Debbie Sardone | Cleaning For A Reason — One Flower Mound Resident’s Mission To Give Back
On this week’s episode of Around Flower Mound, we speak to a very special Flower Mound resident, my close friend, Debbie Sardone, who turned a cleaning job into a $3 million cleaning empire. After building one of the largest maid services in the country, Buckets and Bows, she began speaking and training other cleaning business owners around the world.
She also owns speedcleaning.com, manufactures her own line of non-toxic cleaning products, and founded the non-profit Cleaning For A Reason, which has risen to national prominence and has provided free house cleaning services to over 50,000 families with cancer. Debbie has been featured on Fox and Friends, Oprah, Reader's Digest, Today.com, Yahoo News, as well as dozens of other local and national media.
We chat about Debbie’s favorite things about Flower Mound, as well as:
How she grew her business and eventually founded her non-profit
What she believes makes a successful entrepreneur
Lifting as you climb
How to make sales chase you by giving first
And more
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
Nicole Smith Woodard: Today I am so excited to introduce you to an absolutely fantastic Flower Mound resident. As you know, Around Flower Mound is all about bringing light to community leaders, business owners, parents and charities within our fantastic community. And we in Flower Mound are so blessed to have a neighbor and fellow resident who is all of the above. Welcome my friend, Debbie Sardone.
Debbie Sardone: Hello, Nicole. So glad to be here. Thank you.
Nicole: Oh, just hearing your voice makes me smile. I'm so grateful that you have taken the time to be with us today. And you and your husband and your family have been residents of Flower Mound you said for 35 years. You've seen it change just a bit.
Best of Both Worlds
Debbie: Oh my goodness. Yes, we have. Back in the day when we moved here, my husband was a police officer. He has since retired. But we raised our family in Flower Mound, I built one of the largest maid services in the country living in Flower Mound. We've seen all of the changes. And I will tell you, I always thought, Well, yeah, maybe when we get older and we're retired we might move away.
Flower Mound has grown up with us. And it's you had this feeling like you don't have to give up any of the amenities of a big city. Like all the restaurants, all the bars, all the great shopping, but then you have one mile outside of the center of town and you look to your left, and you see a longhorn steer grazing in a meadow, and then you go one mile north and you have all the shopping you can hope for. I feel like we have the best of both worlds. We're not going anywhere. We love this town.
Nicole: I love it. Well, the town loves you as well. And so before we jump into some of these questions, I want to tell our audience, just a little bit more about you. So Debbie Sardone turned a cleaning job into a $3 million cleaning empire. After building one of the largest maid services in the country Buckets and Bows Maid Service, She began speaking and training other cleaning business owners around the world. She also owns speedcleaning.com and manufactures her own line of non-toxic cleaning products.
And she also formed the nonprofit, I love this, love this so much, Cleaning For a Reason, which has risen to national prominence and has provided free house cleaning services to over 50,000 to families with cancer. Debbie has been featured on Fox and Friends, Oprah, Reader's Digest, today.com, Yahoo News as well as other, dozens of others local and national media. So again, I know you're a busy lady, and I appreciate your time so much today. So thank you. Thank you again. Debbie, you mentioned Flower Mound growing up with you. So what is your favorite thing about Flower Mound?
Debbie: Well, I have to say that I'm one of those people, I'm one of those women where I want to have it all. And I feel like I have it all when I live in Flower Mound. I love being able to drive one mile north and be surrounded by a busy shopping center with tons of restaurants and fun bars. There's a wine bar.
But I also love being able to go one mile west from the center of town and I look over my shoulder and I see cows and longhorns and rolling meadows and you just feel tranquil. So I feel like we have the best of both worlds. We're very close to Dallas if we want to go for a show or a conference. We're extremely close to DFW Airport and I fly a lot, I travel a lot, but I'm right here in the middle of town where I don't have to go far for a Domino's Pizza or a glass of wine.
Nicole: Hmm, I love it too. That's awesome. Well, you are, as I, in my little quick little intro about you, you really are a rock star in a lot of categories. Obviously a successful business owner, you've gotten national attention for the work that you've done to help other companies grow their businesses and certainly founded an amazingly generous nonprofit that serves folks with cancer. But what started at all? How did you even start that process?
How Debbie Began in Entrepreneurship
Debbie: Well, like a lot of entrepreneurs, I started out just by getting my hands dirty. I, my husband was a police officer, I had a little baby and I didn't really have any professional skills. So I started cleaning houses for fun money. And eight years later, I was growing a thriving business right in the middle of Flower Mound. 15 years after starting from just out of the trunk of my car, I had one of the largest maid services in the country, and the thing just kept growing. We're right here in the center of everything in this town.
And I feel like, for an entrepreneur, it is just an incredible place to grow a business. So, you know, it quickly became one of the largest cleaning businesses in the country. And then I started the nonprofit and we started serving families all over the country by recruiting other maid services to help families with cancer receive the gift of free house cleaning. Then I started doing consulting and working with cleaning business owners all over the world to help them grow their business. And it just kept growing and I just kept saying, Yes.
Nicole: I'm guessing, and this isn't one of our prepared things, but you've obviously grown as a person too. I mean, to be able to have that kind of energy and influence and for that to evolve, speak to what that has done for you as a person.
Debbie: You know, when you deal in different spaces with different types of people, I mean, I have 45 employees at my cleaning company, Buckets in Bows Maid Service. It's located in Lewisville but I live in Flower Mound. And so I have all of these housekeepers, people who clean homes, that I'm responsible for serving and helping them live better and provide for their family. And then you work with clients that are professionals, CPAs, attorneys, realtors, entrepreneurs.
And then I work with other business owners around the country. It grows you as a person when you work with different classes of people who have different need, and levels of experience. And you just glean from all of them. And I've made it my life's mission to learn from everyone I'm around whether they're the one cleaning the toilet, they're the one writing the check to pay us to clean their house, or they're the speaker on the stage. I want to learn from everyone. I want to be a permanent student of life and leadership. And I've committed myself to that and, you know, at some level I hope it's helped.
Nicole: Well, definitely having been in your presence, you really do shine and you are one of those people that have that ability to connect, almost to see through like whatever facade it is that people present with and really connect with people on a deep level. I can definitely speak to that. Well, talk about Buckets and Bows because obviously, our audience may be considering a move to Flower Mound or already live here. So I think I know the answer this but I'd love to hear directly from you. What are some of the things that makes it Buckets and Bows the maid service that somebody would want to hire and do business with?
Debbie: You know, we really are different from probably any maid service or any cleaning service people have ever encountered. And number one, we've been voted number one in Denton County for over 10 years. I mean, our reviews online over 160 reviews have us rated above the four and a half star rating at any given time, 100% of the time. But I will tell you our secret sauce is something no other company can match. And that is our employees. We have the most amazing employee culture in our company and I have yet to see another company match the types of employees that work for us.
We have former school teachers that love cleaning and they've become our full-time trainers. We have young mothers who are working and providing for their family. We have career cleaners who have worked for us for years. We have a business shareholders program where our cleaners actually own a piece of our company. So they actually care about our customers, they care about our growth, they care about our quality, and I would have to say, you know, cleaning is cleaning, right?
You can find a very low-cost provider out of the newspaper or on Craigslist. You know, anybody can clean a bathtub, per se. But not everyone can provide you with the kind of people that work at Buckets and Bows Maid Service. And they are the highest caliber people I've ever met that works in a cleaning industry. And they love what they do. They love our customer's pets. They love the feeling of satisfaction they get when they leave a home, and it looks gorgeous and they made that happen. It's our employees. They're amazing.
Nicole: Wow. Well, how fortunate that for obviously, great employees, I think have great employers. And so what an amazing culture that you've created. And you also have in that process created a line of cleaning products. So talk about that.
Debbie: Yeah, you can tell I've been busy. So I started out cleaning houses myself, like I said, you know, over 30-plus years, and that's as far as I'm going to go with that number. And I started ordering supplies back before green was a cool thing like it is today. I started ordering these eco-friendly cleaning supplies from a catalog years ago. And about 10 years ago, I bought that company and we now are the manufacturer of the line of Speed Cleaning products that I've been using in my own cleaning company forever.
They're eco friendly, they're family safe, you can, your pets, your babies can be around them and they do an incredible job. So we literally manufacture cleaning products and ship them all over the world under our Speed Cleaning brand. We have a warehouse and staff and a shipping department and we manufacture eco-friendly cleaning products plus we offer high-end tools and equipment like vacuums and dusters and gloves and we have disinfectants people, we have them. We have plenty of cleaning products.
Nicole: That's awesome. Oh my gosh. Well, you obviously had some real successes. Not just professionally, certainly, but personally as well. So what is it that you believe makes some successful while others may struggle?
Lift as you Climb
Debbie: You know, I knew you're gonna ask me that question. So I wrote down three things that really resonate with me. And especially, you know, a lot of businesses can grow during times of prosperity, even if they're weak. But it is unique businesses that actually grow and thrive during times of crisis. And over the years, I've handled things poorly when I was trying to figure it all out, and we all do at times. But here are three things that I've learned over the years. And the first thing is, I know that I don't have all the answers, but somebody else does.
And so I learned early on in my business, that the cost of not knowing is actually higher than the cost of spending years trying to figure it out. So I have committed myself to hiring mentors and experts and reading books and taking classes to uplevel my skills from people who know more than I do. And I think that's number one is you have to learn. We're probably not going to figure it out and we're going to take a whole lot of years trying to figure it out and maybe never get there. So figure out that we don't know what we don't know, and get an expert to fill in the gaps.
The second thing that I wrote down, and this kind of comes into play during times of crisis, right? While others are going to break down during a crisis, especially a weaker competitor, while others are breaking down, some are breaking records. And that only happens when you operate from a position of confidence and not from an operation of fear. When we respond, when we react in fear, we usually make bad choices.
We usually don't change, we don't pivot. So don't operate from a position of fear. And then you'll be in a better position to pivot. And that would, that kind of brings me to another point. In times of crisis, you better pivot fast. If you're waiting around for the old normal to return, it's probably not going to happen. Be ahead of the curve, create the new normal if you must, but be a leader instead of always running to catch up waiting for the new normal, or the old normal to return because it's probably not.
Nicole: Right. Oh my gosh. Ain't that the truth.
Debbie: The last thing I wrote down because I knew you're going to ask is number three, and I truly believe this from my heart, lift as you climb. It doesn't matter if you're struggling. It doesn't matter if you're in the crisis with everybody else or it's times of prosperity. Lift as you climb. If you adopt a mindset of giving instead of taking, if you adopt a mindset of serving and helping, you won't be the one always pursuing the sale, the sales will pursue you.
And so I truly believe that if you adopt the mindset of lifting as you climb, give, give, give, give, give, and you won't have to try to reach out and take all the time. It'll change your business and, of course, it'll change your life personally. So those are kind of the three things I wrote down in anticipation of your question.
Nicole: I'm so glad you took the time. And I hope that our listeners are writing those things down too. And just knowing you from the times we've shared in different, the same space over the last few years, I can absolutely affirm that you aren't just talking about these things, Debbie, you are living these things. And we just, you know, when people are in your presence, they can just feel all of these things and that kind of actually answers kind of that first question that I asked is how did you get to where you are and obviously having that spirit of giving and learning and pivoting are also awesome.
But I want to ask you about something that I was in the audience of watching this as this worked out for you. You were a L'Oreal Women of Worth candidate one year. And the way you handled that process and that experience was so affirming to the recipients of the good that you do. So what was that like for you to be on the receiving end of that?
Debbie’s Live-Changing Experience
Debbie: Well, first of all, I want to say thank you. You've been so kind and generous with your comments and, you know, most of us feel uncomfortable when people are giving us compliments but I truly, truly appreciate your incredibly kind and generous words. And that honor was one of the biggest honors I've experienced in my lifetime. When L'Oreal Paris, one of the largest cosmetic companies in the world, reached out and said we want you to be a contender for one of the top 10 L'Oreal Paris honorees in the country.
I was so excited and nervous and hopeful. And I made it into the top 10, they flew me to New York City, me and nine other women that were the L'Oreal Paris Women of Worth honorees, and they literally rolled out the red carpet for these 10 women. We all started nonprofits, we all had unique ways we were giving back and trying our best to make a difference.
And they provide us with training, PR and media and social media training. They, of course, gave us incredible makeovers, gave us some makeup. I think that was one of my favorite parts. They threw a gala like nothing I've ever been in our honor. They assigned each one of us a famous celebrity. Mine was Andie McDowell. It was, Diane Keaton was one of my colleague's celebrity and each of us were assigned to celebrity to take care of us, to be our helper and to introduce us before our speech. It was the greatest honor of my life.
And I kept thinking, I'm this lady who owns a cleaning company back in, you know, Lewisville Flower Mound area. You know, that's who I am. I'm, you know, I own a cleaning company, people. But there I am up there really representing our town, representing our state and representing my business and my industry. And I was so honored and so thrilled and I got that privilege because of our nonprofit Cleaning for a Reason because we do serve families with cancer. It started out as a mission to serve women with cancer, but it has expanded. And that's where I got the honor. It was incredible. I loved it.
Nicole: Well, and it brought, like you said, just such great attention. And is that, so talk a little bit about how that got started and what that organization looks like today.
Debbie: Cleaning for a Reason.
Nicole: Mm-hmm.
Debbie: Yes. So Cleaning for Reasons started out just like all my other ventures, you know, just me getting an idea. And we had been cleaning for women with cancer for years before I turned the idea into a nonprofit. I took a phone call one day at my office. I was working at my desk at Buckets and Bows Maid Service and a woman called and said, I need a price for cleaning. And I gave her a quote, just like I would do on any other day.
And she said, Oh, I can't really afford that right now. I'm not working. I'm going through chemotherapy and radiation but maybe I can call you when I get back to work. And she hung up the phone. And I mean, we ended the conversation amicably. And when she hung up the phone, and you got to remember this is before the days of caller ID, I sat there at my desk and I thought, Why on earth did I not give the cleaning to her for free?
And I remember feeling so disappointed in myself because it didn't occur to me. It wasn't that I couldn't afford to, it didn't occur to me. I was in business mode. So I met with my staff that day and I remember this, like yesterday, this was probably more than 15 years ago, probably close to 20 years ago. And I said, let me tell you, whether I'm here or not, if any woman calls this office and needs our help to clean her house and she lets us know that she has cancer, give her the cleaning for free. I empowered my staff that day to make the decision with or without me.
And so it started as a policy. But then years later, as I evolved as a business owner, and I started speaking and teaching and I shared this with other cleaning companies in some of my speaking opportunities, I realized that other cleaning companies would do the same if they just had a process, if they just knew how to do it, you know? I had people say, Well, how do you do that without people taking advantage of your generosity? And that's when I realized, oh my goodness, this needs to be a nonprofit.
And I'll show them how to do it successfully. And now, what about 14 years later, we've served over 50,000 families. We have over 1200 maid services throughout the entire United States and Canada serving families in their community using their cleaning business to go out and clean 100% for free for families who are battling cancer. It's my favorite thing to do in business is to give away what I do for a living, to give it away for free. It's my favorite thing.
Nicole: Oh, isn't that wonderful? So okay, so and I'm going to give the people opportunity on how to reach out with you but if I would imagine that there's going to be people that that resonates with. For somebody that may either be someone or know someone who would benefit from the Cleaning for a Reason. How was they find out about that? What would be the website that they would go to?
Debbie: It's very simple, just go to cleaningforareason.org. We have our own office, our own staff, our own team. And when you go to cleaningforareason.org, you can find the tab that says locate a maid service. And you can go and put the zip code in for that loved one or yourself and see if there is a participating maid service within your zip code. And if there is, it will give you an opportunity to apply for services and the nonprofit will match the cleaning company with the patient that needs the help.
Nicole: That's wonderful. Okay, cool. Well, that again, that just, what an amazing gift that that is, and I love how you, how that's one of your favorite things to do. And I think when people come from a place of abundance and a place of prosperity, then that just, that becomes the fun, right? Like you couldn't do that if your cleaning business were struggling, you wouldn't have that abundance or that overflow to give from. So first and foremost,
Give First
Debbie: You would think you couldn't. Yes, correct. And so here's what I found, when a struggling business makes it their mission to give first, their business stop struggling. It's an incredible phenomenon. Give first. If we wait to give until we can afford it, or if we wait to give when times are better, times will never be good enough. We'll never be able to afford it. The bills never shrink on us. And so my philosophy is give even when you're struggling, even in a crisis, serve somebody else, whether it's in a smaller way or a bigger way, that's your call. But if you give, you'll notice your business improve organically.
Nicole: Wow. Oh my gosh, that I mean, that's like, I just got chills when you said that. And to your point, I mean, obviously, we're talking from the business application of generosity. But isn't that true across the board? Your relationships, right? And your, you know, you're just your friends and your family and certainly your clients and just to come to that with the spirit of giving and lifting as you climb, I love it.
Debbie: Yes. Let me give you an example. I've talked to cleaning services around the country and a lot of them really and truly are struggling, which is why I have a very thriving consulting business within the cleaning business world. And a lot of them are struggling and their number one pain point is they can't find workers. They can't find enough house cleaners that will show up and come to work. And what I have, and so oftentimes, they'll say, I'll join Cleaning for a Reason someday when I have enough workers to service my paying clients.
And here's what I've learned as a business owner through this mindset of giving. Here's what I've learned, you end up attracting the kind of employees when you're a giver. My employees, many of them have told us, you know why I chose to work for Buckets and Bows Maid Service? It isn't because Oh, I heard you pay really well, or I heard you have great vacation packages, even though we do.
Here's what they say, I chose to work for this company instead of your competitor because I love what you do for cancer patients. We attract a different group of people. And our employees tend to be career cleaners, not just short term three months and gone. And so even the struggling businesses will see so many things open up for them when they make giving a first priority.
Nicole: That is so, that is just wonderful. Thank you and thank you for sharing, thank you for so, that's the other thing is you're sharing kind of your keys to the kingdom, right? Like you're sharing your secrets from success. There are, because it's not secret when you share it, but you're so generous.
Debbie: Everybody knows now. Everybody listening to your podcast, the secret is out of the bag. You know, Nicole what's so funny is I had a business owner, it's probably been about 10 years ago, I had a business owner say to me, So Debbie, why do you train other cleaning businesses?
Aren't you afraid you'll train your competitors? And I said, there's enough business out there for all of us. If we just fix ourselves, we will thrive. And, but I thought that was funny because that's how most people think is, whoo, these are secrets. Let me hold them close to the breast and nobody will know. And, you know, my business is an open book. And I will help anybody that needs my help.
Nicole: I love that. Well, and we, I resonate with you on that level as well. And do you find too that just because people know your secrets, whether it's your competitors, or, you know, somebody else, it takes a special person, well, first of all, nobody's ever going to be you, right? And then it takes a special person to implement it. Exactly. And the best version of them. And certainly, with a mindset and much like you bring to them and so on. So I love that, oh my gosh. Well I know that you're a reader, I know that you are a podcaster. So do you have any recommendations that you'd like to share?
Debbie: Boy, do I ever, boy do I ever. When I saw you're going to ask me the question about what book are you reading, I thought okay, which one do I tell her? So I wrote down three because I'm usually reading two books at a time. I try to read a book a week. And when I travel more, I'm more successful at that. But right now, a couple of my favorite books are Traction by Gino Wickman.Traction. It is absolutely amazing. A little bit heavy, a little bit technical, but Traction is a great book by Gino Wickman. But a lighter version of that book is their follow up book called Rocket Fuel and it is absolutely fabulous.
It kind of maybe dumbs down the concepts a little bit where they're easier to digest. So Traction and Rocket Fuel, both books by Gino wickman. Fabulous must-read for any entrepreneur. Of course, most of my books are going to be for entrepreneurs. And the book I have on the waiting list for me to get to is the newest book by Darren Hardy, one of my favorite mentors, Roller Coaster. So I haven't delved into it yet but I've read other books of his that I've absolutely loved and he is one of my mentors. So Roller Coaster by Darren Hardy is on the table but I haven't opened it yet.
Nicole: Well, like you said, travel is a great time to read. And that's been a little bit minimal. Well, I love that and I love these recommendations. That's part of, one of my favorite part about interviewing folks is I think we can tell a lot about who somebody is by the things that they choose to read. And I just love, I wrote these down, I actually have Traction. That's one of mine on my table that I haven't yet read. So I may start off with that Rocket Fuel.
Debbie: It's pretty heavy. Yeah, it's pretty heavy. And a good suggestion is half the book. I'm, when I read I study. So I would recommend you pull up audible.com and get Traction on Audible. It's a little easier to digest. And then go through it with your yellow highlighter as you're listening. That's how I read.
Nicole: I literally feel like we are the same person. Because, to your point, when I listen to nonfiction, I have to go buy the book to read it because of the way I recall information is visual. Not al, but I have to, but the audible for me is when I'm driving in a car, which I haven't been quite as much lately. But yeah, I love that. Oh my gosh. Well, very good. Well, again, I'm just so honored that you would take your time today to join us on the Around Flower Mound Podcast. And we talked a little bit about how people can find that cleaningforareason.org but if they want to connect with you, how can they, where can they go to learn more?
Debbie: We would love to serve any families within this North Dallas Metroplex because we service our Buckets and Bows Maid Service services all of Flower Mound, Highland Village, Lantana, Carrollton, Little Elm, we service this entire North Dallas area. And like I said, we have over 45 employees. We literally train other maid services all around the world at our property. So we know how to get in there, do the job right, do it safely. We've added complimentary high touch sanitizing services to all of our cleanings.
And so anybody moving into the area, it's scary to start off with all of these unknown service providers. So just, you can head over to Buckets and Bows. It's bucketsandbows.com and fill out a form online to get a quote, a quick, easy quote and we can make your house shine from top to bottom, and then we have weekly, and every other week and even monthly services that we can quote you thereafter. So we're the number one cleaning company in the area. And we have room for one more customer. So send your clients to us.
Nicole: I love it. We most definitely will. Thank you again, Debbie, for your time today.
Debbie: Well, thank you. And I do want to say something, Nicole, before we finish up. I am so honored and grateful. You've been giving me a lot of compliments. But I've been watching you for years as a realtor. And one thing you've always impressed me by is that you're friendly. You always come up and say hello, I see you mixing and mingling with everybody at the chambers of commerce. And you really do serve our community in a big way, in a leadership way. And I'm so excited to be on your podcast. So I'm grateful. Thank you so much for letting me.
Nicole: Thank you. The feeling's mutual.
