CBL Episode #127-DoneZo with Boring Cleaners?: Meet Ryan from Long's Cleaning Products

What does it take to transform a 75-year-old family cleaning manufacturing & supply company into a nationwide sensation? 

Ryan Long of Long's Products joins us to share the remarkable journey that began with his grandfather-in-law selling Fuller Brushes door-to-door after World War II.

Ryan reveals how he married into the business and found his passion in the cleaning industry, eventually purchasing the company with his wife from her parents in 2015. The story unfolds with charming details about the founder making hand soap in repurposed Coca-Cola bottles with his chemistry teacher, establishing the foundations of a business that would evolve into a comprehensive janitorial supply company with their own proprietary chemical formulations.

The conversation takes us through the company's explosive growth through TikTok, transforming from shipping around 300 packages annually to approximately 25,000 in just one year. Ryan shares his grassroots marketing approach, sending samples to content creators until their products—particularly the Donzo Degreaser and Digest Plus enzyme cleaner—began speaking for themselves. What makes this growth story unique is how Long's Products maintains their personal touch, with Ryan still working the front counter, knowing customers by name, and often helping mix chemicals and fulfill orders himself.

We explore the delicate balance between tradition and innovation as Ryan describes maintaining old-school customer connections while embracing online ord

Up your cleaning game, join over 6000 Cleaning Business Owners most of whom are located here in the United States.  

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.

 support@myvbk.com 

It can be crowed when trying to figure out who you are going to learn from

Chapters

• 0:00 Tempo: 120.0

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:52

Want to make more money with your cleaning business. I'm launching a brand new subscription-based series showing you exactly how, starting with short-term rental, cleanings, hosting and co-hosting. I've done it myself with my own proof of concept Vellum and Vine Hospitality Company right on Facebook and on the web, and now I'm sharing the playbook for just $7 a month. First episode lands in a week. Make sure you don't miss it. Today on Cleaning Business Life, we are joined by Ryan from Long's Cleaning Products, a business owner who isn't just at the top of the company but right there in the trenches with his team. Ryan's known for his hands-on leadership, deep knowledge of the products he sells and his genuine commitment for helping cleaning professionals get the right solutions done for the job. From understanding the science behind the products to building lasting relationships in the industry, ryan brings a wealth of experience and a roll-up-your-sleeves type work ethic that we can all learn from. Enjoy the show. Welcome everyone. I'm super excited.

Speaker 2: 2:07

We have Ryan with Long's Chemicals. Am I saying?

Speaker 1: 2:08

that correct? Long's Products. Long's Products, not chemicals. There will be two different elements there. Sorry about that. He comes from a family business that has been around for 75 years. Is that what I read was correct?

Speaker 2: 2:21

Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 1: 2:22

A long time, oh my goodness. So how did you end up with this particular business? Were you born into it? I know I kind of read what it is, but I figured I'd let you tell your story. Or did you marry into it? Was it gifted to you? How? Did you end up in the cleaning industry.

Speaker 2: 2:38

Yeah. So it's kind of a crazy story. So I'll tell you a little bit about the history. So I'm actually married into the business. But I'll tell you back in 1950, my wife's grandpa started this business going door to door.

Speaker 2: 2:53

He served in World War II and then when he came home he was trying going door to door. He served in World War II and then when he came home, you know he was trying to figure out well, what do I do? You know where do I get started? And if you, if you ever heard of Fuller Brushes, they're still around. So back in the day Fuller Brushes had door to door salesmen like you would go door to door selling knives and anything like that. So he began as a fuller brush man and he would go to the you know each, you know house and you know, with his little briefcase and his you know binder brushes and probably sample brushes and everything kind of said, hey, do you need any of these? And so that's kind of how we originated. Was him going door to door selling brushes. And after that, you know he built this customer base. He was keeping extra you know stock in a spare bedroom and you know he was filling up two bedrooms and he started filling up a garage.

Speaker 1: 3:51

It kind of encroaches in on your personal space.

Speaker 2: 3:53

Yeah, exactly it always does.

Speaker 2: 3:56

Yeah, encroaches in on your personal space? Yeah, exactly, it always does, yeah, and, and I'm pretty sure his wife at the time was like, hey, we got to get this, uh, get this out of here. And um, so he opened up a little warehouse and that kind of. That's kind of how we began. You know, the business began and he, um, he teamed up with his chemistry teacher and you know, you know, we couldn't do this back. We couldn't do this today what he did back then.

Speaker 2: 4:21

But they used to, they used to empty out Coke bottles, the glass Coke bottles, and him and his chemistry teacher worked together on hand soap, and so they would.

Speaker 2: 4:32

When he was going selling brushes, he was like, well, you know, I might as well add something to this mix. And he was making hand soap and old Coca-Cola bottles and he would sell that to his customers as well. So they eventually got a little warehouse in Pineville, which is kind of right next to Alexandria, where our business is today, to Alexandria, where our business is today, and, um, you know, so what we do is we are a paper janitorial supply company, so we have everything from mops and brooms and trash bags, but we carry our own line of cleaning chemicals and we actually hired a chemist on board back in like the 70s and we formulated you know everything from floor stripper to floor wax and degreasers to you know everything with the chemist to make sure these formulas were, all you know, good to go, and a lot of those formulas you know we're still using today. That's awesome. With some of the degreasers and everything that you know, we're selling the grime scat and and all the degreaser is my best degreasers I've ever.

Speaker 3: 5:48

I've ever seen in my entire life. It leaves me speechless because I'm like I I can, even whenever I'm with my employees, I'm like just spray it on there and let it, and I'm like, look at this, I'll wipe it. And I'm like, look, it just literally comes off like butter. And that's whenever this, this product, is, whenever I was just hook line and sinker and since then I have I think I've gotten almost everything. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's just like everything. Speaking of which, I still need to put it in order.

Speaker 1: 6:28

For those of you who are listening, she was holding up a bottle of his product. It's called Pelican. Right, Pelican.

Speaker 2: 6:41

No of his product and it's called pelican right, pelican right. No, it's our brand, our brand of line, like our chemical line, is called the pelican brand line, and so that was the dunzo degreaser that she had perfect.

Speaker 1: 6:51

In case you're lesbian and you want the product, we can actually include those links in the show notes. But uh, that's, that's the best testimonial you're going to get today.

Speaker 3: 7:01

That's awesome, oh I buy them all just in case of what I have just on hand at my house, just because I am a huge cheerleader for your guys's company. And Samantha is actually the one that I won't say made the introduction, because, but she introduced me to the product and it's. The rest is history. So I've been a huge, a huge advocate out here for you, huge, um, a huge advocate out here for you.

Speaker 3: 7:41

I've been going in talking to, uh, like ace hardware and um, we're real, small, real, yeah, yeah, but I'm like you, the this needs to be over here in california, yeah so it's pretty, it's pretty crazy like the growth that we've had.

Speaker 2: 7:54

So you know we cover central Louisiana and we have our own delivery truck so we deliver to businesses within like a two hour radius of where we're at and so like. So you have a daycare or a doctor's office or churches or you know a nursing home so we deliver them. You know, paper towels and hand soaps and cleaners and disinfectants and stuff like that and but the Pelican brand, like our line of chemicals, it really kind of took off on on TikTok. You know we've always made, we've always made good chemicals and I've told my in-laws and that was, that was something that we didn't, we didn't finish by my, my wife.

Speaker 2: 8:39

I met my wife at Louisiana tech when we were in college and after, after college, I did a little internship, um, at Disney and I was so, so, uh, far away from family and everything. And my wife, my wife said, well, my dad, my dad will give you a position, you know, maybe working at the warehouse if you want to move back home. And I was like, man, I have a college degree. I was like I don't want to work in the warehouse, I want to kind of manage something.

Speaker 2: 9:08

And I was like you know, we were doing the long distance relationship because we weren't married at the time and I was like you know what? I, because we weren't married at the time, and I was like you know what, I just come home and I'll figure out, because everything you know, you need years of experience to get you know any kind of position. And so I moved back home and then you know, we started working in a warehouse and learning all the merchandise and the inventory and and kind of how everything went. And we got married in 2005 and, um, her parents ran the business from probably her grandpa got sick, so her dad moved home when he was in college and then they ran it to about 2015. And then we, we purchased the business from her parents in 2015 and kind of rolled it on through covid and all that crazy toilet paper shortage and all that.

Speaker 1: 9:59

And then that's so wild to think that that was just like five years ago.

Speaker 2: 10:03

I know I felt a blink of an eye two or three years ago, and then you have to, you have to judge things and you're like was that before covid or was that after COVID? It's a hard time for sure, but that's a life.

Speaker 3: 10:20

There was a life before and there was a life after. And a lot of people had to pivot oh, I love that story. So this was by accident. You basically ended up where you're at right now.

Speaker 2: 10:37

Yeah. And so my wife, my wife, she, she was like she never knew if she really wanted to be a part of the family business. You know, it was always there. She grew up, you know, building castles with styrofoam cup cases in the back and she was always there spending time, spending time with her dad and doing stuff. And her mom had always been a part of the business. And you know, when your parents run something, sometimes you're either like, uh, you want to do it or you don't.

Speaker 2: 11:05

And I kind of had a passion for it. Once I got into it I was like, man, these are commodities, people need these. I think this is really cool. I always, you know, would love for my family to have something like this. And you know, we kind of took it, you know, by the horns and kind of went with it and we're trying to bring it into the new age of getting it on the Internet and TikTok and all that. And it's been a whirlwind, but it's been. It's been amazing for the, for the family. So, yeah, yeah, amazing for the family.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Yeah, that's quite the story, my goodness.

Speaker 2: 11:40

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:41

So, do you have children? And if you do, are they working for the business too?

Speaker 2: 11:45

I do Well, so they're not there yet. So I have a 17-year-old. He's a senior in high school and he actually comes and helps us package orders and stuff like that. He's busy with sports and he does tennis and soccer and high school stuff. You know, kids running around, they're so busy. And then we have a daughter going into eighth grade and we have a daughter going into fourth grade and they come up there and they, you know, they piddle and do stuff but they're not kind of like active in it. But yeah, they see mom and do stuff, but they're not kind of like active in it. But yeah, yeah, they see mom and dad working all the time.

Speaker 3: 12:22

So yeah, I know it's funny how all this starts and then the kids are always like I will never Right. And then the next thing you know it's like OK, I need a job. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2: 12:35

And then the next thing, you know, it's like okay, I need a job?

Speaker 3: 12:37

Yeah, exactly, or I think I can do this, but better than you, and if you feel better than me. Have at it you know, so you're making a legacy. That's awesome.

Speaker 2: 12:52

And that's what I told my son. You know, he's the oldest and everything now and that's what I told him. I mean, he's about to go to college. And I told him I said, look, son, we're not going to pressure you. You know, we would love for you to. You know, go out and pursue, you know, something in the medical field. You know, go into business, go into something like that, but just know, we're here, we're here, you know, if you know, but I don't want to say, you know, hey, this is what you got to do, because I don't want, I don't want you know them to have any regrets and I don't want them to say, you know, well, I kind of got tied down to this and I feel obligated and it's like no, we want you to live your life.

Speaker 3: 13:33

Yeah, go live your life, go follow your dreams. But it's just the story seems like it's always the same, that whenever I hear it, yep, I went out into college, I was an engineer, whatever the case may be and they do it for a while and it's like, well, how did you end up going into the cleaning field? Or how did you end up in the janitorial, you know, and it's needed, that's what's so great, so needed, and it's always going to be here.

Speaker 2: 14:23

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 14:24

It's always going to be here for them.

Speaker 2: 14:27

And it's amazing because you know, in cleaning I mean I always love helping people, you know, figuring out, hey, how do they clean this or how do they do that, or ways to help them save money with the concentrates, and breaking it down to the. You know, hey, you can make 100 bottles out of this one gallon. You know, if this is something you're doing long term, you know this is what you need. And just giving tips and pointers and that's what we kind of try to tell people, it's like I'm not just trying to sell you something, you know, I want to educate you on the proper way to use it, the way to dilute it so you don't waste it or cause streaks or it to be sticky. I mean we want to be that, you know, kind of the tool to kind of help you, you know, use this stuff the right way.

Speaker 3: 15:16

Yeah, and that's what. I love about your company, your guys' company. I, just I, just well, I'm going to tell you, you, whenever I was showing this Dizono Greaser, dizono, how Donzo.

Speaker 2: 15:34

Donzo.

Speaker 3: 15:35

Donzo Greaser, there's actually a way that you can make this and not buy it like this, which is a bottle you can actually make. You've made it to where people can make it themselves. Yeah, it to where people can make it themselves. Yeah is with the grime scant and I'm always forgetting what the, the, the, the parts are yeah, uh, and the cajun fresh yeah, the cajun fresh, and you could pick really any scent and that's something that you know.

Speaker 2: 16:06

it's kind of kind of funny because we give a lot of people that come in and they're like I don't like mixing or I'd rather just grab and go.

Speaker 2: 16:13

You know, these days people pay for convenience. So they want DoorDash because they want food delivered, they want, you know, this or that groceries delivered. So, you know, instead of buying a concentrate and you know, and trying to measure and do all that, they just want it ready to go. And so I was like, hey, we can make this ready to go and I can charge you for this bottle, but if you buy the Grimescat and you buy the Cajun Fresh, you can customize your scent and you can, you know, have cost savings. And we weren't, you know, we've never tried to hide that or anything. It's like, hey, if you want to buy this one, you know I'll tell you exactly how to do it. If they buy, like the bundle, I send a little flyer in there and say, look, makes you two ounces of this into this bottle. Put you a half ounce of this in there and you have you some Dunzo degreaser.

Speaker 3: 17:03

I love that. You don't that, you don't, you don't hide that from everybody. Yeah it is, and that saves a lot for, yeah, you know bigger. Well, I have employees and they love they, they love in the morning time. Sometimes I go check on them and they're over there mixing all their stuff and I'm like, yes, yeah exactly. I would like to get actually a printout sheet of what to mix for them yeah. Yeah, that would be, and.

Speaker 2: 17:40

I have a Word document and it has everything, everything on there. Yeah, I could definitely send that to you.

Speaker 1: 17:46

Yeah, I would love that. I would love that it might be something that you want to laminate and sell to the consumer as well. Yeah, so I mean, how many times have we bought like those graphics for the bones? You're trying to memorize the bones for school and it's that hard laminate thing. You just stick it on the wall. You're like, I got how many flanges right. It's this way Exactly. It might be something that just down there, so you have like several full lines of products.

Speaker 2: 18:12

Yes, ma'am, so we have, and I it's just a habit of me saying that so, um, but we have definitely, like um we we even carry.

Speaker 2: 18:21

So we, we have paper, you know, toilet paper, paper towels, trash bags of every size, um, but we even carry the name brand stuff. So we we get like 409 and we have fabuloso and we have, you know, uh, common with bleach and and you know all the name brand stuff too, so pine saw and and different stuff and and the what, what I, what I did was everybody always said man, y'all have such good chemicals like this. We have an enzyme that really works good. That was kind of our first product to blow up.

Speaker 1: 18:56

Digest.

Speaker 2: 18:57

Plus, yep, digest Plus, and everybody was like man, y'all have such good chemicals and I was like I know they're so good, but we just need to get some exposure Right, need to get, you know, get some, you know exposure right. And tiktok was the crazy exposure that we needed. And, meeting up with the right people, before tiktok shop opened, I would send out, like I just researched, and I was, I was, uh, you know, seeing who all was in the cleaning community and actually we kind of started out in the pine squeezing in the ASMR community because our pine oil was really strong and so there was a lot of squeezers we got introduced to. So I'd send out little packages and I'd send it out to cleaners too. And here's some you know, here's our story, here's our products. And to and here's some, you know, here's our story, here's our products. And you know, uh, I sent endless packages out just to try to get to be seen.

Speaker 3: 19:59

You know just, hey, char stuff out, tell me what you think right, how do they know you exist if they you don't?

Speaker 2: 20:05

you got a market right yeah, yeah you did I was up, I was up till you know one o'clock in the morning, some nights, you know just DM and people asking if they would, you know, be open to me sending them stuff, and and it's crazy how it all worked out, and it's all you know. I'd send out you know 20 different boxes and my wife was like who are you sending these to? What are you doing? I was like, look, if this just this just catches, you know, give me a ride with it.

Speaker 2: 20:34

Please give me a little time, give me a little time. She was like all right. She was like you keep sending a lot of boxes out.

Speaker 3: 20:41

I was like that's a lot of money it'll pay off.

Speaker 2: 20:44

It'll pay it's gonna come. Yeah, oh, it's gonna come yeah, and it's so wild I tell people this and and it's kind of unbelievable, but in 2003 we shipped out probably 300 packages like, just from like, or we have a couple of things on amazon and people buying from our website, but with tiktok and like all our affiliates, especially Sam being such a advocate, being in Louisiana, I mean she is, she's the goat man, she's amazing. And uh, I mean we shipped out probably close to 25,000 packages last year.

Speaker 1: 21:25

Bravo, I love it.

Speaker 2: 21:26

It was, it was wild, so it was a wild ride.

Speaker 3: 21:30

And then you're just. You should be be on track, way on track, to kind of up it it's, yeah, it's uh this year it's crazy it is. I always look back at um where we started, to where I am with my business and um I sometimes I just want to pinch myself. It's like no way. There's no way I'm doing this. So it is, it's a whirlwind and it's crazy, but it's fun all at the same time.

Speaker 3: 22:02

And the people that you meet along the way are so nerdy about cleaning products or cleaning in general, and it's just like it's just. I love our community.

Speaker 2: 22:14

Oh, I lost you oh, there you hear me yeah, all right, maybe I think my earpod might have died, but it happens yeah so but like I mean everybody, I mean they've been like family now and you know everybody that we've kind of met over that and it's just it's been so cool to kind of you know, and every I feel like everybody that we met is wanting everybody else to win too. It's like a good attitude.

Speaker 2: 22:43

They're not trying to bring you down, or they're not trying to. You know, compete or this or that. It's like, hey, let's all go out there and work together and you know, get the job done.

Speaker 3: 22:54

That's exactly it, and I think that boils over for the most part, boils over even into the cleaning business owners industry, like I love, even even my local area. It's not, you know, competition shouldn't be. We're competitive, but, and it's such a friendly way and, um, I love cause if they're succeeding. I know I'm succeeding too, you know, um, but I do. I love the community, um, and I love what we're doing and I love your products. And I was so excited when you, you accept, was like, yes, I'll do it.

Speaker 2: 23:37

I'm I'm like, let's get you out there, man, let's uh, yeah I, I uh, yeah, that's great and you know we're still a little behind on, like you know, some things and I'm working to get upc codes on on the labels, I'm working to get, um, some of our the labels. I'm working to get some of our MSDS sheets like available on our website. You know all that stuff we have but I just don't have it on, you know, on the site at the moment. And it kind of all happened so fast and kind of a whirlwind. Like you know, we went from not you, you know just servicing our little area to, you know, all 50 states and that was so fun. When we started shipping, we started, like coloring in the states, like we went to Wyoming, we went to Nebraska, we went to, you know, and that was so cool, like it was so exciting and finally, when we filled in the 50th state, we were like everybody was cheering I'm gonna cry it was so cool yeah yeah, those are those.

Speaker 3: 24:44

You did it you did yeah you did it and you're doing it and it's. I know that whenever you're running the back end of the business, sometimes it feels like you're trying to do a, a pull up, that you don't know how to do a pull up because you can't work those muscles, and it's like yeah, I'm going to make it, I promise so, as those SDS cards, that stuff is all going to come, it'll come, and it sounds like how many people do you employ? How many people do you guys employ?

Speaker 2: 25:16

So we have about 14 people and that's, um, that includes, you know, um, we have uh kind of a receptionist that that answers the phone. Uh, and me and me and Tracy. Tracy's been with us, you know, over 30 years. She actually used to babysit my wife, and so I know it's crazy.

Speaker 2: 25:39

And so I actually worked the front counter at the at the office, like I'll wait on customers, I put in quotes, I call off tickets when we load trucks at the end of the day. But you know so I'm right in there in the grind and sometimes I'm working in the business so much I don't get to work on the business. But you know so me and Tracy kind of do the kind of we call it a city sales, like our showroom. I have Blue, who's our warehouse guy, pulling the orders, kind of putting up inventory. I have two drivers. I have an in-town driver who delivers locally every day and then we pick up like a little town that we go to. So we do like an out-of-town run and an in-town run every day.

Speaker 2: 26:26

And then I have actually one lady who works at our chemical plant mixing and packaging, and you know it it's crazy but you know she gets it, she gets it done and and I've had two people over there before and you know it's just trying to find good fits to help and get the.

Speaker 2: 26:44

She's been getting the job done and she's been doing a great job with everything and I go over there a couple of days a week and help her. You know, make certain things are, you know, help her with certain if she has issues with you know a formula or something, not you know mixing right or something. And then I have two outside dedicated sales reps and those guys they go out and they call on you know the daycares or the churches or the businesses and they kind of you know, hey, you know the daycares or the churches or the businesses and they kind of you know, hey, you know, we would like to quote you. You know order, we deliver this stuff and you know so they work off a commission and they deliver the. They, you know, do the sales aspect to try to gain new business and stuff.

Speaker 1: 27:30

Oh, I love that. Yeah, so that is all old school. I love it. It's very personal, especially when the advent and I'm not knocking ai, there is some good attributes for it. But I think it's great that you're still genuinely interested in touching the customer, because jamie and I've talked about this a lot how the cleaning industry there's certain people who are moving up through the ranks and it's all about it's like a fast food item you can just order on your computer and there's no human connection, and then they get to a certain evolution in their business and it just stops growing.

Speaker 1: 28:01

I'm like, what are you doing to connect with your clients? What are you doing to connect with your cleaning techs? And you are still out there connecting and selling. And I just love it because selling is a skill that's learned by doing. You just don't sell. There's certain body language and certain things that you can say and do, and then there's certain presentations. And that's probably the biggest struggle with a lot of female entrepreneurs is because we're people pleasers, we don't know how to sell. It's very frustrating when someone's brand new and they're like trying to sell their product. So I think it's awesome that you're still there connecting to your people yeah, and my wife.

Speaker 2: 28:39

You know, my wife was kind of when we started going online and doing I was like jen, I was like we had to get a website up, you know, even if it wasn't ordering based. I said we got to get something going. And she was like, well, you know, I don't want to lose contact with you know, our customers. And I said, well, you know, we need to bridge the thing. You know, for those customers who want to get on and order online, we got to make that available. But we also still want to let them know hey, you can still call and order. We're not pressuring you to this, but this is an option for you. You know, if you hire somebody in your purchasing department and they're fresh out of college and they don't want to talk to somebody on the phone, they want to just order and go. You know we have that option. But we also, you know we take phone calls every day and I feel like you know that that is definitely like. You know that that is definitely we.

Speaker 2: 29:35

That's the family business kind of vibe to it to where, hey, we know who we're talking to. Hey, how's your cousin doing, how's your you know, how's your niece or nephew and you know that kind of helps you build that relationship and I think that's what helps continue. You know that that that bridges everything together too, because I don't want you guys just to order and us not know. You know, I want to know, make sure, like you know, hey, how's your husband doing, how's your? You know he just had surgery. You know we want to, we want to differentiate ourselves from. You know the Lowe's and the Home Depot where you know the big companies, where the people may just be. You know the Lowe's and the Home Depot where you know the big companies where the people may just be, you know working in the area and they don't. They're about to go on break and they don't know this or that. We want to add that value to it, to where you know we want to get to know everybody and we want to be a part of that.

Speaker 3: 30:29

So oh, I love it. Do you guys sit around and have like vision talks like this? I love that. Yeah, are you just bouncing? Is it just you and your wife just bouncing ideas like, well, we got to do this.

Speaker 2: 30:44

Yeah Well, with it being like you know the family business, you know we never, we never stop. You know, when we come home we talk about it. When we're driving somewhere, we talk about it. It's everywhere, you never turn it off.

Speaker 3: 31:04

You can't. Everybody's like. You got to separate your family life from your business. I hear it often. I hear it often in hear it in my own home. That's all you care about is the business and you're gonna have to get used to. I mean, you're gonna have to learn how to jump on this with me.

Speaker 2: 31:25

So I know, but too, like you know people that work out I mean they talk about workout and they talk about their diet. Or people who crossfit they like to talk about crossfit. You know people who you know eat vegetarian. They they talk about that. I mean it's just, you know, that's what we know.

Speaker 3: 31:42

Passion, exactly yeah, it's fun. I'm sorry, but it's fun to me. It's fun for me to sit around and talk to people. These are my. You guys are my people you know, um, all right, yeah, so yeah, that's where I'm in it so it's cool.

Speaker 2: 32:00

So we we need to do it more and we try to plan, like certain things. But you know, like the dunzo was a new product for us, so we started making that when, uh, after all, the tiktok started and we were like, you know, what could we do to make this easier for people? And so that was something you know, we talked about, we picked the name and you know, we I let the kids help pick the name oh, yes, you know what does it mean, but how did they come up with the concept of the name?

Speaker 1: 32:28

is it like a character, or is it something that you know, or a relative? What is it?

Speaker 2: 32:33

so like whenever we you through with something, you say you were done or like I'm donezo or something like that. So we just said let's just call it donezo degreaser, because you're done with it Like it's donezo.

Speaker 1: 33:41

I love it.

Speaker 2: 33:44

And we're working on a couple of new fragrances and're going to get the kids names like involved with that, so they'll have something kind of named after them.

Speaker 3: 33:53

This is a legacy, I don't. I mean I don't see whether the kids stay or not done in your retirement years. Um long's product, I believe, is really here to stay well after you're done after I'm done so you did come out with a new fragrance. I've noticed. Yes, I just recently got this. This is called the southern bell and it smells so, bougie. Yeah, it's uh, it's uh. Hey, jamie, I want to know what's the other one.

Speaker 2: 34:40

This is uh, uh yeah, so the the southern bell is part of our new. We're going to try to do some upscale scents and the southern bell is more of a kind of a boutique that's there it is yes that's what?

Speaker 3: 34:56

yeah, it's peak. I like, like a it's.

Speaker 2: 34:59

It's supposed to be kind of like a tyler candle duke. Scent of the diva yes, oh, I thought yes, so we're working on trying to do kind of like a the premium, a couple of premium cents.

Speaker 3: 35:15

So yeah, no, uh, and clients love it, clients love it. But I I'm telling you that that the dunzo degreaser was, has and has been a game changer, especially in these, some of these. Um, I take on some really huge jobs and uh, just it melts away years, uh, and it's like whoa, your mind is just totally I I'm I'm not bashing like zapep or anything like that yeah, it made me instantly. Yeah, I had sometimes you got to bring out the heavy artillery and that definitely a staple now, and all of my employees cleaning caddies and I do go, I'm going, I'm out here in my community so I get up and talk in front of chamber mixers and and stuff and, um, people are always asking me what I'm using and I have no problem whatsoever telling them. But you know people want things done for them. Yeah, so I have no problem tell them this is what I use. But I still get the phone calls like, hey, can you still come clean?

Speaker 2: 36:32

yeah, but you, I mean you don't know how like, how amazing and how like grateful we are, because when we hear people say they're like Ryan, you know, y'all's products have like put my cleaning business in another category and I use your chemical, you know. And when I want to go into clean or get a new client, I say, hey, I use this, you know, premium chemical out of Louisiana. And it's like, it's like mind blowing to me to hear this and it like I mean it's truly like I don't't I don't even know how to put it to words, how I do?

Speaker 3: 37:12

I know that feeling? I do. I totally know that.

Speaker 2: 37:14

I know what you're feeling like when I let my wife hear, you know, some of the calls sometimes or a voicemail from somebody, and they're just, you know, blown away and I'm like this is what it's all about, right here. This is like so cool that they used eight different things and they couldn't get it, and then they use our product and it like cleaned it immediately.

Speaker 3: 37:38

And it's not just cleaning, I mean you. I mean you guys are doing down to straws, drinking straws, uh, you know, but leaning is really I and you guys. It's not. I don't just stop there Like I get my huck towels from you guys. I and you guys it's not. I don't just stop there Like I get my huck towels from you guys, I, you know, um, yeah, I keep saying I'm going to. I need to put in another order today.

Speaker 2: 38:02

I'll be putting in another order today, but that's what we, you know we want to kind of be the one-stop shop and like people will be able to order and get different things, from the scrub brushes to the, you know, the cleaning towels, to all that. So it's. But you know, and you know I mean I hand pack a lot of these orders, I help mix the chemicals, I mean we help do you know all that? So all that is our family, you know, is is right in the mix. On that 'll be a bunch of saturdays where we're like hey guys, we're going to the office from 12 to 5, we're going to pack orders and you know we all load up and go up there and catch up on. You know, because we try to ship orders within like 12 to, I mean, 24 to 48 hours.

Speaker 3: 38:43

No, it's very quick, and I'm all the way over here on the other side over in california, northern california yeah, that it's not even like straight across. It's yeah here. So, um, and I get, oh, it's quick. It's amazing how quick it is. So, yeah, well thank y'all. Yeah well, thank you. Thank you for I just I really needed to let everybody know in the industry that you guys exist yes, yes yeah, and that um I I if you don't believe me, I have to go.

Speaker 3: 39:18

Look at some of the content creators and you'll see them all with a bottle of something, whether it's the new, your terminator, whether it's a bottle of the digest plus, you'll see your products being showcased. And I got on that train and I'm super glad that I did, because I really feel like people need to know that these products work more than um. I feel like there's a lot more love put into it, maybe because it's so much smaller or I don't know what it is, but it's a product that products that yeah that and that product.

Speaker 2: 40:00

You know I try to explain to people too is we're not, we're not a, you know, we're not this big, huge national company that has to pay for. You know, presidents and vice presidents, and you know all that we're able to. You know, get the good quality ingredient and not saying not knocking anybody at all, but it's just, you know, we make sure, you know we, we stay true to the roots of love that has been put into it, that know, and it comes across um.

Speaker 2: 40:31

It comes across on everything, um down to um now you may get a label a little crooked sometimes.

Speaker 3: 40:38

Yeah I know, I seen um I because I got the southern bell cajun fresh southern belt and I was like, oh look, yeah, you have your own long product box. And I was like, yes, I love it. I absolutely. I love supporting a small yeah um well, we love that too. So yeah, yeah, I know, and I we feel it so do you have any questions for us?

Speaker 2: 41:09

I mean, I don't know. I know you have a cleaning business and you have a crew. It sounds like yeah. How many do you have in your crew?

Speaker 3: 41:18

Right now I'm onboarding one more, so I have I'm going to have eight.

Speaker 2: 41:22

OK, and you do residential and commercial.

Speaker 3: 41:25

I do both yeah.

Speaker 2: 41:27

OK.

Speaker 3: 41:28

I'm about ready to. I'm trying to think about separating the two completely, because they are total, two totally different business model. Um, and it's well too.

Speaker 2: 41:41

I know, we have residential cleaners or, uh, commercial cleaners that come in and we, you know, people ask us, ryan, who do you, who do you recommend? Well, there's certain commercial cleaners that come in and we, you know, people ask us, ryan, who do you, who do you recommend? Well, there are certain commercial cleaners that don't do residential because it takes a different type of insurance, and you know, and then we have, you know, residential that don't have the commercial insurance and they can only do residential. And you know, I know, there's a lot of down to the bidding and everything.

Speaker 3: 42:07

It's just a whole different business. I, yeah, I do have insurance for both, but um, yeah, that's to talk about later on. Um, yeah, thinking about separating, just having two different businesses all and just. You know, not focusing on one or the other. Residential is a lot more than commercial commercials. You know one account three times a week. It's so different. It's just so different the pay and how you train people, you know, yeah, so, but yeah, we, and then Shannon.

Speaker 2: 42:54

Shannon's a coach like a business coach.

Speaker 3: 42:57

Yeah, and she was my business coach. She's telling me.

Speaker 1: 43:02

I'm actually, yes, I have, I have, I have five businesses. So I have Clean Freaks University where I teach other cleaning business owners how to run the back end of their business. Then I also have a cleaning business itself. It's called Made Hyphen Broker and that's mostly residential, and I have 12 helpers throughout the state of Arizona. And then I just launched and Jamie, I haven't even had a chance to catch up to her because we were off last week.

Speaker 1: 43:29

But I launched my proof of concepts. It's called Velleman Vine Hospitality Company and it's going to cater to hosting and co-hosting and short-term rentals. I plan on actually selling that business in about two years after I get it up and running. And then I have another business that's just laundry service. So I have about 25 customers that are on a subscription base and I literally my washer and dryer is right, it's just something extra. I earned a little extra. I did it as a side project to see how much money I could pull so I could write, you know, do the research and write the product and sell the class. Yeah, heck, yeah, so that that's what. Um, that's what I do. In a nutshell, so to speak Heck, yeah, so that's what. That's what.

Speaker 2: 44:09

I do. In a nutshell, so to speak man, I love that. That's amazing and like I was in a business group with a guy before and he did a business and he just built it up to sell it and I was like, man, that is so amazing, like the, the, the mindset of getting all the data and information so you can, you know, build it and kind of know what it's producing and know what it's doing to you know sell it. So that that's also cool. And I've been doing a lot of a lot of research into like the stuff lately and like seeing you know all the capabilities and what all can be done, and it's just, it's just overwhelming, like I know there's gonna be use of that and and you know, that's the future and I'm just trying to grasp some of it right now and see how we can use it in our, you know, in our industry and what we can do with it, because it's kind of unlimited.

Speaker 3: 45:43

Yeah, it's mind blowing and it's fairly new. I mean, some people have what, maybe two years old-ish, I mean like it really, but really started pushing about maybe a year and a half ago, a year ago, something like that. And then it's come on board to like in our industry, not for, like, the cleaning aspect, but running the back end of your, your industry is. It's hard to keep up. It's coming at you so fast and it's like, um, and unless you have a lot of time, to where you can sit there and research it.

Speaker 2: 46:25

Yeah, then that's why it's crazy, but you know, if there's you know something that you know, all right, if you can kind of you know, kind of look at and see what you know, cause everything's always evolving and you kind of want to know, hey, what's the what's going to be happening in two years or what's going to be happening. And I feel like you've got to be prepared or kind of at least kind of thinking about which way are things going. You know, right.

Speaker 3: 46:59

So Right, especially after, like we were talking about in the beginning, about COVID. I feel like COVID really pushed us to start really looking into the future and not completely being engulfed in it, but some sort of plan or an exit strategy or or something. Yeah, just in case you know, here's the red folder, the red folder over here, what to do if something goes down and um, yeah, that's something that we, that's something that we should work on it's exactly.

Speaker 2: 47:41

Yeah, everybody needs to have that.

Speaker 3: 47:43

So yeah, exactly I don't know.

Speaker 2: 47:47

Um, I'm trying to think if there's anything else. That's uh, you know, I was trying to see if there's anything else I wanted to talk about with y'all. About, um, you know the business, so you know the family um the products and that were shipping um I think it's awesome that you have longevity.

Speaker 1: 48:06

Um, it's so rare You're you're actually like an anomaly. We should like contain you and put you in a zoo so that we can all look at you and go, oh my God, just to have a business. I mean, we all know that most businesses fail within five years. I've been doing this 15 years and people go why? And I go, went by that. Um, but to be able to have longevity and still be profiting and growing and evolving, I mean pat yourself on the back. It's incredible that you're still a small, family-owned business, that you all together as a team, make it work. I mean I love the story about you know the lady who used to babysit your wife. I think it's yeah, let's talk about full circle. I think it's yeah, let's talk about. I mean it's awesome, it's supposed to. Who would have known that you could have evolved and it could have? You know she could still be hanging out like 30 years later.

Speaker 3: 48:52

It's just awesome yeah came up with the dunzo.

Speaker 3: 48:57

I I just I know, I think it's great, uh, and I, I just, I can't see, I can't wait to see what's to come and I, we would love, would love, if you would. You know, if you have time I'm so appreciative of your time today. If you have time somewhere's down the road, let's do this again, and especially with the, you coming out with some new, new thing, what I'm hearing. You coming out with some new, new thing, what I'm hearing. And, um, I would love to circle back around to this and see at and and especially, maybe at the end of the year, like you know no, I'll be.

Speaker 2: 49:36

I'm totally.

Speaker 2: 49:37

I was honored.

Speaker 2: 49:38

You guys called and asked me to be a part of it because I was like you know, I think it's so cool and and I'm I'm very interested in like the podcast thing and and I went back and listened to a few of those other podcasts about like TikTok, hacks and different things with different, different, different people and I mean I think it's amazing what y'all are doing too, because people like that I mean when you're, when you're busy working, you're cleaning and you want something in the ear, you know all that stuff you could learn, you know, from somebody else's mistakes, cause usually when you make a mistake, it costs you time or money.

Speaker 2: 50:20

And I think y'all y'all had somebody that had a clean and they had to go back and clean within 24 or 48 hours or something. I was kind of on one of y'all's recent ones and you know those little tips like that that y'all are putting out there are helping. You know business owners and you know and you think about it and you're like, oh man, I heard that I want to make sure that I don't do that or I don't.

Speaker 2: 50:45

You know, and you think about it and you're like oh man, I heard that I want to make sure that I don't do that, or I don't, you know so. So I think it's amazing what y'all are doing too, and I think that it's much needed in the in the cleaning community.

Speaker 1: 50:56

And we actually have more fun than we probably should. We really do enjoy it. This is actually like the highlight.

Speaker 3: 51:13

We're like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, it's thursday, yay, no, it is. It's a lot of fun and and, um, love, love, love. Helping the small people. I just, whenever they're first, shannon's a little different, but when, for me, it's like whenever they're first starting out and they have no clue, I just it's my favorite thing in the whole world to do is to help them, and and then you sit back and you watch them and they're just like you know I'll do you and it's just, it's a beautiful thing and and yeah it's awesome and it's just people helping people and I love that.

Speaker 2: 51:51

Yeah, that's all. And it's like. You know you don't do it for, you know you're not doing it for this or that, you're just doing it to truly help them and want to see them succeed, and you know that all stuff comes full circle. You know, it's just. It's just, it's just you know about being a good person.

Speaker 3: 52:04

You know, it's just it's just you know about being a good person, you know, yeah, yeah, no, genuinely, genuinely love doing it. It's pretty there's, I'm getting no money for this, I just it's honest, honestly, honestly. It's also what you know Shannon was my coach and mentor, so it's also showing people hey, this really truly works. She helped me, steered me in the right direction, of buying my first house, and I was like I don't know, I don't think I could do this. She goes oh, all you need is something like you only need a couple of hundred dollars more extra a day.

Speaker 3: 52:47

And I'm like it was, it was fun, that was last year and that was fun, but it was so stressful on my end, not hers but she came up with the money.

Speaker 1: 52:57

It was like she got it.

Speaker 3: 52:58

She wasn't sure I would like I'm gonna come up with this group of cash a lot.

Speaker 2: 53:04

But sometimes you all you need is is that little push or that little. You know, yeah, you can do it. Or you know, and no problem, it's good to have, what's great to have people like that in your corner. You know, because life is tough and you know, mentally, you know, things are stressful, physically stressful, and you know, if you have that one little hey, you can do this, you got this. I mean that changes, that changes the whole outlook and the whole day. You know, that's something me and my wife, you know we're, we're very with our kids. You know we're like hey, you know, ask somebody how they're doing today, give them a smile, tell them hello. You know, don't cause, you don't know what that could do to impact or change the outgo of that person's day or even life.

Speaker 2: 54:02

You know, and it's, it's and it's even life you know, and it's, it's, and it's just being you know good people I don't know.

Speaker 3: 54:11

Yeah, no, I can relate.

Speaker 1: 54:14

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 54:14

I can, yeah, think about that all the time. Yeah, just being, just being us.

Speaker 2: 54:20

Exactly.

Speaker 3: 54:21

Yeah. Well guys, I'm so excited guys.

Speaker 2: 54:26

I'm so excited, I'm so excited and I'm so glad you guys asked me. I'm honored to be, to be a part of this.

Speaker 3: 54:31

So thank you so much coming on.

Speaker 2: 54:34

If you have any questions after the fact, by all means don't be shy, reach out I sure will and I thank y'all and yeah, if y'all have any questions for me, y'all can always reach out to me, even anybody who hears this. If y'all have any questions about you know our products or how to order or what they, you know what the products do or anything you know, we're here, you know all the time we can be tracked down.

Speaker 3: 55:00

Yeah, she'll make sure she'll put that down in the show notes.

Speaker 2: 55:05

Sure Well, well we all are amazing all right, thank you thank you all so much bye y'all have a good day.