Chat#111 – The Power of Putting Customers First [SPONSORED POST]

Gresham W. Harkless Jr. sits down with Jasmine Price of M & D Cleaning Services at Intelligent Office in Alexandria Virginia.

M&D Cleaning Service Provides top-notch commercial and janitorial services to businesses of all sizes. They specialize in creating pristine and hygienic environments that enhance productivity and leave a lasting impression.

Jasmine Price, born and raised in Northern Virginia, is the founder of a family-owned business established in 2014. The company was built upon a simple idea – the desire to assist people with cleaning and organization. Jasmine's passion for cleaning has flourished over the five years the business has been operating.

Throughout this time, Jasmine and her dedicated team have had the pleasure of working with and getting to know the most amazing customers in the DMV. The mission plan for Jasmine's business is centered around providing exceptional customer service. While acknowledging that they may not be perfect and could miss a few things, the commitment is to approach each space with the best customer service and a willingness to do whatever is necessary to get the job done.

Timestamps

Intelligent Office of Alexandria offers 23 private offices and three meeting rooms, two of which can be configured in many ways to meet your meeting or training needs.

Relevant Links:

• Intelligent Office of Alexandria – https://www.intelligentoffice.com/virginia/alexandria
• M&D Cleaning Services – https://manddcleaningservice.com/
• DMV Resources – https://dmvceo.com/resources
• BNI Chapter – https://dmvceo.com/resources/#franchisenetworking

Additional Resources:

• Download our FREE CEO Hacks Guide and subscribe to our newsletter to help you be more effective and efficient – https://cbnation.co/newsletter/
• Check out more CEO Hacks that help you be more effective and efficient – https://ceohack.co/
• Freshdesk (An online cloud-based customer service software providing helpdesk support with all smart automations to get things done faster. – https://ceohack.co/refer/freshdesk

About Intelligent Office Alexandria

Discover the ideal workspace solutions with Intelligent Office Alexandria! Whether you're in need of a virtual receptionist, private office space, or a flexible conference room for hourly rental, our experienced and dedicated staff is here to help you achieve your business goals.

Intelligent Office of Alexandria boasts 23 private offices and three meeting rooms, two of which are customizable to suit various meeting or training requirements. Located in a Class A building, our facility offers complimentary surface parking, access to an on-site fitness center, high-speed internet, and more!

Explore our range of services, including:

• Virtual Reception Services
• Business Address
• Mail Services
• Arranged Access to Our Other Washington D.C. Intelligent Office Locations
• Private Office Space for 1–5 People
• Conference Room Rentals
• Ongoing Professional Development Seminars
• Elevate your business presence and functionality with Intelligent Office Alexandria – where your success is our priority!

This is a sponsored post.

Transcription

00:00:17 – 00:00:47
Speaker 1: You're an entrepreneur, and you make vital decisions that hopefully blossom into a business. You're the savvy out-of-the-box risk taker who believes wholeheartedly in the process of innovation. Innovation that will change the world. This is CEO Chat with Gresham Harkless and you're about to embark on a journey through the awesome world of business. Gresham is the epitome of drive and desire as he works to help support small businesses and entrepreneurship.

00:00:48 – 00:00:59
Speaker 1: And you're about to learn from this entrepreneur how you can improve your odds of success in the business world. Welcoming the host of CEO Chat, here's

00:01:01 – 00:01:04
Jasmine Price: Gresham Harkless.

00:01:06 – 00:01:18
Gresham Harkless: All right, hello, hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast, CEO podcast and Blue 16 Media. And I have a fantastic guest with us today. I have Jasmine Price of MND Cleaning. Jasmine, excited to have you on the show.

00:01:18 – 00:01:22
Jasmine Price: Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. It's a pleasure to meet you. It's a pleasure.

00:01:23 – 00:01:37
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, absolutely. Well, you're doing so many phenomenal things. So super excited to have you on the show and hear a little bit more about your rise, all the awesome things that you're doing. I know we were talking a little bit offline, so I hope we get to talk a little bit more about the inauguration. All the awesome things you've been able to do.

00:01:37 – 00:01:43
Gresham Harkless: And of course, super excited to be here at Intelligent Office in Alexandria, Virginia. They're hosting us for this podcast.

00:01:43 – 00:01:46
Jasmine Price: Love Intelligent Office. Shout out to them.

00:01:46 – 00:01:56
Gresham Harkless: Yes, They do phenomenal things. And I know that's what brought us together too. But I guess to kick everything off I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit more on how you got started. What I call your CEO story.

00:01:56 – 00:02:22
Jasmine Price: OK. How did I get started with MD Clean and Service. MD Clean and service really was just an idea I came up with to help people and also just to get an extra flow of money, flow of cash. And it kind of just literally just. Kind of grew from there.

00:02:23 – 00:02:39
Jasmine Price: I've seen the. Impact on the community. Helping people with. Employment and things like that, and I just. Start taking off with it, I really didn't think it was going to take off the way.

00:02:40 – 00:03:01
Jasmine Price: It took off, I just was trying to keep myself. Just busy and just busy, really. I'm optimistic on. Trying to do something a little different. And I always wanted to be an entrepreneur.

00:03:01 – 00:03:18
Jasmine Price: Like that was number 1. I started as a massage therapist. So I was like, I always. Knew I kind of wanted to do my own thing. To like, extend and just kind of.

00:03:18 – 00:03:18
Gresham Harkless: To like, Extend and

00:03:18 – 00:03:20
Jasmine Price: it just kind of Grew from there.

00:03:20 – 00:03:38
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, well, No, it's kind of great to hear, you know, you're Doing so many phenomenal things and to hear Like how it started about you always wanting to Have that kind of seed planted and Wanting to do your own thing and just kind of running You know, with that. How was the massage business? And do you think that that helped you in terms of your cleaning business and being able to kind of transition from there?

00:03:38 – 00:03:50
Jasmine Price: Oh, definitely. I love the massage business. It was awesome. I did that for about 4 years. It's still a passion of mine.

00:03:51 – 00:04:04
Jasmine Price: From the massage business, I started a. Mobile, it was like a. Mobile spa, so we should do, like. Pop up shop. Yes.

00:04:06 – 00:04:34
Jasmine Price: Yes. It was so nice. We did. Like, bridal showers parties, bachelorette. Parties like, and it was just awesome to be able to connect with other like women and to build a business and also just to really Try to bring people Together to make money And that was the goal.

00:04:34 – 00:05:13
Jasmine Price: So I had like a nail tech, makeup artist, and we would come in and like pamper the ladies and get them ready for their day or whatever it was. And it was just so fulfilling, you know, for them to get pampered and see them like relaxed and happy and enjoying their friends. So I've always kind of been in the business of customer service. So I just kind of, you know, focus on that and it just kind of grew from there. So the.

00:05:13 – 00:05:23
Jasmine Price: Cleaning business, it was a super easy transition. Super easy transition. And you know, you're helping people. So it just all worked out.

00:05:23 – 00:05:38
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, I love that. And I think so many times we forget about in business, like when we're figuring out what our products and services are, you know, our name and our logo, our color, all those things that we do, our finance, all those things, we sometimes forget about like the actual people that we're serving.

00:05:38 – 00:05:39
Jasmine Price: So I

00:05:39 – 00:05:44
Gresham Harkless: love how that is kind of first and first and front and foremost and everything that you do.

00:05:45 – 00:06:15
Jasmine Price: Yeah I started working at a very young age. My first job was in customer service. It's actually at Bed, Bath & Beyond. And I was about 15, 16 years old and that was number 1 customer service like they installed it and so on so many different levels. So by the time I was about 17 I was the customer service manager.

00:06:15 – 00:06:37
Jasmine Price: So I was running the front running the front. And you know because I understood the business you know. So once you understand the customer is just always right, I mean, you'll be okay. It is what it is, you know, It is what it is. And that's what happens when you run a business.

00:06:38 – 00:06:42
Jasmine Price: So our customers are our priority. Yeah. Number 1.

00:06:42 – 00:07:01
Gresham Harkless: Yeah. It's funny that you said that because I don't know if you found this exact same thing where a lot of times there's this perception when you're not running your business that if you jump into running your business, you can be your own boss. You're not going to have to answer to anybody, but the reality is that you don't just have 1 boss. Now you have a lot of bosses. Here's all your clients.

00:07:01 – 00:07:11
Jasmine Price: Now I have hundreds of bosses. I went from 1 to hundreds of bosses and I don't want to piss anyone off. So, you know.

00:07:11 – 00:07:34
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, but I know that it makes so much sense because everything has to be particular on how they want things. You have to understand. I love that customer service background because it's not just sometimes providing the service I imagine. It's probably also adding that customer service feel of like you know even when you go to a hotel and you know you go walk in and they clean up and then they have the little men on your just those little small things go along

00:07:34 – 00:07:35
Jasmine Price: with it.

00:07:35 – 00:07:35
Gresham Harkless: Is it

00:07:35 – 00:07:45
Jasmine Price: is the details. It's the communication. You know it's a variety of things. But you know customer service like that's the umbrella of

00:07:45 – 00:07:46
Gresham Harkless: it all.

00:07:46 – 00:08:00
Jasmine Price: You know you have those basic foundations. You'll be good to go. I mean, you need those. You need the foundation and if you got it, you can do whatever business you want to do. I really believe that.

00:08:00 – 00:08:11
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, I say that so many times you forget about like the human aspect of business. And I love that you have that foundation because just as you say, whether it's the massage business that you were able to do for, I think you said 4 or

00:08:11 – 00:08:12
Jasmine Price: 5 years, or

00:08:12 – 00:08:15
Gresham Harkless: obviously the cleaning business you've been doing for I think 10 years.

00:08:15 – 00:08:16
Jasmine Price: Yeah, I've been doing it for a while now.

00:08:16 – 00:08:24
Gresham Harkless: Yeah. So I think once you have that foundation you know people you know how to serve them the customers first then you can really take things off from there.

00:08:24 – 00:08:26
Jasmine Price: So for sure for sure.

00:08:26 – 00:08:32
Gresham Harkless: Absolutely. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more here a little bit more on how you serve your clients. Can you take us through the services that you're providing.

00:08:33 – 00:08:51
Jasmine Price: Sure. So, we offer commercial. And residential clean, so we do. Post construction cleaning Move out services, we offer recurring cleanings. So we offer a variety of.

00:08:52 – 00:09:11
Jasmine Price: Services we have a website, you go on there and you pick what you need, which you're looking for. If you don't see it, or you have any questions, just give us a call. But we do offer. And a variety of services are. Most popular services are our.

00:09:11 – 00:09:28
Jasmine Price: Housekeeping and our janitorial services. Okay. Yeah, so we serve a lot of businesses and. In the area with keeping their. Offices clean their businesses, their restaurants.

00:09:29 – 00:09:40
Jasmine Price: Just a variety of day hotel cleaning. We do a lot of different things. We just did a. Turnover cleaning for the college of. On the University of Maryland.

00:09:41 – 00:09:41
Gresham Harkless: Okay.

00:09:41 – 00:09:54
Jasmine Price: So, yeah, we had a. Turnover there. Off campus dorms, I think we did, like, 700, 800 dorms. Yeah, it was crazy, but it was. It was a good experience, so

00:09:54 – 00:10:00
Gresham Harkless: I imagine so that I didn't even I'm not even familiar with that turnover and I'm thinking back to me going to college and, you know, you just want

00:10:00 – 00:10:08
Jasmine Price: to start like that. Right? Yeah. Got it. We got to slip it.

00:10:08 – 00:10:29
Jasmine Price: So, yeah, we go in and we turn over the whole dorm. We do the cleaning of the kitchens, the bathrooms. We do trash removal, if needed, carpet cleaning. So it's a lot, yeah.

00:10:29 – 00:10:38
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, that makes sense. Sometimes you don't think about all those things. Like, again, you just show up the day with all your stuff. It is clean. You just assume that is the way that it

00:10:38 – 00:10:39
Jasmine Price: always is.

00:10:43 – 00:10:53
Gresham Harkless: Exactly. So I love that. And you said that you also do the janitorial services as well. Is that for like the commercial? Yeah.

00:10:54 – 00:11:06
Jasmine Price: Yeah. Yeah. So that's commercial. We have commercial cleaning. We have a variety of clients from offices here.

00:11:06 – 00:11:24
Jasmine Price: Oh town from. Like doctors offices. We have all different types of different things. School buildings that we serve is. And basically for the janitorial cleaning.

00:11:25 – 00:11:41
Jasmine Price: It's normally on a daily basis. Come in, pull trash. Vacuum. Sanitize disinfect. On a daily basis, and.

00:11:43 – 00:11:55
Jasmine Price: That's more of a. What's the word for that's that's more just to keep the germs controlled, so we can make sure

00:11:55 – 00:11:56
Gresham Harkless: that it doesn't get out

00:11:56 – 00:12:07
Jasmine Price: of hand. Exactly. The office is getting cleaned. Nobody's passing anything back and forth while you're, you know, so you can have that level of comfortability. Yeah.

00:12:07 – 00:12:09
Jasmine Price: It's coming back into the office.

00:12:09 – 00:12:25
Gresham Harkless: Yeah. And that's what made me think a lot of I imagine love to hear more about, especially around Kobe. I can't imagine what that was, but. I imagine as people have gone back or starting to go back, they just started to really think about like, do I have that security? Do I have that safety?

00:12:25 – 00:12:39
Gresham Harkless: Are things going to be clean? And I imagine that's where a lot of the great work that you all do helps out in terms of doing that. So was that something that you saw that was kind of different during COVID, kind of the same or just like more communication? What happened I guess in that time?

00:12:39 – 00:13:10
Jasmine Price: Yeah, COVID was very interesting and of course it was a first for everyone So it was very unpredictable. So when we 1st. Enter code, everything was completely. Shut down, so the work completely stopped for us. And then slowly, once everything started to open back up, it just got crazy.

00:13:10 – 00:13:26
Jasmine Price: So everybody wanted everything clean, sanitized. Oh my goodness, fog. During Oh, my goodness. Fog. During COVID, the viral sanitation fog was a big thing.

00:13:28 – 00:13:52
Jasmine Price: So we were super busy with that. And now, since Everybody's really coming back to the office. I'll say this past. Year really offices have been calling this crazy office cleaning has been. Very, very popular because everybody wants to get back on the schedule.

00:13:54 – 00:14:19
Jasmine Price: So it's been good for us. It's a good business. It's very needed. It's very needed. I think people kind of pass over the cleaning at times, but it's very essential to have your business clean on a daily basis.

00:14:20 – 00:14:52
Jasmine Price: And it's something that your customers look at different things. Like I always tell you, owners, business owners, like people are eye, like they'll catch the eye. So if you've got different things, like, have these spots, like, it really throws the average person. All So I'm like, this is like the basics. So you got to get the basics done on the daily.

00:14:52 – 00:15:18
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, I love that you said that. And you know, we talked about building that foundation, you having that customer service as your foundation, but in much the same way, like the businesses, they have to have that foundation. And like you said, I never really thought of that being like a brand piece. But I imagine if I walk into especially a restaurant, and things don't look exactly as clean as I think that they should be, I'm probably not necessarily gonna buy that business. I'm not gonna buy the food.

00:15:18 – 00:15:34
Gresham Harkless: I might not even want to eat that food because that speaks to the brand. Like, they're not taking care of those essential things. They're not taking care of those basic things. And if they can't take care of that, then who knows what the food or, you know, the whatever I buy there is going to look like. So I appreciate you mentioning

00:15:34 – 00:16:07
Jasmine Price: that. Yes, the sanitation is very important. It's very important when you're running any business. And call us to get it right. A lot of businesses try to cut corners for getting their employees to do the cleaning and it's, you know, it's great you have to do what you have to do, But to ensure that you're getting that deep cleaning, hire a professional.

00:16:08 – 00:16:16
Jasmine Price: You know, just hire the professionals. We're here to get it out the way.

00:16:16 – 00:16:44
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, that makes sense. And I feel like that's even what brought us here, you know, in intelligent offices, like kind of knowing like those quote unquote back-end things are kind of taken care of. And a lot of times we do that by making sure that we lean on the people that are really great at what they do. And I think you also have had that experience with the intelligence office if I'm correct where you know we there's so many things in the business. And you know we of course sometimes when we walk into the business and start the business we think that we're going to do all the things.

00:16:44 – 00:16:48
Gresham Harkless: But it starts to come realization that you can't juggle all the balls.

00:16:48 – 00:17:21
Jasmine Price: Intelligent office helps me out so much from answering our phones when we're too busy, handling our mail. I mean, it's just an array of things that they offer and they're reliable, reasonable. The office staff is wonderful. Yeah, I love them. And I wouldn't be here without, here with you without knowing them.

00:17:21 – 00:17:55
Jasmine Price: And yeah, like the networking circle that they bring to you by you coming to them. Yeah I have been really Yeah, I have been really. Developing so much within the past. Year from networking with, you know, I'm saying different. People just here just coming in and out the office asking questions or people asking me questions different things.

00:17:55 – 00:18:09
Jasmine Price: I mean. It's essential to have. That group of business. That group of business. Minded people to play off of different things.

00:18:09 – 00:18:57
Jasmine Price: I mean. I've improved and change so many things over the year to make my business better, to stand out, to have a better process of different things, from my front office to my back office, to my team on the field, to learning how to communicate with my team in the office. You know, so it's been a great experience for me. And I tell anyone, hey, you need help, you need an address, you need someone to answer your phones, and tell the office.

00:18:57 – 00:19:30
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, that makes so much sense. And I think that, you know, what you said, the reliability is huge. And I think, especially in business, when you're juggling so many things and you're nonstop putting out fires because things are always happening, you want to be able to have that reliability, a team that you can kind of lean on, which is why I love that, you know, for lack of a better term, seems like a partnership where you're able to kind of build your business, you're able to develop, grow, go on the journey that you need in your business. You don't have to worry about those things, the phone calls that you talked about, I imagine, you know, getting mail and things like that. All those things set up for great.

00:19:30 – 00:20:01
Jasmine Price: They're so detailed, like, whatever you want them to do, like, they'll do it. Like, if you want them to ask questions before they transfer to you, or you want to send it to the answer machine, Whatever you need, they'll do it. And it works, you know. So it's been a great experience. I think I've been working, partnering with intelligent office for, I think it's almost 2 years now.

00:20:01 – 00:20:04
Jasmine Price: Yeah, it's been great. It's been great.

00:20:04 – 00:20:22
Gresham Harkless: Do you feel do you see, or even I don't know if you hear this from your clients, like, when you get that phone call? Because I imagine they call you call you and say, hey, we have so and so on the line. Do the Clients themselves notice like, there's any type of do they notice that I guess it's intelligent office. Like, it's not actually a part or extension of your team.

00:20:22 – 00:20:33
Jasmine Price: No, they have no idea. They have no idea. They. Call the call our number. Has this cleaning service.

00:20:34 – 00:20:54
Jasmine Price: How can we help you? You know, they'll ask them whatever question is, and if they can't answer the question, then they. Transfer the call to us, you know, and. It works because I'm busy, I'm doing walkthroughs, I have my cleaners out there doing their thing. And sometimes I just can't get to the phone.

00:20:54 – 00:21:31
Jasmine Price: Fast enough, but I don't want to miss the sale or the customer or the question or whatever it is the concern. So it's very helpful. Especially when you're, you know, when you're really trying to develop a business, you know, And I'm like, right in the middle. So to be able to hand that off is just, I'm like, okay, good. You know, or if you're not feeling well or anything, like I don't have to turn my phones off.

00:21:31 – 00:21:39
Jasmine Price: I can just keep them transferred or, you know, If I don't have anyone available to answer the phone, you know, so it just works out perfectly.

00:21:40 – 00:22:25
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, I appreciate you mentioning that because I think that sometimes when we think of ourselves and business is almost like machines, like, you keep going, going, going, But just like everybody else, you know, we have times where we're super efficient and not efficient, tired, sick, whatever happens. But again, to be able to have a team that you can kind of lean on, you know, helps out so much. And I think, like you said so well, like, as, you know, there's so many things to do in the business, but in order to kind of grow the business, you can't get trapped in the business. So as you're getting those phone calls taken care of, I imagine that allows you more opportunities to do the networking, to go out and promote the business, talk about all those things that if you weren't doing that, if you didn't have them, then you probably would have to be answering those phone calls. So it kind of frees you up, I imagine.

00:22:25 – 00:23:01
Jasmine Price: It definitely does. It gives me a lot of time to focus on different things like proposals, following up with clients, ensuring that my cleaners are doing what they're supposed to be doing, being able to do my pop-up site visits, different things like that, that you know is Hard to juggle when you're trying to answer the phone 24 7, you know, you need to be at a computer booking the appointments or scheduling different things. So it just works out. It really does. I love them and so happy I found them and just like I said, I'm for them to.

00:23:01 – 00:23:12
Jasmine Price: Everyone I'm like, hold up who's answer your phone. What do you mean? You don't have a business address? Like, hold up, no, no, no, no, we have to get it together. Like, we have to get it right.

00:23:14 – 00:23:18
Jasmine Price: 2024 is coming. We got to give, we got to clean it up and get it right.

00:23:18 – 00:23:31
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, clean it up, pun intended. It's like we talked about, like, hey, there you go with the whole cleaning, like that becomes part of your brand. Same way, you call a business and they don't answer. They don't call you, give you a phone call back. You know, all those things, that's opportunity.

00:23:32 – 00:23:50
Gresham Harkless: Like you said, whether it is somebody that's a new client, maybe a new client, or even a client that has an issue, I think by you showing good customer service, that opens up that opportunity. It's like, hey, everything doesn't always go perfectly, but I know if something goes wrong, I can reach out to them and they're there. So having them there to answer calls helped a lot.

00:23:50 – 00:24:40
Jasmine Price: And that's the number 1 reason why we get calls looking for a new service. Hey, we're looking for a new commercial cleaning service or whatever, janitorial service. And that's their big thing is when I call, no 1 answers or the response time or, you know, so it's that communication that we give to our clients, you know, like that's like number 1, you know, even if there is an issue, let's talk about it. Let me let you guys know what's going on, you know? So that's the big thing.

00:24:40 – 00:24:50
Jasmine Price: Communication, following up. I mean, answer the phone, you're business. You have to get that, you have to answer that phone. Pick up

00:24:50 – 00:24:50
Gresham Harkless: the phone.

00:24:50 – 00:24:53
Jasmine Price: You got it, answer the phone, your business, yes.

00:24:54 – 00:25:43
Gresham Harkless: Absolutely, and you know, I think it's not so much, I always say like business owners and entrepreneurs, you end up being like part-time like firefighter, because there's always something that happens, always something you have to put out. But again, I think it's it goes so much farther if something happens and you're able to say, hey, you know, have intelligent officer or a team like that answer your phone call, or you're able to kind of just return those calls and say, hey, we're listening to you, hear what you're saying, we're gonna work on that, we're gonna fix whatever, whatever it might be, being there is ultimately 1 of the biggest things. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more. You mentioned the word networking, and I know part of the reason that we're connected is because of networking because of intelligent office and the people there being in networking groups and things like that. How has that helped out your business and what kind of advice or tips have you seen that has really helped you to kind of take it to the next

00:25:43 – 00:25:59
Jasmine Price: level? Oh, my goodness. Networking. It has been very beneficial to me personally. Personally, in my business development.

00:26:02 – 00:26:33
Jasmine Price: Just being able to. Have that circle. Of people to ask questions to play off of. I mean, you've learned so much And it doesn't have to be the exact same business, you know, you can take things from everyone a little bit and tweak it and. Make it your own and that's why I love about.

00:26:33 – 00:27:30
Jasmine Price: Never because you never know who you're going to me and I've met so many amazing people that typically I might not. You know, what kind of be drawn to. It's been so beneficial because it makes you look not at the cover, you know, you kind of really kind of look at life a little differently because you really start to like value all those connections because you never know how far it's going to take you you know and it's been great I love I love being I'm a part of. The chapter here. Camera breakfast we meet every Tuesday at.

00:27:31 – 00:27:54
Jasmine Price: 730, We have a good time and it's so many wonderful business owners that I learn from every week. It's just amazing. Like it is amazing. It's good because you feel a part of something. You know, being a business owner is not always glitz and glam.

00:27:55 – 00:28:36
Jasmine Price: You have your seasons where Everything is not everything, you know. To be quite frank, it can be depressing sometimes. But to be able to come in those rooms on a weekly basis, you never know who needs something. And then you see these people just working hard, grinding, hustling. It puts an extra little fire in your back.

00:28:36 – 00:29:02
Jasmine Price: It's like, okay, okay, it gives me a little bit more to push forward. You have to need a little bit more fuel and I'll do it, you know, Just to get through the week or different things, you know, it really helps out or just by, I mean, any type of. Networking for me, it makes me feel good. It's good to know that. Other people are here Trying to do what I'm trying to do and.

00:29:05 – 00:29:29
Jasmine Price: That's expand my network. Expand my business, make more money. And help others because we. Me and So many people that now I'm able to connect other people when I hear a need or somebody is looking for this, that. Oh, really?

00:29:31 – 00:29:38
Jasmine Price: Let me help you out. Let me find my phone. Oh, I know somebody, you know what I'm saying? So we help each other by coming together.

00:29:39 – 00:29:58
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, I think is what it is that I think is like an African proverb. You can go so much far by going together. And even, you know, I love hearing the seed of that, you know, with the pop-up that you were talking about bringing all the different businesses and organizations together. And it starts to create, like, a new reality when you're in that environment. And as alumni, I think I call myself alumni.

00:30:01 – 00:30:16
Gresham Harkless: You know, it's a really great experience. I can't sing my praises enough about being a high end and just how that has helped me as a business because when I first started my business, I didn't know anything. And being in that room that you said with people that were further along, that were grinding.

00:30:16 – 00:30:17
Jasmine Price: It can be intimidating.

00:30:17 – 00:30:18
Gresham Harkless: It can be intimidating.

00:30:18 – 00:30:26
Jasmine Price: The first, yeah, of course. The first time I came out, I'm like, wait, do I belong here? I was like, whoa, like,

00:30:26 – 00:30:26
Gresham Harkless: they're

00:30:26 – 00:31:01
Jasmine Price: doing some really big things, you know? Like, they have a lot going on, you know? And I'm trying to, I'm just, I was still trying to figure it out, different things, processes, I mean, but then you come in the room where people are, Are so open and sharing different things and, you know, they're doing their. Keynotes and different things in your, like. Learning about different type of application and websites and all right, hold on.

00:31:02 – 00:31:28
Jasmine Price: I can use this different things. So, I mean, it's great. I mean, just to talk and be able to share what you do, you never know what someone is needing help with. Something I think is simple, someone else might not have thought of. You know, and that, when you do that and you bring it together, it's like, oh wow, like, okay.

00:31:28 – 00:31:57
Jasmine Price: Now we're coming together, we're getting it together. The puzzle is, you know, I see the puzzle now. I see the picture. I see it. You know, so, and it is great because now is my, if I have a question or I'm like, like kind of like uncertain about something, I have 20 plus other people to act, you know?

00:31:57 – 00:32:14
Jasmine Price: So it's amazing, but yeah, it's been great. It's been great. Intelligence office has been great because they actually introduced me to the B&I chapter. OK. Yeah.

00:32:14 – 00:32:46
Jasmine Price: I was on the intelligence office. They offer conference rentals and office spaces. So I would come in to do my interviews and different things for my cleaner. So that's how I got you know talking and speaking with them and just learning about all the things that they're doing to grow their business and just trickle down.

00:32:47 – 00:33:09
Gresham Harkless: Yeah That makes sense. It's awesome how those things work. It just ends up being a lot of times like a hub, because that's even what we have, you know, right here, just that opportunity to be able to kind of, you never know who you come across, and you never know what experience, knowledge, connections, whatever that other person might have. And that's why I love, you know, the, the, I love obviously the networking that happens in, you know, structured way.

00:33:09 – 00:33:09
Jasmine Price: But

00:33:09 – 00:33:27
Gresham Harkless: I think also the organic part where you have a bunch of business owners that are using the services here that we're in a conference room right now. And you never know who and what type of business somebody has that you're walking out at the same time, picking up your mail at the same time, getting the same phone call, whatever that might be. So I think that that provides a really great opportunity when you're connected to that

00:33:27 – 00:33:31
Jasmine Price: hub and kind of dialed in. Definitely, definitely. For sure.

00:33:31 – 00:33:45
Gresham Harkless: Yes. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to hear if there's anything else that you might consider, like, really great advice that you might want to let the listeners readers to know about, you know, business agenda, your business or anything additional.

00:33:46 – 00:33:58
Jasmine Price: Just don't give up. It can be tough when you're. I don't want you to say when you're first starting out. It's always tough. Just push through.

00:34:01 – 00:34:15
Jasmine Price: Just push through. Hard work will always win. Just give everything. Your best and you're all. I don't believe in shortcuts.

00:34:16 – 00:34:23
Jasmine Price: If you see me on a cleaning, I'm getting dirty. Hard work. That will always win.

00:34:24 – 00:34:53
Gresham Harkless: I love it. And I think so many times where I had somebody on the show and they said, you know, sometimes the biggest hack, the biggest quote unquote shortcut that you have is put in another hour, put in another hour of work. And like you said, you roll up your sleeves, you do the work. Not only does that help out, I think as far as going farther as a business, but I think that also sets a great example and a great sign of leadership as well, too, for the team. They know that our leader, the person that's the CEO, the owner, the founder, whatever it is, is actually rolling up their sleeves.

00:34:53 – 00:34:57
Gresham Harkless: And I think that helps everybody to be more bought into the mission as well, too.

00:34:57 – 00:35:21
Jasmine Price: Yeah, it's not about being a boss. It's about being a leader. And you can't be a leader without showing people how to lead. That's the biggest thing. And I always try To do my best.

00:35:23 – 00:35:42
Jasmine Price: At all the times, I got to my. Just do your best. No, slack and I mean, we got time to slack now. Now, it's no slack and it's gas. No, stay focused, get your hustle on.

00:35:42 – 00:35:45
Jasmine Price: And everything's going to work out.

00:35:45 – 00:35:57
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So truly appreciate that, Jasmine. So before we pop off, I got to hear about what we were talking about before we hit the record button. Tell me about this inauguration event.

00:35:57 – 00:36:11
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, talking about hustle, talking about gas, no break. You had a really great opportunity. She's posting loads of stuff on social media. So you had to tell us a little bit more about that experience and how you got it and what that ended up being.

00:36:11 – 00:36:14
Jasmine Price: Oh, okay. So the inauguration of 2017.

00:36:15 – 00:36:16
Gresham Harkless: The presidential inauguration.

00:36:16 – 00:36:43
Jasmine Price: The presidential inauguration, I was awarded the contract for the media hub. That was my first real contract. And it was awesome. So We actually were doing some marketing for the 1st time on. Yep, okay.

00:36:43 – 00:37:16
Jasmine Price: Yeah, it was the 1st time we were doing. Yeah, so it was a while ago. And they gave us a call to provide janitorial services for the media, which know, your CNN, Fox News, everybody. So we were down there for the whole week. It was pretty much the duration of the inauguration.

00:37:16 – 00:37:38
Jasmine Price: Just like cleaning up, pulling trash. It was a good experience. It was great. We had to go through the, what was it called, the little security, everything. I was like, oh, we got, so it was awesome.

00:37:39 – 00:38:10
Jasmine Price: It was a great experience. I learned a lot. I learned to be super detailed. I think like the last day we ran out like trash bags, which normally wouldn't be too big of an issue, but during the inauguration when all the streets are blocked off, it became a big issue. You can't go down

00:38:10 – 00:38:11
Gresham Harkless: to Walmart.

00:38:11 – 00:38:29
Jasmine Price: I couldn't get down the street, I couldn't get down the block, I couldn't get out the… So I mean, I learned, I had so many lessons learned. And that was my goodness. 2017, how long was that now that time? Yes, time flies.

00:38:29 – 00:39:02
Jasmine Price: Yes. We have improved drastically, but to be able to get that contract, I will tell you, my confidence level was on another planet. I was like, okay, if I can get this high security contract, it's up from here. Like, I was like, okay. And actually, at the time, I was still working full time for the government.

00:39:02 – 00:39:28
Jasmine Price: I was a contractor and I said, okay, let me put my resignation in. This is what I want to do. I was like, if I can do this on this level and keep everybody together. I mean, we had multiple cleaners working at 1 time. I think that was like the first time I really had a staff working nonstop.

00:39:29 – 00:40:20
Jasmine Price: So to be able to put that together, my confidence was like, okay, I can really do this. You know, it's like you're always at that unsure mark, but once you get it, you're like, okay, I got it. You know, I got it. I can do this, you know, and it's just about just believe in yourself. And I needed that confidence and I'm so happy that I got it early on, even though the check was nice but getting that that pushed kind of off the break on the commercial end of it it just kind of made my fears kind of go away.

00:40:20 – 00:40:44
Jasmine Price: You know, you understand that things happen, but push through like everybody else is going, I mean, there's. Nobody's perfect. You've got push through. Learn adapt. Pivot and that's that.

00:40:44 – 00:40:56
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, I love that. And especially, especially I can imagine the media people they're working 24 7 anyway. So I imagine just being around in that environment and cleaning up for that specific area to be crazy.

00:40:56 – 00:41:30
Jasmine Price: Networking with them and talking and speaking. I mean, they poured into me so much. It was just so many people that were like jaw drop when they found out I was the owner because I was always there working and had my staff and they were like, y'all, they were like, what? She's the owner? And I will never forget this.

00:41:31 – 00:41:40
Jasmine Price: 1 of the security ladies, she was so sweet, she started calling me

00:41:41 – 00:41:41
Gresham Harkless: and 1

00:41:41 – 00:41:58
Jasmine Price: of my cleaners at the time, Oprah and Gail. Because we were like playing off each other. I mean, we were just working so hard together. And so, yep. Oprah and Gail.

00:41:59 – 00:42:20
Jasmine Price: And then the last day of the inauguration, who walks in? Gail. So the security guard, that was the first thing she said. She's like, I've been calling these girls, Oprah and Gail the whole time. And I'm like, oh my goodness, like this is crazy.

00:42:20 – 00:42:41
Jasmine Price: But it was amazing. It was a great experience. I'm so grateful that I was able to do that and experience that. I mean we had to order all types of things that I've never had to order like hand sanitizer pumps. I mean it was like 30 40 of them.

00:42:41 – 00:43:12
Jasmine Price: We tried to be no trash cans like 20 30 trash cans. You know I've never had a contract that have required me to do those things. It's always great when you have a challenge and you look back and, hindsight, I crushed it. Now I know how to move forward with another contract. Or I don't have those problems now.

00:43:12 – 00:43:28
Jasmine Price: Hey, I know where to get the traffic. I know where to get the hand sanitizer, the hand sanitizer pump, the machines, you know, different things like that. So you just live and you learn and that's great.

00:43:28 – 00:43:52
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, that's awesome to hear, especially how like transformational that was. I think I'm a big sports guy, so I always think about how you play basketball growing up. And, you know, you continue to shoot your shots, you continue to practice, do the things over and over again. But then when you're in a game and you hit that shot, when you had that experience where, you know, you've been doing your business and then you have that opportunity and you crush that opportunity. And I love that you mentioned that everything didn't go perfectly either.

00:43:52 – 00:44:11
Gresham Harkless: You had to adjust, you had to go through those because that's how life goes. That's how business definitely goes, but you still were able to kind of persevere and you gained your confidence from there. So absolutely love that, Jasmine. And so I wanted to kind of close everything off by just hearing a little bit more on how people can get a overview about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

00:44:11 – 00:44:22
Jasmine Price: Okay. Great. So. If you want to Get in touch with me, I am on. Instagram at cleaning service.

00:44:22 – 00:44:41
Jasmine Price: D, and B, and we're also. On the web, WWW. Dot and many cleaning service. Dot com any questions. Anything you have a question, you have a business, you.

00:44:41 – 00:44:52
Jasmine Price: Just want to throw around some questions. I'll be. Happy to answer as best of my ability. Yeah,

00:44:52 – 00:44:59
Gresham Harkless: that's awesome. Awesome. And I know we're located here in Virginia, so I'm just assuming, but you, you covered the DC, Virginia.

00:44:59 – 00:45:09
Jasmine Price: I do. I do, yeah, we do PG County, Lorton, entire DC. Yeah, so.

00:45:10 – 00:45:29
Gresham Harkless: Okay, that's the edges. Okay, perfect, perfect, perfect. So of course we're gonna have the links and information in the show notes as well too so that you can get a hold of Jasmine, hear about any more awesome cleaning experiences that she has, find out of course about the awesomeness that is intelligent office that we get to record here as well. And of course, if you need any cleaning services. So Jasmine, I appreciate you for being on the show.

00:45:29 – 00:45:29
Jasmine Price: Thank you so much.

00:45:29 – 00:45:30
Gresham Harkless: You're very welcome.

00:45:30 – 00:45:32
Jasmine Price: Thank you. It was a pleasure meeting you.

00:45:32 – 00:45:35
Gresham Harkless: Thank you. Awesome. Have a phenomenal rest of the day