By John Cunningham

Jorge Vidal is a former retail worker who has reached his dream of becoming a serial entrepreneur with the help of JB Glossinger and the Morning Coach® system. He is now a member of our Inner Circle. Jorge goes by many names around here and that is a testament to his flexibility and ability to inspire those around him.

John: Hello, Jorge. Tell me a little about yourself.

Jorge: Hi John. I've been married for 12 years. I have four kids, two boys and two girls. 

John: I always hear about your girls; I never hear about the boys.

Jorge: Well, my boys are gamers, and my girls are the adventurous ones, the entrepreneurs. All my boys want to do is play games and watch YouTube all day.

Well, they know more about YouTube than I do. So they helped me out with that.

John: So, you worked in the supermarket before, right?

Jorge: Yes, I did retail with Publix supermarkets, one of the biggest chains here in Florida. I did that for 22 years. I started working in a customer facing roll and made it all the way to being a store manager. I moved up to management within the first four years. It was pretty cool, just to grow and meet all these people. But I never considered myself a leader. I was just like the other workers. Then, I started educating people and just telling them how to get promoted, you know, never saw that leadership in me. But, it never clicked in my head to say, Hmm, you're a leader. You're somebody that people are following and come to you for advice.

So that's the biggest thing, people taking that advantage and just doing it themselves. Often people have fear. They think, I can't do it. That was one of my biggest challenges too. 

When I was considering leaving my job, I was scared of that stable check every month, but I was also missing out so much on my family time. I was getting tired of that. And the biggest thing was, I had this commercial cleaning business that honestly started off as something that I wanted to use to pay a couple extra bills a month. Then, opening my eyes and saying, “Wow, I can actually turn this into something big.”

We started earning a little bit here and there and just Googling and YouTubing to find easier ways to clean and be more productive. My wife and I did the cleanings for the first three years with the help of one other person. So it was kind of tough for us and keep doing it. But after we got to that point, it was pretty cool to just see the growth beyond having extra money coming in.

John:   Taking that next step is one of people’s biggest fears, I think one advantage that we have now that people like 15 or 20 years ago didn't is if you want to try and do something, you can just go on YouTube, take a course or do some research online, and figure out how to take your first few steps. And that’s true in any business.

Jorge:   On the other hand, marketing, that's my weak point. I find it really difficult to market myself. I can get in front of a person and sell my business, our products and services. So I recently had my assistant put a brochure together, then find a company that can print them out for a good price and with good quality. 

Pawning those things off that I am not good at, I've learned to not even stress out about them. It's just a matter of following up. Hey, do we have this? Do we have that? Where is it? Give it back? Let me see. And, keep moving with it. So I've learned to delegate those things that I wasn't good at before. It has made me a better person.

Humble beginnings

John:   In both your work at the supermarket and your cleaning business you really started from the bottom, right? I don't know how you got your first client, but you probably knew the person and they said I need the service. And you're like, well, I can do that. 

Jorge:   it was funny because it was another Publix manager who got me into cleaning, and he wanted to keep it hush hush. So the first time I went to clean, he got me on and I got subcontracted. And I was like, oh my god, they hired me. And they think I'm this professional.

So I just started cleaning as I would clean my own house, they said I did a great job. I started picking up a little bit more here and there. For example, I was sweeping my first week, and the guy told me, “You need a vacuum, dude. You're making this job so much harder.”

Oh, I asked, we don't we don't sweep here?

“No, get a backpack vacuum”, he told me.

And I'm like, Oh, okay. No problem. Thanks for the advice.

John:   That's the thing, you learn and then help other people to fast track past that point.

Jorge:   Oh, yeah, for sure. It's funny because now I use the vacuum as a selling point. 

Customers often say, “We need you to sweep and mop the floor.”

Then I explain, “I'm sorry, we don't sweep the floors. We might dust mop a little but we don't sleep. We vacuum everything.”

They reply, “But it's tile.” 

Then I tell them, “When you sweep, you go like this (making a sweeping gesture) and all the dust goes up, and it comes right back down on the floor behind me. And I'm not picking it up, then I'm mopping that right into the floor. And the vacuum that sucks up the dust?”

It's mind blowing to them.

Taking the plunge

John:   You left the supermarket at the beginning of COVID, right?

Jorge: Yes. I did two or three weeks of COVID in the retail world, and I started seeing everything fly off the shelves like a hurricane. I thought, Oh, my God, what's going on? 

Then, I put in my notice, and I literally put them on notice for one week, because if I did that, I wouldn't be eligible to get rehired. 

Then the first Monday morning came, and I'm thinking; so, what am I going to do today? I started organizing myself and pushing myself to go in the same route of what I would do as a manager and implementing things in my own business. It became an everyday thing. I’ve got meetings to go to, buildings to check up on, I’ve got to talk to my associates and my assistant. I created a new routine. But now, I gotta shake it up. I got to do something different so it doesn’t become another 9-5. I need to be involved in other things.

John:   Now you've ventured out into other businesses as well, right?

Jorge:   I've actually ventured into insurance for automotive, health, home, and commercial insurance as well which kind of intertwines with my commercial cleaning work. I can offer insurance to my current customers and provide several kinds of coverage to my employees as well.

John: This is making you more of a trusted adviser.

Jorge: Yes, my word carries a lot of weight. When I give advice people usually say, “I'm going to do what you're telling me. Thank you.”  

That makes me feel good. Because they know I'm not doing it to harm them. I'm doing it to help, especially seeing that the route they're taking is on a decline. I want them to be on the incline. It feels good to see others succeed.

Living on values

John:   We've talked before, but there were a couple of things I especially noticed in being face-to-face with you: number one, you're always positive. And number two is you're flexible. If my name was Jorge,and sometimes they called me George or they called me Juan Bautista, I would probably say, “Hey! My name is Jorge(hor-hea),damn it!”

But you just roll with it. I think that helps others to bring you more problems that you have solutions for.

Jorge:  Yes, for me, I take it from Publix. A lot of people would call me Chico or signore. 

So, I had all these nicknames. The funny part is I hear these associates or managers or friends call me those names. And I know exactly what person is talking. I hear Juan Bautista, and I know JB is asking for me. Or, I hear Jorge and understand it’s Karen. Dr. Paul calls me George. At Publix we had two Jorges and two Georges. All they would say is, “George come to the front.” And we knew from the inflection which of us was being called. And yes, I'm flexible. I like to make it easy on everybody, especially myself.

On the other hand, I value myself very much and if I take a contract on and I see the person is very rude or unnecessarily demanding, I’ll tell them that this business relationship is not going to work for me. 

It’s not all about the customer being always right. I'm providing a service, but I've given customers 30 Day notices to say, hey, you need to find somebody else. We're not a good match. And they ask why? Why are you leaving me? You you need this contract? 

 No, I don't need you or your contract. Do you know how many buildings and other people are out there that need service? There's plenty of other cleaning companies that can come in and put up with your BS. I respect myself and my staff too much to be under-appreciated by those people.

My values are quality, honesty and family. I'm gonna give you guys the best quality possible, we're gonna be honest with you. If we can’t do the job, we're going to tell you, and we're going to treat you like family, because that's what comes in here and cleans for you, afamily. 

We don't just hire any Joe Schmo. It's pretty much a team of family members that works together. I do my background checks, and make sure to pair up new employees with a family member just for that reason. Because who else would you work better with than your family who you get along with?  

John:   They have extra motivation to help the other team members. Especially when you're doing homes. I mean, there's always that issue of ah, the house cleaners stole my diamond ring or whatever. But the impact on the whole family helps to ensure that doesn’t happen. You have an extra layer of trust and personal responsibility.

Jorge: Exactly. You know, I've been more than happy to say, hey, look, don't pay me since you don't trust me. I'm building my trust with you. I'll take the hit this time. But if you want us to come back, you'll see. And nine out of 10 times we get called back for stuff because they know nobody else would do that for them. So, right. It's a part of building my brand and building myself and speaking my language to my customers so they can know who we are.

Discovering Morning Coach®

John: How did you find Morning Coach®?

Jorge: Funny, so I was working on Publix. And I would always walk in with my motivational books. I Would read them at lunch or when I had some downtime. One day, one of the packaging helpers comes into my office and we're talking. He says, I'm not feeling too good today. 

I replied, “Hey, it's okay. You know you woke up today. It's all right.”

He goes, “Man, you sound like my son in law.”

“What do you mean?’ I asked, ‘I sound like your son in law? I just get this stuff from books and try to keep you going.”

“Well, my son in law is a motivational speaker. That's what he does.” 

So, I asked, “Who's your son in law?”

“JB Glossinger,” he said.

I had never heard of this guy. 

He went home on his lunch break. He got me JB’s business card, and brought it to me at work. 

I was like, “JB is your son in law. This gringo?”

He said, “yeah, he's married to my daughter.”

So I checked out his podcast. I thought, wow, this guy's not bad. I connected really quickly with him and his message. And next thing you know I gave him a call and I talked to Nancy. 

She informed me that they would be reaching back out with some more questions. 

So when JB called me and I was talking to him personally I was surprised. I was thinking it's like Tony Robbins, and he was gonna have people sell his stuff. 

No, JB was actually talking to me. He was going over the whole thing that he teaches. He was pitching himself to me. And he was finding out if we were going to be a good fit. I told him where I was in life. And he said I would be a great person to work with, it just has to come from me. 

And next thing, you know, we're pretty much two and a half years in and we've been good buddies. And to think it all started through his father-in-law. That's pretty cool. Yeah.

John:   So you are in the family, so to speak.

Jorge:   In the family. And another funny thing was, he saw the books that I had. so JB’s father-in-law brought me the Sacred Six. And he said, Here, and handed me the book. When I tell him that I'll return it to him after I finish reading it. He said, no, no, no, I have a lot of boxes at home, you can keep this one. 

That was the second book in my whole life that I read from cover to cover. Oh, wow. The first book was in the fourth grade.

John:   But you said you have a lot of motivational books that you brought to work with you. 

Jorge:   Yes, but I never finished them. I listen to Eric Thomas. And he always says once you find one thing in one book, something that resonates with you that you can implement into your life, just stick with that. Because you're going to read this whole book, and you're not going to actually do it. 

Sacred Six resonated with me from beginning to end. I started doing motivational books and reading a chapter here, putting it down, going to find another book that resonates. Um, you know, just little things here and there. But I never finished a book.

Like my buddy, Kevin. He always reads the first chapter. And that’s it. Yeah, that's all fine. But now I finish books. And then, I reread them. And I find little things here and there that I implement into my life.

John:   Yeah, that's the thing I really like about ebooks is you can highlight, then go back and look at the highlights. 

Using the system

You read Sacred Six from cover to cover? What are the things that you implemented?

Jorge:   Organizing myself financially was a big thing. I was all over the place. But from my finances being horrible to where I can honestly say I'm nearly financially free. I am debt free, besides the home we live in now. That’s amazing to say. Our cars are paid off, and we pay for things in cash. We don't have any credit card debt. 

I've learned to manage myself and the little things that I never did before. I'm learning how to read on a daily basis, and I make sure to write my days out and put my mission together. That was huge for me. Those little things are what helped me break through and set the tone for where I'm at today

John:   Do you use the get it done now diary?

Jorge: I reached my financial goal, and I was like, Great, I'm excited. I'm good. And then I felt I needed a break. So, I stopped journaling. I stopped doing my morning routine. Stopped walking, and gave up doing everything for a short time. Then everything went downhill. From one day to two to a week to two weeks to three to four. And then I was lost. 

I wasn’t sure how to get back on track? Then, during the IC meeting it hit me, and the whole team helped me out. The consensus was instead of giving yourself that big break, just minimize all the stuff that you are doing.

I'm an early bird. I get up at 3:30 or 4 o'clock in the morning. I do my routine, and by 6:30 I'm ready to go. I learned that instead of doing 10 things just do three of them. Don't give up on everything. And little by little I've gotten back into the groove of doing everything. So the diary is huge because I get to write those important moments that I've gone back and read. 

The law of attrACTION

I've manifested things that I wrote down, too. Two and a half or three years ago, I wrote that I'm going to make $750,000 in my business. And this year, between all my revenue streams, I will hit pretty close to $750,000. But the funny part is, I wrote the number down, and I didn't write how I was gonna get it. So when I showed my wife that we were going to hit this number she was amazed. 

I just put it out there, kept working on it, and believing in the ability to manifest my own destiny. It worked!

John: So what's next?

Jorge: I want to build a legacy business where my family can follow. For example, if I want to keep the cleaning business, great, let me franchise it for my girls to keep running and selling our brand name, ensuring people do quality work and serve honestly. 

I want to show them how to become entrepreneurs, and give my kids and my family power and knowledge. So that they don't have to depend on a job or work in corporate America at a nine-to-five just to succeed and have the lives they want. I want my kids to understand that you can go anywhere and be successful at anything if you put your mind to it and put hard work behind it. Success is not just given to us. 

 Everybody forgets that there is hard work. I have people say oh my god, you're so lucky. But, I'm not lucky. I worked hard for this. You weren't with me cleaning until three in the morning for two or three years. You weren't the one that had a wife worried that you were gonna kill yourself working such long hours. I've put my family through the wringer. Now we're slowly starting to see all the results, all the great things, enjoying our time. 

That's the thing in leaving a legacy, my kids can teach their kids too and this changes my whole family's trajectory. Break those chains of being mediocre and just not saying, Okay, I'm content where I'm at? No, strive for more?

Final words

John: So is there anything else that you'd like to add as we wrap up today's interview?

Jorge: Honestly, I just want to make sure people understand that it's not easy. There are going to be speed bumps, like we've talked about throughout this whole interview. It's what you throw into it. What's meant to be at that moment, don't be so quick to get to the finish line. Because when you get there, you're going to have to start all over on another project. 

John: Well, thanks a lot for your time, Jorge. 

Jorge: Thank you. Thank you very much, John. You have a great day.