On this episode of the Huge Transformations Podcast, host Sid Graef sits down with Fred and Christine Hodge of Clearview Washing, an exterior cleaning company in New Jersey that Fred started with his dad at 19 and that the couple later transformed into a fast-growing, systems-driven business. Fred shares how the company began with window cleaning and gradually expanded into gutters, power washing, and more, while Christine explains how joining the business brought a major shift toward structure, accountability, and scalable growth.

Fred and Christine break down the biggest changes that helped them grow: moving from paper-based operations to software and systems, building a stronger hiring process, creating clear roles, and treating team members like career employees instead of temporary labor. They also talk candidly about working together as spouses, the boundaries they had to create between business and home life, and how building culture, confidence, and leadership within their team has become a core part of the company’s success. Finally, they share what it takes to move from one growth stage to the next, including why their path to $5 million now depends less on hustle in the field and more on elite sales talent, operational leadership, and continued investment in people.

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Transcript:

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Huge Transformations podcast. I'm Sid Graef out of Montana. I'm Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee. And I'm Sheila Smeltzer From North Carolina, we are your hosts and guides through the landscape of growing a successful home service business. We do this by interviewing the best home service business builders in the industry, folks that have already built seven and eight figure businesses, and they want to help you succeed.

Yep. No fake gurus on this show, just real life owners that have been in the trenches and can help show you the way to grow profitably. We get insights and truths from successful business builders, and every episode is 100% experience, 0% theory. We are going to dig deep and reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Our guests will share with you the pitfalls to avoid and the keys to winning. In short, our guests will show you how to transform your home service business into a masterpiece. Thanks for joining us on the wild. Journey of entrepreneurship. Let's dive in.

Hey, it's Sid at the Huge Transformations podcast, and I'm really delighted you are here. It feels like it's been a whirlwind since the last time we recorded an episode, and it's like this. I just got back from six days in Mexico for a nice reset with my wife before we get started with a busy, busy cleaning season in our business here in Montana.

And before that I was in Nashville for three and a half days for our mastermind. The huge Mastermind. And that's where we get, we get 40, 50, sometimes. We have 60 people get together in one room. These are all sharp, growth-minded business owners that really want to accelerate their business. They want to 10 x their business in the next three to five years, and we spend.

Intense time together, working on process, working on a tool, working on a way to maximize their business. And this one was no different. It was probably the most in-depth process orchestration we've done on new product development, on, on role creation to help people advance and accelerate their business.

And I'm, I usually don't bring this up, but I wanted to bring it up because maybe you as a listener, maybe you've got a business with, you know, five or more employees and you're over half a million, maybe over 700,000 in revenue, and you want to get to a million, you want to get to 5 million, but you feel like you're plateaued.

If that's you, you gotta check out the Mastermind and just see if it's a right fit for you. 'cause it's designed. For people in that range. They're, they've got five or more employees, they're over 700,000 in revenue, and they want to get to 2 million, 5 million. We really want to grow a business that will grow and operate without you.

That's what the huge Mastermind is for. So check it out@thehugemastermind.com. That link will be in the show notes. Didn't mean for that to sound like a, a promotion or advertisement, but it's, it's so valuable for people that are in that situation that feel like they've plateaued, that have kind of outgrown their capabilities, but they know they've got a lot more potential left.

They just need to help. They need to find someone to help unleash that potential. So that's what the mastermind's for. But here's one thing that we decided to do last week as the, uh, the mastermind sort of leadership group. We publish. We published a book strictly for our mastermind members, um, little less than a year ago called the $10,000 Ideals book and the 10 K idea Book m.

What that is, is that, you know, at a lot of our quarterly masterminds, we will have our members stand up and contribute and tell us what is your 10 K idea. The framework for the 10 K ideas has gotta be something that you have that's strategic or practically, um, tactical that they have, have actually done in their business in the past six months that has generated over $10,000 in fresh revenue in a 30 to 90 day period.

So we just compiled 14 of these ideas and put 'em in a book that we could give to new mastermind members to help them jumpstart their membership in the Mastermind. What's really cool about that is each one of these ideas is worth over $10,000. Last year at the huge convention when, um, uh, before I introduced one of the speakers, I showed that book and I just turned to a page and opened it, and there was one particular.

Tactic that was in there that I read and I'm like, guys, I'm gonna go home and do this in my business. It's a tactic we had never applied before. This was the end of August, right in the slow, the doldrums of summer. And I went home, gave it to my leadership team, my office manager. We sent out four emails to half of our database and one text message, four emails, one text message with this one specific tactic.

And I wanted to prove that we would generate over $10,000 in fresh revenue. We ended up generating $26,400 in new revenue just from that one tactic executed one time. I was like, damnit, this is good. It works. So we decided to make this $10,000 ideal book available to anybody that wants a copy. So if you go to the 10 K book info, let me say that cleaner, 10 K, that's one zero.

In the letter K 10 K book.info, you can get your free copy of the $10,000 idea book. I hope you do, and I hope you utilize it and implement some of the stuff that's in there. A couple day ideas in there that we've executed. You're gonna go, this is too simple. I can't believe it. Like it'll never work. Do it.

It will work. It's already been proven. It's already worked for many, many others. And it'll work for you too. So this is our, my free gift to you. Go to the 10 k book info, get your copy of the 10,000 idea book and add it to your business repertoire and jumpstart your season with extra 10,000, 50,000, a hundred thousand in revenue.

And just, you know, next time you see me at the convention or you know you hear me on the podcast, just gimme a thumbs up and say, thanks man. That was. Awesome. Make sure and get yours. Okay. That's a long lead up to today's show. Today's show, I had no idea how much I was going to enjoy the conversation and interview with our guests, Fred and Christine Hodge, Fred and Christine Hodge.

They own a power wash or an exterior window cleaning company. Clear, clear wash. Oh my God, I'm so sorry. Frank. Christine, I messed up the name of your company. They've got a great company in New Jersey, this exterior cleaning. They've been in business for about 20 years and they have gone into a, a strong growth mode in the past five years.

They've more than doubled the size of the company and they become leaders in the industry, teaching other people how to implement systems, implement good hiring, and hire leaders, and retain leaders in their company though. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did and learn as much as I did from Fred and Christine Hodge.

There are guests. Fasten your seatbelt. This was fun and fast paced, and you're gonna want to take notes. Just know that all the notes are in the show notes. Every link, everything we mention in the show notes, check it out. Fred and Christine Hodge. Hey everybody, this is Sid with the Huge Transformations podcast, part of the huge, um, the huge convention.

I'm excited today 'cause I've got Fred and Christine Hodge together on the podcast and we get to, I I've, we, we've met at the huge convention. I've had a couple conversations with you guys. I've never had a deep conversation where I go, let me hear the backstory. Let me hear how you get started. And, you know, some of the growing pains along the way.

'cause you guys have grown a, a pretty significant, uh, exterior cleaning company there in New Jersey. And it's Clearview Clearview Washing, right? There's a clear view. Clear...