Starter Girlz Podcast

From Struggles to Success: Ali Alzurufi's Journey to Building Tidy Upped at 19

• Jennifer Loehding • Season 6 • Episode 55

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In this episode of Starter Girlz, meet Ali Alzurufi, the inspiring young entrepreneur who founded Tidy Upped, a thriving cleaning company in Texas, at just 19. Raised in Chicago by a widowed mother, Ali's journey from early struggles to business success is a powerful tale of resilience, determination, and creative problem-solving. Ali shares how he transitioned from reselling clothing to launching a company, emphasizing the importance of market research, building authentic client relationships, and the role of networking in the competitive Dallas suburbs. He also discusses how he provides exceptional customer service, takes care of his staff, and leverages technology to ensure consistent, seamless service. Beyond his business success, Ali talks about his personal growth, from overcoming limiting beliefs to the pivotal role of coaching in his journey. With a holistic approach, he reveals how self-care, dietary choices and lifestyle habits contribute to his high energy and fulfillment. Whether you're looking to boost your entrepreneurial skills or seeking motivation for personal growth, this episode offers valuable insights and inspiration.

You can learn more about Tidy Upped at https://tidyupped.com/.

Jennifer:

Welcome to the Starter Girlz podcast, your ultimate source of inspiration and empowerment. We're here to help women succeed in every area of their lives career, money, relationships, and health and well-being while celebrating the remarkable journeys of individuals from all walks of life who've achieved amazing things. Whether you're looking to supercharge your career, build financial independence, nurture meaningful relationships or enhance your overall well-being, the Starter Girlz podcast is here to guide you. Join us as we explore the journeys of those who dare to dream big and achieve greatness. I'm your host, Jennifer Loehding, and welcome to this episode. Welcome to another episode of the Starter Girls podcast. Wherever you are tuning in today, we are so thrilled to have you. I'm your host, Jennifer Loehding.

Jennifer:

I'm so excited about my guest today. This is going to be good. We got another Texas person in the house today, which I'm so excited about because I always say when I get to talk to my local peeps, it's a lot of fun. So let me tell you just a little bit about this guest today. So today's guest has a powerful story that speaks to resilience and transformation. Born in Chicago to immigrant parents, he grew up in challenging circumstances, raised by a widow mother who relied on community support and housing programs to provide for her four children, Moving frequently and navigating difficult environments. He faced early struggles, yet those experiences planted the seeds for his future drive by 17,. He reached a pivotal moment, realizing it was time to change direction and invest in himself. So I am going to be so excited to chat with him today. For you guys who are going to be tuning into this, this is just an awesome story because he is like the age of my kids and he is doing like incredible things at such a young age, and so I really get excited when I hear young entrepreneurs talk about their journeys and what they're doing and how they're making a difference in the world. So we're going to get to hear from him. But before we do that, I need to do a quick shout out to our sponsor.

Jennifer:

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Jennifer:

So Ali Azarufi has since built a successful residential cleaning business, Tidy Up, which has become a well-loved and respected service here in Texas. Alongside his business accomplishments, he's dedicated to giving back, from volunteering as a mentor with Big Brother, Big Sister, to partnering with Cleaning for a Reason to support cancer patients. His journey from a turbulent youth to award-winning entrepreneur and community advocate is one of growth, impact and inspiration. So I'm excited to have him on here. I know you guys are going to be excited to hear his story and learn from him, and so, Ali, welcome to the show. So excited to have you here today.

Ali:

Who's this great guy you're talking about? I really want to meet him.

Jennifer:

I know, isn't that fun. Hey, listen, you know what. I don't know if I shared this with you. I've said this so many times because people always like those bios. But I will say this Is it not fun to hear somebody else talk about the cool things that you're doing, or is it just nice to hear it from somebody else other than what you know already?

Ali:

Yeah, it sounds great. I feel like it's a book written about my life or a movie, so it's pretty cool. But, yeah, thanks for having me on here. I'm excited.

Jennifer:

Absolutely, absolutely. This is going to be great. So I spent many years in the Mary Kay world where we had to read accolades for people coming up on stage, and so, as a leader, I always had to have them and I had to present them for the people that I was trying to recognize, and so I've had a lot of years of preparing those kinds of things, and that's probably one of my favorite parts of the show is getting to shine the spotlight on the guests coming on the show. So I'm glad you liked it.

Ali:

Cool, great introduction.

Jennifer:

Yeah, all right. So let's talk about you. I want to talk about the cleaning service. I want to talk about what this is and how this got started, because, as I mentioned in the bio, you are a young entrepreneur and it's not every day that somebody is 17, decides I need to change something in my life and then turns around and creates this business and then starts doing really well at it. So walk us through this.

Ali:

Shoot. Yeah, I don't know where to start. Well, tell us maybe where?

Jennifer:

what was the? This defining moment when you were what? What was the 17? Like what happened here, that made you realize you needed to do something different.

Ali:

Okay, great question. So, yeah, 17, like, I got in a lot of trouble and I didn't like where I was at and I knew that if I didn't make changes, like I wouldn't be going anywhere. And I was kind of dissatisfied with myself. I didn't, I didn't like you know, yeah, I didn't like where I was at. So, just kind of all of a sudden, I had this switch. I think I was always a smart kid and so, you know, I decided to like just take serious action at 17. I thought, you know, I'm going to pick up every book on self-development I want to, you know, immerse myself with mentors or people who are successful. And then I just kept doing that. Yeah, do you remember?

Jennifer:

like I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.

Ali:

No, that was it.

Jennifer:

Do you remember what that first like? Was there a book that really stood out at that time for you, that you cause, I know, like for me, like I have these like pivotal moments where I can tell you, like something just kind of sparked it, I read something, saw something, and it made such a huge difference.

Ali:

Yeah, I think then I was watching a lot of YouTube videos and I think that was kind of the early stage. I was watching a lot of Tai Lopez videos. Tai Lopez, someone who's like pretty big in the social media world and I liked his lifestyle, what he was doing, and I related to his story because he grew up with a single mom in North Carolina and his dad was I mean, this wasn't my case, but his dad was in prison. So he just grew up with a single mom and then he went on to be a multimillionaire. So I just kind of related to him and then I just kept finding other, you know, victory stories like that, people who had a child, a child, a troubling childhood, but then they grew up to be very successful. So I just kept clinging to people like that and then just kind of kept doing it. But now, like my personal development is like a lot different from what it was before. Sure, my self-awareness and things like that.

Jennifer:

But yeah, yeah, well, and and first of all, it's remarkable that, okay, there's a lot to this, because there are a lot of people who go through life that have crappy upbringings, that never get out of the crappy stage right, like they continue this pattern. It's like that never escapes them. And then there are the people like you that say, okay, I don't like the situation I'm in, and the only person that's going to be able to change is there's nobody going to come in here and save me. I'm going to have to figure this out, right, and and I kind of when I, even though my story is nothing like yours, I can hear that in your voice, because I think that's the fighter mentality of I'm going to either do this or I'm not. I'm going to either play victim or I'm not going to play victim.

Jennifer:

And just yesterday it was funny I was talking to someone and we were talking about emotional intelligence, but we were talking about how, as healers, we set out to heal ourselves because we have to go through things, right, and I jokingly said I don't know about you, but I'm not very good at being a victim, like, and I don't care what it is in life, whether it's me being sick or it's a physical thing, or it's like term, whatever it is. I'm not really good at playing victim, and so I think that's what I'm hearing when you you know, when you're talking about this is that you're, you took this situation and you're like I don't want to continue down this path, like there's nothing here and I'm going to have to. What does that say? I take the bull by the horns, kind of thing. Right?

Jennifer:

Like change my situation.

Ali:

Burn the ship. Yeah, you know you mentioned emotional intelligence. Like that's something I've been learning this past year is like I've become like I'm doing pretty good, you know, for someone my age, um, but I noticed that all everything I've been doing is was very anxious. I'm always in my head, I'm always trying to achieve and do better, and that's because, you know, I felt like if I didn't, I was a failure, and so, like this year, I've been learning how to be more present and like become more, you know, in tune with my innate. You know abilities and like you know what do you call it? Like consulting with your heart and just being present rather than like always being in my head. So that's something new. Like you know, I've been working on this past year, um and so, but yeah, yeah, no, that's exciting.

Jennifer:

We were talking about that yesterday too. Seriously, Because as achievers, that is something okay, Like I'm in my fifties now, so I'm grown up kind of. I'm still growing every day, but I feel like I'm kind of growing up now.

Ali:

But I will tell hundred years to go.

Jennifer:

Do what?

Ali:

I said you still got another hundred years.

Jennifer:

I do, I do, I feel like I do. But the thing is for my entire like. I grew up kind of with the same mindset and mine was really driven towards. I felt the only way that I was going to get praised or recognition was if I was achieving, and I wouldn't get anything if I didn't. And so I always felt the need to be highly achieving, things like and so I would do a lot of things because I would think if I did this, people are going to like me more and they're going to think I have more credibility and I've done a lot of cool things I mean I have.

Jennifer:

I've ran marathons, I've written a book, I've done podcasting, I was successful in Mary Kay for 20 something years, I set a company record in another company, earned a car in like 90 days in a company. I mean I've done a lot of cool things, but a lot of it I did. And I'm not saying that to say, hey, I'm a cool person. A lot of us do cool things. But I did it because I felt like I needed to do it in order for people to appreciate, respect me.

Jennifer:

And now I love hearing this from you because now I feel like I'm in a place where I do these cool things because I want to do them, because I like growing and I like challenging myself. But it's not because I don't care what everybody thinks about what I do. If my theories don't like it, then just don't go away, don't watch, go, you know, do what you need to do. But it's more about because I want to learn more information or take in more knowledge. And then I realized, hey, the stuff I'm doing is pretty cool, it might help somebody else, kind of thing, right? So I love hearing you say that, because I think that's a process that we go through. But what I will give you hope and say is that it's almost, and you're probably recognizing that now that it's a little more free, right, right, because you're doing it, because you want to do it, not because you're needing approval and to be liked and all the things you're right, exactly, yeah it feels much

Ali:

better, as I feel like it's more honest, if that's the word I'm trying to look for, yeah, it feels present, it feels good and I like I I'm like discovering these things because I'm surrounding myself around people who usually are like been around a lot longer than I have, and so you know they're, they're, they point these things out and I had no idea, and it doesn't even register with me all the right away sometimes, you know. And then it hits me like one day I wake up I'm like, oh shit, that's what they meant.

Jennifer:

Well, and it's exciting to watch you because I think you know from your perspective, I mean, where you are right now. You're, oh my gosh, when you're like sitting at my age, like what you're going to do, you know what you're going to have learned. By this point, I mean, we're all on our own journey. That's the thing you know and I tell people. You know I started Mary Kay working in as an entrepreneur at 27. That's when I started my business and my daughter at that time was like 18 months old and I'm a very different person from there till today.

Jennifer:

But the crazy thing is is I tell people you know I was in the company 17 years before I really started really understanding personal development. So it's impressive that you're picking up on a lot of this, because you know I can tell you much of my 30s it was going in one ear and out the other. I mean, I was a queen of affirmations and goal posters and that stuff would. I'd be like whatever in one ear, out the other, you know. And then I had this, my own pivotal moment.

Jennifer:

That really started. It made me become aware of how I was contributing to my own situations and that's when I really started diving into all of this and starting to understand about, you know, circle of influence and the things I was consuming and how I was looking at things and working through past trauma and all of these different things that were really shaping how I was perceiving the world, which wasn't in a great way. You know what I mean. So I'm impressed that you're in this part of your journey, where you are, because I think by the time you're going to be doing really well. I mean, you're setting yourself up in such a great place.

Jennifer:

So thank you, I appreciate a big pat on the back for that. I think it's awesome More, more young, young kids need to be listening to this so they can do these, these cool things. And, yeah, do amazing things. Yeah, they should.

Ali:

I think I've become a really good manifester. I noticed the other sometimes like quicker, like sometimes very fast. So I was at customer's house a couple of days ago. I was doing an estimate and usually I go in with a folder and a pen, but I forgot my pen and I was at her fireplace and I was like in my head I was like dang, I need a pen. I looked over and there was a pen on the TV set.

Jennifer:

And it popped up it came into existence.

Jennifer:

I love it, I love it, I love it. Well, I guess a good thing there is. You adapted and you know what, sometimes you got to roll with the punches, right, because I was kind of smirking because I could tell you I've done that plenty of times, I've gotten in somewhere. I'd be like all right. When I used to do Mary Kay, like I would need a calculator to do my cells, we didn't have like we had phones. But let's go back to 1999 when cell phones were kind of really not that great.

Ali:

That's when I was born.

Jennifer:

Yeah, and so I had a calculator. And you go in and I'd be like I don't have a calculator. How am I going to add this up? I'm going to start writing stuff down on the paper. We'll just start writing it out. You know like you learn to just improvise and step down on the paper. We'll just start writing it out. You know like you learn to just improvise, you know, so it's good. So let's talk about the company. How this came about for you. Like what was the inspiration behind this? Like did you just wake up one day and you're like, hey, this sounds like a cool thing to do, or was there something that kind of played out for you?

Ali:

Yeah, you know, actually like running a clean company, something that's been like I've thought about multiple times, but I never thought that I would actually do it. You know, I just thought about it and then at 17, like when I started my personal development, I also started out different business ventures. I started with um, buying and reselling clothing, and I would go to like thrift stores, garage sales, things like that, and my daughter does some of that oh, it's a lot of fun and you can really she likes it.

Ali:

Yeah, yeah, you learn a lot, like you know doing it at a young age, because you have to go, you have to do your market research to see what things are going for, and then you have to learn negotiation, you have to learn pricing and and a lot of things. So it's a lot of fun and it's a little bit of networking because you go to the local garage sales. So, yeah, I started with that and then I tried doing. I started up a my first like llc business. Uh, you know, legit business was in digital marketing, so facebook ads, google ads, social media website, and I had a big vision for that but it didn't go where I was uh like envisioning for it to.

Ali:

But I learned a lot and then at 19 so this is a couple years later, 19 I thought I want to do a new business venture and I started researching. You know what kind of opportunities I can get into and whatever I was processing at the time, I thought you know what I'm gonna do cleaning and so I went from there. I literally just started the cleaning business. That was it.

Jennifer:

I love it, I just yeah, I love the well and.

Jennifer:

I feel like every time I've started something that's kind of been my journey too I just decide I'm going to do something, I just do it. But I think it's such a great thing because it's an area where you really can't go wrong. I mean, especially living where we are here in the suburbs of Dallas. I mean especially living where we are here in the suburbs of Dallas. I mean cleaning is a big thing here. You know people pay for it and they want it, and you know, and so you're definitely in the right place for that kind of thing. So it really just comes down to you.

Jennifer:

You know marketing and networking and interestingly, that's how we met was through networking. So I think it's impressive you know that you're out doing that, because there are a lot of business owners that don't do a lot of that. And I know in all the years that I was in Mary Kay, that was never really something we talked about doing was networking. We were sort of in our little bubble and we were always taught you start with your friends and your family. And I don't know about you, but I have a feeling you're going to agree with me on this. You don't get rich off friends and family. So you just need to let that go. They're good to start with, like to help you kind of get going, but you need to, like, move out of that circle really fast and find real clients, you know, and so um, so yeah, so you you've got to get out there and hustle and you got to network and meet people and build relationships and get the word out there.

Ali:

Yeah, that's funny that you say that, like when I started my business, the word out there. Yeah, that's funny that you say that, like when I started my business, nobody knew about it A lot of times when you start your business people tell their family.

Ali:

First, right, you didn't tell anybody. I didn't tell anybody because I didn't want anybody's opinions and I knew people were going to try to, you know, say, don't do this, don't do that. So I literally just started it. And then, yeah, and then I started picking up. Then I told my family after. It was kind of yeah, and I only told them because I needed to hire someone. So I hired my brother and sister.

Jennifer:

Yeah, good for you. No, and I think I probably would have done maybe the same thing, because family, I think you know, when you're talking about businesses, family, family and friends don't. If they don't understand that fire the fire of an entrepreneur, they don't get it and they have a tendency to want to protect and so a lot of times they will squash things like right. And if you're, you don't strike me as a type of person that is swayed by other people's. I'm not like that either, like I will listen to what somebody says, but it's not, I'm going to make my own decision. I'm going to ultimately make my decision and I think you have to be that way.

Jennifer:

Sometimes it doesn't mean you don't take advice from other people, but I think when you're, when you're starting things, or when you're following a passion or dream, whatever, you sort of got to put those blinders on a little bit and, you know, fade out that noise around you. And if that means you have to do that solo path a little bit, and then find which is good you did, because you're in these communities, these networking communities, so you found other people that are kind of walking along that journey with you that can say do this. Ali, you got this. Do this, you can make it happen. You know that's where you need to find your support, your cheerleaders and your people. That can, you know, tell the other people when it's time.

Ali:

Yeah, 100%. That's so important to have a group like that, because now I have that, now I can run my ideas by people and any criticism or you know, positive like, like it's all supportive and good.

Jennifer:

Right.

Ali:

So, yeah, it's great to find people like that. When I first started, I didn't have people like that, so I chose not to tell anyone. So you have to find good people like that you can have around your circle. Yeah.

Jennifer:

Yeah, so you've won a couple of awards. I know you were telling me about that. Tell us real quick a little bit about that, because I think that's that's impressive as well.

Ali:

Yeah, rewards. So I got nominated best of home cleaning service and Allen this year for twenty twenty four and they announced it last week. And then we got nominated last year too for twenty twenty three, and then thank you, I appreciate that. And another reward was top entrepreneur of the year 2023, uh, through uh, city of Allen, allen, fairview, and um, yeah, and neighborhood favorite. We got next door neighborhood favorite too, wow, yeah.

Jennifer:

Wow, so impressive. I mean it's almost like now, all these people you were, you know family, you were scared to tell, and you're like, look at the look at what's happening. You know, and I think it's almost like now, all these people you were, you know family, you were scared to tell, and you're like, look at the look at what's happening and I think it's fun, I think it's just great and it says a lot about the quality of work you're doing too, if you're receiving those awards, because you know it's a lot of work running a business and I think you know customer service is such. By the way, I have to say this because every time I send you a message and I get those little cute little test text messages that come back like today, the dust bunny thing I was cracking up like faster.

Jennifer:

These messages are so great because there's nothing for one. They're different, they're unique, they're unique. So when you see them, you're thinking this isn't just a hey, we got your message, we'll get back to you. You know, like it's, it's a little bit unique and I like that, but I think it's so important because it's customer service is really. I mean, as a business owner and you and I'm sure you'll agree with me, there are a lot of cleaning companies out there, so you have to set yourself apart, right, and you have to be different, and it's always, like you know, when I'm working on things, I'm thinking what would make me different than the other person coming in the door that's going to make this person want to call me back and utilize my service again, right, and so you have to be thinking about this, and so I love those little messages, by the way. I think they're good.

Ali:

Yeah, Thanks. Yeah, If you ever try reaching out after business hours, there's a message, a cute message like that too. It says you know you're reaching us after hours. We're probably busy perfecting our towel folding skills or something like that, I think.

Jennifer:

I've gotten one. I think I have seen one, because I messaged you or something. They're all great. I think they're great messages. I like that you've got them set up and I think the thing I think that's fun about them is they're kind of lighthearted, so they're not just like you caught us after hours and our regular business hours are everybody does that, like you know what I'm talking about Every time you caught us after hours.

Jennifer:

Please call back a normal business hours or leave a message. You know these are unique, they're different, and people go oh well, you caught us, it's making light of the situation, it makes it fun, it's memorable, and so, and I think that there are things you're doing which you know, I think is impressive. What do you, I think, maybe, for somebody listening to this because they're going OK, so what is this? Maybe what, aside from those messages, what do you feel like makes what you guys do different and what would maybe be this contributing thing that help you get these awards?

Ali:

Yeah, great question. I really don't. I really don't kind of look at what other people are doing. Honestly Maybe I should, but I don't look at what other cleaning services are doing and I just do the best I can with what I you know, with what I know. So I don't really compare myself to others and I just do the best I can. And I know I'll attract certain clients based on what I'm doing and what I'm putting out there and so I try a lot of different things. I think with the technology I'm probably that's probably different than most places, but I don't know, cause I don't really see what other people are doing. Maybe people are catching onto it. But I'm very, uh, advanced in, uh, automation and you know tech, tech stuff, so I apply a lot of it in my business. So my customers they get, they get appointment reminders, they get a text whenever the cleaner is on the way, um, they get a text when the job is done. So they're always communication is always there and then,

Ali:

after the job. You know we leave it open for them if they have any feedback, so that way we can address it right away. And then we make a note of it on their account. And then, yeah, and so I just make sure everything's organized too. So not only do I have automation, but in the backend everything's organized. So if a client, for example, ever says that this wasn't done or this was missed, I make sure that it never happens again, because we make a note of it and everyone, or whoever goes to clean that house, can see that note, and so that way we make sure that you know we follow through on client satisfaction. So I think, yeah, good customer service, because we're making note of all of this. If you're not organized, all that can get lost and then your customer leaves you have an unhappy customer.

Jennifer:

I think the thing that's standing out in my mind is that having notes so that anybody that comes in can pick that up, because there's nothing like and I mean this could happen on any level, but there's nothing like you have a different person come in and they have no idea anything that's going on. Then you guys start the process over again, right Like as and it could be in any business. Really, we're not just speaking into the cleaning industry, but any business where we have clients and somebody different could be working with the client and has no idea the history with the client or anything going on, and then they walk in brand new. You know what I mean.

Ali:

Exactly.

Jennifer:

I love that you're making that accessible to everybody on the team.

Ali:

And it's not only that. Also, I have notes for client scheduling details for my admin assistant who helps with the scheduling, and so anytime we're going to schedule someone, for whatever reason, that's not been to that home and it's going to create some inconsistency for the client. Yeah, we know. So my admin will know that and we'll reach out to the customer in advance to let them know that so and so usually comes and cleans your home but they're sick or they're out of town for this whole week. Are you OK with someone else? I'll make sure. Uh, I'm sure you'll be happy with this person or whatever. You want to change it. So we're on top of it, because anytime it's not consistent, so I want to make sure, like, the service is consistent. Um, right, right. So, yeah, I think that's great.

Jennifer:

Yeah, I think that's great and it does, and I think it says a lot because I know, like me, I'd be like, yeah, that's fine, but I think, as the client, you know that thank you for letting me know. So we have a different person. You walk in the door and you got a whole different person in there. You know, I know, when I used to do one of the cleaning companies I don't remember the name of them, but somebody when I first moved to Dallas, every single time I had somebody different every single week, and we used to laugh about it because they never spoke any English, which is fine, but I didn't speak any Spanish and my daughter, my oldest, was completely fluent in Spanish, and so so many times they would come in and have to tell me something.

Jennifer:

They would either have the Google translator or I'd have to go get my daughter out of the room and be like what are they saying? Can you translate? You know, to me back and forth. But it was always a different. I very seldom had like the same person coming in and Very seldom have like the same person coming in and they were different. They would. They would have different styles of doing things, which is fine, but you. I think, as the client, it's nice to know that you're kind of keeping up with that, saying hey, we try to keep it consistent, but if we need to do this we'll let you know, and that way you have that option to decide what you want to do.

Ali:

Exactly, that's actually. Another huge differentiator is that a lot of cleaning companies have a high turnover.

Jennifer:

Yeah.

Ali:

I don't. A lot of my employees stay with me for a long time, and not in the beginning. In the beginning I was trying to learn how to grow the company and stuff and how to manage people. But I pay my staff a good wage, I treat them fairly, and so they're happy showing up every day. They take pride in what they're doing and that results in happy customers too, because you know, people love what they're doing, whereas in a lot of other companies, like you said, you have a lot of people different people showing up, the whole company's having problems with retaining employees being profitable and then they have to go out of business.

Jennifer:

Um, and so yeah, so that's another differentiator take care of your people and the people take care of the customers. Right, that's how it. That's, that's the way it works. Yeah, you know I'm actually.

Ali:

I'm actually preparing some holiday gift baskets for my employees right now, actually for my customers too, my referral partners.

Jennifer:

But let me just show you a couple things.

Ali:

Yeah, show us, show us what you got happening uh, so I'm gonna be putting in some, some organic you know good stuff chocolate bars in there yeah, that's a winner chocolate's good winner winner got some raw local honey from a vendor in allen okay, so it's like a nice local touch yeah. Got some thank you cards in there. I'm preparing some uh all natural uh cleaning solution, um, and some hand sanitizer bottles with with like the tidy up brand on it and just different stuff like that.

Jennifer:

Yeah, no, I think it's great, I think it's, I think it's good, I think that you're doing good. So I'd love to know, because I know we've talked about a lot of things and somebody listening to this I know most of us know that there's always challenges, like you mentioned a minute ago in the beginning the turnover. Obviously now things are kind of smoothed out, your people are happy and it's working well, but some of maybe some things you had to work through in the beginning as a new entrepreneur, especially being young, what do you feel like were some of the bigger challenges that you had to get through, other than not telling anybody right the family, yet till you got it going and yeah, um, I think the best thing was getting a coach very early, um, because there were a lot of things I didn't I wasn't even aware of.

Ali:

So my one of the biggest challenges was managing I had no idea how to be an effective manager. Biggest challenges was managing I had no idea how to be an effective manager. And then I was running a lot of limiting beliefs that were you know, that were we call it that were showing up in the way that I would like run my business and talk to people.

Ali:

So one thing that I used to do is that when I'm talking or when someone tries to confront me or, you know, comes at me in some way, I would freeze, like I would literally freeze and not know what to do, what to say.

Ali:

Just go silent, yeah, and go silent, and you know that that was what was happening early on. But then, after getting some coaching, becoming aware of it, now I'm a very effective manager. You know people I can before I used to not recognize when people are. You know what do you call like verbally abusing me or, or, you know, trying to set something up. I used to not see it, you know, I would think that I was doing good customer service. But now you know I can recognize it when someone is coming at me in a threatening way or whatever, and you know I address it all professionally and everything. So, yeah, so yeah, that was a big thing for me. So, learning how to be an effective manager and then also how to like be always in a calm, and you know, uh, stay and yeah, so that was one thing. And then also numbers was a challenge, because, or you know, uh, knowing what income is coming in, what expenses are going out, maintaining your labor costs, quoting uh properly, um, measuring, tracking, so that was another one.

Jennifer:

Um, yeah, it's um, all of those things you're talking about, I think are very real, real things that I think we all first of all the women's team believes, I think everybody at some point. And I still think and I think they're almost kind of an ongoing thing, I mean, you still wrestle with them all the time. You just get better at recognizing and how to navigate those situations, you know. And so the yeah, and I don't know about you, but like when I have people come at me, it's funny because for me it's almost the delivery with me, with people, is almost as important as what they say. And what I mean by that is somebody could come to me and be hey, why are you open to some feedback? Or are you open to, you know, having a doubt? And I'd be like yeah, sure, tell me. But if somebody comes at you and they just come at you full throttle and they're like you did this and you did that, you know it's like a whole whoa. But I think you know to your point, I think, as you get better at learning to navigate, that I think you sort of remove.

Jennifer:

It's almost like the conversation I had with this gal yesterday. You know your worth right, and so now, this isn't attached to the work. So, in other words, if you're worth, if you don't feel valued yourself, then somebody does that to you. You start feeling bad about yourself, right. So then it comes out and you're like, what do you do?

Jennifer:

But if you know your worth, then when that comes at you, you're like, whoa, wait a minute, how am I going to handle this now? Because this person's clearly upset. This it's not me, this is this person's stuff, this is them. And now how do I engage in that conversation? So I think that's great that you I a couple things I'll say. It's great that you got a coach to help you with that, because this is that's a lot of the stuff I do when I work with people, but also that you recognize that you needed to do get that figured out or work on that so you could be effective, because managing and leading is not easy to do and and it can be good or it can be bad, you know and some people are better readers.

Jennifer:

Some are better managers. It's great if you can be a visionary, be a leader, but also learn how to manage people and get them to move and do the things you want them to do too.

Ali:

Yeah, and I want to add to that that so a lot of things I was doing or do, I don't even recognize it. And then when I'm meeting with my coach this is why it's important to have a coach because when you're meeting with your coach, you know they'll ask you what the week was like and then you'll start explaining you know, explaining what happened, how I reacted to it that my coach, who's been around longer than me, has the experience was able to recognize it and pointed it out, and I was like I was like, well, I didn't even, I didn't even look at it like that, you know. So that's so a lot of it I didn't recognize by myself. It was pointed out and then, and then, you know, I became aware of it. I was open to that feedback that I got.

Jennifer:

But yeah, no, and sometimes it does, it takes a fresh perspective, somebody, that's another set of eyes to kind of look down in and see the big picture, right, cause we get for ourselves, we get hung up in the weeds, sort of of like the thing that happened. But it's nice when you can have somebody come in and they can sort of see the abstract, they can see the big picture and go well, here's what I see is happening and maybe this is where we need to make a small shift, you know, and so I'm with you. I do coaching, so I'm with you. I believe the power.

Jennifer:

I've always had somebody in my space that has helped me. You know, I don't have one right at this very moment, but I just ended a mastermind at the end of October I was in one again, and so I'm continually always kind of doing the same thing putting myself into positions where I can have somebody kind of look at what I'm doing and even like I was building out I'm in the middle of building out an offer suite right now which is I have the high ticket course built.

Jennifer:

I worked backwards. I have the high ticket built, but I'm having to now engineer it backwards to take somebody from the beginning and get them to the high ticket, which is hard because I have to go back and remember where I was. Okay, I've been in this space for a while. I've been doing this since 1999. And so, anyways, I went into this mastermind to help me to figure that part out, because I'm like I got this $10,000 program over here I want to sell and I'm thinking who's going to buy this? Right, the person like me is the person like me. They would pay for it, but they're kind of like me. They need a lot. I'm trying to get the person down there that needs that, but they're not going to pay that because they're here.

Jennifer:

So crazy. When I went into this mastermind, like one of the first things she said to me, she said I want you just to put that down. Just put it down and stop looking at that right now, and you're going to have to unthink, like unlearn some of the stuff you've learned and back up, which is so hard because we get set in the things that we're doing and the way we want things to work and sometimes that having another set of eyes on something can open us up to go okay, maybe I'm just getting hung up on this particular thing and it's really not allowing me to do the big thing I need to do, right, or I'm not being able to manage my people because I think I'm getting, but I'm just missing a small something in there. So I think it's great that you, you know, have put these kinds of people in your space to help you grow and really expand your awareness.

Ali:

Yeah, thank you, I appreciate that. Expand your awareness? Yeah, thank you, I appreciate that. I think, like you you mentioned you know you get, like you know you're doing things and then it starts to become habitual, becomes pattern. I think it's great to be dynamic and it's good to be consistent and focused, but it's also good to be open mind and this is what helped me. Um, I think, uh, it's great for people to be open-minded and curious and and dynamic. So I'm a, I'm a pretty like multi what do you call multifaceted person. I have a lot of different interests, different hobbies, but I'm always open to trying something new too, and expanding my way of thinking and picking up different books. And you know I'm able to relate to a lot of different people because I'm always in different types of spaces and just always learning differently, you know, yeah.

Jennifer:

Yeah, and speaking of interest, I know you're doing some acting, so tell us a little bit about that. What inspired that and what's this? What's going on with all of that?

Ali:

Yeah, so I just started acting in um in august, and so I'm a beginner actor. Right now. I'm taking classes and then a couple weeks ago I auditioned for a play and I got cast and so that's going pretty good right now. Um, so I'm running you know my business during the day and then acting at night and, um, I I'm really enjoying it like it's something.

Ali:

Like I told you, this year I've been working on being more present and, um, I've been also dancing for about a year and a half salsa and bachata, and yes, so dancing and and acting, it's all in the arts, yeah, and it's all it's there. You know, those are fun and also those are all things that you know you're like really present when you're doing it. And, um, I'm a, I'm a very creative type of person and so I think I think, uh, you know, it was pretty inevitable that I landed here in acting, and when I was younger I used to draw and then I was actually in a play when I was younger too, but, but I was in the fourth grade, so that was a long time ago. Yeah, and so, yeah, and I like music. So, yeah, music, dancing, acting, it's just it's a lot of fun and it's going to be well-rounded.

Jennifer:

You're going to be good at all the things. You just got to get the cooking in and the acting, the business I could, I actually could, Okay. Well, you know, see, you're going to be, you're going to have to be just all well-rounded. I'm kind of like that too. I don't do all that stuff you do, but I get it because I'm a creative person too and I and I and here's the thing I think art stuff is important.

Jennifer:

I think we need it because I think that creative uses the other side of the brain that we don't get to focus on as much because we're always having to think numbers and serious and all the other parts. So I think when you add that to your life I talk about this with my clients all the time finding that thing that adds flow to your life, whatever that is, you enjoy, if it's playing piano or playing the guitar, maybe it's a sport, I don't know, whatever that is because we all have a little bit of creativity in us. Just some of us, I think, recognize it more. It's important, it really is. And I think recognize it more it's important, it really is, and I think it makes you dynamic and it adds value to your life and it makes it the other stuff, the mundane more manageable. You know what I mean.

Jennifer:

So I'm with you on that. I think it's cool You're doing all that stuff. So this is kind of a vision question. I'm going to wrap this up here pretty quick, but I got kind of a vision question for you because I think you're like I am as far as visionary. Where do you see Tidy Up going Like, what's the vision for this company?

Ali:

Yeah, the vision is. So the vision is to continue growing, tidy Up, becoming more present, covering more areas here in Texas, and it's a company I'll most likely um, so eventually in the business I'll be an absentee owner and so the business will run by itself and I'll be keeping the business for cash flow. I think it's a very solid business. It's in a good, good area too, and so I'll most likely have this business for a long time, um, and it'll just continue to grow and expand. And then I'm like a lot of it. I'm actually constantly envisioning what to do with it and adding into it.

Ali:

But another thing is, as the business grows, we'll also start offering different types of home services. Or one thing we're doing now is starting to offer natural cleaning solutions. Actually, we've been doing that for a little while. Um, so adding that into it. And then, you know, yeah, just different things, like I, I haven't done any of it yet, it's just some ideas, but just, yeah, offering other type of service, home services and the name tidy up, you know, can apply to other home services too, so it's a pretty general name, you know I like it.

Jennifer:

I like that you're thinking big picture and and thinking long term like, hey, what can we do to this? And keep growing, and I love it. I get, I get excited when I hear people with ideas.

Jennifer:

I like ideas, and I'm gonna be a famous actor too I know I think you're, we're gonna be seen, you're gonna be doing your acting and your dancing. You might be like a dance in the stars one day or something like that. Hey, we knew that guy when he was a kid. He was just kind of starting out out here and all that stuff. I love it, I think it's great. So I had one other question.

Ali:

I totally forgot what I was going to ask you.

Jennifer:

Aside from my personal development, because I can tell that this is like a huge part. But what other like self-care practices do you do that you feel like are important in your space? Oh, a lot so that's why I'm asking you is because I know you do.

Jennifer:

I can tell just by the way you're talking and so maybe for our listeners because I am, I do all the, I do a lot of stuff and I understand the value of it. So I want to hear from you a couple things that you do, that you implement, you feel like are really powerful for you.

Ali:

Yeah, so I think I'm going to live to 150. That's great. I love it. There are a lot of things. One I would say I'm probably going to lose a lot of people here, but don't drink alcohol.

Jennifer:

I don't drink alcohol, so you got of people here but don't drink alcohol probably most people there so you got me listening.

Ali:

I don't do alcohol, but so no alcohol, but, uh, daily um. Also, no processed food. Um, I cook everything I eat. I know exactly what's going in it. It's um and it's all like sourced organically and no pesticides. All that plays a difference in your energy that you put out every single day. So I'm young, but there's people my age who aren't active and who, like, don't have the energy and are always fatigued and so, yeah, so good food. And then I don't drink any coffee either. I just drink tea, but no caffeine, so it's all herbal tea. We'll see how long that can continue to go for, so I don't do any of that.

Ali:

Exercising, weightlifting and then creating healthy boundaries for you. So, like when I started this new hobby with rehearsals for acting, I noticed that their requirement was 6 pm to 10 pm, but I noticed that started eating into my healthy routine because I need to be up early doing things, and so I'd recognize that and I immediately reached out to them and I told them hey, I need to be out at nine o'clock sharp every day because of this, this and that, and that was my boundary for myself, and they respected that and they said you can leave sharp, you know nine o'clock sharp, um, and so there's different things will happen. If you can recognize uh, recognize it immediately that it's causing you to not be happy or it's interrupting your, you know what makes yeah, what makes you, you, happy, you need to address it right away. Because so that's what I did there for the acting um, I wasn't gonna let it.

Ali:

I was willing to step away from the play if they weren't, if they weren't willing to let me leave at night meet you because I know I wouldn't have been happy or functional, you know, the rest of the week and with my business and other priorities, um, so yeah, so I'd say that and just keep it balanced. You know, I'm like I'm doing pretty good. I spent a lot of time running the business, but I keep it balanced. I don't, and I do that by delegating, hiring the right people. Sometimes I have to put in more time in, like, you know, when you lose someone or whatever, but then I quickly try to adjust back because I kind of can sense, when I feel good, what makes me happy and what doesn't. So I try to adjust as quickly as possible.

Jennifer:

Yeah, that's good. Well, and all your response. There you're probably pretty safe because all of those I do myself as well and I'm actually a low carver, so almost carnivore. So I pretty much eat all unprocessed telling I pretty much eat all unprocessed stuff, period, because I eat a lot of meat. But it's funny because I was telling somebody yesterday I said it's interesting because I didn't grow up like that, eating like that. I mean we were we ate very poorly because we were in a lot of activities and so we ate out a lot. And I say I was a microwave child. I mean I could pop a TV dinner in the microwave and be fine. I mean I could pop a TV dinner in the microwave and be fine.

Jennifer:

But now because I do the low carb and I did not start all of that for weight loss, I did all that because of the health condition I have that my life has actually become much simpler because I don't really have to think about food that much and I just eat so I can live, so I can be healthy and I know what I can and can't have. And it's actually harder for me. It's not let me say it's not that hard, but it is more difficult to eat out than it is for me to eat in, because I can fix something up. Like yesterday, right before I got on a show. The girl was talking about food and I started laughing in the middle because I was about to go on an episode. I was starving and I was like I don't have time to cook and I'm looking in my cabinets like I'm about to just pull out yogurt and pecans, cause that's where I'm at. But I'm like if I eat that, I'm not going to get enough sodium and I'm going to be hungry in an hour. So I go in the freezer and I pull out a hamburger patty and I throw it in the pan and then I get to work and the damn thing, this done, like I got to eat like three minutes because I got to be on the scene. So I get the burger patty out and I'm like where's the mustard? Where's the mustard? I ate a patty with mustard. That was my lunch yesterday. That is what I do because one I don't want all the crap, I don't want all the sugar, I don't want all the carbs and I want it simple. And so there are many days like I will just eat meat and there might be a vegetable on the side over there. But I mean, I pretty much, and my life has become so uncomplicated and I feel better. I'm not sick all the time. So you know so.

Jennifer:

But and I don't drink alcohol anymore either, because I have a. It does not make me feel well, it actually makes me sick if I drink it. So I don't do alcohol. So you're in a safe place, because these people have been hearing this stuff from me for a while. So, no processed food, I don't do alcohol.

Jennifer:

Make sure you get your sleep in. Think about who you're hanging around with. Set the freaking boundaries. Make sure you have time for your personal care, all of those things. You're in a safe place. I assure you personal care, all of those things. You're in a safe place. I assure you it's all good. So what is your? What is your one? Um, because you do eat good and I and I feel like we all have like a guilty pleasure, even though we do eat good Mine's yogurt and pecans. That's my guilty pleasure.

Jennifer:

Every now and then I go find a low carb ice cream. If I'm just dying to get ice cream, like I really want some, I go to the store. I found one the other day. I've known about this brand. It's called Rebel and it's probably not. It's going to have some stuff in it, but it's probably the best, one of the best, low carbs. But I found one the other day that was a peanut butter caramel chip. Oh, it tastes like Butterfinger. It is so good and I haven't had a Butterfinger since I was in my 20s. No kidding, it was so good and normally if I buy a tub, a pint, it'll last me like the whole week, because I'll just all week I'll kind of nurse it. It was gone in 24 hours, like it was gone. I ate the whole tub. So so what's your one? What's your one? Guilty like guilty pleasure.

Ali:

Good thing you want you know, um, that's something like the past few years I haven't actually had any guilty pleasures like I've had such a I've had such a like, no interest in any sweets or anything like that, but. But this year I noticed I started craving some sweets. So my guilty pleasure are dates. It it's actually so. It's still kind of healthy. You know, it's not processed food, so days, um, occasionally I might grab a chocolate bar, but I'll go with the organic chocolate, um, and then yeah, that's pretty much it.

Jennifer:

Or I'll do tea with raw honey, like as sweet can do, that's it I was gonna say chocolate, because I will make like, um, I will make like low-carb brownies, but I'll buy like the cocoa chocolate, like the chocolate that doesn't have the sugar in it. Then I put stevie in it so that it's not having the you know, the regular sugar in there. So I but again, I don't crave a lot of that stuff either, because I think when you don't eat it all the time, it's kind of like I was telling the woman yesterday on the show if I get up in the morning and start eating carbs in the morning, my whole day is going to be wanting that stuff. I'm going to be.

Jennifer:

But I eat bacon and eggs almost every single day for breakfast. That's my breakfast. There's like there may be one carb in that meal, one carb in that whole meal. That's my breakfast and I'm good Like. And then at lunch, if I eat a hamburger patty with cheese, maybe one carb again. You know, I might not even eat 10 carbs in a day if I eat like my, and so I won't. I never really crave that stuff. But if I start in the morning, if I start with something a lot of carbs, then I'm going to want the ice cream or I'm going to want to you know, you know this is actually it's kind of an evolving thing for me.

Ali:

It's always changing and different. This year I heard about people doing no dairy, no sugar. So I tried that, like before I was with dairy, I just started doing raw milk but then I heard people, some people say no, no dairy. So I thought let me give that a try. So I haven't been doing dairy and sugar. I don't eat any sugar during the day.

Ali:

Occasionally if I eat any sugar, it'd be in the evening time and it would only be honey or like a date, and that's because I noticed that if I do eat sugar during the day it kind of affects your energy at the end of the day.

Jennifer:

for me, personally Right, right, but I'm always trying different things though.

Jennifer:

Yeah, we got to figure out what works for you. And you know, and I don't, I'm not an, I'm not the person that says you have to do everything. You know, like my way, or whatever. I think we're all different. There are many people I, I, you know like I was telling, you know, like I always I'm, like I'm. Now, I'm just stuck Like I am not changing anything because we're good. You know, other than my little crud I got last week, we were good for the most part. So, ali, this has been amazing. If our audience wants to get in touch with you, maybe they are here in a local area and they're looking for a cleaning service, maybe they want to follow you, they want to learn more about your story. Keep up with you all you.

Ali:

They want to learn more about your story. Keep up with you all the things. Where would you like us to send them? Yeah, they're local and they reach out. I'm always happy to connect with people and grab coffee and like, get to know other people here. They can reach me at my name, ali Al-Zaroufi. You can find me on LinkedIn, facebook, instagram, everywhere. It's just that name. No one else really has that name.

Jennifer:

Yeah, we can, we can find you. If not, they can reach out to me to find you right. But give us the website too, so they know where that is too yeah, so, and then everywhere else, tidy up, so tidy upcom.

Ali:

uh, social media is at tidy up, um so everywhere across the board instagram, facebook, linkedin, twitter, or actually, yeah, twitter, tiktok, pinterest, all the social media all.

Jennifer:

You're in all the places.

Ali:

I love it. So, yeah, that's where I'm at, and soon I'm going to create a website and it'll be allthealsroofycom. But that's not up yet.

Jennifer:

Very good, Very good. Well, I love what you're doing. Keep up the great work, Keep inspiring and growing and doing all the things. It's going to be fun to kind of see you know where all this goes for you and how you evolve and over the years and keep the business moving in the space that you want. And then you're acting and all your other things, you're dancing and you're cooking all your cool things. So we appreciate you and I appreciate you coming on and sharing your knowledge with us and your story.

Ali:

Yeah, thank you, it's been great. I had a lot of fun being on here. Oh sure, just one last thing I wanted to add. Uh, just reminded me. Um, I also it's good to make your own perfume, so I make my own cologne using different oils. So okay, because using synthetic perfume can affect the way your brain, you know, functions. So anyways, just remember that, because I kind of smelt it now.

Jennifer:

Yeah, no, that's good, that's good. Yeah, it's funny because I was just trying to find a an air freshener for my cats, and I was trying to find one that was not toxic. It didn't have all that, because a lot of the air fresheners have stuff in them, so I was like I need to find a non-toxic air freshener for my cats so I can put something in the room that is not, you know, going to be like toxic to them, you know. So I'm sharing that. So, of course, to our audience. We appreciate you. Thank you for tuning in. We hope you found this episode inspiring and informative and, of course, if you do share it, hit the like, subscribe, do all the things so we can continue sharing this great content and telling the stories and inspiring. And, as I always say, in order to live the extraordinary, you must start, and every start begins with a decision. You guys, take care, be safe, be kind to one another and we will see you next time.

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