1 00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:03,320 All right, welcome everyone to Blue Collar Start up, the 2 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:05,600 podcast where hard work meets big ideas. 3 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:08,400 This is your home for real talk, real stories and real strategies 4 00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:11,160 from the front lines of life in the business of the trades. 5 00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:15,120 I'm your host, or one of them I should say, Mike Nelson from 5 6 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:18,080 Towers Media. And I'm your other host, Derek 7 00:00:18,080 --> 00:00:21,240 Foster of Daigle Cleaning Systems Care Clean of Saratoga. 8 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:23,600 How you doing, Mike? I'm doing well, man. 9 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:29,880 I'm doing well, you know, just fresh off of many hours of snow 10 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:34,360 moving and shoveling and snow blowing with the, I don't know, 11 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:38,120 almost for the snow that we got over here in Saratoga County. 12 00:00:38,480 --> 00:00:43,080 Yeah, I, I heard and, and we where I, where I was, we didn't 13 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:46,280 end up with any. And I was in the snow belt 14 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:49,120 yesterday and making the trip back and I was waiting for a 15 00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:51,440 huge snowstorm but didn't see any. 16 00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:54,320 And then I hear, you know, Saratoga, you guys got hit 17 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:56,520 pretty good so. We got crushed. 18 00:00:56,520 --> 00:00:59,880 Winter's here early. Yeah, we got crushed. 19 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:03,560 I still got, I've got a roof that the the snow does not shed 20 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:05,840 off of the the roof. I got to go out and shovel it 21 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:10,600 and it's it's easily over foot because I didn't touch it after 22 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:12,960 the last storm. You got one of those roof Rakes. 23 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:17,120 No, no, no, I well, I shouldn't say that I have one. 24 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:24,600 It doesn't do shit. It like the angle of where 25 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:27,560 you're at in the ground versus where the roof is, the length of 26 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:30,760 the roof, rake the whole thing. Like you can get like the top 2 27 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:34,280 inches, but as soon as you need to like really get some snow off 28 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:36,360 it, it doesn't work. So I got to go up there with a 29 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:39,000 shovel. I pitched the snow off the roof 30 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,000 onto the ground. Then I got to come back through 31 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:43,680 and shovel and snow blow to get it off the the patio. 32 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:46,920 It's it's a pain in the ass. Well, if I can give you some 33 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:51,280 advice it would be don't fall. Good advice. 34 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:53,480 Wear. Wear harness right, tie off. 35 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:59,320 I actually fell on the roof 'cause it's a a seamed metal 36 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:02,200 roof, so like once even. Worse. 37 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:07,080 Oh, once you get underneath the snow, man, it is it is so slick. 38 00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:10,560 And last year I knew it was going to happen eventually. 39 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:12,840 And I like, you know, did the whole thing where you're up in 40 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:18,160 the air and you come down and like right, the one of the seams 41 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:20,280 in the roof, like right into my arm. 42 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,120 And I was like, Oh my God, I just broke my arm. 43 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:25,680 I, I, it hurts so bad. I thought I broke my arm, but no 44 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:30,560 breakage, just a, a nice bruise. And hopefully I don't do that 45 00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:32,040 again, but. Yeah, yeah. 46 00:02:32,480 --> 00:02:35,520 Don't about you, man. You're, you're, are you kind of 47 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:40,520 fresh back from vacation? Yeah, we, we decided to, to pack 48 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:42,600 up and go away for the holiday Thanksgiving. 49 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:45,640 And it was it was nice, but still playing catch up. 50 00:02:45,640 --> 00:02:49,760 And it's good to be back too. You know, it's always nice to to 51 00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:53,560 come home so. You know, isn't that the worst 52 00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:56,160 about being? And this is for anyone 53 00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:58,880 considering owner business ownership. 54 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:03,520 Vacations are the worst. And like you, you have to like 55 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:06,520 triple the work you do before you go on vacation so you can 56 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:10,680 enjoy the vacation. And then when you get back, you 57 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,400 got to dig out. It's like you, you got to again, 58 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:15,720 you got to triple your work effort for the week or two after 59 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:17,720 you get back. It's there's such a cost to 60 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:20,120 going on vacation. I did a yeah, I did a lot of the 61 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,040 work up front this time just because I did want to, you know, 62 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:25,800 spend as much time as I could, you know, with the kids and and 63 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:29,600 whatnot. But I still stay on, on my 64 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:32,440 e-mail couple times a day, you know, making sure that things 65 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:34,640 are going well, people are communicating and, and we're 66 00:03:34,640 --> 00:03:37,840 getting done what we need to, you know, it, it never really 67 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:39,560 goes away. And honestly, I'm able to stay 68 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:42,440 on top of things. So if a customer or client needs 69 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:44,120 something, we can get right on it. 70 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:47,600 You know, I'd rather do that then come back to, you know, 71 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:51,200 seeing things that might have slipped through and, and I'm 72 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:54,040 just, it's my mentality. That's how I've I've always 73 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:56,120 been. So I stay caught up and it's not 74 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:58,720 as bad when you get back, but you know, there's still 75 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:03,040 definitely enough to do get back to where I was. 76 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:09,680 So obviously that we're not talking about vacations, but I 77 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:11,080 know today's show, we're going to talk. 78 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:14,800 You know, we had we had a guest on a few weeks back talking 79 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:17,959 about robotics in robotics in the trades. 80 00:04:17,959 --> 00:04:20,399 And you know, we wanted to kind of do a follow up episode and 81 00:04:20,399 --> 00:04:23,040 bring you on and talk about it because you have implemented 82 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:24,920 some of these solutions in your company. 83 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:30,080 And so I want to get into that. But before we do for some of our 84 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:33,080 newer listeners, I thought maybe what we should do first D is 85 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:37,200 kind of backup and just kind of give them a quick overview of 86 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:42,120 who you are Daigle cleaning systems and and then and then 87 00:04:42,120 --> 00:04:43,280 we'll get into the robotics side. 88 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:47,520 Yeah, absolutely. So I've owned in and operated 89 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:51,320 Daigo Cleaning Systems with my mother Michelle, since 2011. 90 00:04:52,240 --> 00:04:54,600 We've grown over the the course of time. 91 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:57,320 And if anybody wants to hear the full story, jump on the Blue 92 00:04:57,320 --> 00:04:59,560 Collar Podcast and take a listen. 93 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:02,360 You know, it's been a really fun journey. 94 00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:05,560 I love the industry. I love working with people. 95 00:05:05,840 --> 00:05:08,080 I love seeing people grow and develop, you know, through the 96 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:10,680 organization. We work with a ton of wonderful 97 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:14,280 clients and you know, it's really, we have a lot of fun 98 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:17,560 doing it. We provide complete building 99 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:20,280 cleaning services, window cleaning, carpets, floor care, 100 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:22,560 post construction cleaning services. 101 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:26,680 Really we're problem solvers in the the world of cleaning is how 102 00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:29,600 we like to look at it. So if a customer comes to us 103 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:33,800 with a an issue or, or needs something fixed or a solution 104 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:36,720 put in place, we can typically find the answer. 105 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:38,120 And, and we don't like to say no. 106 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:40,960 So you know that that's really what we do. 107 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:46,360 You know, we are starting to get into some different verticals 108 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:49,840 within the industry. We started a kitchen exhaustive 109 00:05:49,840 --> 00:05:53,360 cleaning portion of our our business a couple years ago. 110 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:56,920 That's been going really well. We've we've grown quite a bit on 111 00:05:56,920 --> 00:05:58,880 that end. We serve as restaurants and 112 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:02,320 maintain their exhaustive cleaning compliance for the 113 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:05,400 jurisdictions locally. And that's been a lot of fun as 114 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:07,040 well. Something new, different, 115 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:11,800 exciting, but still within the same realm of what we're doing, 116 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:15,360 you know, and we're, we're always looking for ways to 117 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:19,000 improve our services, to offer new services that benefit our 118 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:21,400 current customers and better ways to do things. 119 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:26,520 So, you know, that kind of ties into the robotics portion of it. 120 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:31,040 Mike, that that you brought up and you know, Bob Caldarella, 121 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:34,120 who was, who was on the show, I've known him for a while now 122 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:38,960 and I've learned a lot from him. He is an expert when it comes to 123 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:45,440 robotics and implementating implementating them not so much 124 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:50,680 back of house, but now in front of house operations for 125 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:52,440 businesses of all shapes and sizes. 126 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:57,080 So, you know, back of house, traditionally you would look at 127 00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:01,440 a production line or you know, even back of house in a 128 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:04,000 hospital. They've been using robots for a 129 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:07,160 number of years to perform surgeries and complete different 130 00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:09,040 tasks than a a hospital setting, right? 131 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:15,000 But now the shift is starting to move to where these robots are 132 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:19,120 so sophisticated that they can actually work alongside 133 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:23,480 employees and be a compliment to their current job role. 134 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:27,040 And they're also customer facing because they're they can be in 135 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:30,120 the waiting rooms, they can be at the front of the restaurant, 136 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:33,560 they can be in the lobby of a building vacuuming a floor. 137 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:37,200 So you're starting to see the progression in that industry. 138 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:41,160 And you know, I've learned a ton from Bob and, you know, his team 139 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:45,280 at at Clear Focus. And we've implemented a number 140 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:49,200 of those robots into some of our facilities for for customers who 141 00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:53,400 it was a good solution for. Again, we're always looking for 142 00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:58,520 ways to improve what we're doing, ways to ultimately reduce 143 00:07:58,520 --> 00:08:01,200 the operating costs, be able to save our customers some money 144 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:03,200 while delivering a better result. 145 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:06,640 And it's been a key part of what we've been doing for the last 146 00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:08,400 year and a half. So yeah. 147 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:14,360 So I've got a couple questions on the robots I want to back up 148 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:16,880 real quick. You know, I know you've been in 149 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:22,320 business since 2011 and I think was it 4 years ago that you 150 00:08:22,320 --> 00:08:26,440 bought another cleaning company in the area? 151 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:30,960 It was not the ideal time. It was during COVID. 152 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:37,480 I want to say 2021-2022 right in that time. 153 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:39,120 Yeah, somewhere around there it was. 154 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:42,360 It was mostly when we around the time we started the podcast, 155 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:47,280 like it was a little bit before that, but yeah, so and it's it's 156 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:49,760 care cleaner Saratoga. Yeah. 157 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:55,560 So we, I was introduced actually through a a customer of ours to 158 00:08:55,560 --> 00:08:59,320 one of their clients. And, you know, she was, had been 159 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:03,880 in the industry for a period of time and was looking to, to do 160 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:07,440 some different things, had a couple other business ventures 161 00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:09,040 going on that you wanted to get involved with. 162 00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:14,440 And, you know, we met and we actually ended up taking over 163 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:17,680 her staff and, and book a business and allowing her to be 164 00:09:17,680 --> 00:09:21,720 able to retire. And, you know, that was the the 165 00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:23,880 first time that I had ever done something like that. 166 00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:26,120 So completely outside my wheelhouse. 167 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:30,960 I kind of learned as as I went, but you know, we were, we were 168 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:33,440 able to work together and do what was best for the customers 169 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:36,120 and, and her employees. And you know, it worked for 170 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:39,040 everybody. So worked out good. 171 00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:42,240 And you know, we rebranded the, the original company was Care 172 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:44,600 Clean. So we just added Care Clean 173 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:48,880 Saratoga and you know, we brought that and added it to our 174 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:50,960 brands. Seeing as we do service 175 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:56,320 Saratoga, we do a lot of work north of the Twin Bridges from 176 00:09:56,520 --> 00:09:59,320 you know, Clifton Park all the way up north to Warrensburg. 177 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:03,040 So we are, you know, expanding in those areas. 178 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:06,160 A lot of people think because we're based out of Albany that, 179 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:09,240 you know, that's our our main market, but we cover the entire 180 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:15,880 Capital Region. I know I want to excuse me, I 181 00:10:15,880 --> 00:10:19,720 want to do a separate, entire separate episode with you 182 00:10:19,720 --> 00:10:21,800 talking about the acquisition itself. 183 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:26,280 I think that that's a really interesting topic and for 184 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:29,000 companies that are out there in the trades that are looking for 185 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:31,520 expansion ideas, you know, obviously you can grow through 186 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:34,840 new client acquisition, but you can also grow through buying 187 00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:37,280 other businesses and adding them to your portfolio. 188 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:40,160 And I, I want to spend some time on that, but obviously today 189 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:42,200 we're talking about robots. Yeah, absolutely. 190 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:48,520 But you know, I, I, I just wanted to touch on that before 191 00:10:48,520 --> 00:10:53,480 we move back to robots, though. What, when you integrated Care 192 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:56,960 Clean of Saratoga into Daigle Cleaning Systems, did that 193 00:10:57,680 --> 00:10:59,880 'cause you're what, you're 200 employees right now? 194 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:02,000 Yeah. Now we're we're right around 195 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:06,480 that 200 mark a little bit over. And did that, like did it, did 196 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:09,080 it give a big boost to the employee count or was it? 197 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:15,680 Not, not really, you know, with that one that that was, you 198 00:11:15,680 --> 00:11:19,960 know, we ended up with probably 1010 new staff members some full 199 00:11:19,960 --> 00:11:24,960 time, some part time. You know, again, I, I mentioned 200 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:28,760 earlier, I love watching people grow and we actually have our, 201 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:32,240 our director of operations now, Jamie, Jamie Crown. 202 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:34,240 She'll, she'll be embarrassed that I'm mentioning her name 203 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:37,640 here, but we should really get her on the on the show as well 204 00:11:37,640 --> 00:11:41,440 at some point. She's been an integral part of 205 00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:44,280 helping us grow over the years and she's grown a lot 206 00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:49,800 personally, you know, and has done the work to get to the next 207 00:11:49,800 --> 00:11:52,320 level. She started off and came on 208 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:57,800 board with us from that that deal where she was technician 209 00:11:57,800 --> 00:12:00,480 and was cleaning post construction houses. 210 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:05,400 And you know, I saw that she had some basic skills that could be 211 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:07,960 developed and now she's our director of operations. 212 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:12,320 You know, you Fast forward four years and you know, it's 213 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:15,520 incredible to watch the growth of people when they have the 214 00:12:15,520 --> 00:12:20,080 opportunity in front of them. You know, you know, as much as 215 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:23,760 as much as anybody, you can put the opportunities out in front 216 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:25,600 of people all day long, but at the end of the day, it's up to 217 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:29,320 them to seize the opportunity, put the time in, put the effort 218 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:31,400 in. Just like anything in life, if 219 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:34,200 you want to be successful, you have to work hard at it, put 220 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:37,720 yourself in a position to be successful and do the work. 221 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:41,320 And she's done it. So you know, again from from 222 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:47,280 that standpoint it was you know very valuable the employees that 223 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:50,280 that we did bring on. Yeah, amazing. 224 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:52,000 Yep. All right. 225 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:53,960 Well, thanks for letting me go off on that tangent. 226 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:57,400 I just wanted to make sure I asked about Care Clean and 227 00:12:57,400 --> 00:13:00,400 again, I want to do a whole episode just on at business 228 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:01,760 acquisition and what that looks like. 229 00:13:01,760 --> 00:13:03,720 I'd love to hear about your experience going through that, 230 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:08,880 especially for the first time. So you were mentioning the 231 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:15,920 robots and one that really popped in my brain was you're 232 00:13:15,920 --> 00:13:20,320 talking about hospitals and waiting rooms and having robots 233 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:23,680 being able to be like around people, like in a waiting room 234 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:26,600 or whatever. Just tell me how that works. 235 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:28,280 Like you got people walking through a waiting room. 236 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:30,080 You got this little robot scooting around. 237 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:33,560 Like how does that not like run into people or or commute 238 00:13:33,560 --> 00:13:36,680 safely? We could do a whole, I could 239 00:13:36,680 --> 00:13:42,760 talk for days on this, but so real, real high level the the 240 00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:46,560 robots are there. There's a couple different 241 00:13:46,560 --> 00:13:48,280 things. They will do exactly what you 242 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:52,840 tell them to do. So it's not like you take it 243 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:55,480 out-of-the-box. The robot just goes and does its 244 00:13:55,480 --> 00:13:56,920 thing. It doesn't work that way. 245 00:13:57,320 --> 00:14:02,160 So there's there's human interaction with the robot. 246 00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:06,960 And you know, what we've done on our end is created a position 247 00:14:06,960 --> 00:14:09,440 within our company where, you know, we have somebody who's a 248 00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:12,280 robotics expert and we train them and, and we give them the 249 00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:14,480 tools that they need. They have to do the work again, 250 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:18,200 back to that, But they learn, they learn how the robots 251 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:19,840 operate. They they learn what needs to be 252 00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:22,280 done. But Long story short, you take 253 00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:24,600 the robot out-of-the-box and then you tell it what to do. 254 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:28,920 And they are very literal. So they will do exactly what you 255 00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:31,000 tell them to do when you tell them to do it. 256 00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:36,480 And the memory on the robot. So picture a full computer, 257 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:39,880 touchscreen tablet computer built into the robot. 258 00:14:39,880 --> 00:14:42,160 And that's exactly where the technology is today. 259 00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:44,880 A few years ago that wasn't there. 260 00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:52,520 Now the interface on these is so complex and so well developed 261 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:58,720 that, you know, in our world we create a full map of whatever 262 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:03,560 building or facility is there. Terry Hubbard from Peak 263 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:05,560 Environmental, he talked a little bit about it with the 264 00:15:05,560 --> 00:15:08,520 lawn care robots. They run off of a satellite. 265 00:15:08,520 --> 00:15:12,680 So you know, the satellite, it it shoots up a signal to the 266 00:15:12,680 --> 00:15:15,960 satellite generates a map of the area based on the cameras of the 267 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:22,200 robot, similar concept indoors. What you need to do is select 268 00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:25,200 your starting point. So you scan AQR code essentially 269 00:15:25,520 --> 00:15:27,400 wherever you want that point to be. 270 00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:32,640 And then you move the robot throughout the space and it 271 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:35,360 generates a map with Lidar technology. 272 00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:39,720 So it'll shoot out, you know, Lidar and sound waves and 273 00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:43,680 develop that map. Once you have a map developed, 274 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:47,800 you then whatever area or task you want it to do, you create 275 00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:50,280 that, in our case, a cleaning area, right? 276 00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:54,960 So you actually physically can draw that on the touch screen 277 00:15:55,280 --> 00:16:00,040 and you create that box, you add any fall zones, any specific 278 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:04,960 things that need to be blocked off or areas that may may not be 279 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:09,360 needed to be done. And you create that cleaning 280 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:11,760 area. You put a task to it. 281 00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:15,920 So the robots that we have, his name is Scrubby, by the way, are 282 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:19,120 four in one, are four in one. I didn't come up with a name. 283 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:22,760 It is it is trademark though by the manufacturer. 284 00:16:22,760 --> 00:16:30,240 But we, you know, you, you program them and you have the 285 00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:32,600 starting point, you create the map, you select a task. 286 00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:36,400 So the four in one robot, it sweeps damp mops and auto scrubs 287 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:40,840 floors and, you know, vacuums carpet as well as scrubs, tile 288 00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:42,440 and grout. So it'll actually perform four 289 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:45,080 different functions. So once you have your area 290 00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:47,600 mapped out, then you select whatever function you want it to 291 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:51,880 do in that area. It saves all of this on its own 292 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:56,400 internal memory, but it can also be uploaded into the cloud, you 293 00:16:56,400 --> 00:16:58,760 know, via Wi-Fi. So the robots run off the Wi-Fi 294 00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:02,080 indoors or they can run off a mobile hotspot, whatever the 295 00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:04,920 setup is. And then you're set. 296 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:07,640 You can schedule a time for it to go out and do that task in 297 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:11,160 that area. You can schedule multiple 298 00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:13,440 different tasks to be done in different areas. 299 00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:17,040 And really you just, you work with the robot to customize it 300 00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:21,440 up front to what you need it to do and it will do exactly that. 301 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:26,119 No more, no less. The functionality is incredible. 302 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:33,240 So, you know, we, we did a demo for a, a potential large 303 00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:38,240 customer in the healthcare space the last couple days and they 304 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:42,040 were like, yeah, we're, we're a little concerned about salt in 305 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:45,160 our entryways. And we said, OK, it happened to 306 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:47,160 be snowing, so there's salt all over the sidewalk. 307 00:17:47,160 --> 00:17:49,720 So we said, OK, we'll go out and we'll manually vacuum it with, 308 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:55,240 with the robot. And we picked up two trays of 309 00:17:55,240 --> 00:18:00,000 salt that was embedded in the carpet that a normal vacuum 310 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:03,000 wouldn't pick up. So the functionality of the 311 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:06,400 machines is just as good as the technology. 312 00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:10,320 You know, HEPA filters, solid components. 313 00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:15,840 I mean, it's they're really, really well built machines and 314 00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:18,760 it's all there now. You know, a few years ago, it 315 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:21,520 probably wasn't all there, but it's gotten to the point that 316 00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:27,200 the technology can save real labor and fill a lot of gaps 317 00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:32,440 where, you know, facilities might be lacking, you know, due 318 00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:36,080 to labor shortages or just due to other time constraints, 319 00:18:36,120 --> 00:18:39,680 certain areas not being able to be accessed by a human at 320 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:41,760 certain points. You put a robot there and guess 321 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:42,600 what? That's automated. 322 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:44,880 So there's a number of different things. 323 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:48,560 And for us that we found, you know, not every facility is a 324 00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:50,600 good fit. You know, you have to have large 325 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:53,840 open areas. It doesn't completely replace 326 00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:57,160 the human. I don't think it ever will in 327 00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:59,480 our industry. They are developing a robot to 328 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:02,040 clean bathrooms, but it's not quite there yet. 329 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:06,200 Yeah. So again, there's that human 330 00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:10,240 robot interaction and working it into the, into the program to 331 00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:12,920 say, OK, well, the robot's going to take care of all of the stuff 332 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:15,400 that can be automated. But we still need a human to 333 00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:19,320 vacuum under the desks, to vacuum under the chairs, to take 334 00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:21,760 care of the high dusting, to take care of the spot glass 335 00:19:21,760 --> 00:19:23,440 cleaning, right? There's so many different things 336 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:26,440 that happened within a facility. You plug it in where you can, 337 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:29,520 you automate what you can, and then the rest is supplemented by 338 00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:33,720 human labor. You know, they there's robots 339 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:36,480 for parking garages, for sweeping parking lots, 340 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:39,400 warehouses. There's one for secure delivery. 341 00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:43,320 There's a wheeled out meat product that's out there that'll 342 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:48,680 do heavy lift and will carry carts and transport materials 343 00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:52,240 and supplies from one end of a warehouse or a healthcare 344 00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:54,960 facility to another without a human touching it. 345 00:19:55,840 --> 00:19:58,240 It knows where to go. It's programmed, it goes. 346 00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:01,760 And I mean, you know, some of these employees are walking 347 00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:05,360 hundreds of miles a week. Oh yeah. 348 00:20:05,840 --> 00:20:08,080 Right. And that and the long run it 349 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:10,200 wears out. The employee could become a comp 350 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:11,920 case. You know, there's a number of 351 00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:17,880 things that you know the robots will save in the long run and 352 00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:20,600 allow the humans to do the work that requires thinking. 353 00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:23,160 If that makes. Sense no, it does it. 354 00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:26,000 It actually reminds me of the conversation with Terry that we 355 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:31,840 had with the Mobots where he was saying that rather than worrying 356 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:35,040 about his team members doing a lot of the just the mow and go 357 00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:38,840 type work, it allowed his team members to focus on more 358 00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:42,040 detailed stuff more like, to your point, more thinking work, 359 00:20:42,040 --> 00:20:46,680 right, Like the, the landscaping and the, you know, mulching and 360 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:49,680 whatever's going on, right. So it it kind of sounds same 361 00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:55,400 thing for you. Is it the scrubby is handling a 362 00:20:55,400 --> 00:21:03,000 lot of the, you know, no mopping the floor, right? 363 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,560 So scrubby's mopping the floor for you while your team gets to 364 00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:07,400 go. Then focus on the detail work. 365 00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:10,680 I would have to it. It's going to increase their 366 00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:13,240 time of production because now they don't have to worry about 367 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:15,760 doing that whole work. It's happening at the same time. 368 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:18,720 So now you're less invasive with your clients because you're 369 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:21,000 there for a shorter amount, shorter amount of time. 370 00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:25,080 So to go back to your question about wouldn't they run into 371 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:28,640 people? So all of the robots are built 372 00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:33,120 with cameras 360° around at least the ones that you know, 373 00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:38,920 we, we work with. And I have yet to even see them 374 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:43,000 come close to hitting anybody. They're settings built in that 375 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:49,440 will detect motion or an object 5 to 10 feet in front of them. 376 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:53,040 And they'll actually, you can choose for whether you want the 377 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:59,120 robot to stop and divert, to gradually divert and go around 378 00:21:59,120 --> 00:22:03,480 the obstacle or just stop completely. 379 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:06,200 You know, you have that choice as the operator. 380 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:12,360 It'll document in its memory that exact spot in the map where 381 00:22:12,360 --> 00:22:15,720 it had to divert, and it will go back and clean that spot when 382 00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:17,520 it's clear. Really. 383 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:18,840 It will. Yeah. 384 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:23,400 So what I, that's what I mean by the, the functionality of these 385 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:26,400 being so sophisticated at this point. 386 00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:29,040 And we've had at, at different conference, we did the 387 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:32,800 healthcare conference a few few months ago, We had our 388 00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:39,520 ultraviolet disinfection robot in the booth with Scrubby and we 389 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:41,840 programmed Scrubby to have a cleaning area and we just let 390 00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:45,480 Violet run around and you know, move around and however it 391 00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:50,000 wanted to. They never hit in a 10 by 10 by 392 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:53,560 10 area. They came close, but they never, 393 00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:56,200 never would touch each other. Interesting. 394 00:22:56,560 --> 00:23:00,480 It was very impressive. It is. 395 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:05,200 And for us, you know, I, I really like this the the 396 00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:10,520 technology aspect of it and figuring out how we can deliver 397 00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:14,000 for our customers and move them into the future. 398 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:18,480 That's exciting to me. So if we we have the ability now 399 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:22,640 to even facilities with their own EVs staff or their own 400 00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:27,680 janitorial programs, we can go in, take a look and help them 401 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:32,360 figure that out. So now we have the ability to 402 00:23:32,360 --> 00:23:36,600 help not only the customers that our traditional services were a 403 00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:40,760 good fit for, but now we have the ability to help folks who 404 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:44,800 had a different solution put in place, you know, and work with 405 00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:47,600 them to help institute that within their own program. 406 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:50,400 So it's really opened a lot of doors for us over the past year 407 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:52,200 or so. Yeah, I know. 408 00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:54,600 Well it's, it's I know you and I've had obviously had 409 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,560 conversations about this stuff. And you know, I thought one of 410 00:23:57,560 --> 00:24:01,080 the interesting things about this was and exactly what you're 411 00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:05,480 talking about is even if, well, I should back up a little bit 412 00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:08,720 previously before you implementing the solution in 413 00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:11,600 your business, if you went to a company that already had their 414 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:14,920 own in house maintenance staff, they're going to be like, yeah, 415 00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:16,320 we have our own, we do it in house. 416 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:18,880 We don't need you, right? And now the door's shut and 417 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:21,280 there's no no business relationship there. 418 00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:24,040 But this gives you the opportunity to say, Hey, I'm not 419 00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:26,880 here to replace your staff. We're going to augment what 420 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:30,040 they're doing to make them be able to focus on detail work 421 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:32,800 while Scrubby and Violet handle these things. 422 00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:34,960 And I just thought that was really cool. 423 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:39,920 Or in the case where someone is having trouble staffing their 424 00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:42,520 maintenance department or their janitorial department, right. 425 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:45,480 And you can go in and either support them with your humans 426 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:48,040 and your robots or just augment them with robots. 427 00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:50,280 And now that staffing problem is solved. 428 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:52,640 So it's, it sounds really wild, man. 429 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,080 Like what A. Yeah, we could be a resource. 430 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:57,480 And you know, again, I, I love talking about this stuff. 431 00:24:57,480 --> 00:24:59,480 So if anybody does want to reach out and, and have a 432 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:02,120 conversation, see if see if robots are right for your 433 00:25:02,120 --> 00:25:06,000 facility, I mean, happy to talk to anybody about it, but it 434 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:10,960 really is a good way to solve a lot of problems quickly and with 435 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:13,920 intention. And yes, there's a cost to the 436 00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:19,400 robots, the return and the value that we see it's paid back in 437 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:22,400 6-7 months. So, you know, at the end of the 438 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:28,160 day, now you own an asset that is now producing and able to do, 439 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:32,240 let's say you know, you have a, a staff member who goes and 440 00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:37,720 vacuums a carpet once a day. Well, now for a fixed cost, you 441 00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:41,840 can go and vacuum that carpet three times a day with zero 442 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:43,400 additional cost to your bottom line. 443 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:47,040 So it's just a a more efficient way to operate and it's 444 00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:50,160 exciting, it really is. Yeah, I it, I mean, I'm not even 445 00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:52,120 in janitorial, but it sounds really cool. 446 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:58,360 The I question I had for you is let's pretend I, you know, again 447 00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:02,080 waiting room. Someone spills an iced tea like 448 00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:06,000 can can you do like an on spot thing where you like trigger the 449 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:13,120 robot to go out and clean that? So you you could the new version 450 00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:15,600 of Scrubby. The Scrubby Pro actually has 451 00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:20,440 spot cleaning detection built into its AI platform. 452 00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:25,400 OK, so as it goes and moves throughout a facility, it can 453 00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:30,560 identify spots, spills and and stains, target them and clean 454 00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:35,280 them. However, that area would need to 455 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:37,480 be programmed as part of that cleaning area that I mentioned 456 00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:40,040 before. So there's two things you can 457 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:43,240 either, yes, have the the robot take care of that when it gets 458 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:45,240 to it. But if somebody spills an iced 459 00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:48,800 tea on the the carpet, you know, most of our customers like, hey, 460 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:50,920 we got something going on here, can you get somebody over to 461 00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:52,720 take care of it? And it's like, yeah, we're, 462 00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:56,000 we're on it. So again, the traditional 463 00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:59,120 method, you know, the robot's probably not ideal for that 464 00:26:59,120 --> 00:27:03,600 right now. You can use the robot manually 465 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:07,800 as well to go over and use it as a machine to go machine scrub 466 00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:11,120 that spot on your carpet, treat it and take care of it in the 467 00:27:11,120 --> 00:27:12,960 moment. But you still need the human 468 00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:14,880 behind it. Still need the human there, OK. 469 00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:17,040 Sure. All right, so as humans are 470 00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:18,880 safe, at least for a little while longer anyway. 471 00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:24,320 Yeah, listen, I don't again it. There's always going to be the 472 00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:27,960 critical thinking aspects of any job, right? 473 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:34,000 Are always going to be or the the areas that are difficult to 474 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:39,000 access or are not commonplace, repetitive mundane tasks. 475 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:41,240 There's always going to be the human element. 476 00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:48,000 So at least in in our business, you know, I know it and I see it 477 00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:52,600 as an opportunity for people, you know, who are interested, 478 00:27:53,680 --> 00:27:58,240 you know, in robotics to really get involved and learn. 479 00:27:58,480 --> 00:27:59,480 You know, there's a big learning curve. 480 00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:01,600 I mean, we've been learning these machines for a couple 481 00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:04,960 years now and are finally, and there's new things that we 482 00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:08,040 discover every time we go out and try to solve a problem with 483 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:09,920 them, you know. Oh, I didn't know it could do 484 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:12,400 that. Well, there you go. 485 00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:16,760 You know, and it's so there is a long learning curve and anybody 486 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,360 that is interested, I would encourage them again, if you 487 00:28:19,360 --> 00:28:21,080 want to reach out. I'm happy to have the 488 00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:23,360 conversations. But you know, there is going to 489 00:28:23,360 --> 00:28:27,080 be a big opportunity, I think, over the next few years for 490 00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:30,040 people who know how to operate these robots. 491 00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:35,480 I'm curious from, you know, for our listeners that maybe they 492 00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,960 have a janitorial company, they're, they're thinking about 493 00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:40,920 introducing this into the picture, but still trying to 494 00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:42,880 figure out like where they would use it. 495 00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,160 I, I guess along those lines, I actually have a couple of 496 00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:55,160 questions #1 like what kind of business are you work? 497 00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:57,880 No, we said healthcare. So like hospitals and you know, 498 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:01,840 your urgent care facility or whatever, what, what other kind 499 00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:03,320 of buildings are you putting these things in? 500 00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:07,680 Office buildings has been the latest. 501 00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:11,880 It has to be the right fit. Again, depending on the amount 502 00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:17,000 of open space and the ability to see a real labor savings or 503 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:20,200 reallocation of Labor. It's important so you know, you 504 00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:23,120 can't just go through and stick a robot in any building and say, 505 00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:25,280 OK, we're, you know, we're set, right? 506 00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:28,080 There's a lot of strategic planning, There's a lot of 507 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:33,440 partnership with the customer to walk them through the process 508 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,840 and show them and get them to believe in the technology and 509 00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:40,360 what's there. So it's not just, hey, here's 510 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,680 what we're doing it, it's really there's, there's got to be buy 511 00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:46,080 in, you know, on the part of the customer as well. 512 00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:48,440 And, and they got to have confidence, right. 513 00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:52,880 So we, we try to walk them through the process as simply as 514 00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:57,360 we can, show them the robots, show them other cases where, 515 00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:01,480 hey, we've been, we've had a lot of success here with this and we 516 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:03,160 make it interactive for the customer. 517 00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:07,120 It's not always the case. Not everybody has time for that. 518 00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:11,480 But you know, I do recommend for anybody who is a facilities 519 00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:14,760 manager or in facilities management or operations 520 00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:17,400 management to start taking a look at some of this stuff 521 00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:20,880 because it is going to become relevant very, very quickly. 522 00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:24,600 And the only way to make an informed decision is to 523 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:29,200 understand how the technology works from a basic level and 524 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:33,480 just to look across your own horizon and see what's there and 525 00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:37,680 where that could maybe eliminate some of the the sticking points 526 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:41,760 for your team. For, for listeners that maybe 527 00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:45,400 have a janitorial company or, or, or maybe they're thinking 528 00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:49,360 about starting one or whatever. Do you think that let's pretend 529 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:52,480 I've got a small residential cleaning company I want to get 530 00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:58,400 into the commercial space and would would implementing the the 531 00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:02,520 robotic solution help them to be able to perform there? 532 00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:05,680 Or is there too much of a low learning curve do? 533 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:07,840 You, you're, you're talking about two different things. 534 00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:13,360 So the, the residential cleaning side of the business, which 535 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:19,400 which we do, we have, you know, a lot of residential clients and 536 00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:22,160 we, we go in, we'll clean their houses monthly by weekly, 537 00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:25,360 weekly. Brittany, who's our, our local 538 00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:30,800 franchisee, She's done a great job building her business and, 539 00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:32,840 and working with our systems and processes. 540 00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:37,200 And, you know, she's done a, a really nice job, but two 541 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:41,960 different animals, two different types of, of businesses. 542 00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:47,040 One is, you know, more structure around a smaller environment, 543 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,840 right, where there's a lot of personal belongings, there's, 544 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:56,040 you know, a lot of furniture and, and you know, dishes 545 00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:57,720 around, right. So it's, it's a different 546 00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:00,000 setting and it's a different scope. 547 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:03,400 It's a different frequency, you know, and then when you jump to 548 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:07,680 the commercial side, it's more wide open space, larger 549 00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:11,760 facilities, you know, for somebody who's newer to that, it 550 00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:13,720 could be overwhelming to take a look at it. 551 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:17,840 And you really have to, you know, understand it took years 552 00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:22,040 and years to learn and develop the processes that we have now 553 00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:25,320 for the commercial facilities compared to the residential 554 00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:28,840 houses that we started with. And you know that we have 555 00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:31,800 service for years. So you have to, you have to 556 00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:33,600 crawl before you can walk, in other words. 557 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:38,360 And you know, working with customers, there's, there might 558 00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,960 be different, there might be different objectives that they 559 00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:45,320 need to accomplish, right? A homeowner is probably going to 560 00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:50,440 have a different set of expectations or results that 561 00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:54,960 they want to see compared to a a commercial facilities manager. 562 00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:58,880 So you're dealing with two different types of individuals 563 00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:00,640 who are looking for two different types of things. 564 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:04,840 And typically in a, a commercial building, there's more than just 565 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:07,600 emptying the garbage and, and cleaning. 566 00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:11,520 Like there's security that, you know, you have to worry about 567 00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:15,840 making sure buildings are secured, lights are off, carpet 568 00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:18,720 cleaning and maintenance becomes part of the regular service, 569 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:23,680 window cleaning, floor care, all of those things need to go into 570 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:26,480 a commercial building on a regular basis in order to keep 571 00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:31,120 that building looking its best. You're dealing with, you know, 572 00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:35,360 100 people going in and out of the building as opposed to three 573 00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:37,800 or four people in and out of a residential home. 574 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:44,000 So the best advice I could give is, you know, you have to, don't 575 00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:48,360 be afraid to, to jump into it, but there is a, a learning curve 576 00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:52,720 and you have to start somewhere and you have to be open to 577 00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:56,560 adapting your thought process to meet whatever the expectations 578 00:33:56,560 --> 00:33:59,000 are of the client. Yeah. 579 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:03,440 So I and for let's just say for again for our listeners and you 580 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:06,320 know, is that something that you guys are helping people do that 581 00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:08,639 are obviously not direct competitors in your market? 582 00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:12,040 Yeah. I mean, listen, we, we have our 583 00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:17,760 franchising system and we've been operating that for 7-8 584 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:20,600 years now. So, you know, we currently have 585 00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,360 two franchise locations, 1 here locally in the Capital Region 586 00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:26,480 and then one in, in Westchester County, downstate. 587 00:34:27,679 --> 00:34:29,719 You know, Tom's down there and, and he's mainly on the 588 00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:32,120 commercial side. He's gotten in the kitchen, 589 00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:34,520 exhausted cleaning. We've helped him grow into that 590 00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:38,560 segment as well. And you know, they own and 591 00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:42,360 operate their, their own entity. They're, they're motivated, 592 00:34:42,639 --> 00:34:45,120 driven individuals who have goals that they want to 593 00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:48,560 accomplish. And, you know, we, we gave them 594 00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:52,000 the guidelines and, and the processes to be able to make it 595 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:55,520 happen. I've made a lot of mistakes over 596 00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:58,720 the years, MM, I've learned the hard way. 597 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:03,400 And, you know, we tried to take those learning lessons and 598 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:05,240 mistakes and we turn them into processes. 599 00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:08,920 And that's really what our franchise system is about, is 600 00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:13,920 taking the guesswork out of it for people who want to get into 601 00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:17,520 the industry and the business. And they still have to put in 602 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:21,520 the work, but they can avoid a lot of the costly mistakes that 603 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:24,440 typically happen with learning on your own. 604 00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:27,360 That makes sense. Yeah, man, no, it makes perfect 605 00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:31,160 sense. So what about, you know, from, 606 00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:34,480 let me ask from a customer standpoint. 607 00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:40,320 So you know, you're, I think we talked about banks, healthcare, 608 00:35:40,720 --> 00:35:42,880 schools like colleges and things like that. 609 00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:45,920 Yeah. So I mean, really the, the Sky's 610 00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:48,840 the limit. We're seeing a lot of interest 611 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:51,800 in on the robotic side, you know, from colleges, from 612 00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:54,120 schools. It's ideal for them because 613 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:56,480 they're big wide open spaces and they can automate a lot of the 614 00:35:56,480 --> 00:36:00,480 work there. But yeah, we service all of 615 00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:03,440 those. And what are? 616 00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:06,800 You know, limitation. If let's just pretend I'm the 617 00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:10,280 facilities manager at one of those kinds of locations, like 618 00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:16,320 what would be the signifying symptoms or triggers that I 619 00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:20,400 might want to talk to you about robotics and automation? 620 00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:25,120 If you're having trouble accomplishing what you need to 621 00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:29,640 on a daily basis with the staff that you currently have and 622 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:35,160 there are tasks that can be automated, how much time do you 623 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:37,680 have a technician vacuuming carpets on a weekly basis? 624 00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:40,920 How much time do you have them auto scrubbing and pushing a a 625 00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:43,200 walk behind scrubber? All those things can be 626 00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:47,560 automated and you know, relatively quickly, you know, 627 00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:53,960 you can have a fleet of robots to do the work of positions that 628 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:56,400 of staff members that you can't fill that position or you're 629 00:36:56,400 --> 00:37:00,840 having a hard time filling that position or you simply you don't 630 00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:06,040 want to a lot of folks and you know, you know this from blue 631 00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:09,160 collar, I forget what the stat was, but how many blue collar 632 00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:12,960 workers are going to be retiring over the next, you know? 633 00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:16,000 2.2 million every year. Right. 634 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:19,920 So, OK, where's, where's all that labor going to come from? 635 00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:25,400 And yes, obviously the the trade schools and everybody's doing 636 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:28,040 their part on that end. And and we're, you know, we're 637 00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:30,520 trying to help that cause by bringing awareness to it. 638 00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:36,320 There's a lot of careers there, but there's also a lot of roles 639 00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:40,840 and tasks that are done that can be done more efficiently and can 640 00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:45,680 be automated. Not all of them, right, but a 641 00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:49,840 good amount can be with the right tools and and the right 642 00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:52,800 robotics in place. So it'll be interesting to see, 643 00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:55,480 you know, how that all works out, But it's definitely a, a 644 00:37:55,480 --> 00:38:00,720 possible solution, you know, and to anybody who is looking at, 645 00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:03,440 you know, outsourcing their facility services, one thing 646 00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:08,120 that you know, I think is important, the Issa, who is the 647 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:11,600 governing body of the, the cleaning industry, they have 648 00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:15,120 their, there's SIM standard, which is the cleaning industry 649 00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:18,880 management standard. And you know, there's, there's 650 00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:21,560 only a couple companies locally that have that certification. 651 00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:24,920 We're one of them. And you really want to take a 652 00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:28,440 look at that and make sure that they have that stamp of approval 653 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:31,720 from the Issa. The reason being is they do a 654 00:38:31,720 --> 00:38:35,120 full audit every two years of anybody that has that 655 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:37,760 certification. They come in, they audit 656 00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:40,360 everything that you do from an operational standpoint, all of 657 00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:44,520 your equipment, tools, accounting practices and 658 00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:47,640 processes, your inventory practices, your customer service 659 00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:49,440 practices. They come in and look at 660 00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:52,920 everything and they evaluate and give you a grade. 661 00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:59,000 And it's relatively, it's a, it's a long process to put all, 662 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:03,240 everything together. They send out an auditor, I 663 00:39:03,240 --> 00:39:07,040 think our last auditor came in from Chicago and they spend a 664 00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:10,000 few days with you and you have to take them around and show 665 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:12,320 them what you are doing. You don't meet the standard, you 666 00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:16,560 don't get the certification. So, you know, again, to anybody 667 00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:19,920 out there who is looking to outsource that, you know, take a 668 00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:23,600 look at that because that is something that you know, your, 669 00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:25,120 your service provider should have. 670 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:29,520 Yeah, I'm glad you brought it up because that was one of my next 671 00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:34,360 questions was the was the talk about that, how does that like 672 00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:38,400 how difficult is that for you to attain that certification? 673 00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:42,320 It's, it's challenging, it's a lot of time and effort. 674 00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:48,080 From our standpoint, we, we first went through it and 675 00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:51,840 received the certification 6 years ago. 676 00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:56,800 So it's every two years you have to get recertified. 677 00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:00,360 April will be our third recertification. 678 00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:08,440 So it it is a stringent process, but what was fun for us? 679 00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:12,760 Was that I got to get our managers involved and the 680 00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:17,640 leaders in the organization. So, you know, they got to come 681 00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:21,360 in and see how it went and they got a good understanding for 682 00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:23,720 why, why the processes are the way they are. 683 00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:27,840 And that really helped, I think open their eyes to why we do 684 00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:32,080 things the way we do it. And you know, it's been very 685 00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:33,760 beneficial for them. They felt involved in the 686 00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:39,200 process and we, we passed, you know, it, it worked out well, 687 00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:42,200 but it was a lot of preparation, a lot of work upfront, a lot of 688 00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:44,560 planning. Once we went through it the 689 00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:48,840 first time and we were able to show, hey, look, you know, these 690 00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:50,800 are our processes. It's the way that we do things. 691 00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:55,200 And you know, now that we've, we've gotten all those ironed 692 00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:59,560 out and they've been in place now for period of time, the 693 00:40:59,560 --> 00:41:03,520 renewals are much, much easier. So it's very difficult upfront 694 00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:09,200 and then once you go through the process, you learn a lot, fix 695 00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:11,560 what needs to be fixed and move forward. 696 00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:14,120 So, you know, the renewal, I actually look forward to it 697 00:41:15,040 --> 00:41:17,960 because again, I get, I get to get people involved in the 698 00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:20,440 process and they have a, a good understanding of what we're 699 00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:23,920 doing and why we're doing it. Amazing. 700 00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,640 The juice is worth the squeeze. Yeah, yeah. 701 00:41:28,720 --> 00:41:31,040 I mean the with the green building with honor 702 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:34,360 certification as well. So they look at your cleaning 703 00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:38,160 chems, your processes for laundering, laundering clothes, 704 00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:40,960 for example. Minor detail, right? 705 00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:43,480 But what kind of laundry detergent are you using? 706 00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:47,560 What type of setup do you have? How do you separate the incoming 707 00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:49,400 clothes from the outgoing clothes? 708 00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:52,400 Like there's a a million different things that they take 709 00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:54,760 a look at. Are your are your chems green? 710 00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:59,720 OK, And what about your more aggressive chems like your 711 00:41:59,720 --> 00:42:03,920 toilet bowl, acid toilet bowl cleaner and a certain percentage 712 00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:08,800 of your products can not comply. But it's very, very minimal 713 00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:12,040 though you have to be very selective with what products 714 00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:14,040 you're going to use for which applications. 715 00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:18,320 And you know, luckily the the vendors that we work with are 716 00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:23,080 great and the products that we work with are fantastic and it's 717 00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:25,520 worked out really well for us. Everything from our carpet 718 00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:31,040 shampoo, our carpet cleaning process is green, our basic Q 719 00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:34,200 floor process. What happens if you have 720 00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:38,120 something that isn't that doesn't comply with their 721 00:42:38,120 --> 00:42:39,840 standards? Do they give you an opportunity 722 00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:41,680 to change it or do you just fail the audit? 723 00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:44,800 So they do give you an opportunity, but it's a limited 724 00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:48,600 window of time. So, you know, they may Ding you 725 00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:51,240 on. Let's say for example, they walk 726 00:42:51,240 --> 00:42:53,760 through the the warehouse and there's a bottle that's not 727 00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:56,920 labeled. OK, well, that's a major red 728 00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:58,920 flag. And we actually got dinged on 729 00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:03,960 that the last time we went through the, the process, my one 730 00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:08,000 of our team members had brought back some product and the label 731 00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:11,520 was ripped, like ripped off from the day in the field or whatever 732 00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:13,240 it was. And that auditor went back. 733 00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:18,800 He's like, hey, what's that? You know, and you know, you 734 00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:22,600 apologize and say, OK, look, we're, we have a process for it. 735 00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:26,160 This just came back and they gave an opportunity to fix it. 736 00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:31,240 So, you know, they're yes, they look at everything, they are 737 00:43:31,240 --> 00:43:33,400 fair with it. So it's well that's. 738 00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:35,600 The point though, right, is that they look at everything. 739 00:43:35,720 --> 00:43:37,040 Exactly. Right. 740 00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:40,080 Like, yeah. And it's, and if I remember, 741 00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:44,440 like what you said is it's, you're, they, they have a list 742 00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:47,800 of best practices for the industry based around certain 743 00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:51,640 parameters, right? Green chemicals being safe and 744 00:43:51,680 --> 00:43:53,600 they're going to hold you to that standard. 745 00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:59,480 And without that, no one's holding any, the cleaning 746 00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:01,160 company to any standard whatsoever. 747 00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:05,360 So, you know, like you could do any practice that may not be 748 00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:07,880 good for customers, may not be good for employees, maybe not 749 00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:10,800 good for anyone. I mean, I think it sounds pretty 750 00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:12,840 amazing. It's cool. 751 00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:15,320 And you know, the nice part about the Issa is they're very 752 00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:19,280 education heavy. We use some of their training 753 00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:22,360 and certification programs for our supervisors, for our 754 00:44:22,360 --> 00:44:24,720 technicians. So you know, there's certain 755 00:44:24,720 --> 00:44:27,640 levels and in our career road map that we have internally to 756 00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:30,680 where certain positions require certain certifications. 757 00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:33,520 So we tie the training back in to the position. 758 00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:36,400 So the Issa has been very good at helping with that. 759 00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:38,720 I actually went out to their conference this year and in Las 760 00:44:38,720 --> 00:44:42,280 Vegas, and you know, again, they have all the latest and 761 00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:44,640 greatest. They do a big trade show with a 762 00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:47,120 trade show floor. Well, the latest and greatest 763 00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:49,680 products, but they also have an educational component. 764 00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:54,480 So for me, I spent one full day learning from, you know, folks 765 00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:58,080 that are doing this across the country, different software 766 00:44:58,080 --> 00:45:00,880 vendors and different, you know, cleaning product vendors who 767 00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:03,240 actually come up and talk about some of the different 768 00:45:03,240 --> 00:45:05,880 components. And you know, a lot of useful 769 00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:10,800 information that you can sit down and nerd out about, you 770 00:45:10,800 --> 00:45:13,320 know, with our industry. And it's eye opening. 771 00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:17,560 It was cool to see, but they really do have, you know, not 772 00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:24,120 only the the best intentions in mind for the contractors that 773 00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:28,240 are our members, but also the facility managers who are the 774 00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:32,480 end recipients of the service. There's a lot of facility 775 00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:34,600 managers that attend that conference as well because they 776 00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:39,480 understand the value of it. So the Issa essentially does a 777 00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:42,400 lot of the homework for them. And that's why I say, you know, 778 00:45:43,200 --> 00:45:46,920 if you're a facilities manager or an office manager and you're 779 00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:50,200 looking for a company to service your your office or your 780 00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:52,200 location, you should look at that certification pretty 781 00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:57,160 closely. OK, Dia, I know we got to jump 782 00:45:57,160 --> 00:46:00,680 over to the Patreon portal section of the episode here for 783 00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:03,600 a couple of minutes. But before we go though, I just, 784 00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:06,440 you know, I wanted to ask one final question here in the main 785 00:46:06,440 --> 00:46:10,400 episode is, you know, if you were going to tell our listeners 786 00:46:10,400 --> 00:46:13,840 and anybody listening to the show right now one thing about 787 00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:18,480 adding automation and robotics to your portfolio of services, 788 00:46:18,600 --> 00:46:21,720 what would it be? Don't be afraid of the 789 00:46:21,720 --> 00:46:27,040 technology. It's very easy to get caught up 790 00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:29,440 in. I don't know where to start. 791 00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:31,840 I know I should do this, but I don't know where to start. 792 00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:34,760 There's people that can help you with that. 793 00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:38,280 You know, whether it's us, whether it's Bob at Clear Focus 794 00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:44,360 Robotics, there are people who are very well educated in the 795 00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:47,800 space and use that as a resource. 796 00:46:48,240 --> 00:46:52,360 Start having the conversations. If you identify, you know, the 797 00:46:52,360 --> 00:46:55,680 fact that you could automate some of the things and you know, 798 00:46:55,800 --> 00:46:58,800 part of your program, whether it's, you know, in any type of 799 00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:01,840 facility, a warehouse, healthcare facility and office 800 00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:04,880 building, just have the conversation. 801 00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:10,400 It may not be a good fit now or there might be a product that 802 00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:13,560 you didn't think of that's actually out there and it 803 00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:15,520 already exists. You just don't know about it. 804 00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:19,640 So the only way to, to learn is to, to have the conversations 805 00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:24,360 and, and reach out happy to talk to, to anybody you know, in the 806 00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:25,960 robotic space. I really enjoy it. 807 00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:29,920 And you know, I'd, I'd, I'd love to help anybody that can. 808 00:47:32,200 --> 00:47:37,200 Awesome, Dee, of course, thank you for humouring me and getting 809 00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:41,440 on to talk about robotics. You know, I, it's, I also think 810 00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:43,920 it's really interesting and I, I just think it's something that 811 00:47:43,920 --> 00:47:46,880 can help our listeners and also educate people. 812 00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:48,680 You know, this is a crossover episode. 813 00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:50,920 So we're doing this for blue collar and for buying local. 814 00:47:52,280 --> 00:47:55,440 So for our local people that you know, are interested in and 815 00:47:55,440 --> 00:47:58,400 talking to Derek about how they might be able to implement those 816 00:47:59,760 --> 00:48:02,560 robotics and automation systems into their maintenance and 817 00:48:02,560 --> 00:48:04,680 janitorial, you know, please reach out. 818 00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:08,720 Also for folks that are listening to us on buying local, 819 00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:10,800 you know, welcome to the crossover. 820 00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:15,600 If this is your first time being exposed to our other podcast, 821 00:48:15,600 --> 00:48:19,360 blue collar startup, you know, we are here to empower people 822 00:48:19,360 --> 00:48:22,640 into starting businesses and joining the trades. 823 00:48:23,760 --> 00:48:27,120 And we also have our our Patreon portal, which is where we're 824 00:48:27,120 --> 00:48:31,000 going next. It's a member only portal, cost 825 00:48:31,000 --> 00:48:34,600 you a whopping $5 a month, but we feel it full of all sorts of 826 00:48:34,600 --> 00:48:39,120 other goodies, specifically around helping people grow, 827 00:48:39,120 --> 00:48:42,840 scale, sell, market their businesses in the trade. 828 00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:46,160 So if that's interesting to you, please click the link in the bio 829 00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:49,400 and join up for a membership so you can hear what comes next. 830 00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:51,240 If you don't choose to do that, that's OK. 831 00:48:51,240 --> 00:48:53,920 We just love you for listening. Thanks for listening to Blue 832 00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:57,880 Collar Blue Collar start up and you'll hear from us next week.