IAM2123 – CEO and President Offers Innovative Tech Solution in Commercial Cleaning

In this episode, we have Adam Povlitz, CEO and president of Anago Cleaning Systems, an internationally franchised commercial cleaning brand headquartered in South Florida.

He joined Anago in September 2009 and served as President since April 2015. He was appointed CEO in May of 2018. In January 2010, he was director of human resources and franchise development. Adam holds an MBA from the University of Miami in a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt from Nova Southeastern University.

Adam discusses the integration of technology in commercial cleaning, including the CleanCom software and its features for communication and customer service.

He explains the unique three-tier franchise model used by Anago Cleaning Systems.

Furthermore, he emphasizes servant leadership and the role of supporting and empowering the team.

Website: Anago Cleaning Systems
Franchise: Anago Masters
Facebook: Anago Cleaning Systems
Instagram: Anago Cleaning Systems

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Transcription:

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Adam Povlitz Teaser 00:00

Say one of your listeners is looking around their office and they're going, man, my office is a mess. How do I communicate with the folks cleaning their office? Our software works where they can take out their cell phone, take a picture of wherever the dirt is, whatever it may be. They can message it to the folks that are cleaning their building. There's no, it's total privacy. You're not sharing cell phone numbers, built in translations.

Intro 00:24

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:50

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a special guest back on the show today. I have Adam Povlitz. Adam, it's exciting to have you back on the show.

Adam Povlitz 01:00

Good to see you again, man. Hope all has been well. It's been a few years.

Gresham Harkless 01:04

Yes absolutely. It has been a few years. We were just talking offline about how life has changed honestly for the both of us and it's exciting times to say the least. So before of course we jumped into that I want to read a little bit more about Adam so you can hear a little bit more about all the awesome things that he's working on. And Adam is the CEO and President of Anago Cleaning Systems, an internationally franchised commercial cleaning brand headquartered in South Florida.

He joined Anago in September 2009 and served as a President since April 2015. He was appointed CEO in May of 2018. In January 2010, he was director of human resources and franchise development. And in September 2010, was named Vice President of Operations. In 2013, Adam was promoted to Executive Vice President in April 2015 appointed president before joining and ago he was employed by IBM Corporation as the growth initiatives and expense analysts. Adam holds an MBA from the University of Miami in a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt from the Nova Southeastern University.

He is a certified franchise executive in a cleaning and industry management standards, certified expert as well too. And Adam was a guest on I AM 343 of our podcast episode a few years ago. He's doing so many awesome things, but what I absolutely loves, Adam has entrepreneurship in his blood. I think hearing that how he started this business from his dad and how he inherited and just ran with that. And I think it's really cool to hear about his journey to be the CEO and all the things that he does, which I'm sure we'll delve into now. But one of the things that I read that as a quote that Adam said is that his number one principle is to believe in and take care of the people that take care of the business. So I absolutely love all the things you're doing, Adam. Appreciate your time. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Adam Povlitz 02:51

I mean, that was a mouthful. I'm ready just to give you a break. That was a lot.

Gresham Harkless 02:58

Yeah, absolutely. It was good. We were testing out those tongue twisters before we record it to get myself ready. Who knows what would happen if I didn't do that before.

Adam Povlitz 03:05

Yeah, no, I think half of those old titles as an IBM, a former IBM or everything was initials. It was IBM literally the company is initials, right. International Business Machines. And so it's funny when you get those titles, the I was that you read that whole thing and I was called, my business card literally used to say N-A-O-I-D-G-P-A and that was my title. And it was funny because when I was promoted to president at Anago, the former president, he got me a business card holder and he goes, in honor of all those crazy initials you had at IBM, I got you a business card holder and it said, Pudsobic, P-U-D-S-O-B-I-C. And I go, what is this? And he goes, it stands for poor, unfortunate, dumb, S-O-B in charge. There you go. You got to love those welcome gifts.

Gresham Harkless 03:55

Exactly. Welcome.

Adam Povlitz 03:59

He's like baptism by fire, you S-O-B. There you go.

Gresham Harkless 04:02

Absolutely love it. So I wanted to rewind the clock just here a little bit more on what you've been working on, what you've been excited about and what kind of led you to this current spot.

Adam Povlitz 04:12

Sure. So man, it's been a minute. So we've been working on a lot of things. I think our core focus lately has been in the technology space. I know you probably don't think technology when you hear commercial cleaning franchise company, it's like an oxymoron, jumbo shrimp or something. It's technology and cleaning. And the technology is not really in the cleaning space at all. We don't have a better mop or a better vacuum or anything like that. It's all commercial grade stuff.

But there's nothing special about the equipment that differentiates us. But our focus has been in technology from a customer service standpoint. So we have invested in something that we call CleanCom. And this is a, so right now, if, you know, say one of your listeners is looking around their office and they're going, man, my office is a mess. How do I communicate with the folks cleaning their office? Our software works where they can take out their cell phone, take a picture of wherever the dirt is, whatever it may be.

They can message it to the folks that are cleaning their building. There's no, it's total privacy. You're not sharing cell phone numbers. Built-in translation, so maybe you're the first language is in English, maybe it's Spanish, Portuguese, whatever it may be. Everyone can communicate back and forth. And it really streamlines things. We found that in commercial cleaning, so kind of side story on it. In commercial cleaning, there are not 3 levels of experience, right? Everybody's business has 3 levels of experience except mine. You go to a restaurant, right?

You mentioned you recently were married. You take your beautiful wife to a restaurant and you could have 1 of 3 experiences. You either go in, your food's great, waiter or waitress is phenomenal, and you love it. You go in and man, the waitress is a jerk and the food is cold and you hate it. Or you just have one of those, whatever kind of experiences. In cleaning, nobody has the delight, the first experience, right? Everyone gets to their office, nobody's going, oh my gosh, my office is so clean, I'm gonna get my janitor a birthday present.

They either get to their office and they go, I gotta work or they get to their office and they go, wait a minute, why is my trash can still full? Why are there smudges on my desk? And so we, so we've been investing in technology that basically says anytime there is that human error moment that our technology jumps in and helps make that that bad experience into a good one.

Gresham Harkless 06:34

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. It's so funny and I heard that a lot around the Ubers and the tech companies of the world. We're a tech company that does dot dot dot and it sounds like technology has been apparent in all different industries and being able to leverage that to be able to communicate with your clients at the end of day, provide that better experiences, a lot of what you guys have leaned into. So I wanted to delve down a little bit deeper and hear a little bit more on how you're helping the people, how you're making that impact. I know you touched on this well too, but I know that there's a lot of opportunities as far as like franchising things that you all have been able to do and build and grow.

Adam Povlitz 07:08

Yeah, so we, our model is just as a refresher, our model is a three-tier franchise model. So most franchise models that people are familiar with are two-tier, right? So you go subway and the people who own the subway restaurants. There's the corporate and the restaurant owners. Ours is three-tier and it's unique to commercial cleaning space, but it's designed around where there's the corporate office. We have what's called a master franchise and that's like a regional territory. And then within a master regional territory, we have unit franchises.

And so the easiest way to think of it is instead of master unit regional, it gets complicated. The easiest way to think of it is like daytime versus nighttime. So the way I explain it is the master franchise is essentially the day job, right? Someone's gotta go sell cleaning contracts, get the invoices out. If a customer calls, handle it for any issues or special requests, handle that, make sure that the customer is taken care of during their regular business hours.

And then the unit franchise, that's the nighttime. Most commercial cleaning is done at night, so the unit franchise owners are able to focus strictly on that aspect of the business, hiring the crew, figuring out how to use the equipment, the chemicals, keeping the building clean. And it creates a cool synergy, because then the master franchise is essentially the white collar aspect of commercial cleaning and does zero cleaning. Zero cleaning experience necessary, zero cleaning done by the master franchise level.

And on the flip side, the unit franchisee is able to start up very low cost, very easy, low barriers to entry, get in, own a business, but then they don't have to know all of the ins and outs and suddenly have an SEO website expert, hire sales managers, and they're able to keep their staff minimal. So everyone creates, It creates a cool synergy where everyone's basically minimizing their overhead by relying on the other partner franchise. So pretty, pretty unique way of doing things. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone outside of our space using that model, but it seems to work pretty well in commercial cleaning.

Gresham Harkless 09:17

Yeah, it makes so much sense. Let me ask you this, because I don't know if this might be part of your secret sauce. It could be for you individually, the organization or a combination of both, but has it been your ability to have that journey yourself to be able to know all the aspects of running a business, of all the things that need to be done. Do you feel like that is part of your secret sauce, other organizations?

Adam Povlitz 09:39

I think it's definitely a piece to the puzzle. Even when we sell a new master franchise, we tell them to do the same, the journey that I told you about back a few years ago where I worked through literally every single role at the company and every single role that a unit franchise does and every single role that a master franchise does just to know it. And once the ins and outs of the business, I think it's helpful to be able to, if you can put yourself in the shoes of whoever it is and physically say, yes, I have cleaned the building. Yes, I have sold a cleaning contract. Yes, I have dealt with an angry customer. And Here is my experience and I know what you're going through and I think it adds a ton of value and it adds credibility as a leader when you're able to say I've been there.

Gresham Harkless 10:25

Yeah absolutely and so I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple Book or even a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Adam Povlitz 10:37

So, and they're not paying me for this, but I have become addicted to an app called Trello. And it's this, I don't know what it is. I don't know. How would you describe Trello? So Trello is like a to-do list on steroids. It is, I don't know. I, how about you create lists and you can tag websites to it, Google docs to it, upload files, share with people. I got to a point where, and you'll laugh, I literally tried to set my wife up with one because we have, everyone has a shared honeydew list with their wife and we just were sharing on like the fridge for a little while and then we moved to like we're iPhone people so we have the Apple Notes and I was like, babe, you gotta get on Trello. She's like, I am not, which is I'm absolutely not getting on Trello to cross collaborate with you. Like, no. Just come home and tell me. But that is, that's my go-to right now. I'm hooked on that.

Gresham Harkless 11:34

Yeah it's funny that you said that. So what would you consider to be what I call a CEO nugget? A little bit more word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell a franchisee, somebody maybe starting a business or something, if you were to happen to a time machine, you might tell your young business self.

Adam Povlitz 11:50

One of the things I've been doing a lot lately, I've hired a pretty robust and getting more, I'm going to say this robust, more robust executive team. And I know that sounds silly, but it's something I mean, if I could have told myself years ago, don't be afraid to hire and don't be afraid to hire senior level positions, I would have done it so much sooner. I think it would have slingshot our growth even further along. I've read, and I'm someone, I've been at this at Anago now. I think you read the whole profile, but it's going on. It'll be 14 years each, aging myself. It'll be 14 years this summer that I will have been at Anago.

And I think I was, I, it was originally the folks that my dad had brought on and then ultimately I took over and started slowly bringing, making it my team. And I'm going, I have to, we're moving into technology. I need to hire an IT director and I'm going, who the heck am I to hire an IT director? I don't know anything about, you know, IT and I'm not that techie where I could hire somebody shameless plug to the, I read this book called who it's a hiring book and by Jeff smart. It's just called who just WHO not world health organization, who the author's Jeff Smart.

And it basically, it was, so this was right when I think on the phones, the software where like you're reading and you can scan the text and then it'll take a, it'll transcribe the text from the picture. I've been doing hiring wrong my whole life until until I read this book and I read it and since then I've hired about 10 mid to senior level executives and they're all like home run a player and it's not because something I did, it's because I just followed the process. And it's made me significantly less afraid and more comfortable when you're going like, how am I going to hire for someone who knows less about it than I do? Or they know more about something, I know less about it than they do, and I'm supposed to interview them and see if they're qualified to do the job. Read the book. It's like, it changed my perspective entirely on what to look for when hiring.

Gresham Harkless 14:00

Yeah, I appreciate you so much for sharing that. I definitely have to check that out. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show. So Adam, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Adam Povlitz 14:15

That's a great question. CEO, I think means, I think your title says you're the first person, you're the highest person at the company. I think it's mentally having to flip that. And I come from a business owner standpoint, and so my dad always told me as the owner of the company, you're the last to get paid. And making it so that you really think of it as you're the, you're all you are is the foundation and everyone and all the people that are actually getting the job done, that are making the business work that are pleasing the customers and getting the job done are really the core piece to the business. And that your job is just to help them and help make their lives better. And by doing that, you're going to help make your business grow. It's the reverse. It's servant leadership. That's the approach that I feel like that was taught to me when I was first starting out. And that's the approach I feel like I like to take today too.

Gresham Harkless 15:09

Nice. I love that. Adam, truly appreciate that definition. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want is pass you on the mic so to anything additional that our readers and listeners how best people can get a about franchises, all the you, your team

Adam Povlitz 15:27

Have best to me is Anago Cleaning anagocleaning.com everything is all our is at Anago Cleaning. So Facebook/anagocleaning to such Twitter anymore. What is it? x.com/anagocleaning. Instagram/ and everything / anagocleaning. So yeah, check us out and anyone looking to buy a franchise or anything like that, it's anago, A-N-A-G-O, masters.com for a master franchise as well.

Gresham Harkless 16:00

They make it even easier. We're going to have the links and information in the show notes as well, too. So just scroll down or whatever you listen to this and you'll see links to everything. So I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Adam Povlitz 16:08

Thanks, man. You too.

Outro 16:09

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.

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