The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex - Teacher Turns $1K Into a $50K/Month Cleaning Empire ft. Yianni Avgerinos

Episode Date: July 5, 2025

What if your side hustle could replace your 9-5—and scale into a $50K/month empire?In this episode of The Level Up Podcast, Paul Alex sits down with Yianni Avgerinos (@yianniavs), a former teacher who turned a $1,000 investment into Opa Cleaning, a booming commercial and residential cleaning business now operating nationwide.🚀 From mopping floors himself to leading a team of 25+ cleaners… 💡 From part-time hustle to full-time freedom… Yianni breaks down how he:Launched with less than $1KScaled using platforms like Nextdoor & Care.comBuilt lasting client relationshipsUses mindset, faith, and strategy to grow sustainablyPlans to hit 7-9 figures with a nationwide supply chain visionWhether you’re stuck in a job you’ve outgrown or looking to build your first business from scratch, this episode gives you the blueprint to break out and level up.“Your Network is your NETWORTH!”Make sure to add me on all SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:Instagram: https://jo.my/paulalex2024Facebook: https://jo.my/fbpaulalex2024Youtube: https://jo.my/ytpaulalex2024Linkedin: https://jo.my/inpaulalex2024Looking for a secondary source of income or want to become an entrepreneur?Check out one of my companies below to see if we can help you:www.ATMTogether.comwww.CashSwipe.comFREE Copy of my book “Blue to Digital Gold - The New American Dream”www.officialPaulAlex.com

Welcome to the level up podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight-figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together. Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. What's up guys and welcome back to the level up podcast.

My name is Paul Alex. And today we have another interview with another successful serial entrepreneur guys. And you guys are going to love this. You know, I usually interview people that start from humble beginnings just like myself, guys. You know, I was in law enforcement. I was in corporate America. I did ATMs. I did, what is it, credit card machines, consulting now.

And now, you know, I have mentees from Harvard, from Penn State, all these Ivy League schools. And, man, it is awesome, guys. And if you ever wanted to go ahead and build your dreams, this is going to be the interview that you guys are going to want to listen because it's very inspiring. Okay. I want you guys to meet my special guest, Yanni. Yanni is a school teacher that is transitioning now to a serial entrepreneur in the cleaning space. Yeah, you heard it right. In the cleaning space.

You're probably like, what is that, bro? Like, what do you mean? Housekeeping? Guys, you guys are going to hear it. Okay. So if you guys have been looking for any ideas, if you guys have been looking for inspiration, this is the story to listen to. Yanni, welcome to the show, brother. Paul, thank you so much.

Thanks for having me here. Absolutely, dude. How you like in Miami? It's phenomenal. The weather is a bit warmer than Chicago. I'll tell you that. It's a little warmer than Chicago for a time here. But I'm just super, super honored to be here today.

Thanks for having me at your place. You know, great, great studio. And looking to share beautiful things with like-minded people. No, absolutely, dude. And that's what it's about. You know, the little podcast, we've been able to scale quite fast for the podcast that we've had now here for a little bit over a year and a half. And it's just simply because it's about self-help, dude.

it's about what's in here right the heart dude just like a conversation guys if you guys you guys didn't know because you know it was just us and amelio back here but you know we we had like an hour a half conversation it should have been recorded it should have been recorded it should have been recorded it was fun right it was fire it was fire bro but to go on with that now it's your guys turn to listen to yani's story okay so yani talk talk to us essentially why the cleaning business why are you going ahead and already painting that vision that it's It's going to be a $100 million business for you, dude. Like, what do you see for yourself doing the cleaning industry?

You know, a little bit by myself, I actually started a cleaning business back in 2021, which is just that for COVID. Yep. And, you know, my background is actually an education. I've been teaching for almost 10 years, PE and health teacher for third, fourth, and fifth grade. So I do have that background, that level of experience when it comes to working with children, working with adults and teachers, collaborating and wearing different types. of hats and I always knew in the bottom of my heart that I wanted and needed more in my life. I come from a great family and born and raised here in Chicago, I should say up in Chicago, right?

And you know, my parents were immigrants of our motherland and just seeing my dad, right, over the years growing and scaling his restaurant business for almost 40 years, just really inspired me and just being in hospitality, just being in customer service, I always knew that I always wanted more, and to give and provide, right, and to make some kind of impact. And I feel like cleaning, specifically cleaning. What's interesting is it's a multi-billion dollar industry, and it's now still freaking growing. Yeah. Right.

So I got into it because I always had a passion in cleaning. I had a passion in teaching. So kind of mesh those together, right, during those COVID years. And kind of crazy. I'm like, how do I start any business? It was my first real business venture, right? And I started cleaning houses on my own, and I started, I was very hesitant in the beginning, walking in people's homes.

And I didn't know about commercial cleaning. I only had one vision fixed-minded on housekeeping, on residential cleaning. Yeah. Right? And pretty soon, clients started like my service. I loved to clean. It was my passion. But I quickly realized within six months, I'm like, I can't be,

this by myself. So I started hiring cleaning techs, house cleaning ladies, made a lot of mistakes, overpaid by people. I didn't know how to manage and hire and recruit the right way. It was a great learning curve for me. Fast forward five years. We have a team of 25 cleaners. We have partnerships with all their cleaning companies nationwide in different states. We're collaborating on bigger commercial cleaning contracts now. So essentially we have two divisions within our company, residential and commercial cleaning services. Wow, I love that. So let me ask you a quick question.

So it gets to a point and, you know, essentially, I'm thinking this started this as a side hustle, right? Because it wasn't your main source of income in the baby being, right? And it was the same thing for me, man. When I started my very first business, I mean, I've been a senior entrepreneur now for like two decades, but, you know, I stopped in the entrepreneurship game to go ahead and work in corporate America and then law enforcement and then it came back in the game, right? So with that being said, it started off as a side hustle.

At what point, what was the moment, dude, paint the picture for us, okay? Because I'm a big storyteller. I love movies, bro. So paint the picture the day that you were just like, I can scale this. You know, like I think I might have to go ahead and transition into actually being an entrepreneur. And I know how I'm going to make it work. Very good question. My first aha moment was my, I would say, it was six to 12 months into the business from

2021 to 2022 and I was teaching there in a day and at the time we're teaching remote on Zoom teaching right so we would finish at 1 o'clock so this is right in the middle of COVID I guess just after I just after yeah okay but there are still restrictions and masks of course people freaking out right yeah right different different times then right but um I think because of COVID yeah that was almost like a catalyst for now like wow people are now really prioritizing cleansiness and and and quality control in terms of cleaning services for other facilities. I mean, I've connected over the years with other commercial genitorial cleaning companies, and they were doing electrostatic disinfecting, and they're making a killing.

But I was more focused on what I was good at. So I focused on residential first. Right. So my first aha moment, me teaching, you know, making $2,000 to $4,000 a month extra by myself, I mean, I was hustling. I'll be cleaning during the weekends. I'll be cleaning in the evenings after school, right? So that was my life for the first two, three years,

while also helping my working and assisting my dad at the restaurant. Yeah. So I've always worked long hours. Yeah. Right. I guess the second aha moment was year two to year three. At this point, I had about 10 cleaners. Yeah.

Revenue's growing. Yeah. They did not know how to manage. I was learning along the way, hearts and business coaches along the way. you know and going wrong they they they I I guess captured and observe a lot of good knowledge and information mostly was just fluff you know and until I found someone that actually understood the game and where I've hired my business consultant two years ago so I do I do go a lot of love and respect to him he let now he now lives in in Europe so I love that

yeah we're so connected to this day yeah yeah he's yeah we're doing I'm doing great right now but the aha moment was back in 2021 the first six of 12 months. I'm like, I could scale this thing. This is a scalable business. Why? Because the cleaning industry is a high demand industry. It's not the most sexiest business for certain people, right? I'm not selling cars. I'm not selling jewelry or whatever. I mean, I'm cleaning services, right? And I quickly realize there's different niches. There's different avenues within the cleaning industry. There's stripping waxing. There's Airbnb, which I've dabbled a little bit, which I may revisit in 2025.

There's floor scrubbing, there's window washing, there's carpet cleaning, there's daily janitorial, there's one-offs, there's kitchen cleaning. The list goes on, right? So, past four or five years now, almost five years, the vision here is to grow this thing and focus more on the commercial side. Because I've reached in the past eight months,

almost a year on scaling nationwide. So I had to be honest, to answer your question, I have a lot of breaking points or aha moments. It's kind of like hard to remember exactly the year and time. Yeah, no worries, dude. It happens. You know, it's entrepreneurship. At the end of the day, you know, it's about the journey, dude. And, you know, with every new level, there's a new devil, just like we were talking about, right?

So essentially, as you grow, I'm pretty sure you're going to have other aha moments, right? So with that being said, why choose, I guess, going through the, would you say the industrial side or is it the corporate side? Yeah, so there's, so there's, I guess, three divisions. Residential, commercial, commercial, and industrial. Industrial is more like factories, assembly lines, warehouse spaces, more industrial, right? Commercials, more office spaces, like a space like this, right? Providing cleaning services for common areas such as the bathrooms of this building, the outdoors. The elevators, right?

There's a niche for that still. No, no, there is. And I don't believe AI, AI, a whole different topic, right? Yeah. I am leveraging AI in certain aspects of my business, right? But in terms of cleaning, the actual labor itself, there's still certain things that I believe, for the long term, it won't be taken away by AI.

Got it. Right? But like warehouse spaces where there's less foot traffic, overnight cleaning for big, let's say, 100,000 square feet, 200,000 square feet, warehouse spaces. yeah, we can put a robot in there and clean, right? Yeah.

But daily janitorial, weekly cleaning services, you need an actual physical person to do that job. And I do see the future in growing this business. There's so much opportunity out there. There's property managers, facility managers, that I'm working with nationwide that are subbing out contract work at a national level. And they have corporate clients, like the Walmarts,

the insurance companies. Right. I tap into those networks, too, a little bit. the past eight months. That's why I've seen such a huge growth perk, but also acquire the right skill sets, fine-tuning my sales skills, fine-tuning my collaboration skills and negotiating conflict, if there's any conflict, right? How to empower people within my business, right? We have a whole onboarding process. We do, we conduct a weekly group interview calls for contacts, right? Let's say five people show up or ten people show up. We have a whole

onboarding process once they reach the first checkpoint, right? And now I'm training my admin assistance to do that. So delegation was another breaking point for me. And I really started delegating a year and a half ago when I met my business consultant. Correct. Yeah. So here's my quick question for you. How are you finding your leads right now? Good question. It's a combination of different things. I would say heavily more on cold calling and networking. Okay. I've dabbled in Facebook. I've dabble with Instagram. I didn't see great results. I don't know what I was doing. I'll be honest, right? Something that I would believe you probably go through like LinkedIn for like B2B. I was going to say B2B, LinkedIn is very powerful. I admit some great connections through

LinkedIn because there's that level of credibility. People see your resume, your background, your history, your experience, and there's that level of, not just respect, but credibility and trust. Right. Anyone can make an account on Facebook. Of course. Right. There's a level of, again, credibility. qualifications on LinkedIn and that's where we're using an AI an AI tool but where we do it outreaches every day right maybe 20 to 40 or I think it's 10 to 20 connections and then X amount of messages that we send out right I'm fine tuning the follow-up game that's that's the bulk of your business right

following up with the right people and following up the right way and then yeah networking calls and networking events I have been so busy in time constraint with the teaching job. And by all me, listen, I'm not doing all this because I hate teaching. I'm doing this because I'm grateful for teaching. Of course. If it wasn't for teaching, I wouldn't be the man I am today.

Of course. And probably, I don't regret one bit of teaching. It is still my passion. I love kids, I love students. I love working with teachers and parents. You know, bridging home in schools is very important. And me working at a tier one school where, you know, low-income areas, some kids live a very rough upbringing, you know, and you need a certain

personality, you need a certain level of empathy for these children. Yes, you do. And I teach third, fourth, and fifth grade, PE in health for about 10 years right now. So I've learned a lot in that, in that career. And I've been pouring in certain skill sets from the teaching job to my businesses, right? And yeah, as you know, I started the ATM business. A couple of years ago with A-Team together, which, by the way, if you guys are serious in building residual income, you should definitely sign up with A-Team together from A-to-Z, how to start, scale, and even exit your ATM business, which is I, I just did just recently, right? I had six ATMs.

My visual was originally, you know, 30 ATMs, but I decided to take the route of cleaning. Yeah, dude. And, again, there's not to bash ATM. A-Team is an awesome business model, right? But once you find something that really works and you love and have a passion for, you double down on it. Oh, yeah. That's one tip I could say. I always tell people, you know, Yanni, is I always tell people there's stepping stone businesses.

There's stepping stone businesses. So ATMs, like, for me, when I first came back into entrepreneurship, like, and I was serious about it, right? Back in 2018, man, while I was in the law enforcement myself, is that I was just like, dude, I'm not going to do ATMs forever, but I'm going to do ATMs now. Right? And I didn't know ATMs was going to lead me to the online space, right? Which was remarkable because I'm able to connect with good entrepreneurs like you, dude. Like, you know, other people like just all the different people that I work with now are associated with opportunities that I've gotten through the online space and just the connection, right? Because you meet your tribe, dude. You meet people that you want to be around, right? And it's very hard to find that in your city sometimes. So with that being said, number one, I love that. the fact that you talk about your core values and how you being a teacher actually build you up to be an entrepreneur, dude. If it wasn't for teaching, I would not be here today. Yeah.

I mean, it gave you the skills. It gave you the skills to have empathy. It gives you the skills to actually look at it from a human aspect, especially with children, dude. But I believe, like, you know, yeah, employees are not children, but at the end of day, employees, you have to have some emotional intelligence to run a business as a leader. as a leader, dude, because there is a such thing as being a good leader and just being a boss, right? And people do not like working for bosses anymore. I preach that too.

I preach that too with my people. Not be bossed, but be a leader. Yeah. And that's our job as business owners to start developing leadership within your organization as soon as possible. Oh, absolutely. What do you think is the number one, or let's say top three, let's make it easy. Top three characteristics that someone who is looking to be a CEO, somebody who's looking to be a business owner that they need in order to run a successful company. That's a very good question.

I actually wrote these three down. I've kind of revamped three, four, five things over the years, and I take notes of myself and how I have developed in my business. But number one is having faith in God. It all starts from above, right? praising the Lord and having faith in God, which ultimately will empower you to have faith in yourself. There's times where you'll be stuck in a rut, and nobody will be able to help you, right? And sometimes you've got to find that strength, that faith within. Right. So God is number one.

Yeah. Number two is surrounding yourself with the right people. Environment. And by doing that, you've got to have some level of the right mindset. Correct. So that ties into number three, having the right mindset. while having the right mindset, some people have the right mindset, but they live on a scarcity lifestyle or negative type of thinking or lower level thinking.

And they could be great, awesome people. They could be angels, right? But unfortunately, some people don't have that right mindset, but most importantly, have the strength to take massive action. Correct. Right? And, yeah, it's baby steps. When you first develop or create something,

it's going to be very challenging in the beginning. You have no idea what you're doing. right and that's what I did for the first three four or five years now all right I'm still learning to this day by no means I'm a mastery and what I'm doing but I've learned a lot and I'm grateful for it and I'm looking to not just scale the business and make more money but really empower people bring opportunities for them for their children that also ties into teaching like for me that makes my freaking day I know I made a difference for this cleaning tech or my supervisor you know I have you know I have

prepaid people in advance, you know, for appreciating their hard work and their dedication, right? So going back to your question. I go on tangent sometimes. God, mindset, and massive action. Those are the two main ingredients, right? If you don't have those three things, I mean, what, 90% of businesses fail in the first five years? Yeah. OPA cleaning will be in the trajectory of profitability moving forward. I love that. I love that, dude. And that's what it's about, dude. And I mean, that's why you're doing it full time now. That's why you're going to skip. daily and you have your vision, you know, of hitting your numbers, eight figures, then nine figures. And for a lot of people, they can't, they can't even see running a successful business to start

out with, especially when they're starting it off as a side hustle. They can't even conceive it. Yeah, no. And it's very true, man, but how are you supposed to conceive something that you're not familiar with, right? The majority of humans, right, especially myself. I'm an average guy, blue-collar guy, came from poverty, came from an immigrant family. My mom, very hard worker, single mother, dude.

but at the end of the day she showed me how to work hard she showed me good morals she showed me core values but she didn't show me how to work smarter right and just like you said dude there's so many different ways

to make a million dollars but it's just like there's two things that we want to figure out here guys especially you guys listening right now on Spotify Apple or YouTube especially with Yanni's story is and we have this conversation for about an hour and a half before the pod

we did it's just like there's so many ways to make a million dollars dude but you know which way do you want to take and then how long do you want to actually go ahead and invest as far as time to get there right sacrifice and and that's the thing dude like you know i'm 37 and for for me you look phenomenal 37 by the thank you thank you bro like like 30 31 the most thank you bro i appreciate you man thank you but um what what i tell people is just like with me i had my mindset of like hey dude

you know i need to go ahead and hit the pavement running in entrepreneurship because i feel like i started late right but people will tell you dude yeah people people will tell you especially when on social media you have a lot of 20 year olds are glorifying hey you got to be a millionaire before you're 21 otherwise you haven't made in life right so you hear that on a daily basis and you're just like shit what did I do wrong right and it's just like you know it's not real dude it's not sustainable the the average Joe when they hear the average person when they hear that they get discouraged a hundred percent and they make up excuses a hundred percent and they don't even try or they just dabble and they just give up they give up people like us who are bill

different like I know we're build differently yeah okay we hear that we feel that for many years but that's just a motivator for us to push us harder yeah and then surround yourself with people that that want to challenge you in a good way to push you for in advance so we can all went together yeah I'm all about that model no absolutely right yeah no absolutely same so what what it and the reason why we're saying this is because yani you did something that I think every single entrepreneur needs to do when they're starting any type of business and what you did correctly when you told me right before the podcast is like hey dude you know um as i I was doing this as a side hustle, figuring out the clean business.

I was working the logistics. I was actually doing the work, actually doing what my employees do now. It is key to lead by example, guys, everything that I go ahead and have done from day one. I've done everything to customer service. I've been the email threads. The email threads. I've done the marketing. I've done the sales.

I've been the guy on the camera. The cleaner? The cleaner. I've done it all, dude. You know? And to think, look, at this stage of the game, for me to be like, no, I don't do that because I get paid too much money is complete bullshit. I will still go ahead and do that entry-level position if I have to. And that's what a true leader does, dude.

And that's what I like. That's what I like about you, Yanni. Is you actually doing the foundation work, you did the foundation work. Now you're able to skip your 9 to 5 and go ahead and start. your dream of starting a cleaning business, which is going to be your first stepping stone into building wealth for you and your family, your future wife,

your future kids, and you're going to make it happen, dude. I'm going to make it happen. There's no way of going back right now. No. And all way of doing things. That's it. And I think that there's different levels of mindsets

when you grow spiritually, financially, physically. 100%. So let me ask you this, man. Your dad, I want to talk about your dad real quick. He built a restaurant for the past four, 40 years. Did you ever like, did you like ever get like a mentorship from him? Did he ever say like, hey, Yanni, you know, this is what it takes to run a sustainable business for 40 years.

Yeah. Yeah. First of all, I learned a lot of a lot of a good life learning lessons for my dad. And if you have an immigrant parent, which I know you do too. Well, coming from their motherland, they have natural wisdom and knowledge that still applies to this day. absolutely and I'm grateful for that yeah a lot of famous quotes and just metaphors which has to do with the mindset which has to do with having having a good soul and helping other people around you and I've learned about I've learned not just hospitality but I've learned how to serve other people and my purpose in life is service yes right so yeah I get paid last but I want to make sure people get happy I want to make sure they're happy because if they're happy that really makes me happy I don't rely on their happiness though I'll make that clear I don't rely their happiness. I have, you know, I'm grateful to be, you know, to be Greek. And being Greek

is a big part of our blueprint as part of our identity as Greeks. I'm sure you've made some Greeks before. And I've learned to persevere. I learn what hardworking actually means. I've learned what it means to work. You're nine to five from teaching and then go straight to the restaurant and help cook food. You know, quick side, no, if you guys have to visit it, Mr. T's your There you go. In Schiller Park, Illinois. Yes. Just 10 minutes away from our airport.

We're known for our Euro. Yes. Our Euro sandwiches. We're known for our Greek chicken. I love that. So you guys want some Greek food. Think of it as a taco stand, but for Greeks. Yeah.

It's not a sit-down, but it's more a fast food. Yep. We're there for almost 40 years. And yeah, I've helped my dad develop his website, connected, integrated, Uberweets, Rub Hub, all that good stuff, online ordering. And I'm grateful for my dad. I'm grateful for my mother. grateful for my family you know I've learned a lot from them but if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be here there are certain things though that our immigrants still hold to this day

yeah which sometimes it's not always aligned with how we operate here right right because there they had there was more rest there was more fear you know coming from the country did not know the language my dad went to school he got a degree in a bachelor in engineering or computer science he ended up being a restaurant owner right he was working multiple jobs he my mom got married at 17 he's eight years younger uh eight years older excuse me um he was at 25 years old you know sleeping three four hour days for multiple years building his business that was like a was that was always inspiring to me and it's kind of funny ever since we're little my dad goes don't get to the restaurant business yeah yeah i mean dude you you know parents are always going to warn you but they want to protect

their kids they want to protect you dude but but listen what i want to operate a business no because i know how it is i prefer to operate a cleaning business right what i'm good at yep i would love to be an investor maybe or an owner or a co-founder of a restaurant to help it help built it but to operate it not my thing because i've been there yeah i've been there right but i've learned certain ways of communicating with certain people i will learn spanish along the way yeah my man you know i'm a i'm a what's it 100% fluent in Spanish, but a bit too in Spanish. Si Abla, sioux. Me gregio, in Greece, yeah.

Yeah. You know, the basic words, and just to communicate with, you know, certain workers, my dad had of the past, and then hiring the right people, but also not just paying them the right way, but treating them the right way. Culture is everything, dude. Culture is...

That's how you keep people. Yeah, and that's how my, my, I didn't learn about the culture aspect from my father. That came from teaching, that came from my personality. My dad has zero tolerance, and he has zero patience. It's kind of funny. He's more old school.

But I love my respect. If it wasn't for my dad, you know, he paid for our colleges. I'm one of four kids. I'm the second kid in the family. You know, if it wasn't from my dad and my mom, I wouldn't be here today either. So it all stems from that.

Yeah. It all stands for that, right? And I think that having your own identity, having your roots is so important, right? So important. But I also believe having your own personality or flare is also amazing. amazing. Yeah. That's also impactful. Right. Right. So yeah, I've learned a lot about hard work

for my father. I learned a lot about perseverance. A lot about, learn about customer service and customers always right kind of mentality. Absolutely. Got to serve. And that's what kind of drove me into the service-based business, which is cleaning services. I love that, dude. I love that. Humble beginnings, you know, you're sharing your story, family values, core values that your dad brought up to you and you helping your businesses. That probably inspired you to go and start businesses and guided you to go ahead and actually have that entrepreneurship spirit and mindset right so let's talk about mindset real quick dude and then and then uh what we want to do is a little mini master class on uh the initial steps that someone can take one of our viewers or

listeners on spotify or apple or youtube guys uh make sure to share this with a friend it's a very valuable valuable interview i have here with yani where you could do a basically just your first initial three to five steps on how to set up everything that you need to do a cleaning business, dude, because you know it, dude. Like, you're the man. You're the man with the plan, right? So, so let's go ahead and talk about mindset real quick. Now, how old are you right now, Gianni?

I just turned 30 on February 20th. Dude, Chris Prime. 30 years old, dude, I love that. Man, I can still remember I was 30, like last year, around, 37, seven years later, guys. So, all right, dude, let's talk about mindset. Now, when did you initially think of becoming an entrepreneur? What age were you? 2018, first job after college as a teacher assistant for a P.E., a department at a different school,

and that job got me at this job. I was always researching, reading. Big fan of Tony Robbins, by the way. Oh, yeah, Tony Robbins is awesome. Carnegie. Yep. And that was like, I guess, the way beginning, building, I guess the foundation of my mindset. And I always knew that I could do more.

Because my older brother had different businesses in the past. Now he's into like food, food plants, food prepping, right? With his wife there. And seeing my dad being an entrepreneur, a restaurant business owner, and then seeing other people online, right? After reading and researching, I'm like, pretty soon I could be doing the same thing. Pretty soon I could be my own boss, right? At the time, I didn't think of maybe empowering or leading others. I just thought of having a side hustle.

So I did start as a side hustle first, but I did have some level of a mindset where I won't any, I won't let anything or anyone stop me and persevering in something. You know what, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work out. you know there's there's a list of a million things you could do start crossing them out the ones you don't want to do and that's what I did so uh around age 21 to 22 okay around age 21 to 22 is when you first started doing of entrepreneurship you started doing your due diligence you started researching

you know reading Tony Robbins Dale Carnegie great books man like I love rich that poor dad yeah yeah um yeah um yeah you got it yeah so uh so with with that um okay and then Now, finally, going into your 30s, dude, now you're living the dream, you're transitioning now full-time into entrepreneurship, building this seven to nine-figure cleaning business. With that being said, what do you think was the delayed gratification between the age of 22 to 30 that you're finally now going full-time into entrepreneurship?

And I always tell people this, like take my life, for example, dude, I was 18 years old, I was doing nightclubs from 18 to 24, but then around the age of 21, I was working in corporate America, so I was double duty. And the reason why is because my mother, my parents, my siblings, my ex-girlfriends at the time, they were just like, hey, get a real job. Get a real job. So to me, it was always that voice in the back of my head that was just like, dude, like, do I, should I get a real job? Like, what should I do? Right? So at the end of the day, what it comes down to it, did you have a similar experience or did you try multiple adventures and just failed.

What was your journey, do? Yeah, yeah. So this was my first year after college, gave my teacher assistant job at TA position for a different school. And like I said, that job got me this job, right? Wow, just different milestones. Now looking back, it's like, wow, all these things happened, right? What was the delayed gratification basically like from the age of like 21, 22, where

you first started going into entrepreneurship and then by the age of 30, now you're going full time into building a seven to nine figure cleaning business? like why essentially why did it take so long because a lot of people they think that once they start researching or studying to do entrepreneurship or invest into like a first program analysis paralysis analysis analysis okay so that that's what it was for you analysis paralysis a combination of that but also time constraints with my corporate job got it i knew i even told my parents you know and they're and they're you know they're very hesitant leaving last year even too like are you sure you know you shouldn't do it there's benefits yeah but there's way more benefits on the flip side. If you actually grow and scale a successful business. Absolutely. Right. Yeah. So I was always been a risk taker. And I just, I guess a couple other business ventures in the past where I actually wanted to start my wholesaling real estate business. Right. My ex-business partner, we part of ways, whatever. It was a great learning experience, I have to say. Then I got into like trading Forex and crypto and stocks. Made some money. Lost a ton of money. Right now, that was a great

learning experience for me too. And then I got and then COVID hit. Then COVID hit. Right? Along the way, I was building certain skillsets, right? Communication, confidence, right? Oh, my God, confidence. And once you start winning, you get more confidence, right? Yeah, no, absolutely. And then I got into the cleaning business right just after COVID. I'm like, what else can I do? I love cleaning. I've always been a clean freak. I've always been a clean freak in the family, one of four kids. I was the one in charge assigning different cleaning tasks, hilarious.

My mom won't tell them what to do. And then I'll kind of sign it to my siblings, my sister or my brother. You know, use your eye vacuum, you wash the dishes, right? Take out the trash. And yeah. And then fast forward five years. I got 25 players on staff right now, collaborating with six companies, other cleaning companies and facility maintenance companies

nationwide. And I always thought small. Now I'm thinking big. The market is huge. Huge. Huge. I mean, just Chicago alone. The market in Chicago which complimented me branching and growing in Indiana as well. Yeah. And landing those grocery stores, by the way. I love that. Yeah. I love that, dude. So, okay,

our listeners, they focus primarily on mindset, self-help, self-education. That's why people listen to this podcast, dude. We grew to the top two business podcast now up to this year in 2025 guys. And it's such a blessing. Yeah. I mean, I got to give it up to Emilio, the guy behind the camera, guys. Amelio is the shit.

So with that being said, a lot of our listeners, whenever they do DM us or send us messages or email, they always say, like, hey, dude, like, we really love the fact that you bring on these different guests. And they actually go ahead and give us advice. So if right now somebody was to ask you, dude, how could I go ahead and get started, okay? And you and here's the test, okay? Because I like tests. Clarity, clarity is everything in business, clarity, okay? So a confused buyer will never buy, okay?

So this is why I bring on the experts in specific niches and industries, guys, because, dude, you're the go-to. You're the go-to in the cleaning industry. You're going to blow up, dude. I know you are. You have a heart of gold, and you're going to inspire a lot of people. Thanks for that. So with that being said, give us a short masterclass. Let's say five minutes or last dude.

Just let the audience know or the listener know how they could go ahead and jumpstart a cleaning business and land their first job. Amazing. Well, this would be relating to me when I first got started, which, by the way, I had a different mindset. But I always knew I wanted more. So I think that the number one ingredient to success is God, okay? Having faith in God, right? Submitting to God is could be challenging for some people, but that alone is the umbrella. Having the right mindset and taking massive action.

So I was always the risk takers. I always wanted to learn more, learn more, absorb more, absorb more. And then start taking actions. And I knew from the beginning, I know I will make mistakes. right right so I started cleaning houses by myself I want to test it out the test went well it was I think three to six months I got incorporated in January of 2021 and do you think it's it's important in the very beginning stages of building like let's say a one man or one woman cleaning business right because it started off a side hustle now you have 25 employees yeah but do you think it's important to take out like an LLC absolutely okay absolutely and operating any operation or business you have to have a certain entity for different reasons, right, for protection, security, but also tax advantages, right? And just structuring yourself for success for the future, which ultimately help you and other things you may also venture in, like real estate.

Yeah. And protecting and preserving your wealth against inflation, which inflation right now is crazy, right? It's always changing. But, yeah, from starting the LLC, it's very easy. You could go to your attorney. You could do it yourself. You go straight to the, go to your state, right? You can make an LLC in Miami.

I know there's benefits my own in Delaware, but if you live in Pennsylvania, if you live in Texas, if you live in Illinois, go through the state, right? If you want to make it even easier for yourself, which I created the Illinois ATM solution company, right? Right? I went to, they changed the name. It was in-file and now it's called busy. Yep. Busy. Busy, right? Two-ease, three-es, right? And then from there, you have to, what I've learned is focus on your RGAs. What are your RGAs? Your revenue generating activities. What do you? you doing every hour of the day what are you doing every day of the week to attract the right people to get business in the door right every day is a launch in the beginning right and this is why

most businesses fail in the first five years i think 80 or 90 percent of all startups fail i mean one of them is because of cash flow mindset and not focusing on your rgAs i'm really i've learned that a year and a half ago for my business consultant cash flow cash flow cash flow sales does it does does It does work for everything, guys. It fixes everything in business. So, okay, so you set up your LLC, and then I'm pretty sure you have to allocate a certain amount of money to clean and supplies. So for a beginner, let's say they're doing one man, one woman show.

They want to land their first client. They don't want to overspend. What would say is about the average you would spend on, like, a set of clean supplies. Literally under a thousand dollars. Really? It's not a big investment. Man, that's remarkable, dude, because a lot of people, they're like, I need tens of thousands of dollars.

I need hundreds of thousands of dollars to go and start. you're not buying a business, right? 50, 100,000 or a million dollars to buy a business, you're right? If you want to start from the ground up and be the entrepreneur and be the CEO of your own company, you have to start from somewhere. So specifically for cleaning, less than $1,000 to get everything all set up, all your documentation, right, your articles, all that good stuff. And start getting basic supplies, start cleaning small houses,

start cleaning barbershops on a weekly basis. And things just start adding up from there. right yeah your vacuum cleaner um a shark i get shark which is like the um one tier below of dyson i think that's a bit overpriced but they're a great model right shark is one of our uh i guess a repeating kind of uh equipment that we use we have our tornado backpacks our tenor vacuum backpacks for more commercial spaces that we use uh you need your mop your mop, some gloves, Wendex, paper, towel,

you're a toilet bowl cleaner, I mean, that's $100,000, that's be real, right? Absolutely. And then you buy in bulk every so often, right? And you find a good vendor to supply, as you scale, you're going to eventually find a vendor that can help you maintain your materials. Any good vendors you would recommend for the audience that's listening?

Yes, I do, I do. They actually, they changed the name from Seaway Supply Store, in Illinois from Bellwood Illinois or Maywood I should say and now they're called Brady IFS they're a national cleaning supply store okay right Brady IFS just let them know that you heard from Yanni yeah yeah and quick side note a part of my vision to be a full in-house for city maintenance company so we won't be just doing cleaning here yeah long term we'll be doing maintenance I love that for the entire building we'll be building and starting our own supply genitorial store we could supply chemicals vacuums and distribute nationwide nice that's part of my

vision that's how i'm going to hit 100 million yeah no that's that's that's that's huge dude so okay so from that um you got your established you got your foundation you have your uh your supplies so your logistics now let's talk about one of the most important aspects here you go business sales sales so how do we generate leads how did you generate leads in the very beginning Just to clarify for our listeners and viewers that are now just tuning in right now. Sure. And what would you recommend that they do, especially from a beginner aspect? There might be some people that are listening to this, dude, that have no sales experience.

They might be like, you know, scared to talk to people, dude. What's the path of least resistance just from you, man? Leveraging platforms and building your skill sets and skills and being comfortable and confident and talking to people. I start off with basic platforms. One is called nextdoor.com. Nextdoor.com. Another one's called care.com.

I think they're based from somewhere in Europe. But you make a little profile of yourself, hey, I'm Teresa, I'm a housekeeper, I'm a nanny, I'm a dog sitter, I'm a dog walker. You make a little profile, you put your credentials, you put how much you charge, and I started getting to simonials, or I should say, reviews.

In the beginning, before I got incorporated, I was getting, clients loved me. At first I was very hesitant, right, walking in people's homes and cleaning, me being a male right in the beginning but people people eventually love me I started cleaning so leveraging care.com and next door like in the way beginning cleaning houses and selling cleaning services for houses is so much easier yeah than commercial spaces I will tell you that from experience oh yeah yeah so and then and then leveraging Facebook right making a Facebook profile for your business

Instagram page and just start start small yeah post once a week then seven times a week and seven times a day That's my goal. Oh, yeah. No, absolutely, man. And that could become easier with processes and automations. Maybe after the podcast, we could go ahead and like just give you a few tips and strategies on how to do that. I appreciate that. But, yeah, brother.

So what would you say is a good starting point for a beginner to charge him for the services? A good start. That's a very good question. It's a very difficult answer. I don't know it's going to vary based on like square footage and all that jazz. Yeah, let's say like a 1,500 square foot, 1,500 square foot house. How much would you charge for that? Yeah.

I mean, there's a couple of variables. A couple of work. How many bedrooms? How many baths? Right? Is it an apartment or a single family house? Yeah. I mean, raging standard cleaning wise, $100, $200 in that range per visit.

Now, if it's a reoccurring client, which we do have, weekly, biweekly, monthly, we do have those incentives, right? If we could lock in and provide consistent cleaning for a homeowner, right? If it's weekly, there's a discount, obviously, right? But that's the range, 100 to 200, on the deep cleaning sides, right, during spring cleaning season, which right now we're freaking busy, right? Raging between $300 to $600 per deep cleaning. We do a lot of move-and-move-outs as well.

We have a great relationship with Keller Williams based in Lincoln Park, Chicago. So we do a bunch of move-outs for them for the real estate firm there as well. So then let me ask you, since you started off as a one-man team, now you expanded over to 25 employees, what is a reasonable size portfolio for one person to handle? You mean you're asking for one cleaner? How many houses they can?

Yeah, basically one cleaner, dude. It's going to come down to their availability and commitment levels. So let's say you have a full-timer. Let's say you have somebody for like 40 hours a week. Sure. What would be like reasonable like to start delegating? Because remember like my mind right now, guys,

I'm thinking like an operator, right? You're telling me this high level overview of your business. I'm just like thinking like, okay, so if I was to get like five cleaners and they work 40 hours for me, how many houses can I delegate? We'll do the math. I mean, it comes down to the hours, too, right? So we typically pay for labor costs, 16 to 22 an hour, depending on your level of experience, reliability.

First three months, we get them onboarded. We have, like, a preliminary phase. If they pass the evaluation and no bad reviews from customers, we give them a dollar raise. Nice. Right? So we typically charge depending on the house and also the city, you know, $40 to $50 an hour.

That's the range. So let's say what's the average cleaning time that it would take? Yeah, four hours. Four hours. Four hours a cleaning job, probably 10 houses a week. Yeah. So I was going to say like two houses a day. Yeah.

Yeah. That's actually a dream, a cleaner's dream to do two houses a day. Two houses a day. So 10 houses, wow, that's pretty good. But the thing is not all cleaners do work full time. You have other jobs. It's a part time. It's a part time thing.

And that's where you could start. That's where you could leverage as the business owner and accommodate their schedule as well. and then I had the experience where cleaners have quit their jobs to work full-time with Opa. Oh, wow. Yeah. Wow. That's awesome.

And I have three or four cleaners for since the beginning for four years right now. That's amazing. Yeah. Jose and Teresa. Dude, shout out to them. I mean, I'm just saying, dude, it's hard to find good people to work for, man. And, you know, I always say, like, that means you're leading by example. You probably showed them like, hey, I did this, and they're probably respecting for a dude, you know?

Thank you. And I know that's huge in sales. especially right it's huge in sales you're going to sell the vision that's just to the client exactly also to your providers and your cleaners absolutely everybody dude the sales process never ends right customer service is part of sales so with that being said dude um we're coming up to the end of our interview so right now let's say you have a hundred thousand people listening to this which it's very possible right amelio he's like obviously paul obviously so all right you're gonna have 100000 people listening to this

when it goes out within a 30-day range and it's going to be inspiring. They're going to be like, dude, that's badass. He was a school teacher based out of Chicago and now full-time entrepreneur doing his own clean business and they're going to be like, bro, how can I connect with this guy? How can I go ahead and talk to him? How can I go ahead and network with this guy, right?

Because your network is your net worth, guys. So, Yanni, give us a few words of encouragement to the person who wants to actually start this business that right now is unsure of themselves, dude. This is the level up. It's about helping other people, dude. That's right. So what do you have to tell to that viewer right now that's listening to you, dude, that's on YouTube, that's watching your interview, and it's just like, yo, like, give me some word of encouragement, real.

Yeah. Number one, like I said before, have faith in yourself, have faith in God, right? Number two, having their right mindset. Number three, surrounding yourself with the right people. And I'll say number four, take extremely massive action. Don't be afraid of failure. Start today. Don't keep pushing the deadline to next week to next week.

start today start accepting that failures and mistakes will come and you have to accept that and that will also build you build some character in you as well and I've learned in business this that in business you have to fly like a butterfly and steam like a bee sometimes dude that's it right Mohammed Ali that's right that's right so take a leap of faith in yourself right and try it out absolutely and try it out absolutely and never quit right and keep surrounding yourself with the right people and that's part of the model here right like keep leveling up and that's this is why i came in today that's it to you you have to man you you have to keep leveling up guys and as you level up there's always going to be obstacles there's always going to be roadblocks but with good people

good culture and good surroundings dude you could go over anything dude you can expand you know life is short go for it make it happen go for it right go for it go for it so with that being said where can they find you my man yeah you could find us at opa cleaning dot com which by the way if the camera's right here that's her logo opa cleaning love it we named opa because it is a catchy name it's also greek yep right and we get we have a lot of uh european customers as well in in chicago and just really catchy name i think opa's a very universal phrase to use absolutely even with the uh Hispanics too yes so we love opa uh customers customers love that uh coming in where your opa cleaners right uh but yeah www dot opa cleaning dot com you can find us on

Instagram same thing opa cleaning and then facebook opa cleaning opa two a's cleaning right you can also find us on lincoln as well yeah love that love that guys there you guys got it yani the owner of opa cleaning out of chicago illinois guys guys that wraps up this episode this is the love all podcast with pa alice guys make sure if you're listening on spotify apple or youtube guys you leave us a five-star review guys we have been top two in the past few months in the business category, not just because of who we are, but because of what you guys are making us out to be. And right now, we're here to help people, guys. So at the end of the day, your network is your net worth. Just like Yanni said, hey, if he could do it, you could do

it too. Make it happen for yourself. I'll catch you on the next one. Thanks for listening up to a level of a podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family, friend, and everyone you know who's ready to level up. Leave a five-star review on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and wherever you tune in. It really helps spreading the word and don't forget to check out official paulalex.com for more episodes and resources to kickstart your journey. Let's level up together.