middle of the night. Who actually? That's their job is to respond to all, every single comment on you, to every social. That's amazing and that's what she does to help, because she goes. It's just overwhelming. Yeah, there's only one of you and there's 50 million of them.
Speaker 2:Right, and you're, you're you're, you're trying to schedule your day like when I'm at work. I take my cleaning jobs still very seriously because, at the end of the day, I'm still working. In a small town, everybody knows my name as a great cleaning lady. However, that can go down real quick if you start letting things slide. So I am very focused on the work that I'm doing and I want to make sure that I'm keeping those clients happy, at the same time filming content, and then I have a family as well, so I like to be able to shut it all down and give my people the attention that they absolutely deserve at some point too.
Speaker 3:I definitely recommend it. It wasn't a lot and you're finding out more and more stuff that they can handle. Actually, I sidekick Sarah. Sarah, what's her last name? Shannon.
Speaker 1:Baker Sarah is actually my PA as well.
Speaker 3:We interviewed her and I'm going to tell you I've hired everybody that we've probably interviewed, and I'm going to tell you I've hired everybody that we've probably interviewed.
Speaker 2:I totally missed it. It went quiet for me.
Speaker 3:What was her name? Her name's Sarah Baker. I can actually Siri, no.
Speaker 1:Uh-oh, is your Siri trying to talk to you in the middle of the interview? Oh, baby, you're trying to talk to you in the middle of the interview, oh.
Speaker 3:Sarah Baker and I. I hired her and I'm like okay, this is what my budget is. I don't know how to do that. I don't know what. I'm even trying to ask you Take whatever's in this head and help. And she goes let's start off with, let's start off with your social media, okay. And then it just kind of morph. Now she's helping me write like um, a whole employee handbook and you know just, it just has more. That's amazing. Yeah, she, uh, she's organized all my email. Um, she, she reminds me to pay my bill. Hey, this is due. It's due on Tuesday. Oh, thanks, you know, it's like gosh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I thought I was being smart by separating social media email for my personal email, which I didn't want them together anyways. But if I open up crazy clean ladies uh email, it's so overwhelming some days that I will literally open it up and I'm like, nope, not today, I can't. It's because you go like I clean mine out, like I'm not a person who keeps um emails, we're not hoarding emails every year, we're trashing them, so I will clear them out. And then if I open it the next day and I've got like 500 emails from just a lot of it's like TikTok shop stuff that I'm like delete, delete. Nope, not doing it, I'll delete them all. So I've probably thrown away brand deals.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I know right.
Speaker 2:But it gets so overwhelming.
Speaker 1:But it does If it's genuinely important enough. I actually had this conversation with someone the other day because I have over 125,000 emails in just one account. She's like you need to start getting rid of them. And I'm like but I need them. She's like, if it's really that important, they'll re-email you. Yes, yes, let's go full circle. Don't feel bad. It really genuinely.
Speaker 2:If they want to get a hold of you, they'll do a follow-up email and say I get so overwhelmed when that number goes from zero to a thousand I'm like nope, can't do it today, so I'll just I'll delete, select all and delete and act like I never seen it.
Speaker 1:Well, you need to get someone who can manage that for you so that it's not stressful, so you're not missing opportunity for sure. Yeah, and I, I guiltily I can't. I've never been to talk. I still have like a hundred thousand more emails to go through At 50. Guiltily I can't. I've never been to talk. I still have like 100,000 more emails to go through. If I'm a shot, right, you just hit the top button and goes delete. But I'm like, oh my God, because I do, I get 1500 to 2000 emails every single day. And people are like that is no, no, what was it?
Speaker 3:I mean, you have a lot of email emails. Yeah, I do too, so I get a lot. But yeah, no, and the great thing. I'm going to just say this about Sarah too, and then we'll leave it alone. But Sarah is stateside, she'll pick up her phone and call you. How many times has she been here? That's cool. She's in Michigan, right? Something like that. Missouri, missouri, missouri, missouri. That's cold. She's in Michigan, right? Something like that. Missouri, Missouri, missouri, missouri. That's like Ohio I'm from.
Speaker 2:Ohio. Originally I'm from Baton Rouge.
Speaker 3:Louisiana. I've been through there. I live down in Florida, so I've been through all of that so much. I lived in Tennessee for a while.
Speaker 1:I've lived all over Our interstate system will only be traumatized.
Speaker 2:I love it. Everybody thinks Dallas is bad and Dallas is bad Like. I drove through Dallas last last year and I think I still have trauma. But at least Dallas it moves here. If somebody breaks down, baby, you're sitting all day. You're gonna hot minute. I avoid the interstate system in Baton Rouge that's, that's good advice man, you know, I really I miss some boiled peanuts.
Speaker 2:Boiled peanuts. Yeah, we just got finished with crawfish season and I had them twice this year, but it's just the two of us, so we're not going to ball a sack of crawfish, I know. But my goal for next year is to have a huge crawfish bowl and invite all the people that I've met on social media Like just do an open house crawfish bowl. Like I would love to see that happen.
Speaker 3:Oh, no, no, no, oh yeah, I would love, but yeah, that is the only spots that you can get boiled peanuts. Is it right there in Florida, down in Florida and Louisiana?
Speaker 2:The good sweet tea.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, the good sweet tea, the good sweet tea.
Speaker 2:Because every time we travel we're like do you have sweet tea? Nobody has sweet tea other than the South. Everybody's like, no, we have unsweet tea. And I'm like, well, what am I going to do with that? We want the sugar. We call it diabetic tea because the sugar to sit on the sal. Everybody's like, no, we have unsweet tea. And I'm like, well, what am I going to do with that? We want the sugar. We call it diabetic tea because the sugar to sit on the bottom. It's got a little bit of texture to it.
Speaker 3:It's got so much sugar in it. I like it spread out in the sun and let it melt, or I used to. I should say yeah, oh, those were the days Well used to.
Speaker 2:I should say yeah, oh, those were the days. Well, do you have any questions for us today? No, no, I thank y'all for making me so comfortable and letting us just chit chat I love it. Oh, I did talk to, uh, my friend Ryan. I heard y'all are having him on the show today too.
Speaker 3:Yes, I was just so excited for him. I am, I am too. I was just telling Shannon before we got together. I was, like you know, samantha is the one that turned me on to, so I, if he turned me on to it, then I can only imagine. I see him everywhere I love, at least with the creators. I see them everywhere I love.
Speaker 2:At least with the creators. I love supporting any small business, like there's been Long's Castle Cleaners, tovar's Spin Mop, I have Mississippi Candle Company so many of these brands that you see while you're scrolling. They're mom and pop shops and they have excellent products. And me and Ryan connected, being that we're both from Louisiana. He has a small family owned and operated business. I have you know we're not that far from each other. We're about two and a half three hours from each other. He sent me a PR package and I know I sat on that PR package for probably two months because one I did not have any idea what I was doing. Like I didn't have a clue as to influence people. I wanted to use the products, I wanted to make sure they were great products and then I wanted to understand how to explain it to people in the most professional way. I really wasn't expecting them to be as good as they were.
Speaker 3:Like blow you over, good Blow you over good.
Speaker 2:It was like wow okay, a lot of people have to understand like they'll message me and they'll go are they all natural? There is nothing, any chemical that you clean with. Uh, that comes from a janitorial supply company. You need to understand it's probably not going to be all natural, right? I mean, that's like and I love to tell people about. Like.
Speaker 2:You know, it's coming from a janitorial supply company, so there's a, there's chemicals in there, there's, there's more likely going to be chemicals in it, but we did just get the cajun sparkle and I just I thought for cajuns, for I've been bugging him for a year.
Speaker 3:I was like I love that, I he got, I got. I didn't I didn't order that, so I can't wait to talk to him. I'm excited.
Speaker 2:He's got that in the Zing too. The Zing's the pH neutral cleaner, yes, and he's got it like in a fresh scent and then he now has it in that scent. But I have been on him for I know, six or eight months Like I want a hydrogen peroxide cleaner. And the cool thing about meeting him online and becoming friends with him is that I can text him and say what do you have? That's hydrogen peroxide? And he'll say either he has it or he doesn't. He doesn't. And if I say I really really think that this would be good and he's like, okay, let me see what I can do. They're just him and his wife and his family. They're genuine. It's a family legacy business and I love the fact that I get to be a part of helping them grow.
Speaker 3:I love that, so do I, so do I. Whenever it comes down to it, you've got to think we are really actually a small community of weirdos that love, oh, 100% the cleaning industry, like I'm. I, just I absolutely love it. I love running my business. It's so much fun. It's just like I can't. Yeah, I'm, it's a small community and, um, I love how we are out here rubbing elbows and you know, hey, you guys check out this product that we just found. You know I do.
Speaker 2:I love helping anybody get their business seen, like the girl that makes my shirts. She's like literally four miles down the road she's absolutely amazing Runs her shop out of her house. She's got her own business set up. Well in my mind, like I designed shirts on a website a couple months ago and sold those, but they weren't. It wasn't me Like. So I called her and I said you know, I need you to do my work shirts again. Well, those shirts have popped off. And somebody asked just yesterday where can we get the Sling and Sparkle shirt? I love that I get to tag one of my local friends and say hey, I'm sending you some business from halfway across the world or halfway across the US. That's amazing to me. I love that.
Speaker 3:And then that's where you know that you're at. You are doing a true influencer.
Speaker 2:I want to make an impact with the small businesses, like I want to see them win, and if that, if that prevents me from landing larger deals in the end, then it is what it is. My heart is with the small businesses. Now, I'm not saying I'm not against a brand deal, but they're going to have to work with me and my small businesses. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much, Samantha, for coming on. Gosh, I appreciate it. Thank you, we covered a huge amount of information.
Speaker 3:No, I could talk forever.
Speaker 1:We should have you on again sometime when you're ready. Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 2:Oh, I appreciate it. Thank you all so much, I loved it.
Speaker 1:I'll reach out about the other stuff. Anyway, you guys take care. Thank you All right, perfect Bye. Thank you, bye.
