Commercial Cleaning podcast has Seattle business owner as guest

This is an interview with G.co Commercial Cleaning’s CEO and Founder Derrick Grim as a guest on Ralph Peterson’s “the Housekeepers Podcast” which streams live on most popular streaming and social media platforms. The Podcast Host Ralph dives in to Derrick’s background, and what motivated him to start a commercial cleaning business in the first place. They also speak deeply about the current state of the commercial cleaning industry, the current employee and hiring crisis, and more. This podcast gave some great insight to what created the culture here at G.co that has lead to our current level of success.

The Housekeepers Podcast with Derrick Grim

Full unedited A.I. Transcript

Ralph Peterson 00:01

Hello everyone and welcome to the housekeeper's podcast dare I say the cleanest hour in podcasting? This has been a whirlwind week for me I'm sure it's been a whirlwind world What am I saying whirlwind worldwide it's horrible when this week for you as well My guest today is all the way from Seattle Washington Mr. Derek Grimm the owner and founder of G co commercial cleaning How you doing Brock?

Derrick Grim 00:29

Doing well how about yourself

Ralph Peterson 00:31

I'm doing really good I you so appreciate you coming on the show and we're supposed to be on the show last week and then you know, I world fell apart and so I had to reschedule so thank you so much.

Derrick Grim 00:43

I appreciate you for having me. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm honored that you reach out to me

Ralph Peterson 00:48

Yeah, I'm excited to meet you because I was doing a little research you know when I was first reaching out to you and just really trying to find some people that I think would make good guests and it looks like you've got quite a great story you know, you're over there. In Seattle, you're still in Seattle, right? Yes, sir. And you guys are all focused on green cleaning. Which is that not accurate?

Derrick Grim 01:10

So it it is it is accurate we do have a green cleaning focus but as you know, nowadays it with you know, I'm not exactly sure which words are a trigger words on online. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, it's funny. Okay. But uh, but yeah, it's uh, we've had you know, we've had obviously you know, make some make some adjustments into some pivoting this this season. So

Ralph Peterson 01:36

1,000,000% it's a it's a it's a weird thing, because there is, green cleaning is a real thing. There's a real there's a lot of real natural clean errs out there. There's a lot of really environmentally friendly cleaner, not only cleaners, but also techniques, you know, the capital you're using, but it's about techniques, but the thing that I work in healthcare, and the number one thing you learn when you start cleaning and healthcare is there is no such thing as a green disinfected as

Derrick Grim 02:09

a green disinfect, and that's very,

Ralph Peterson 02:12

it's just,

Derrick Grim 02:14

I was gonna say, if it does exist, I have no idea. But

Ralph Peterson 02:17

yeah, I think the closest thing and this is and this is the opposite of the closest thing, but the closest thing I can think of is like hydrogen peroxide, which is

Derrick Grim 02:25

necessarily as green as you'd like. No, I'm just saying we've also had a history with that particular chemical in the in the cleaning industry. So yeah, we know that goes.

Ralph Peterson 02:37

Yeah, absolutely. So I you know, I'm sure you've listened to the show. So I'd love to just start right back at the beginning. Are you from Seattle? Is that where you grew up?

Derrick Grim 02:46

No, actually, I was born and raised in northern Louisiana and until I was about 18 years old, and I moved up here to Seattle, Washington to go to school and I've kind of just planted my roots or

Ralph Peterson 02:57

been here How was how was growing up in Louisiana?

Derrick Grim 03:01

Louisiana is an amazing place. It's beautiful. It's full of culture. It's It was a great place to grow up I love my upbringing. I loved being around you know jazz music and you know, parades and festivals is always a celebration for something so it's an it's an amazing place to grow up I loved it.

Ralph Peterson 03:18

I always wonder Yeah, I grew up in Vermont most of the time and I i was just back in Vermont because of a family death and we were up there but people go up there for the first time and they're like it's so amazing and beautiful I never see a things I always just wonder like you're like hey you know as a jazz and culture I I wouldn't I wouldn't have left the one square block I grew up

Derrick Grim 03:49

Yeah, I get caught easy to get caught up it's hard to see you know what's around you when you grow up in and when it's all you know, you get used to it and so I actually just took a vacation to Hawaii and we met a bunch of locals there and they you know they don't seem to even care that they're in paradise. They know nothing

Ralph Peterson 04:07

that's my point exactly they're like what sunset the sun as to funny so what was it like growing up like did you did you wouldn't What did you do in school? Did you do any side jobs at all? Were you Yeah,

Derrick Grim 04:25

in younger i was i was i would say very entrepreneurial spirit but I didn't have very many like examples of how to go about doing examples of how to go about creating an actual business especially as a young kid but I did all the things like selling candy washing cars and things like that, just to make money and usually never for any particular reason other than just to do it and I wouldn't spend it on anything but candy but but yeah, but it was always kind of my interest to be in sales or you know, creating some type of entity that creates money. For whatever reason, how do I do with business was?

Ralph Peterson 05:02

Yeah How old were you? How old were you when you first started like this little side hustle? I would get cash.

Derrick Grim 05:08

I mean eight or nine years old I would go wash my family's card just for a couple of bucks I could maybe get five or 10 bucks worth of candy from the corner store but yeah, yeah, are very early on, very early on, and that probably was paying my own cell phone bill since I was about 12 years old. So

Ralph Peterson 05:26

you know, it's so funny. I didn't have a cell phone when I was 12

Derrick Grim 05:31

I don't think you had the option. No, I

Ralph Peterson 05:33

didn't. I didn't get a cell phone. I think I was like 3435 years old so I might be a little older just a little bit just a tad bit.

Derrick Grim 05:42

Yes. A little bit. Regret though. You are great.

Ralph Peterson 05:44

Thanks. I appreciate that. You know, I run every day that's the secret. That's the seat

Derrick Grim 05:49

I'm gonna go run right after this.

Ralph Peterson 05:50

I gotta tell you to be careful because I ran in Seattle, I ran the Seattle marathon.

Derrick Grim 05:55

Oh really? Yeah, I

Ralph Peterson 05:56

ran it in 2019 in December it's it's the week between Christmas and New Year and it's kind of like the last marathon of the year like it's almost like the last day before the new year and so it's like touted as a for those of us who are crazy enough to belong to a group called marathon maniacs which kind of implies by its name that you have to be a little crazy to join the

Derrick Grim 06:23

marathon Yeah, you have to be a little bit crazy

Ralph Peterson 06:25

yeah and so you'd find you know generally just a bunch of maniacs out there trying to get their last marathon for the year you know?

Derrick Grim 06:33

Yeah. I played sports all through all through school and

Ralph Peterson 06:40

what are you doing what what sport what's your sport

Derrick Grim 06:43

my main sport was basketball but also did football and track did baseball when I was much younger but I've always been involved in at least two or three sports a year since since I was a kid so nine played heavily into you know me coming up here and deciding which school I wanted to go to and you know trying to pick which sports team I could maybe have a future with and and I ended up getting hurt and kind of finding my way around closer towards this industry in the actual the actual real working world where I started to get into sales and trying to use a little bit of what I went to school for. And yeah, now I've kind of fallen away towards the cleaning industry. I know that's kind of skipping a bunch but

Ralph Peterson 07:20

yeah, you just kind of skipped over a decade

Derrick Grim 07:23

I think No, it's okay. Yeah, probably a decade and a half or so. You know, you know, it's

Ralph Peterson 07:26

fun is that team sports are so important to the entrepreneur right when you get in if you haven't, you know so it's always it's always really interesting to me how people found their way just forget to the cleaning industry I just found your way into entrepreneurship into the way of starting your own business and starting your own thing is so fascinating to me. Did you have a nice hand like there weren't very many influences as a kid who maybe showed you how to run a business or start one you know?

Derrick Grim 07:59

Yeah, like the idea of starting a business owning my own company like that didn't come until way later in my life and I just never even thought it was an option for me. I assumed that it would take you know millions of dollars or you know 1000s of dollars at least to get started and you know I thought I need it so much. Yeah, so I just never even attempted anything anything serious until much later in my life.

Ralph Peterson 08:26

How do you have brothers and sisters?

Derrick Grim 08:29

I do have an older brother and two younger sisters. Oh, you're kind of in the middle you oh you're right. Right in the middle. Yeah, right. No.

Ralph Peterson 08:37

What about your What about your parents? What did your parents do when you're growing up?

Derrick Grim 08:41

My dad is a drafter designer he's he worked for Boeing for probably the last 20 or 30 years I worked for it basically doing the same in that same trade for yeah for for all my life as far as I know. My mom is a project court and was a project coordinator for I used to be capital postconviction project and she's on to do her own entrepreneurial endeavors nowadays but she was a project coordinator for the majority of my life

Ralph Peterson 09:10

that's awesome so that that kind of led lens to it too though right because your your parents were you know if nothing else is paving the way of you know put your head down and go to work and

Derrick Grim 09:20

get exactly yeah, that's definitely where I get it from the no excuses you got to do what you got to do get get your work done and you know, take care of things so

Ralph Peterson 09:30

you didn't you didn't collect like baseball cards or anything as a kid.

Derrick Grim 09:35

I didn't do baseball cards I did get heavily into Pokemon cards I was more my generation Yeah. Which kind of is has begun to resurface now. So but yeah, I've kind of always paid attention to trends and popular things. I just am culture a pop culture. Definitely always interested interest me and things that people collected and things that increased in value. So I was always into watches and stuff like Yeah, I think

Ralph Peterson 10:01

that's where I think that's where I first started. You know, just understanding the buy sell trade. You know, it was with baseball cards football cards, basketball. Yeah,

Derrick Grim 10:11

exactly. Basketball cards.

Ralph Peterson 10:12

Yeah, we're kids. It's all I mean, it was better than money, you know? Yeah, exactly.

Derrick Grim 10:16

You'd rather have the car. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, million percent.

Ralph Peterson 10:19

super funny. So why did why Washington you go to school? What were you going to school for? Well,

Derrick Grim 10:26

I was going to school, I initially went to school for electrical engineering. My father. My father worked for Boeing, which is based here in Seattle, Washington. So it was kind of the perfect opportunity to, for me to swap from mother to father and, and have an opportunity to go to Western Washington University as well which school up here for electrical engineering, I believe that I wanted to be an engineer my entire life. I mentioned I have an older brother, who was about seven years older than me. He is an engineer and incredible engineer, civil engineer. He graduated college with two degrees at the same time and got a physics degree in an engineering degree at the same time. Now work for the power company don't bounce off. But incredible engineer, and he's seven years older than me. So I wanted to be just like him when I grew up. So anything he said he was going to do I want to do, he was a basketball player, I want to play basketball. He was an engineer. I followed him all the way up until college and wanted to be an engineer. So but but yeah, so I would school for electrical engineering.

Ralph Peterson 11:27

Then you get into and you're like, what is that? Yeah, it

Derrick Grim 11:29

got really hard. Yeah. That's that's pretty that's that's pretty intense. So I mean, I did learn that they learned a thing or two. And even though I didn't finish, I didn't finish school. I did do some work as an electrical engineer. Some work as an electrical engineer for an amusement company. But it I just didn't like, I just didn't sit well in the field. Yeah. It wasn't what I was supposed to be doing.

Ralph Peterson 11:53

You didn't finish college?

Derrick Grim 11:54

I did not finish college. No. Me neither. Yeah. And I'm a college dropout. And I actually started my cleaning company while I was homeless. So

Ralph Peterson 12:07

yeah, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute, wait a minute, how do you start a cleaning?

Derrick Grim 12:14

Yeah, exactly. Yep, great and work. At the time I had, I'd lost a job. My left last job that I had was for a small weapons manufacturer, I just had gotten sick. And I'd spent some time in the hospital. But I'd never communicated with that with that employer that I was kind of dying in the hospital. And so they didn't hear from me for a month. So for some call, no show. Exactly. It was a no call no show. So But yeah, I lost that job and fell on hard times, really hard times. And I kind of just struggling with what to do and researching and that's where the kind of the, the idea of entrepreneurship or some way to just make make money just to make ends meet. You know, it's, it's an emergency now Now, I know, I need to figure it out. And so someone was kind enough to allow me to use their mud room, I didn't even know what a mud room was, until, until this, this person that allowed me to use their mudroom for me to kind of in my head at night. And it gave me a place to kind of watch YouTube and, you know, do research and try to figure out what it is that I could do to kind of take care of myself. And one of the main things that I found was just a phrase that someone said you had to be of service to someone else, you know, in order to be to be rewarded. And so that's all any businesses, there's just in services, someone else or providing some something to someone else that that they want. So you kind of have to think less about yourself and think about someone else and kind of just works out for you. And so that was the approach that I took the mental approach that I took. And you know, the only thing that I could think of that I could do with no budget was clean, clean for someone and so I figured if I do do a good job to not be able to do it for a while. And

Ralph Peterson 13:57

do Did you just to back up real quick. What what jobs Did you have going into this? You said you work for a little bit for electrical engineering a little bit? Yeah, immediately

Derrick Grim 14:08

out of immediate immediately out of college. I worked for at&t and Verizon as a sales rep. And

Ralph Peterson 14:16

it all as a teenager like did you work at McDonald's? Oh,

Derrick Grim 14:19

yeah, as a teenager I worked as a fry cook. I was a line cook for an Italian restaurant. I worked for another restaurant called Nacho Mama's bread, made salads and bread burritos and stuff like that. I was I've been working since I since I can remember I've always Yeah, good even into college. I was the I was part of the rest tech team that we helped everyone get their internet connection set up and fix noodles and stuff like that during lawn care.

Ralph Peterson 14:48

So you're now sleeping in a mud room and watching YouTube, on your phones. Yes. The other thing I didn't have when I was a kid.

Derrick Grim 14:57

Yeah, yes. Did you have the if you wanted to do research You had to go

Ralph Peterson 15:03

to the library I remember I remember this is how bad it was I remember the so I the first company I started was called collectibles for kids and I was selling baseball and football cards at trade shows and I got robbed like a guy like you know this one kid came up and was distracting me on one side of the table another kid came up and took you know half my you know my cards and two tables over while I'm freaking out this other guy's like oh I'm so you know we've seen that happen before sorry we should have told you see that's what YouTube is for right you can yeah

Derrick Grim 15:35

you can actually learn that lesson before you at least know where to keep it head on.

Ralph Peterson 15:41

Yeah, yeah you got to definitely keep your head on the swivel so YouTube is super great.

Derrick Grim 15:45

Yeah so hopefully but because of the times that the time that I was born in I have that that at my disposal to be able to research things and the things up watch other people and watch their experiences and learn from them so

Ralph Peterson 15:59

what was what was the first I love the idea by the way that you said hey I can do this for no money and I think that's so accurate you can you can step into a housekeeping or a cleaning position starting your own business just relying on well Don't you have your own claim of good cleaning chemicals already? Yes Don't you have your own rag? Yes, most people own their own vacuum good to go I'll run all of it for you

Derrick Grim 16:23

yeah I actually for the very first job that I got I borrowed the vacuum that was at the house that I that I'm staying

Ralph Peterson 16:32

that's even better even better. So what was the what was the first contract you had when did you first start cleaning

Derrick Grim 16:38

Oh, I had the very farmer my very first job I was actually it was actually a I just made a Google my very first Google listing or what have you and probably the third day that it was up I got a call from someone at a retailer in the mall near here's all the malls a Wet Seal I believe maybe seven years ago in the old world mall and they were kind of just doing some construction or remodeling and they wanted someone to come in and clean up and clean up yep just just kind of work that's exactly where I've been kind of fell into it so yeah when I went there I did a good job and I guess the the contractor had made some type of mistake and so they needed me to come back out and so I kind of got paid twice for doing the same things and I quickly got to see that hey there's some money in this I should start asking some more businesses to if I can clean for them and so then I kind of started to look into more research towards commercial cleaning and how to actually make a business and don't want to make sure that I was okay legally and so I looked up how to get licensed and insured insured and bonded and things like that so those are the next things that I did with that with that very first jobs money was what I think I they required that I have a million dollars in insurance and of course that baffled me when someone says million million dollars in insurance but back then I think it was like 50 bucks because I was the only person working so I was like I thought it was the end of the world and and I signed up reaching out to an insurance company and like oh yeah I'd be like 50 bucks a month I was like oh okay well great let's

Ralph Peterson 18:15

I got 50 bucks

Derrick Grim 18:16

yeah that's that's good money money for everybody but yeah know that Yeah, so that was kind of how I started I went and got my license and got insured and bonded and it was kind of off to the races

Ralph Peterson 18:30

were you able to a lot of times people are able to turn that you know that hey let that one and done job into multiple jobs were you able to get more work from that contractor or from that store?

Derrick Grim 18:44

Actually, we do still have a relationship the work is it's sporadic it's not you know, consistent but they do they're they're based in Houston Texas, actually and so every now and then they do reach out to us for jobs that they have out here so it's nice to have relationships like that but

Ralph Peterson 18:59

yeah, that's very cool. Very cool. And when How did you then you know, so you have a few jobs you finally got some legitimacy under your belt. How do you go start getting more accounts? What are you knocking on doors? Are you cold calling?

Derrick Grim 19:12

I did a little bit of I did a little bit of everything when it was just me and who's my operation manager now Maddie, we did a little bit of everything. We made flyers. We did handwritten flyers we did the door hangers. We We We knocked on doors we call called oh my god do we call call? I still cold call. I hear but there's no there's really no way to get out of it. especially nowadays.

Ralph Peterson 19:41

It's the best it's the it's the number one way I make money is to cold calls. Really? Yeah, I know. Nobody likes to sit legs. Nobody likes to swallow that pill. But it

Derrick Grim 19:50

doesn't surprise me but time and time again. That's the story that I hear is is that's that's how you build. Yeah, I absolutely hate it. But I wouldn't been able to get started I had not, you know, went through it. I mean, it's for you think about it when when you're starting out and it's those things that that are free that just are working out that that elbow grease things that you actually have to actually just do and get through those of the hard things to do. And those are the things that make you the most successful. So yeah, coke I'm not surprised that cold calling would be or

Ralph Peterson 20:20

even to this day, you know, and I remember when I first got into sales, I was like, you know, because cold calling is the hardest, the most terrible and I would make all kinds I would listen to everybody else like go those that doesn't work you know, you shouldn't be wasting your time with the everybody comes up with reasons on why you shouldn't cold call. And what I realized is that nobody was cold calling. I just thought you know, if you just sucked it up and started cold calling.

Derrick Grim 20:47

be the only one yeah. Only when you competition's pretty low.

Ralph Peterson 20:52

I remember I remember I did a poll on LinkedIn. And I said, Are you cold call in the morning in the afternoon? Are you cold call at all and the only reason I was asking that question was to find out when I should be cold calling because if every is like, I cold call in the morning, like I'm cold calling in the afternoon that I do not know what to do the morning. resoundingly everybody said I don't cold call out. I'm like, Alright, well, that it doesn't matter what time I do, cuz I'm the only one doing it.

Derrick Grim 21:16

Yeah, I fought against it for a long time, because I just thought it would give me almost an anxiety. Like, I would make a list. I'd write a script, and I practice it. And then I go to grab the phone and I start, I get cold sweats. It would be horrible. I just I hated it. But But yeah, those things that you that you grit through and that you work through, it actually end up being the most six things that bring you the most success. So I was like,

Ralph Peterson 21:43

I hate it every day I start, but once I get started, it's super easy. Yeah. And

Derrick Grim 21:50

it's super relaxed about everyone. Once you're in a you're in, once

Ralph Peterson 21:54

you're in it, you're like I'm just making calls, you know, at the end of the day, I'm just, it almost sounds like I'm not selling anything. I'm like, Hey, how's it going?

Derrick Grim 22:01

Good conversation, the next person. Yeah, and luckily, I learned that I was able to get into cold calling a little bit easier just because I had done sales for at&t and Verizon before which I started as just, you know, your regular the guy who would bug you in the mall to try to buy a cell phone back when you know, back when it was new, or whatever the new phone was, then I kind of became the guy you come to in the store. And then with the group were based off the Work Commission sales, so I were based on how many phones we could sell in a month. And this is before businesses even started to have, you know, cell phones or, or any type of technology out, you know, that you know, pertaining to cell phones or the internet within their company. So I was kind of among that first group of salesmen who would reach out to these trucking companies to sell them those the next tail or walkie talkie type situations. And I would bring those sales back to my office, my little small, my little small sales is the sales department for at&t. And, you know, like, when we would struggle to make sales for 15 phones as a team from behind the desk, I would bring in a 30 phone deal. And they'd be like, what the heck are you doing? And so I I got to sharpen my b2b sales skills in in in those arenas at those phone companies. So when I had the idea to clean I never thought of cleaning houses, I always thought of cleaning buildings. So that's kind of why I went either the post construction or commercial Working Class A buildings and stuff like that.

Ralph Peterson 23:36

That's very interesting to us gonna ask why commercial over residential?

Derrick Grim 23:42

Yeah, I went I just the idea of residential never seemed appealing to me. I felt like people would be really picky and there'd be no, there was never really a way to kind of have a consistent outcome or like, yeah, outcome from the client, the customers perspective, everyone's so different, you know, for like a commercial, there's a there's a standard to meet and you can you can, you know, go above above that standard, and everything's measurable a little a little bit more. Not to mention, the revenue is more consistent. And so it just made more sense to me from the beginning, the budgets are a little bit larger, not a little bit, a lot larger in commercial. And so that's the lane that I decided to it made the most sense. So I've stopped there.

Ralph Peterson 24:26

Another thing that I learned, you know, along the way, I think I've done everything I've done commercial cleaning, residential cleaning, school, cleaning church cleaning airport, Stadium,

Derrick Grim 24:38

I've tried it all Yeah, I've absolutely tried it all.

Ralph Peterson 24:42

One of the things one of the things that is really important to know is the bigger the account, the easier it is to run hell if the easier it is to clean. Yeah, this is because if you're using eight people a day, and two people call out you can still get it you can still get it done. Yeah. You If you're using two people a day and one person calls out forget

Derrick Grim 25:03

yeah it's now becomes a stretch yeah

Ralph Peterson 25:06

yeah you just lost half your staff you

Derrick Grim 25:08

know yeah exactly yeah exactly problem

Ralph Peterson 25:10

that's why I think commercial cleaning to me makes the most sense as well because it's so much easier to manage I mean if I if I have a call out and I'm a residential cleaner the residences aren't getting clean

Derrick Grim 25:24

yeah the residents working clean yeah that's there's no way around it

Ralph Peterson 25:29

No, there's no way around it.

Derrick Grim 25:30

I've always preferred the consistency of commercial so yeah the ability to be flexible with with with staff and having more staff on one foot when one spot you have more people that are that are kind of trying to make something work I feel like more people the more heads you have the better so that's Yeah, it was always worked better for me.

Ralph Peterson 25:52

I agree. And it looks like you do nearly everything I write you you do gyms you do all Class A offices. Do you do schools or anything like that?

Derrick Grim 26:02

We don't do any we don't do any schools currently. We have we did have a school under contract for a year a couple years ago. It's just not something that we went back into. But yeah, we've done a little bit of everything but right now we have gyms, we have arrows aerospace facilities, you know, but we're right next literally my office is actually across the street from the Boeing field. So I'm surprised that throughout this video there hasn't been a 747 or a Dreamliner, you know, cross and shake the building. But But yeah, we do a couple of aerospace facilities. You guys location then warehouses Exactly. We're in the perfect location for commercial so

Ralph Peterson 26:41

I live by an industrial park myself. Yeah. I was thinking I work in healthcare so I clean nursing homes hospitals Yeah, you know assisted living and

Derrick Grim 26:52

definitely steered clear of the yeah eliminated by you lately and it's kind of kind of got me wanting to dabble into in there a little bit.

Ralph Peterson 27:02

Oh, well, if you're interested in healthcare, we can talk I can tell you all about it. But my point is, is that with healthcare all healthcare facilities are spread out it's not like a hospitals next to hospitals next to another hospital. Hospitals are 3040 miles apart from each other. Yeah, in order to get what you know, that's not the same with like nursing homes you can probably get depending on your town you live in Seattle is a good example. It's probably good Lord 40 or 50 nursing homes inside of a tent in Seattle, so zero is a good location. But there are a lot of locations where it's so rural that healthcare facilities are just so far apart from each other you know when I was going by this industrial park and I just thought to myself well if you just opened up a small little closet slash office for a cleaning company you could own this

Derrick Grim 27:52

entire entire area you know,

Ralph Peterson 27:55

nobody's working after five six o'clock at night it'd be the perfect ideal time to go and clean all these every one of these industrial you know the factories over here they all have office space they all have floors they all need floor care you know what I mean? They all need their trash removed

Derrick Grim 28:12

Yep. And that's that's our specialty. That's literally exactly what we do we we sit in an industrial park that that was a client before we came here and we are now in every other we're surrounded by industrial parks sitting across the street from Boeing and so now they're all clients and we're kind of just branched out from

Ralph Peterson 28:34

smart man smart man till I see it too.

Derrick Grim 28:38

Yeah, I love it wouldn't wouldn't have it any other way and that's not to say that I don't think residential works at all less than this residential companies right next door that you know they're in the you know, 20 $30 million a year so of course some people can figure it out it just wasn't my wasn't my lane so yeah, no

Ralph Peterson 28:55

question I agree with you. I mean, healthcare is not for everybody Class A office buildings isn't for everybody, you know, health clinics isn't for everybody. You have to find, you know what works for you either. Yep.

Derrick Grim 29:05

And I initially avoided the the health care industry just because I feared the I initially feared my lack of knowledge. At the time, when I was first getting cleaned out. I didn't know a lot about, you know, contact times or, you know, microns per square inch, or, you know, whatever all the other things that we've now like that everyone's kind of familiar with now since the pandemic. And so now that we've all been kind of knee deep, and all of the ins and outs of cleaning and chemicals and stuff like that now if there's no reason to be avoiding it, so. So now I've kind of been playing me if I might go and knock on a couple of these nursing home doors,

Ralph Peterson 29:44

I got to tell you now is the time. Now is the time. It's one of those industries that healthcare is one of those industries that hasn't been very big on outsourcing. Most, most healthcare facilities don't outsource they don't outsource their cleaning

Derrick Grim 30:01

janitorial and

Ralph Peterson 30:03

the challenge with that now as as you kind of alluded to is number one the spotlights been placed pretty heavily on all your health care and the need for professionalism and knowledge is just increased by 100% I gotta say in 2019 you know short nearly two years ago if I would have brought up contact time I would have been looked at like I was like wasting people's time nobody cared nobody cared right?

Derrick Grim 30:31

Yeah you're preaching to the choir now everybody is your interest reach into the choir I couldn't get I couldn't get a potential client to listen to me from half of more than five seconds as I start to go into a clear loop a spiel about cleaning for health you know, they just like well can you make it shiny you know, like, that's all we need. You just make it shiny and I'm like, Alright, whatever you don't want because we were that was that's always been our slogan was cleaning for health like for years before COVID we were cleaning for health and you know we're trying to you know, sell people on the idea you know, we used to have the filtration and you know, we know disinfecting microfiber and nobody cared you know, now they're quizzing me on what I know like what do you know this and what chemicals are you using you're not mixing this with that and and but yeah, it's it's it's it's kind of interesting to watch the industry industry kind of flip upside down like that it's been it's been fine and I'm happy to say that I was here before and after so it's

Ralph Peterson 31:29

it's been the best thing and the worst thing in history you know, I had somebody recently question the water temperature of my mop suck it up your Mop Bucket Yeah, they wanted to know how hot the water was in the mop bucket and I said it's not hot it's your words know how hot it was? Yeah, they wanted to know if we're going to make sure that we're cleaning the floors with hot water and I explained to her that we don't clean the floors of hot water we actually clean the floors with cold water because it's an VTC

Derrick Grim 32:03

now you would clean the floor with the hot water

Ralph Peterson 32:06

well that's so that's the rabbit anyway yeah, that's the rabbit hole I decided to jump down with her because she's like I don't think you're right i don't i think it has to be hot water and I said well what temperature hot water because I've never seen a mop bucket with a plug you know? Yeah, I supposed to plug the mop

Derrick Grim 32:26

you got fans that I lean heavily into technology you got heated over there that you were doing stuff so different level there?

Ralph Peterson 32:37

That's a It's a whole new it's it's so it's so bizarre. You know, like I said, That's why I mean it's like the good and the good. Yeah,

Derrick Grim 32:44

I think net net it's a good thing that that now more people are educated and now it's made selling easier for us. So which we needed to during the pen during the pandemic so great. A great yeah, it's been great. It's been great for the industry

Ralph Peterson 32:58

in staffing at this point is I mean, literally, if you have staff who are

Derrick Grim 33:04

ahead of the game you are Yes, yeah. It's staffing is horrible right now. It's, it's horrendous and we it's it's been a struggle for us. It's been a huge struggle for us. So we're lucky to have the people on staff that we have, I'm glad that the culture and within the company is are just not the type of people who want to stay at home or want to, or kind of just sit around and do nothing we have the type of culture that that's full of people who want to work and want to get after and want to make a difference. So I'm blessed in that manner. And I'm thankful for it. But yeah, definitely not the same.

Ralph Peterson 33:40

Recruiting is a is about I think, you know, I keep I've been First of all, I've been working in cleaning for more than 20 years and I've always been short staffed so

Derrick Grim 33:49

it's Yeah, I mean, we've always there's always that now before this, it was a turnover if it wasn't, you know, we weren't getting applicants so there's always staffing issues, there's always some staffing issues to solve. So yeah, so

Ralph Peterson 34:01

it's it's nothing really new to us and it's not always

Derrick Grim 34:05

it's always a challenge. It's always a challenge. I

Ralph Peterson 34:09

would say with some understanding, you know, not everybody wants to be a cleaner right and that's totally fine. You know, I'm under the under the Hey, if you need something for now come to work for me, right? I'm great now, you know,

Derrick Grim 34:22

yeah, exactly. And we usually stick to people who have full time jobs or other part time jobs. And those tend to be the people with the you know, that fit the culture that they just want to make extra. We found that it's we when we tried to target or go after people that have no no work whatsoever, nothing going on at all. We get a lot of no call no shows or they're not even show up for the interview or come to the interview and then never show up or we never hear from him again. And so any

Ralph Peterson 34:53

Do you have any thoughts as to why that is?

Derrick Grim 34:58

I mean, I guess it If you're already if you're already working then you may be inclined to maybe be young maybe you have some goals and you're just trying to figure out how to reach them and people who aren't working yet or are just trying to fig just trying to figure it out from the start i'm not i'm not exactly sure I could I couldn't tell you I really couldn't tell you but it just it just seems to be that way.

Ralph Peterson 35:23

Yeah, I don't know why they're to be honest. But I do have a theory I've been thinking about it a lot because we understand we have a so our challenge in healthcare is we don't clean dirty clean at night we clean during the day and so it's a full 37 and a half hour or 40 hour a week job it is a full time seven to 330 in the afternoon job that's cleaning and health care in nursing homes anywhere and and senior care in hospitals there's a lot of night care but a lot of night cleaning but not not in nursing homes, not senior care. And so we're having this big challenge with getting people to show up for work show up for interviews and I'm just I just started to realize that you know what, I think what the number one problem is they don't need to work because otherwise if they needed to work they would be so people just simply and I don't know how or why or you know what their rent situation is, but I don't think people just need to work i don't i don't know why that didn't work. But it doesn't make any sense to me otherwise, because if you didn't have money and you didn't want to work you're in real trouble. Yeah, but it's a little bit of money and you don't want to work maybe you're okay maybe all right yeah, maybe a little bit's enough i don't know i know

Derrick Grim 36:38

that may be the unlock of this this whole error is that people realize that they never did need a whole lot of money to see how to be happy and they just really would rather have more you know what they call work life balance I guess or no work life

Ralph Peterson 36:55

balance a work life askew Yeah exactly. Exactly a little bit of work a lot of life which is not a bad model I just I just wonder if if we've maybe hit you know a utopia that the the utopia of imagine you know, like I was a kid I remember like my grandparents retiring I remember my grandparents retiring and they were finally going to be able to do whatever they wanted right? They were finally going to have free days and it's not just going to be a Saturday and Sunday where they're having to go paint half the house or fix the car or mow the lawn they're actually gonna have time and I wonder if that's it I wonder if because the wages are going up so much. And maybe the expenses are staying super low that people are finding that utopia where they can where they can live off of two days a week three days a week? I don't know I can't be working at I don't know yeah

Derrick Grim 38:06

80 or 7080 hours a week so i i don't know maybe it could be the results of a good economy I mean the economy was great for so long. That kind of could be the result of having that type of stimulation so the reason

Ralph Peterson 38:23

I even bring it up and you know trying to try to figure it out really is because I think it's up to you and i i think it's up to the business owner I think it's up to us to figure out how to you know because let me say it like this if the truth is that nobody wants a full time job anymore that everybody just can work full time part time and they can live off a part time and only buddy everybody's only interested in part time then I'm going to adjust my business card only hiring workers you know I mean

Derrick Grim 38:56

yeah, I mean yeah, a lot of my staff already part time we're mostly part part time and it just because it works out that way so and I think it's you know, easier to to move someone who's already moving than to get someone from from a dead stop. So

Ralph Peterson 39:14

yeah, no, quite I had a friend john Who said I never win the battle from the couch. So if somebody

Derrick Grim 39:22

Yeah, from the couch, there from the garden is not a good probably gonna stay not working. Right. Yeah. That's a fact. I wholeheartedly agree. wholeheartedly agree,

Ralph Peterson 39:32

we got to figure it out. But we got to figure it out.

Derrick Grim 39:35

We got to figure out we really don't have a choice. I mean, we've always had staffing issues. So yeah, we we have to figure it out. I mean, whether it's we have failed with what the appeal is to the people and what they want out of out of employment now in this new new normal that we live in. And as employers, I guess yeah, you're right. It is up to us to kind of provide that form. And that's how we've always kind of led with that employees, employees first kind of mentality with it. what's what's gonna be, you know, what's going to make this as? Not necessarily an enjoyable but you know what's going to be the most beneficial for for both for both parties and keep the employee happy

Ralph Peterson 40:12

with the just off top your head like what's the average age of your workforce right now?

Derrick Grim 40:18

It's all over the place we'll find out but what's your

Ralph Peterson 40:21

average? Is it in early 20s, early 30s older

Derrick Grim 40:27

so we usually don't have anyone in the 27 to maybe 35 or 36 range we usually don't get that that young, it's usually young, maybe for right out of high school or college 18 to 24 and then we'll have you know, 45 to you know, 6060 years old.

Ralph Peterson 40:55

Yeah, okay, so same with me. Really? Yeah, that's that's pretty much the same. Yeah, for

Derrick Grim 41:00

some reason, we haven't been able to, to, you know, infiltrate that middle that middle age group for employees.

Ralph Peterson 41:08

Yeah, and the younger you know, 18 to 24 are just passing by. Yeah, exactly. And you know, you get somebody 4045 they're usually the best which is super interesting because you may be you may you may be you know this but there's a there's a law on the books called it's a age discrimination. So there's an age discrimination law that you're not allowed to discriminate against people because of their age, and it doesn't come into effect until people turn 40 and the reason it's so funny when you think about it, because it's the last class of people that we would discriminate against is right

Derrick Grim 41:50

yeah, the ones that we

Ralph Peterson 41:53

bring me bring them all tire and 40 year old 40 plus but when the law came out in like the late 70s it was business practice was to hire to fire 40 year olds and hire 22 year olds so they would take those new college kids and and fire all the 4045 year olds and so they literally made a law just thing I know that that I know and you can't discriminate against people over 40 and it's so tough it's talking about a change a time

Derrick Grim 42:30

yeah yeah. Oh super funny I did not know that very That's hilarious over

Ralph Peterson 42:37

here. Anyway so so what's next for you guys you guys are doing looks like you guys are doing really well let's say you have a lot of accounts you're really busy.

Derrick Grim 42:47

Yeah, we are really busy. It's just we're kind of being really picky with with clients that we take on because of the staffing issues now we we used to be able to kind of take whatever job kind of come comes our way and anything comes up new clients but now even you know even two three year contracts we have to turn down just because of the style of of of it and we don't want to run into any staffing issues during this era. We don't know what to expect. So we've been really picky with saying yes to only certain types of jobs. So we can make sure we have enough lead time to make sure it's properly staffed. And everyone's properly trained. It's hard it's hard to take those medium size size jobs now or smaller jobs where you would have those one or two cleaners and things like that so yeah, it's it's been difficult we're just kind of taking it day by day as as anyone else can see and how how the industry comes back and how the world comes back. So that's

Ralph Peterson 43:49

recruiting then your number one focus right now then, I mean,

Derrick Grim 43:54

nope, sales is always our number one focus. Sales is always our number one focus.

Ralph Peterson 43:59

Yeah, you just no longer taking

Derrick Grim 44:01

a smaller account. Exactly. Yeah, no, we're not No, we're not we're no longer accepting the smaller or medium size.

Ralph Peterson 44:07

It's pretty common. I think that's pretty common. Where you get you just get to a certain size and you start understanding how much easier it is to run bigger accounts.

Derrick Grim 44:16

It really really is. Yeah, it really

Ralph Peterson 44:19

makes complete sense. I see some of your floorcare though you guys have posted a few pictures of the floor I'm a big fan of floors by the way I'm

Derrick Grim 44:26

slow isn't the most important spaces and these are the most most important that's

Ralph Peterson 44:30

most it's it's it's more important than a clean toilet and when I say that, not to lose your mind. But I'm like I'm telling you, you're gonna see that toilet go to three 510 how many people see that lobby floor

Derrick Grim 44:45

everywhere, everybody everywhere every single but yeah, very true. But I will say that the toilet will will probably cost you more customers than your

Ralph Peterson 44:59

you know, it's interesting. Is and again I work in healthcare and healthcare is a really unique situation where you have both the customer and the employee spending an equal amount of time at this place and what's really interesting is how the clean dirty aspect of your workspace affects the employee yeah yeah and so at some point the customer is super important of course but your customers IN and OUT IN and OUT IN and OUT seeing it once twice you know maybe once a week whatever the employee seeing it every single day and if it's less than desirable place clean because Morrow kills morale

Derrick Grim 45:46

kills it is really difficult to work when you your aesthetic is kind of down it affects your emotions where well it's like empathetic creatures in that sense your your your your your surroundings are gonna affect your mood and your your moods gonna affect your performance or your efforts and yeah, it all plays into it and we sell that so

Ralph Peterson 46:07

yeah, you got to focus on that that's super smart. I being in my position I'm blessed with having the opportunity to see an awful lot of service entrances right a lot of people want to take me around and show me stuff I'm always very grateful I love it but I walk into a service entrance and see like it's all you know the employee break room is just a piece of junk brown like you guys are doing it wrong

Derrick Grim 46:32

you're not okay

Ralph Peterson 46:34

okay it's got to be bad it's got to be as good if not better than the customer experience because your customers in and out Yeah, exactly. Employees are there every day every care of your employees. Yeah,

Derrick Grim 46:46

exactly. Korean and people who will send their employees and have them sitting and filled and wonder why no one actually wants to come to work it's bit it's because it's disgusting.

Ralph Peterson 46:56

Yeah, listen, here's the thing. Just a little tip for those who are not sure if they're on the spectrum here of whether or not they're treating their employees well and I'm going to give you a minute to give you a little acid test here Here it is. If the furniture when you get new furniture and you give the old furniture to your staff staff break room another chair matches right or half broken there there's pieces of paper underneath the table leg to even it out yeah that's you putting the employees after

Derrick Grim 47:35

we talk we tell our clients is that we want we want to to get you on the other side of your employees foot flushing in your in your facility you don't want you don't want to poop marks on your toilets. They shouldn't they shouldn't have to feel like they need to flush with their feet.

Ralph Peterson 47:52

That's that. That's interest I do not flush with my feet. But you'd be surprised how many people do I know I do lift the toilet seat with my feet their foot Yeah. I do indeed. And and I have a friend Ray who he was maybe the first person I ever see just kind of like legit flush anything with his foot. And I mean urinal like how your leg up to your head to press that lever.

Derrick Grim 48:23

That's a flexible gun.

Ralph Peterson 48:26

It's a flexible guy. I'm like wash your hands anyway Aren't you I mean are you avoiding washing What are you doing? To avoid washing this doesn't work no you always watch the details but he always uses his feet I'm like

Derrick Grim 48:45

everyone want to go near it or

Ralph Peterson 48:47

overkill? Oh good all Seattle.

Derrick Grim 48:53

Yeah, I love it here. I love it. It's beautiful. It's definitely a contrast from where I've where I grew up. You know going from completely flat hot and humid all the time to pretty brisk snow capped mountains year round it's it's beautiful scenery on sunsets are gorgeous on the west coast. The people people here are lovely. It's It's great. I love being out here.

Ralph Peterson 49:15

You know what you have there to other than a lot of hills. Like I mentioned I ran a marathon in Seattle.

Derrick Grim 49:20

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, you got to write a few sounds straight up straight down. Yeah.

Ralph Peterson 49:26

There is a there is a Oh gosh, what is that called? The pier right there. You have a pier.

Derrick Grim 49:33

It's super famous. You have a fishing pole on it or officiant

Ralph Peterson 49:39

Yeah, you have a fishing pier where there's a fish store that is super famous and I can't think of the tykes place. pikes, is it pikes?

Derrick Grim 49:48

Yeah bikes Yeah.

Ralph Peterson 49:50

I. Here's the thing about pikes. And this is going back a few years ago because it was I read a study on on pikes, but So I don't know what it's like today. But at the time, they had something that nobody had. They had a ton of people wanting to work for them. Like there was a waiting list for people to go to work for this. Pike's Pier, the fishing, where you pick up the fish, and the way that I heard the story was what makes it so significant, other than Of course, anybody wanting to work some places has worked. You know, when I was a kid, I grew up in Fremont and Ben and Jerry's had just opened up. And everybody wanted to go to work for Ben and Jerry's like everybody and it was like rumors like you got free ice cream you gotten massages, like all this stuff. Like I have no I never worked there. I just it was

Derrick Grim 50:48

it was these rumors that it was an amazing place.

Ralph Peterson 50:52

Right, so Okay, so pegs pier has, like, this waiting list of people want to work there. And the story I heard is to understand how terrible the job is. It starts at like, three, four o'clock in the morning, you're unloading fish off of off of a boat, by the way, the fish are packed in ice. So it's freezing cold, it's backbreaking because they're heavy.

Derrick Grim 51:16

It's not a fun job. It's the job, they still have a line of applicants of people waiting in waiting.

Ralph Peterson 51:27

Exactly good. And the question is, why? Do you know why everybody want to work and wants to work there?

Derrick Grim 51:36

I couldn't tell you I would

Ralph Peterson 51:38

it's because the culture is fun. Because when somebody orders a fish, you don't want to throw the fish and so they're always showing these pictures of fish being chucked over lying across the aisles they're catching it and newspaper and it's fun and it's exciting and you're making people smile and laugh and I you know I bring that up only to say if they can make fish mongering if that's the thing it's called whatever it's called. If they can

Derrick Grim 52:11

make that fun one of the most sought after jobs right we should certainly

Ralph Peterson 52:14

be able to make clean Yeah, I think one of the biggest challenges we have in the cleaning industry other than our reputation is terrible you know because nobody wants to be a cleaner Yeah, but other than that I think that especially in healthcare is everybody works so low so I you know we don't work in teams at all We sell you're going on that way you're going on that floor you're going on that floor you're going to take the lobby you're going to take the you know what I mean? And so they don't and then in healthcare we don't allow you to wear headsets and so we can't you know you can't even be bought a wrap

Derrick Grim 52:50

yes yes.

Ralph Peterson 52:53

So it's it's terrible it's terribly more difficult to build that fun community you know, can't wait to get to work to hang out with my friend kind of atmosphere when

Derrick Grim 53:06

everyone's kind of off doing their own thing as the job yeah. But still I mean that I mean that there's still something to be said for that that culture that you know, this this is still had a Dave obviously figured out a way for for that and they're the they're the vibe of that entire that entire market and everything else is the way it is kind of that energy builds from right there and you can tell and so if you can recreate that in your company, no matter in some some fashion, then we should all you should be able to have some success.

Ralph Peterson 53:37

On a side note to that that's my dad would have never tolerated right in the beginning. Had we thrown fish in the house, you'd be like cut it out, and I would have been the end of it.

Derrick Grim 53:48

Yeah, no business would have been no, no fun.

Ralph Peterson 53:52

There'd be no books, no videos made nothing. My dad would have put an end to that fish

Derrick Grim 53:59

one fish. And that was the end of that.

Ralph Peterson 54:02

Whoever whoever embraced it, you know somebody had

Derrick Grim 54:06

somebody just embrace it. Because that's usually what it takes is the it's not one crazy person is that second person is that second crazy person that that usually creates the whole movement. Now it helps create that whole movement. somebody does something to witness the second person is like, Oh, yeah, do that.

Ralph Peterson 54:21

Exactly what I want. I want to meet that guy. Like who is it that size fish flying around him? That's not terrible. I like it. Good to get another customer in here as we get around.

Derrick Grim 54:37

Yep. Yeah, it was great. Yeah. I love being out here. I love cleaning these spaces out here. There's a lot of incredible companies that I really would like to get into and I love being around business now. Once after being in business for the past seven years. It's I've come to just love business in itself cleaning is obviously my my where I got my start but now we've moved on into media have started the media company didn't know that yeah yeah I actually started NINE Media Creative it's creative studio that now sits behind Chico in this space that we're in right now. So we have a media studio just next door but yeah I fell in love with just the idea of business and running businesses and and helping people who you know started a little bit closer to where to where I started to actually kind of make make a living for themselves and so now that's what I'm doing now and that you know, through my media company and through my YouTube channel where I help me or others cleaners that people who kind of want to think about getting into into the cleaning business I'm kind of there to be a guide and be another one of those voices like I was able to turn to when I when I first started researching what can I do to make some money or how can I make a living and so that's kind of where my my focus is now I've leave a lot of the day to day stuff to the to the operations manager I know she hates me for that but but yeah, I kind of oversee more of you know, how how things are going on from a more upper level position now

Ralph Peterson 56:15

that's really a great you know, you said in the beginning, we first started to talk you were talking about how one of the first things you really heard about in business is that you really have to focus on service and how that's kind of been the driving force Yes, kind of the thing that you understand the most and I wanted to comment on it right away I just kind of been sitting with it you know as we've been just talking here, but I think like isn't that the way it's supposed to be like if you worried about me and I worried about you, we would have we'd all be taken care of we would all be taken

Derrick Grim 56:53

Yeah, I'm reminded of the that those those weird fable even remember where I heard it are a story of people on an island and their arms are made of spoons really long spoons. In this this two sets and I guess you know, one island they all die because they're all trying to feed themselves with too long of arms a spoon so they can't really eat and on the other light Island, they all they all live and prosper these properties prosperously, because they feed each other with their long arms and made a spoon so I think that's the West rest of the world thought like that we'd be able to kind of feed each other and helping help each other out.

Ralph Peterson 57:26

But even more heard that story.

Derrick Grim 57:29

I don't know where I heard that weird story of people with spoon hands, but I heard it somewhere stuck with me It stuck with me. But yeah, I think that's that's a mentality that more of us should adopt.

Ralph Peterson 57:39

Yeah, I just saw a video of a of a teacher who put like filled a hallway full of balloons and all the kids names are on all the balloons you see that I go find your own balloon and nobody could find

Derrick Grim 57:55

their own balloon and then everyone take up a balloon and you give it to somebody

Ralph Peterson 57:59

Yeah, and of course you know exact seconds

Derrick Grim 58:03

exactly that exactly that

Ralph Peterson 58:05

and i think i think that is the it's not unique to you and I think it's actually the driving force behind business owners behind entrepreneurs and I think that's what people don't see you know, they think of capitalism and and money hungry

Derrick Grim 58:24

Yeah, no, it's being of service to someone how much value can you bring to the market how much value can you bring to someone else? You know, those people that people are all like, I hate this person they make so much money I don't have to make that much money but I see that and I'm like wow, they must have helped are given you know, happiness or whatever they provide to so many people like they should be rewarded in that way. Because that's the only way imagine imagine you just giving your money to someone that doesn't do anything for you. You're not going to do that you got to give someone to your money to someone who's providing you with something is giving you something that's either going to make you happy or help you advance in some some other type of way. But that's what it starts with whatever you can do whatever you're good at, if you have a talent or a skill if you apply that to help someone then there's your business it doesn't matter what it is.

Ralph Peterson 59:09

Agreed agreed I couldn't have said it better. I think that's the it's certainly my motive. My motive. I mean, I love I'm an educator you know so yeah, my wife's an educator you know, like we just love to teach I just I'll show you how to tie your shoes I mean it can be that I mean I like that you know anything I just enjoy it. It's just fun for me and it gives me a lot more than it probably gives the people I'm working with you know, I get a lot of joy out of helping people so I think that's the start of a great thing right there. Obviously seven years later, right?

Derrick Grim 59:43

Yeah, yeah, it's been it's been a great one. That's the mentality we went through. You know, starting we've applied that mentality to bring it on employees. It's how you How can we be of service to you how can we make this opportunity good for you? And it's it's worked on all fronts hasn't failed me yet. So be of service Someone else and everything else kind of falls into place.

Ralph Peterson 1:00:02

I love it. And I know that we're short on time here but I do have to just bring up one question because with the name like grim how you didn't go grim cleaning and just go with jiko I don't know like, how did you pass up grim cleaning like,

Derrick Grim 1:00:17

I tried so if you saw if you saw if you emailed my other email, you'd see that it's Grimm Corp that was the original name of G co that was the what used to be Grimm Corp. I just didn't think it sounded very happy you know?

Ralph Peterson 1:00:33

does not sound happy that just didn't

Derrick Grim 1:00:35

sound very happy jiko

Ralph Peterson 1:00:41

grim we're happier than we sound No.

Derrick Grim 1:00:49

I love it.

Ralph Peterson 1:00:50

I love it too funny. So how do people get ahold of you? How if somebody wants to work with you if they want to work for you? Is there a website and email what's the best way?

Derrick Grim 1:01:00

Yes If you want to work for us you can apply you can find us on Facebook at Chico commercial cleaning or all the other social medias at Chico

Ralph Peterson 1:01:07

clean Is it g.co or just g co straight across if

Derrick Grim 1:01:11

you're on social media or on the web it's just g g co commercial cleaning comm if you want to reach out to us for you know a quarter anything or if you're you're looking for work out here in the Seattle area we've got plenty of work for people out here. Reach out to us submit an application we'd be happy to work to bring in an interview with you

Ralph Peterson 1:01:33

perfect by the way I just require you to show up I don't care if you fill in an applicant yeah

Derrick Grim 1:01:40

maybe just shy just as public if you google us you could just show up at the front door we got plenty plenty uniforms we throw a uniform on your guitar and

Ralph Peterson 1:01:51

I'm just clarifying I've just clarify

Derrick Grim 1:01:52

absolutely no fear in the thinking about getting into the cleaning industry and you're looking for a guide or maybe someone else has experienced to watch I've been filming my experience and what I've been doing for the last two and a half years on YouTube so you can go and find me on youtube at TJ the boss of a few $1,000 now yep that are the boss family my boss and so shout out to the boss family a lot of those guys are watching on YouTube right now on my on my YouTube channel. So join us a bunch of like minded entrepreneurs who are just trying to figure out our way in this industry so but yeah, you can reach out to me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, all that stuff all over the social medias

Ralph Peterson 1:02:32

perfect perfect. Thank you so much for coming on and I'll have all of your contact information in the show notes when this comes out as a podcast and we'll link it right to right to this video right when this is over I'll put all your your links in there as well so if anybody wants to reach out to you at all, they can

Derrick Grim 1:02:49

awesome I appreciate you so much well thank you so much for having me.

Ralph Peterson 1:02:52

Thank you so much for being on I really appreciate hearing your story and learning where you came from and I mean you're just proof once again and every every week I get to have this opportunity to just once again meet some incredible people who was homeless living in a mud room for those of you who don't know what a mud room is by the way that's between the front door of the house that little space called a mud room it's where your shoes where

Derrick Grim 1:03:21

you take your shoes off in Yeah, before you go into the actual house. Exactly. People with money make some stuff in place to just take his shoes off before you go in the house. I was like this is a whole room I was I couldn't sleep. I was like man like can I sleep

Ralph Peterson 1:03:40

I just saw a video I just saw a video of an artist this this goodness where where were they they were they were somewhere I don't know but they they were having this whole renovation where you know the builders are taken up all the all the spots and they found this little room in a mall that's unused and they decided to live there and they lived there for like four year slots. Yeah, in a mall. In a random room no more years because there was a room that was created accidentally but and a bunch of artists found it like they had they had water power television.

Derrick Grim 1:04:27

Yeah, the ingenuity. I mean, you gotta respect the ingenuity.

Ralph Peterson 1:04:32

Really? Do you really do. Thank you so much for being on I really appreciate it. That's it the housekeeper's podcast. Make sure that you like and follow let me go ahead and change my point of view here since she abandoned me Let me see here. Let me see. Oh, hey, Nope, that's not it. That's not it. That was the wrong one. Here it is. Here we go. housekeepers podcast. Thank you so much for tuning today and I will see you next week make sure you like and subscribe and share and you know what do good things and good things.

See more of ralphs show at www.thehousekeeperspodcast.com