Coffee With E

How Benjamin Bragg Built Purpose from Pain and Created a Business that Builds Others

• Erica Rawls

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In this episode of Coffee with E, Erica Rawls welcomes Benjamin Bragg for a real conversation about purpose, reinvention, and building a business that empowers people, not burns them out.


From losing it all to developing a proprietary system that helps ordinary people succeed in the cleaning industry, Ben shares how he turned pain into purpose and setbacks into strategy.


You’ll hear about leadership, labor systems, fatherhood, and why part-time work can lead to full-time freedom. If you’re tired of running in circles, this episode is proof that you can build better, by design.


📇 Guest Info:

Benjamin Bragg 

📱 DM on social media to join Slack & access free training 

🔗 LinkedIn: Ben Bragg (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-bragg-67433a9b/)


📊 Curious how the system works?

You can download a free sample of the Precise Janitorial Labor Report used to help school districts and contractors price cleaning jobs with accuracy.

Get the FREE report from BlackPol Software (https://blackpolsoftware.com/)


#CleaningBusiness #LeadershipJourney #DoItAfraid #CoffeeWithE #SystemsThatScale #EntrepreneurMindset #WomenInBusiness #PurposeDriven #BenjaminBragg #FamilyFirst



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Erica Rawls:

Welcome to another episode of Coffee with E. This one is not going to disappoint. If you are in the cleaning business and you're trying to figure out, like, which way to go and what systems to use, at the end you got to stay because he's going to share something. My guest is none other than Ben Bragg. We actually go through so much how he fell, got up even his family, and then this new proprietary information software. You do not want to miss it.

Erica Rawls:

Welcome, ben. Thanks for having me. You're so welcome. I'm so excited to have coffee with you. Well, actually you did blow my cover, y'all. He blew my cover, okay. So most times I do have coffee, and he just happened to see a couple episodes where I did not have coffee and he's like well, you don't have coffee anyways, we were running late. Today, I'm just happened to see a couple episodes where I did not have coffee and he's like well, you don't have coffee anyways, we were running late today. I'm just going to be honest with you. We were running late and did not have the coffee, so we're going to have water.

Ben Bragg:

That's okay.

Erica Rawls:

I already had coffee today and since we are going to shout it out Pine Hill Builders. I want to say thank you, because this is the second episode, or I should say series of episodes, that we're going to have, and they are amazing builders and they are located in Littitz, pa. So I'm just excited to have this chat with you today. Me too, yeah. So, benjamin Bragg, I feel like I've known you for quite some time through our daughters, right? Yes, growing up in the basketball scene, which is kind of vicious in itself, but that's not the episode we're going to talk about. There'll be a pool on there. We're not going to re-talk about that today, but I wanted to talk to you because the whole essence of our podcast is to talk to people that are dynamic, that have made an impact, that are doing the darn thing right.

Erica Rawls:

And you recently relocated to Florida, I guess, to have a better life, and yet what a couple weeks ago, maybe a month ago I saw on Facebook and this is why I reached out to you you actually were just sharing something that had happened to you like personally, that affected you, but it was through business ventures that it happened. So I want to have that conversation because I think it's important to shed light on it. Why? Because someone can learn from it. And two, I just appreciated the fact that you were very transparent about the things you went through, because if you look at social media, it's always a highlight reel most times. So do you mind sharing what you shared that day? And then we can go into a little bit deeper. And then, of course, we're going to end on a high note because you're doing the darn thing right. You came from out of the ashes and now you're doing awesome. So let's, let's, dive into it.

Ben Bragg:

Well, yeah, that was, uh, I think I remember the video you were talking about and, yes, it was. You know, I was actually driving from the beach that day and, you know, at the beach I was watching, you know, social media and I noticed, you know, a lot of times people seem to post including myself, all of the great things that are happening and you start to realize that, you know, you start thinking that these people don't have any problems, you know, like their life is great. And then, I think, a lot of times we start to think that, you know, something must be wrong with us if we're having issues. So I literally it was a, you know, a quick decision to pull over and I decided you know, I never share any of you know, some of the challenges I've been through in life. So I pulled over and he literally turned the camera on and just said what came to mind.

Erica Rawls:

You could tell it was raw. You could, yeah, and Jesse brought it to my attention. Actually, just like, oh man, yeah, he's like Erica, look at this. I was like, oh my gosh, I was proud of you actually.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, well, I definitely appreciate that and you know I think it was. It was definitely relieving for myself. Just because you know from myself, just because you know, growing up early and then being in business and employing you know a lot of family members, friends and things in that nature, a lot of times I kind of got put into a position that everyone looks up to me and they do.

Ben Bragg:

It becomes hard sometimes. It's like, you know, a guy once told me a story. He says, you know, he says kind of like being on a boat, a captain of the ship, and if you know, a lot of times is if the captain seems nervous, then the passengers and the crew get nervous and everybody starts wondering and causes panic and causes panic. So I think, with that in mind, a lot of times some of the issues that I go through and the problems I go through, it becomes hard to share, you know, with other people that you know, perhaps in this instance that I'm driving the boat, that are on the boat with me, why do you think that is?

Erica Rawls:

Why do you think because I felt like that too.

Ben Bragg:

I'm just curious, like why you felt that way um, is I think that people you know, look for people to kind of follow and that are maybe walking a path that might be something similar to that they want to walk. And I think, when you develop and you start to realize the responsibility that you have, it becomes important to you, to, you know, at least to them appear that that ship is still, you know, on course.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah.

Ben Bragg:

You know and you might realize that, hey, you know there's rough water ahead and you got to think about how do you want to prepare the people you know on the ship for that. So a lot of it is, you know me being through the rough water before and making it through the waves and everything and knowing it's going to be okay and you know really deciding, you know from my experiences what would be best, you know, helpful to these folks to make it through. You know that same exact you know situation.

Erica Rawls:

It's a lot of responsibility, responsibility. You're leading others. Yes, yes, yeah, and you're, and so, from my perspective, personally, I'm going through something similar. It's just like you don't want to disappoint those people and you know that they have families as well. Right, that's going to be impacted, and they just it's like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, yes, I, I, I definitely agree, and I think that, um more that I look at it is part of the reason why I ended up going to florida is you know, since I've been 20 years old is. You know, since I've been 20 years old, you know I've been in my own business. You know I've been self-employed and you know, by the time I was 25 years old, I had a couple hundred employees.

Erica Rawls:

Oh, wow.

Ben Bragg:

And so I was kind of forced into that responsibility, you know, because I look back at it, I'm like, okay, at 20, who would sign up to be responsible for all of these people's incomes and their life and to pay their rents and their bills, like I wouldn't, you know. So it was me, you know, initially just building the business and one day looking up and saying, wow, I have this responsibility to either, you know, take that responsibility seriously and walk the walk, or you have the opportunity to talk the talk, you know, and I just think it's such a unbelievable responsibility that I decided to walk the walk because it becomes easier, I found to lead people through that path.

Erica Rawls:

So, for people that don't know you, what type of business do you have? I should say what type of business did you have for the story that we're actually referring to at this moment, because I think it might have changed a little bit what you're doing now. So what was it based on the story that you're sharing right now? What type of business was it?

Ben Bragg:

You know it's funny, it was a cleaning business. You know and it's just funny how things happen in life that you know, as a young kid growing up and coming from you know a single household. You know my mother worked. You know three jobs and one of those jobs was cleaning.

Erica Rawls:

Oh, wow.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, and I'm probably responsible for her losing those contracts.

Erica Rawls:

Oh gosh.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, well, I didn't you sell. Well, you would go to these offices and they would, you know, have refrigerators with food in it and desk with extra change laying around in it. No, ben, and at seven, eight years old, ten years old, going to clean.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah.

Ben Bragg:

You know, I remember my mom would send me down and say you go down the vacuum, and I would just turn the vacuum on and eat the food. Oh man you know, and I hated cleaning. I just but my mom every week. She would always convince me to do it because I was always able to go to McDonald's and get two double cheeseburgers, a french fry, a large Coke.

Ben Bragg:

So that was my payment for cleaning. So, to start off cleaning, I just despised it. And when out of high school I moved to Arizona with my oldest daughter's mother at the time, and it was just the sunlight, the sunshine, I remember that time forever it was. I remember leaving, getting off the plane in Arizona and I was, I was like wow, there's a whole new world. And, um, the sunshine. I just remember the palm trees waking up to that and I remember that feeling, um, waking up in the energy I felt.

Ben Bragg:

And after two years of that, you know, we got pregnant with Diamond and we looked around and realized we didn't have any babysitters in Arizona. That's a big deal, very big deal. So we decided to pack up and come back in 1999. I only remember that because that's the year Diamond was born and I didn't know what to do. The year Diamond was born and I didn't know what to do and the girl's mom at the time father had a construction business and he said you know, if you guys want to clean the office, you can do that and I didn't want to do that because it just took me back to Double cheeseburger and french fries, Exactly right.

Ben Bragg:

And so I started cleaning that building and I remember only thing I cared about was doing a good job is because, you know, a lot of times family members might give us jobs or and we might not do it to 100 percent because we go oh, that's my cousin or that's my aunt. We feel like we can get away.

Ben Bragg:

But as soon as it's a stranger, we're the perfect cleaner, right. And so I, at least wanted to say, felt like I earned that money. You know, not that I was given anything and just because of that, one simple thing of wanting to do a good job built confidence in him that he started telling his friends and before you know it, you know I was showing up doing maid service, cleaning me and the girl's mom, and we started off doing maid service, doing all types of jobs and got into commercial construction cleanup and it was just all off the premise of doing a good job, doing a good job and then money became the byproduct of that and I feel that if you make money, the the first thing you go for in the good job, the byproduct it never turns out well maybe short term, but not long term

Ben Bragg:

you know. So, um, that was, you know, very important, you know, for me and just that natural um thing of wanting to do a good job people naturally refer to. So reason why I laughed when you said you know, tell us what you've done, what you did before. This is for a good part of my life no one knew my name. They just knew me as the cleaning guy. Really, yeah, because people knew I was in cleaning. You see my trucks everywhere.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah.

Ben Bragg:

And people would always say you know who's the guy, you know, you know the what's his name the cleaning boy yeah, and then yeah, you know, because that's what they just, you know, kind of ended up knowing me from, because what happened was, as I was getting these jobs, I needed to learn how to get help and hire people, and so there was a natural progression of things that I had to learn that I had no idea that came with it. You know, I tell people that you know you're a cleaning business when it's you and maybe one other person, right. But if you want to build a business in this industry, it's nothing to do with cleaning at all, it's you're a management company that specializes in cleaning. Because A lot of these folks have full time jobs, you know, and they the people that work for you have full-time jobs.

Ben Bragg:

That work for? Yeah, because a lot of times, you know, I learned very early about the cleaning industry, which is, you know, kind of coming full circle to the work that I'm doing now is I learned a long time ago, back then, is that in cleaning long time ago back then is is that in cleaning after eight hour, after four hours of cleaning, production drops by 70%.

Erica Rawls:

Oh, wow.

Ben Bragg:

So can you imagine, when someone shows up to work hour one, by hour four, they're beat.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah.

Ben Bragg:

And if you're in a bigger facility that they have to walk back and forth, your production just drops, you know. So your second four hours you're hardly getting anything. So I learned a long time ago I said, with that being said, is I switched all of my shifts to part time.

Ben Bragg:

Mm hmm, ok, so three to four hours. So think about this If people go to work and do an eight hour day, they just want a few hours afterwards, right, you know. And they go to work, they come on, you know, and really we get down around three hours. Four hours is the max. Pay them great money. They come in, they hustle to get their things done and, right, when they're starting to get tired, it's time to go. So switching, you know. You know, cleaning is very it's very low startup costs. You need cleaning supplies at the dollar. Now, in cleaning they account for 1% to 2% of the sale. It's nothing.

Erica Rawls:

Really.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, you think about it, you get a dollar. I could clean this whole building with a dollar bottle of Windex, because really it's not about the chemical. Yeah, it's about the motion.

Erica Rawls:

So people, you have mastered it Okay.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, I really have, because I've been in all aspects of it. I cleaned the toilets. I've worked 24 hours a day because people called off that I had to wipe it down and seen how tired I was at the end of the day. And then I start to realize, if I'm the owner and I'm this tired, what can I expect from other?

Erica Rawls:

people Right, and also, like you said, their productivity goes down 70 percent after four hours. So, yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense. I think I'm more intrigued with the fact that you learned that your cleaning business was not a cleaning business. It was literally a management job that specializes in cleaning. And yet you took it a further step and you decided to say, hey, I will become the master of this industry and learn not only that okay, yeah, I can clean it with Windex but also how many hours I can actually get to that thing or get that thing done, which I think is commendable. So when you look at profitability, you knew how many people that you were going to need. That's what I'm hearing from you Um, how long they needed to work and um, yeah, and how much profit they were going to make, plus how much you were going to make is what I'm hearing you say, like, you just mastered that over years.

Ben Bragg:

Um, yes, I would say I put a lot of um effort into learning that and it comes back to something you and I discussed on the phone call before. It was just for one reason only. It's like I said. It's because I am temporarily motivated to be permanently lazy.

Erica Rawls:

You know, I didn't know you were going to share that on camera.

Ben Bragg:

And that's what it comes down for, because you got to think about this. So can you imagine if I had an eight-hour worker?

Ben Bragg:

at a facility that required eight hours and I have staff all over town and then you get a phone call late that says, hey, I can't make it Now. I have an eight hour shift to fill. It becomes a lot harder to search around to find eight hours. So if you took that eight hours and broke it down and said, hey, I'm going to have two people there for four hours, said hey, I'm going to have two people there for four hours, Now, if one calls off worst case scenario, you're stuck filling four.

Ben Bragg:

So that statement, I tell you, comes really from that. The truth is so. It made me really think about the hours and the time and I found that if you could figure out the precise labor it could do, all of those things you said is you would not say, oh, I just need to hire eight hour shift. You would know that, hey, this facility or this specific task takes two hours. Now you know what to hire for.

Ben Bragg:

You now can give the technician clear idea on the time of that task and now in their mind they have an idea and can create kind of their own work pace that they know this should be done in two hours, done in two hours. If you tell a worker they have eight hours and it only is four hours worth of work, they are going to take eight hours and they're going to get used to taking eight hours. And then they're going to think that, no matter what you say, this job takes eight hours because they've been doing it like that. So that becomes, you know, kind of the challenge. You know, especially with the work that I'm doing now, is saying, hey, I know that's what you're doing, but it doesn't mean it was you know the correct way from the beginning.

Ben Bragg:

So the management aspect of it yes, it becomes a management business because, with all of these people having full-time jobs, one is you have to manage them differently because they really don't need this job. So how you might be at a full-time job and your boss can be tougher on you because you're like I don't like my boss now but rent still and I can't go. Now, when you become a part-time business, you can't. You can't manage that way.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Ben Bragg:

You know this is you got to create an atmosphere that people are like I just want to make some couple extra dollars. It needs to be easy and I find, like a lot of new business owners that get into the industry, this is one of the biggest things they have a problem with.

Erica Rawls:

They get the work, but they can't get the people. Okay, so what's the type of person that would be successful? Have you seen that's the most successful in this industry? Like taking this from okay, I'm cleaning myself to running and managing people.

Ben Bragg:

I would say that the person that has the ability to communicate, to manage, to work on their self. Because I'm a better manager now, because of my experience, of my interactions of different people, a lot of people think that as a manager, you know you have to be this person, that everybody you know, the same person to everybody, consistent yeah but I always said, if I had a hundred workers, I had a hundred personalities. I had to be.

Erica Rawls:

You, yourself.

Ben Bragg:

A hundred percent. I would need to be a hundred different people is because you know, being a manager is not about telling people what to do. You can do that. And some people say, hey, this is the way I manage tell you what to do, hold you accountable. If you don't get it done, I'll find someone else to do it.

Ben Bragg:

I always felt like, okay, if you become that type of manager, you know a lot of times you have to micromanage, you have to be on top of everything. So I like to manage in a way of kind of creating vested interests, of empowering and giving people the incentive to want to do that, given the fact there are workers that I could go up to and say, hey, go get that trash can, empty it and then take it outside. Then there's another worker that I know might be more of a stronger personality and I might say, hey, erica, can you do me a favor, could you go grab that trash can for me and take it outside? Oh, yeah, ben, you know. So those are the things, and if I would have come to Erica and said, erica, go get that trash can, take it outside, yeah, I could have got a different response. So to me as a leader and as a manager, I have a choice. I have a choice to tell you what to do or get you to want to do it. You know, and I just feel that if you can figure out a management style to get people to want to do things for you, then in the long run, want to do things for you then in the long run it's what frees up your time more the ability to grow the business.

Ben Bragg:

But I would say, if you want to be in the cleaning business, it's about management, nothing more. It's either. You have two things you are either good in generating sales. You know I tell people if you have a partner. You know, a lot of times husband and wife teams come and I'll say okay, what are you both good at? And you know, typically the husband's like I can do the job, I can go out and do the cleaning yeah, and the wife is like I, I can, you know, do more of the back end stuff, the administrative type of stuff.

Ben Bragg:

And I say that's a great fit, because you know if the wife could go out and be able to generate the sales, talk to the clients, deal with that part, the building, the invoicing, okay, which is very important parts of the business and then the husband could go out and run the crews. It's almost like she gets the jobs, does the administration and said here's a new job, hubby. You get it done and then that person gets it done. So how do you grow that? Well, obviously you know the person the wife would have to get good at figuring out ways to consistently generate business, because typically what most small business what happens is you don't have no work, so you start hustling and then you get all of this work. The sales stop and now you're completing the work. Now the work is completed, then you go oh crap, I need more work. And that's kind of the life cycle of the small business, you know, and it's kind of figuring out you got to always be selling.

Erica Rawls:

You always need to be lead generating yeah.

Ben Bragg:

For you. Yes, it's lead generation, you know, and and if you can keep that going, what happens is believe it or not, you know. I tell everybody that's the easiest part in cleaning getting the jobs, because there's a lot of cleaning companies but there's a lot of bad ones there.

Ben Bragg:

So what happens is if I come to you and you say, ben, I already got a cleaning company To me, I go, it's just a matter of time. I hate saying that I'm like, okay, erica, you know, it's just, I'm just going to sit back. And because I know how much this business is about, yeah, assistancy.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah.

Ben Bragg:

See, when you do paperwork and you have a job that you know you might be in an office or something, you can say you know what? I don't feel good today, so I'm going to take a little bit of time off. I'm not going to do as much paperwork today. In cleaning, you can't say you know, I'm not going to change that toilet paper today, I'm not going to empty that trash can today, I'm not going to dust that person's desk, because now what happens is this person comes back to work and they're in this space for eight hours and they notice it. Yeah, well, they could.

Erica Rawls:

They could say well, I'm not going to clean this area today. They could, but they're going to lose the contract.

Ben Bragg:

They're going to lose the contract, yeah.

Erica Rawls:

They could definitely do that.

Ben Bragg:

And so that's why this business is so much about consistency. Like a lot of new business owners, they come in and they find themselves getting massive contracts. Great, I've been there, mm-hmm, getting massive contracts, yeah, great.

Ben Bragg:

I've been there, but I know what it takes afterwards to fulfill them Right. Um, which you know, kind of brings me to a quick little story that I um have a friend, that local guy. He's always been in the restaurant business and I call this the ding story. And you know he's worked in the restaurant. And I call this the ding story. And you know he's worked in the restaurant all of his business, all of his life, mostly in the front of the house. So customers come in, he's at the bar, he gets to communicate, talk, take the orders. He turns around to the window, drops the ticket, hits the bell, lets the cook know, dang, there's an order in. He's able to continue doing what he does good in communicating. And now he's starting to think, hey, these people are coming into the restaurant for me to see me too. And so order comes up, takes the meal, gives it to the clients and they enjoy their dinner, pay the bill, leave a nice tap.

Ben Bragg:

Well, eventually most entrepreneurs and people start to say maybe I could start a restaurant, because he's making it look easy, because he's making it look easy.

Ben Bragg:

But what he has failed to realize is what happens once he hits the ding, the bell and he goes order in. He doesn't realize in the back of the house someone has to order the precise amount of food, have the right amount of cooks, the right amount of preps. You have to have a space to cook these things, you have to have managers, cooks doing schedules, you have to do payrolls and supervisors and all of these things. Then when that plate comes up, all you see is that meal. But what happens is, with a lot of folks that want to get into their own business and things, they get really excited.

Ben Bragg:

They get really, really excited about doing something, and then they get started and then a lot of these hurdles dings that they don't even know about.

Erica Rawls:

Behind the scenes. This is good, ben, this is good. They don't even know about those things scenes this is good, ben, this is good. They don't even know about those things.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, they don't see the behind the scenes. They don't see the behind the scenes. So that's why I tell everybody is getting into your own business. You don't do that for something to do. You do it for a reason, a why because I, you know, it's very important to me spending time with my girls. It always has been, it's been the driving factor is what I feel.

Erica Rawls:

Anyone that knows you knows that you love daughters all of them.

Ben Bragg:

Yep, in which that stems from me growing up, my mother having these three jobs.

Erica Rawls:

Mm-hmm.

Ben Bragg:

And as much as the events that she'd been there, for there was a lot that she missed, you know. So I didn't realize this till later in life, like why am I so infatuated with spending time with these girls? Yeah like nothing matters. Like I, I didn't want to miss one thing, right, and I really don't think I did. I remember Diamond played for Wisconsin and she had a position. Someone needed to keep the seat warm. Okay, these were some great seats.

Ben Bragg:

I love it, and you know they played on Thursdays and Sundays you know they played on Thursdays and Sundays and just about every home game, I flew out there and watched her warm that seat, you know, and because it was important, you know we went through this all these years of traveling and playing basketball and then to see her and achieving the things that she wanted to achieve was I didn't want to miss that.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, she did put a lot of stuff work into that, A lot of work into it. It was that important to you because you wanted to follow her. Her dream unfold.

Ben Bragg:

Yes, yeah, yeah. And that was the thing is. I never gave her the dream.

Erica Rawls:

Really, because I know a lot of people see we're not supposed to be talking about basketball, ben yeah, but I know a lot of people from the outside looking in the perception was that you were driving her to do this.

Ben Bragg:

And that's not the case at all. It's not the case Like you can't make someone love, something you sure can?

Ben Bragg:

You just can't make someone love something you sure can you just can't and you think about it and the amount of work that I think she's showed everyone that she's put in. There's no way I know I can't for sure say this there's no way that I could do that and not love what I was doing, because there was times that people don't know. She woke up before school and worked out. We went to the Y before school. She would tell me, dad, let's go to the gym before school and I would say, if you wake me up. I didn't wake up. I never told you. You never woke up. Like, when I want to wake up at four in the morning, like, no, like, if you want to go, I'm not going to wake up and get ready and have to go in there and say, hey, it's time to go shoot. No, if you want to do this, you tell me. I never told her where she. I never asked what time her practice was. None of that. She told me.

Ben Bragg:

All I did was put her in the right place. That's all I did. I searched, I said, oh, she has the drive, she has the passion. Who's the best teams? Who's the best players?

Ben Bragg:

I never wanted her to be the best player because I felt that sometimes kids get success early and it's easy to take the foot off the gas. You know, and you know she, she really took this game and made and found something in it that was for her. And as a father, as a parent, that was my job.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah.

Ben Bragg:

You know. So it was great about that fire and her achieving that is, that she went through all of that. Now Passion played basketball great too.

Erica Rawls:

Mm-hmm.

Ben Bragg:

But I knew it wasn't Passion's love, right, I never forced it on her. Yeah, you know, I think Passion was still searching for that. No-transcript. The little brother gets stronger and stronger, you know, and so Passion got to. You know, really, watch how Diamond was focused and there was Passion admired her just as much as everybody else, you know. And um, you know and see, now passion, now be able to realize, okay, start just thinking what do I want to do?

Ben Bragg:

yeah you know, and I think a lot of people get really stressed because they think they should know that right away. And that's if you say, what did diamond get? That was lucky. She got lucky and loved something very early in her life and I didn't know that was going to happen and I just fueled that and then, yeah, you nurtured it. Yeah, I nurtured it know, as a parent, that we want to see that our children are able to fend for their self and live and survive in what sometimes could be a very tough world. So to see my girls in it, living it, being involved in it, surviving in it, I told them that's when my time comes, that's all I want to see as a parent.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah.

Ben Bragg:

And I see as a parent, yeah, and I see that in them. So that really gives me, you know, a sense of peace, along with gratefulness that I can take those experiences and really look at them and say, hey, what could I do better with these twins? And so I look at that and my thing with the twins is Almost a chance to do all the things that you probably feel like.

Erica Rawls:

okay, I could do this a little bit better. Is that what you're applying to your twins?

Ben Bragg:

Yes, yes, so I look at diamond and passion and I just look at the relationship because really you can say how I parented them was really is. Looking at all the things about myself, how I was raised, like I'm lazy, I really am like my mom's, I'm for the air, my Because you have.

Erica Rawls:

You had a successful business. Yeah, you know you had a hiccup and you started another successful business. So stop saying you're lazy. You're not lazy, you just you like to work smarter, not harder. You're not going to be doing like running in circles, you're going to figure it out real quick If it works. Yes, I'm moving forward. That's the type of person that you are. I learned that just in this couple minute conversation that we had.

Ben Bragg:

So you're not lazy. Well, I will say I'm not surprised, but your ability to make words and change them and use other meetings is amazing.

Erica Rawls:

Thank welcome. Yeah, thank you. Yes. So yes, if anyone has not known, they know now how much more you love your daughters.

Ben Bragg:

Yes, yeah yeah, so, so yeah, I, I, I don't know, you know, I really don't, you know I sit back and I think about it because I'm like, am I obsessed with them?

Erica Rawls:

Like no, you're not. You are the father of any little girl's dreams, I'm sure. I'm sure they were here to say that. They were like oh my gosh, my dad is the best, because you don't seem like you're a helicopter father, like you're. Like OK, ok, no, you need to do this, this and this and this. You probably sit there, probably their friend. This is me just speculating, just based off what I see on social media. So no, you are a dynamic father, I'm sure. Sure.

Ben Bragg:

Well, thank you for that.

Erica Rawls:

I'll call Diamond and Patch. I was like, hey, was I right? Like no man, that man's crazy. It's so funny man. They would say, yes, we love our dad.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, they, you know. I just I was thinking about this is, you know, because I communicate with them and you know, we're not the type with diamond passion that we talk every day, the type with diamond passion that we talk every day.

Ben Bragg:

You know, I'm more about, hey, when we talk, we talk about meaningful things like bringing up to speed, like there is no hard conversations with us, is because, you know, a long time ago I said to myself, you know, I said you know, when everybody passes away, people you know go to the funeral and people get to come up and tell stories about that person. And you know, and I kind of looked and say, hey, one day that's going to be me. Okay, people are going to be at my funeral, if I'm lucky, and they're going to come up and they're going to tell stories and they're going to say, you know, girls, I want to tell you something about your dad. You didn't know.

Ben Bragg:

My girls were the one people that knew exactly who I was, that when that happens they're the ones up there saying no, y'all, let me tell you who my dad was. So those four girls know who I am, my flaws, the good things, the bad things, all of that stuff you know. So it's very important for me to always conduct myself as that type of role model for them.

Erica Rawls:

Dating got to be hard for them. It got to be hard. We're like, standards got to be up to here If you're treating them the way that you're treating them. Yeah.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, it's funny is because and every last one.

Erica Rawls:

they're all beautiful. All of them are beautiful so.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, they, I, you know. Every time you tell somebody that you know you have four girls, everybody says, oh, you better get a gun, you know.

Erica Rawls:

That's what they would say about our girls too.

Ben Bragg:

Well, well, you know.

Erica Rawls:

Why Didn't teach those standards?

Ben Bragg:

Exactly the point I was going to get to is, I'd rather teach them to shoot their own.

Erica Rawls:

Mm-hmm.

Ben Bragg:

Because there's no way, as a father, being realistic, I can be there.

Erica Rawls:

Mm-hmm.

Ben Bragg:

So the only thing I can do is to give them the tools and so they know. Just so you know, guys, how men think they know about you acting nice for a while and I teach them these things and kind of how I look at it is this, and kind of how I look at it is this Essentially, as parents, we're just in the future. We are their future. So on many occasions I'm able to turn back and say, hey, girls, this is what I learned about us. So you are aware we have a tendency to do this. I know we haven't talked about that conversation, but I think, if I tell you the end of that conversation, about what I shared on Facebook, the lesson I learned.

Erica Rawls:

Yes.

Ben Bragg:

From that was this, which my daughters were the first people I called and I said guess what I'm in the future? I just figured this out about us say that if we all have our own circle and we create that circle around us and usually people come in that circle and go in that circle and some people stay longer than others and some people stay longer than others, and I kind of gave them the analogy of when we go to the airport we have to go through security. We'll take all of our stuff down. They wound us up and down to make sure that we don't have anything that can harm anybody else in the airplane, in the airport, and once we go through that security measure, we're free to roam the airport and we're never rewounded again.

Ben Bragg:

And we have to start rewinding people we let into our circle and because people can get into your circle and be doing damage that you have no idea what's going on, sometimes until it's too late. Idea what's going on sometimes until it's too late. So make sure those that are close to you you really sit back and you really examine how they're treating you. What's going on, no-transcript. And once we justify in our own particular minds that this thing is right or wrong that we're going to do, we ride out with it.

Erica Rawls:

Whether it's right or wrong.

Ben Bragg:

Whether it's right or wrong, if you can convince yourself that it's right or wrong. Whether it's right or wrong, if you can convince yourself that it's right, that it's right and it's okay to do that because of, maybe, what someone else did to you or whatever. The case is that that's a hard thing, so I understand that and I'm guilty of it as anyone else, but I think the most important thing is is about being aware of that.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, and you were able to pivot. So yeah, yeah, In pivoting well, how long did it take you to pivot because I know you went through that. You learned that, um, people weren't who they say. They were people that you trust. At one point you weren't able to trust them. Um, like how, how long did you go off the grid just black out before you're like okay, I have to reinvent myself. I'm still in that process.

Ben Bragg:

But I will tell you, I think my mindset has completely changed, because, you know, a lot of the things that I've been through I haven't talked about. A lot of people don't know, and I can assure everyone that I have just as amount of problems as they do. My life isn't perfect. I have struggles that everybody else has, but that particular incident, you know, I look at everything very differently. Now you have two choices.

Ben Bragg:

You can look at things as things that happen to you or things that happen for you, or things that happened for you, and I've realized now that some of the things that happened to me, that were some of the most challenging and difficult ones I'm talking about the worst of the worst were followed up by the greatest times ever.

Erica Rawls:

That's always the case. It seems as if it's always the case Like, yeah, the greater opposition, the greater the blessing.

Ben Bragg:

Well, if you really look into that, you go why? It's because, think about this how could you ever know what good is if you didn't know what bad was?

Erica Rawls:

Yeah. So believe it or not, you can't be grateful.

Ben Bragg:

You can't have good people without bad people. We wouldn't know the difference.

Erica Rawls:

We wouldn't know. Yeah, I guess you're right, yeah.

Ben Bragg:

You know. So what happens is a lot of times people run from these bad times. But now I face them, I look them dead in the eye and I now say what am I supposed to be learning from this?

Erica Rawls:

You know, what am I?

Ben Bragg:

supposed to be learning from this, you know, and so I look at that incident where which is really about the story I told you is I bought people into my circle and they were in my airport destroying lots and lots of things, and they eventually tried to and did run off with my airport. Okay, and as that happened, uh, as in my story, january of 2020, it happened started the year prior, probably even before, and, um, once january hit that, what they have done, I was starting to really understand. Uh, yeah, it was really stressful because this was the first time that I didn't know I was gonna pay my bills, because, think about this, I just couldn't go get a job.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Ben Bragg:

Like that just doesn't happen, you know. So I had to have a choice. It'd be easy for me to blame them I'm broke, I can't pay my bills because of them. You guys saved my character, shift the blame. But I didn't have time for that. I had these twins. I had the responsibility. If I would have been by myself, I I could have just lived in a room like doesn't matter, made it through, but since these kids and me remember the captain of the ship, you know. So now I had to walk the walk. So what was crazy that whole situation is, after they took my airport, they turned and filed a lawsuit on me because they knew that I was broke. And if they filed a lawsuit on me and I couldn't pay, they could take the business and roll and there would be no consequences. Because that's where I learned about the law Whoever has the most money wins. So literally that was their plan. The reason why is because the gentleman actually did my books. He was my financial guy.

Erica Rawls:

So, financially.

Ben Bragg:

He knew everything and what to do, and so he initiated the plan. But there again, that happened. January Lost lots of business. I couldn't. By March, third, third month I wasn't paying my mortgage. Um and covid happened and I was able to secure um a large contract and with the proceeds of that large contract, which allowed me to pack my family up and move to Florida that June 15th 2020.

Erica Rawls:

During COVID. Well, there was no COVID in Florida. Oh, that's right, that's right, silly me. Just so you know.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, so I moved to Florida and continued to do the business up there, but why I chose to move then and why it was really beating on me is there again. For since I've been 19 years old, I felt like I've had that responsibility. I felt that I was always given help me start a cleaning business I need help for this and I became the problem solver for everyone except for myself. And so, after all of these years, I started thinking like I don't have no one that I'm refueling from. I don't have no one feeding me, motivation, keeping me going, and I was just drained, like I didn't even have any more ideas.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, so you were the strong friend and you were just like okay, now I need to be weak, where's my strong friends at? And?

Ben Bragg:

you were just like okay, now I need to be weak. Where's my strong friends at?

Erica Rawls:

And I don't, and it wasn't that I don't have strong friends.

Ben Bragg:

It's just that I have just reached a different level of problems that, unless somebody could relate.

Erica Rawls:

Okay.

Ben Bragg:

You know, like how could I really get a valuable opinion or advice? You know, if I got a $200,000 payroll coming up and I only got 50 grand, and this person only makes 50 grand a year, and I tell them this problem, you might as well shoot yourself, ben, that's impossible. So you got to realize, like I learned, that too is the only advice anybody can ever give you is their own experience. Anything else is an opinion. How could you tell me how to make a million dollars and you never made it? But everybody wants to give their opinions and treat it as its advice. So Florida, all I remember from all of my years from Arizona which I learned from there was how the sunshine made me feel, and so Florida, when I decided where to go.

Ben Bragg:

Arizona was just too far to fly with the kids. If I had to come back from work, I had never been to Florida. Just too far to fly with the kids if I had to come back from work, I'd never been to Florida. A two-hour flight, ocean, sunshine, palm trees. So I took that money, found a spot down there for my family and I just started working and healing myself, and that's what I've been doing. And I now, even in Florida no difference than here faced a whole set of different challenges there of different challenges there, mm-hmm.

Ben Bragg:

And when I look in the mirror myself, the fact that I can stand there and be happy with the man I see, I can truly honestly be nothing more than grateful for every single thing that has happened, because I love the man I am now.

Erica Rawls:

Evolution.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, and that's what life is about. And that's what life is about. You know, we get into relationships and people say you're just not the same person. Well, thank you, thank you for that. We're not supposed to be different. Things that are important to me now because there was things in that ding. I didn't even know that I'm experienced. I'm coming to a new. If I didn't know this level existed of me, how could I even come to grips of the possibilities of that level?

Erica Rawls:

Yeah.

Ben Bragg:

And so now I am just on a very simple mission. A story was told to me about a guy whose father was never in his life and after 40 years his father was diagnosed with a terminal illness. He didn't have too much longer to live and they reached out to the son and the son hadn't seen his father in 40 years. They decided to go see him and he went to the hospital and they got to talk and they got to, let's say, make amends on whatever issues they had and after a week or two, make amends on whatever issues they had. And after a week or two the son was there sitting by his dad and he asked to play a game. He said, dad, you know, if you could come back as anybody in the world that you could, who would you come back? As anybody in the world that you could, who would you come back as? And the dad, he thought.

Ben Bragg:

And the son just started, you know, giving ideas about what he would be. I'll be the invisible man and I can go rob banks and Superman and all of these things. He looked over at his dad and his dad had a tear coming out and he said what's wrong? And his dad responded by saying that if he could come back, he will come back as the greatest version of himself he could. And so I think and truly put myself in that dad's shoes. And so now my mission is just to see how great I can be in this life. So I want to live, I want to be healthy, I want to be here for my girls as long as I can be. I want to see how much of an impact I can make. So purpose is very important. Purpose is what gets you through the dinks and all of those things mountains that you will be unsure to have to climb in all of life, not just entrepreneurship. And I can tell you that when your purpose is so strong, it's unshakable.

Erica Rawls:

So what does living in purpose mean to you?

Ben Bragg:

It means to me that I believe that I can impact myself with my ideas, that I believe I can build something that can allow other people to have the same opportunity as I did, and that is one simple thing. Is this cleaning business? And how I see it, not how anybody else sees it. I believe that I figured out a way that average people, regular people like my mom, can now be a part of some type of opportunity, that they can earn enough money, not sacrificing a lot of time to spend time with their family. So everything that I think about in my business, in my purpose, is for that one thing alone.

Erica Rawls:

And that's how your new business evolved you want to share that with us?

Ben Bragg:

Yes, so in my whole journey of cleaning and, you know, having hundreds of workers and then realizing that employees was not the best way for me to create what I said, the best incentive base, he's saying he was tired of working with people.

Erica Rawls:

That's what he's saying.

Ben Bragg:

I was truly saying that I was really there again. This Erica and her choice of words are just absolutely amazing.

Erica Rawls:

So, yes, I realized very eloquently, I had to bust it up.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, she definitely did that. So, yes, I realized that working with people were challenging and uh, and so I, in 2004, saw this, read this magazine about franchising and really the main hitting was hey, this is a way for you to grow fast and have people have invested interests. I was like, oh, and I just became. I was oh, I can help people start their business and which would grow my business. I would have to just give them the tools that they can start their own business and build their own business, and that became very passionate to me.

Ben Bragg:

That was exciting because there again it comes back to helping them. And I ended up franchising. It took me 10 years with my ADHD, but I had to write a 500-page manual. I had to understand my business. That's why when I talk a lot, it is when I went to the franchising. They said, hey, we can help you with the financials and how to do this, but we don't know the operations. And I went there in 2005. I didn't go back and get started until 2011 because I was like 500 pages and my ADHD just shut me down. I was like no way.

Ben Bragg:

So then, over the years, I started just thinking about how can I organize? So now I had this everything in business. I started saying, okay, I need to be able to write this down and document the process, because when people buy a franchise, they can't think it's designed like that. You need to. Hey, how do I go to a building? You got to get the keys. You stick it in the hole, turn alarm off. There can be no aspect of it that is wondering to thought. So that's what I had to do. So it took me years to abb and then so I finally started getting the franchising developing.

Ben Bragg:

And then I came into another problem. It was a positive problem got the franchises and people up, and then people started coming to me saying Ben, I need you to price this job for me. Now, there again I'm going to resort back to my word of lazy is, therefore, and I want to see you switch this up Therefore. So now all of these contractors are coming to me for proposals Can you do this proposal? Now, I got work on my desk and then they got the nerve to call me and say did I do it? Yet Now, granted, this is money that'll build a business Right, and I don't want to do the work. So, miss Erica Ross, please give me what that word would be.

Erica Rawls:

I don't know what that would be.

Ben Bragg:

Okay, we'll go with Lacey. No, I don't know, we'll go with Lacey. So what happened was? I said, you know, because I was the owner and in our industry it's only the owners that price. And you say, why? Because we'll go to a facility like this and I cleaned it. And I will be like, okay, I was here for six hours, right. And then the client calls and says, hey, can you come clean my house? And I go to the house and I look at it and I say, well, this is about the size of Erica's house, a little bit smaller. I was there for six hours, I'm going to go five.

Erica Rawls:

Okay.

Ben Bragg:

And then you do, okay, I'm going to pay my worker $10 an hour this was back then $15, $20 an hour and then you say, okay, I'm going to charge X. Okay, and so what happens is every cleaning company is different. Another cleaning lady would have came in here and been in here for eight hours. Well, what's the difference? So what happens is cleaning is really done on people's experiences, not how long it actually takes to mop the floor yeah because if someone said to me okay, ben, this job is six hours.

Ben Bragg:

If I said, okay, if it's six hours, how long does it take to do the restrooms? How long does it take to do the restrooms? How long does it take to sweep the floors? How long does it take to mop the floors? How long does it take to do the kitchen? No one knows, they just lump it all.

Ben Bragg:

So what I've done is I looked at this and people are bidding by square footage. And then they take these. They say, oh, my house is a thousand square foot. I charge a dollar a square foot. Well, look at this house now. It's not that clutter. But if my mother lived here, we would have to move a vase just to stand up because of the clutter. Ok, there's things everywhere.

Ben Bragg:

So if I have a thousand square feet and the house is not as cluttered here, but then you got a client that has a lot of clutter, how could you still build houses still at the same time? It can't be. So square footage is just a way to back into the number. Like a lot of real estate companies who look for prices, I'll come in and say, hey, erica, here's your price, $1,000. And you'll say oh, my building's 2,000 square feet divided Ben's at $1 for a square foot, because that's how real estate is. They calculate their costs.

Ben Bragg:

What's happened now is cleaning companies. They bid off of that stuff. They now don't even know. They just go a dollar square foot. They get there and they realize I ain't got enough time because they're just bidding off the price that someone paid. So what I did was I said okay, I need to figure out how the labor is going to be, how much labor is going to be, so people can price. That's how it all started, because I didn't want them calling me no more to do a bid right, do your own bid because I got things to do right.

Ben Bragg:

So that was my whole initiative. And so then what happened was I built it that the everybody could now use it in price jobs. They could see how long the restrooms took. And now I could send them a job and said, hey, this job's a thousand, and it would tell them how long the restrooms took the kitchen. And then now, if there was a problem and you came back and said, Ben, this wasn't enough time, I could now say, okay, well, let's see where we missed that the restrooms. It said two hours. How long that take you.

Ben Bragg:

We can time it. We can measure these numbers now.

Erica Rawls:

Got it Okay. So you have a system that you actually can go in and compute how long it's going to take someone to do a job.

Ben Bragg:

Yes, everything. So I just now create blueprints of every commercial facility in the world. I don't do it square footage wise, I don't do it square footage wise, I don't do it traditional wise. It is a whole new way that I look at cleaning.

Erica Rawls:

Now, is this something that you use, or is this something you're selling to other cleaning businesses?

Ben Bragg:

so I would say, in this whole development of the system of kind of like the analogy I want to use is it's kind of like where I am now. I'm evolved past it a little bit and I'll explain how is. It's almost like for years and years, people-hmm, and you become accustomed to what you can do on a horse, how far you can go, everything you can do, how long you can ride the horse, what needs a break and all these things, and I pull up to you in a Ferrari.

Erica Rawls:

Mm-hmm.

Ben Bragg:

And you have a horse. You have no idea what this Ferrari can do, but I do.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Ben Bragg:

So for a while I've had this Ferrari, and these people on his horse are just staring at me. The hell does he have?

Erica Rawls:

What's he doing?

Ben Bragg:

What's he doing with this thing, right, does he? What's he doing? What's he doing with this thing, right? And so it's been trying to tell everybody hey, look at the shiny red car, it can go fast, they can do this, it can do that, and trying to figure out what's going to make someone get off their horse and want to try out the Ferrari.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Ben Bragg:

And so that's what I've been kind of doing, you know, for this last year or so is trying to figure that out, and kind of now is I've gotten people down off the horse.

Erica Rawls:

Oh good.

Ben Bragg:

You know, walking around the car.

Erica Rawls:

Oh, okay, they haven't gotten in yet Some people.

Ben Bragg:

No, I've had people get in and test drive it.

Erica Rawls:

Okay.

Ben Bragg:

Which has now gotten me to the point that the person test driving is now starting to help tell everybody hey, you on that horse, you only need one. You only need one. So which brings me is that one was still the school district.

Erica Rawls:

Oh good.

Ben Bragg:

As we all know, is under their leadership down there. Amazing superintendent Mick, you know, has been challenged with, you know, keeping teachers and budgets. And so a few years ago he came to me because he had very high costs and he had an issue with cleaning and staffing and getting staff, keeping staff. So two years ago I went in with my system and process. Now, granted, at this time I still wasn't, I didn't jump onto this system Like this is my new thing, it was just a part of still my cleaning because I was still in the cleaning contractor business, which I'm no longer in. So I went into one of their schools with my software and created a precise blueprint of precise labor that he now knew how long it took to empty the trash, to dust the desks, to mop the floors to the minute. And then I have probably 400 points of data that can back that up.

Erica Rawls:

Oh, wow.

Ben Bragg:

And so I put this blueprint together for him and then he said oh wow, Ben, this is amazing, this is great, but I can't find no workers. So I took it a step further and I went out and I took my blueprint and I showed this blueprint to some of the contractors that been through my trainings and.

Ben Bragg:

I've done business with and the contractors were able to put a price in without showing up, without anything. They just simply added an hourly rate. Without showing up, without anything. They just simply added an hourly rate. So I was with that system. Stilton was able to take their cleaning budget from about $450,000 a year to that year they spent. I believe last year they spent $146,000.

Erica Rawls:

Oh, wow.

Ben Bragg:

So significant drop.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah.

Ben Bragg:

Which was no money out of Stilton's pocket, but did that completely free. They now have ended up creating literally $50,000 a month in positive cash flow right back to the school. So then they reached back out a while ago, a few weeks ago, said hey, let's see if we can do this for another school, another high school, mapped everything out and, uh, I believe they were paying a total of uh, that building was 490 000. No, sorry, they spent on that building 668 000 in labor and benefits.

Ben Bragg:

After I put this off, created the blueprint and everything that's why I'm up here now is I now reduce that to $191,000.

Ben Bragg:

So, right, and you know how this all comes back.

Ben Bragg:

It's a win for Stilton, because this is no, they didn't write me a check, I didn't do anything. And how it's a win is that they obviously get to keep the teachers. But how this comes back to my purpose is that now, by me creating this opportunity okay, because one thing I didn't tell you, which is my mission and my own personal mission, which is to inspire and educate, okay, provide the tools and opportunities for ordinary people to become successful business owners, ordinary people to become successful business owners. So example is by having my contractors, who I've inspired to start their own cleaning businesses and then provided them the education. I have one of the only cleaning programs that the state of Pennsylvania has that can be purchased by the states, federal, local governments that I was putting college kids through through HU, ymcas, different nonprofit organizations, teaching them to start their own business very successful program and then I was able to get them work and subcontract them work. So we inspire them, we get them excited, give them the education because now they're motivated.

Erica Rawls:

Yes.

Ben Bragg:

Here's your software tools to run your business and then here's a contract.

Ben Bragg:

So why I do this for the school and it's a benefit, a win for all of us is school can save teachers. Not no cost, no money, my contractors I can now take this blueprint from Stilton. Now this contractor, who was a regular old contractor, this Dilton contract is, you know, anywhere from $15,000 to $18,000 a month for this regular old contractor family. Wow, who is regular people that come over from another country got citizenship and built a business. Well, they have a business. Now they have a business. Okay. So now that business that they have has allowed them to put their children through college, to own a home and a house. And then what I get? That was all completed from my purpose, my idea. So my purpose is being fulfilled in all of this and if I make these things work between all of us, then I truly get what I want. And they have invested interest in running their business, which they have, their own business, which now they don't need me.

Ben Bragg:

I'm removed from their success right which, therefore, I can spend the time I want with my girls you created a playbook to take it easy.

Erica Rawls:

make it easier for anyone to start their business, that they can take it, apply it and then just pretty much win any contract, because you're showing how the company can save money 100%. Yeah.

Ben Bragg:

And they don't have to have any experience in the cleaning, and I'm giving this away for free. If they want to start their own business, just send me a direct message. I'll send you the link. You ain't got no credit card. They can do it for free. You say, why would he do that? Because, at the end of the day, how we all make money in.

Erica Rawls:

This is off the transaction.

Ben Bragg:

If you don't have a business, okay, I can never get you to the point of doing a transaction. So, instead of selling you for a business, if you don't got the money to do that, then gosh, I'm never going to get you to this point, so let me give this away for you for free.

Ben Bragg:

So, right now. I don't care if you've ever been in the business or thinking about it. I can tell you what I can do is I can give you the precise labor for any commercial cleaning facility in the world. Fact and some people it's never been able to be done because they still think that I'm trying to work my system into their system oh it's a. That's why people are like how's he fitting that on top of this?

Ben Bragg:

okay I deleted everything everyone ever thought about how to bid a job and started from the ground up, and it's a completely new system, so I don't have software. No one logs in and does this Right. I collect data, provide a service and spit the data out to you. That's amazing.

Erica Rawls:

So how can someone get in contact with you? Because you know they're going to ask before we end this. How do they get in contact with you? Because I'm assuming you'd want a consultation and they want to have more questions, because we couldn't cover everything.

Ben Bragg:

So really the easiest way right now is because I, you know, I don't I'm on my social media, so what I would say, the best thing to do, is just to DM me on my social media.

Erica Rawls:

Okay, and we'll share that too.

Ben Bragg:

Yeah, you share that I'm. You know I really do a lot of the bit. My personal social media is. Obviously I'm active doing more personal stuff, but what I'm doing for the school districts and things like that is on LinkedIn, Okay, Under Black Post Software and myself. But usually what happens is people DM me and then I do all of my communications and stuff through a Slack account.

Erica Rawls:

Okay.

Ben Bragg:

So what I do is I get everybody on Slack for free, yeah. And then I can give you the free training because I got to invite you. I don't want everybody on there because you know, slack is kind of like Facebook.

Erica Rawls:

Right, but for business.

Ben Bragg:

Right. So I like to monitor who's on there, so you can DM me and I'll send you an invitation to Slack and then, if you want the free training, I'll give you the free training, the tools, all of those things you know. For pricing the jobs I'm doing, you know, given access for free too.

Erica Rawls:

That's awesome, Ben. I enjoyed our conversation.

Ben Bragg:

Great. I enjoyed it. I did most of the talk. It was a lot.

Erica Rawls:

Well, it's supposed to be that way, you know? Yes, yeah, yeah. So I wanted to make sure it was valuable for you and I'm sure someone, someone's going to be reaching out to you asking you for some more information because it was a lot of stuff.

Ben Bragg:

There was a lot of stuff to pack in there. Well, I'm here if anybody needs any help. You know, like I said is, I'm just saying is I'm here for when people want to reach out. I'm done with goal.

Erica Rawls:

You are he's not just saying that yeah, you really are, because I called you and asked you to help you know um a relative with something, and you were just like oh yeah, and just gave it all away. So I appreciate that.

Ben Bragg:

So for sure.

Erica Rawls:

Yes, Hopefully you enjoyed this episode and until next time. I look forward to seeing you in the comments.

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Erica Rawls

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