The Chosen One and the Gift of Courage
Turning Expectations and Fears on Their Head as an Entrepreneur
👋🏼A new day provides another opportunity to try new things. Hope you seize on those opportunities, which are all around you.
To better recognize them, I'd like you to meet Yanet Herrero. She founded Kings Service Solutions and serves as President and CEO.
In today's Tip Jar below, she gives you the script for approaching a possible mentor. She also shares how your mission drives your decisions.
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Now, let's hear Herrero's story, shall we?
BEING SELECTED
“I always say, this industry selected me. Like a good book, a good book picks us at the right time.”
Yanet Herrero didn’t expect to be in the janitorial industry. She says, it found her.
While going to school to pursue an education degree, she, like, many other college students, had a part-time job.
Herrero was fielding customer service calls for a paper products company.
Then, one fateful day, she got a call with an offer that, frankly, scared her.
Yanet Herrero - Founder & CEO of Kings Service Solutions
INDUSTRY: Janitorial (Commercial)
STARTED BUSINESS: 2007
LATINO/HISPANIC CONNECTION:
Born in Cuba
Parents are Cuban
EDUCATION: Rollins College – Bachelor's degree in Education
DREAM JOB AS A KID: “It was between teaching and – I loved playing office. We didn’t have a lot of things. And very, very humble beginnings. Still. And, you know, we would play office all the time. Taking phone calls, typing it out. [Using the] calculator, pretending it’s your typewriter.”
BIGGEST GOAL YET: [To have] 5,000 team members.
Yanet with a client
THE OFFER
Someone reached out to her after taking note of how well Herrero did with customers and proposed an idea.
It would change the course of her life.
She remembers the conversation, “Hey, Yanet. You’re such a problem-solver… How would you like to start your own business? We’ve got some accounts.”
Her response?
“I thought, no!”
She then added, “But I only have $1500 to my name.”
And that was from her tax refund and from years of saving.
But the director of the organization encouraged her saying, “We’re going to help you and ease you into it.”
And that’s how she started.
MAKING SPACE FOR YOUR OWN GIFTS
When I ask her how she was able to do it at such a young age, 23, Herrero says, “I think a key component to our human DNA is the gift of courage.”
“I think you have to make space for your own gifting and your own talent… So often, we are such cheerleaders for other people, but not for ourselves.”
Part of making space for your own talent is making space to just think.
SPACE TO THINK
“I’ve learned to set my schedule to have at least one hour per week to just think. “
She derived so much benefit from this practice that she wanted to pass the idea along to her employees.
So she created a “war room” that’s open to everyone at the company.
Sure, they come up with strategies in the “war room”, but Herrero says it’s actually a “prayer room” or a place where employees can retreat to for meditation, as well.
As for developing strategies, Herrero believes, “You can have a lot of great ideas. But if you don’t make time to grow them, to nurture them, to stick with them… to challenge that thought process…”, it won’t work.
For example, she thinks it’s important to evaluate ideas, like “Should we have that technology in our industry? And, if we should, how is that accomplished?”
IT CAN BE OVERWHELMING
Despite saying she’s fearless, she acknowledges the actual job of being an entrepreneur was difficult, especially in the early years.
“It was really kind of overwhelming to kind of run operations and marketing and HR and all of these pieces.”
But she never shied away from finding solutions that maybe weren’t so apparent.
NOT YOUR USUAL SUBCONTRACTOR
A critical moment came when she wanted to hire a subcontractor to do some floorwork.
The twist is, the person she decided to approach was not a smaller company, but a bigger competitor.
She wasn’t sure he’d entertain her offer, even though they’d known each other for many years.
“He wasn’t interested in being a subcontractor, but his warehouse manager kept bugging him, ‘You really need to call this young lady. It would be good for extra work.’”
Herrero says his response was, “Look, I’m going to Vegas. I don’t have time.”
But she convinced him to call her. Several weeks later, he called and they started working together.
The professional relationship continued for years.
Yanet with Arnaldo, her one-time competitor
WHO'S BUYING WHOM OUT?
Then, at one point, Herrero considered exiting the business and doing something else.
She approached her former competitor again and asked, “Would you like to go over my contracts?”
When he said no, according to Herrero, she suggested joining forces.
She ended up buying him out, the companies merged and he started running operations.
THE JESUS CONNECTION
But it wasn’t until many years later when he asked her how she maintained her peace and joy. She answered, “Let me tell you about my Jesus.”
And that’s when the relationship turned personal.
Her one-time competitor turned subcontractor turned executive vice president became her husband.
She believes they’ve been able to work well together from the start, even when there wasn’t a personal relationship because of their core values.
“Same work ethic and hunger to help people.”
Yanet and Arnaldo Herrero - On their first business trip together
IT CHOSE ME
Herrero believes her core values come from her parents and, especially, her mother’s focus on faith and integrity.
In the end, Herrero says, you can start out with so many great ideas in the morning and ask yourself how it’s all going to work.
“But I play well in a sandbox. And I like to lead, and I like to grow leaders. And so I started with that idea. If I could do anything, what would it look like? And it chose me.”
THE TIP JAR (tips passed out courtesy of Yanet Herrero)
STARTING OUT: “Find a mentor. Accountability is a big piece of a start-up.”
PRACTICAL APPLICATION: How do you ask someone to be your mentor? Here’s the approach Herrero suggests:
“I would start with a simple conversation of sharing what you know you’re passionate about. Say, 'I’m really passionate about this project, and I would like to see it grow into something incredible for our community. Would you be interested in sharing some time with me? And I’d like to learn more about your experience in the business world.'”
STEEPED IN SKILLS (mid-career): "I would tell them to do it. I would say, start with the strategy in mind. Start with, what’s my vision? What’s my mission? These are the hardest conversations you’re going to have."
PRACTICAL APPLICATION: “You’ll be so surprised that, once you start identifying the vision and the mission of the organization and its core values, the roadmap continues to lead. Because you make every core decision against the core values. And, so, if your core value is integrity, you’re going to make your decisions based on integrity. If you’re going to bring people to the team, [it will be] based on integrity.”
STARTING OVER: “You have to feed your soul. Honestly, you have to feed your soul as much as possible. Educate yourself. Educate. Educate. Do your research… Come prepared to meetings.”
I’LL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN: Herrero says, if she had to do it over again, she would not take on accounting duties.
“I mean, I did it for 6 [or] 8 months. And, I was, like, this is not me… This is horrible!”
“I would understand, as an entrepreneur, where I should be outsourcing. And if I could do it over again, I would have that self-talk more often: ‘Hey, young lady, if you stick to your gifts, this would work.’”
BEST ADVICE FROM “LA CASA”/BEST “HOUSE” ADVICE:
Herrero says she always remembers her mom telling her, “Fe, fe.” In other words, her mother told her, “Have faith. Have faith. And don’t make it about you… It’s never about you. It’s about your responsibility and your stewardship.”
NO NEED TO GO IT ALONE
HELP ON THE OUTSIDE...because we can all use a helping hand:
Human Resources – What to Know
Since many entrepreneurs, at least in the beginning, have to wear many hats, you may also find yourself wearing the hat of HR person, too. To get up to speed on the latest HR trends, attend this FREE webinar.
SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) is partnering with Paychex to share with you what you need to be aware of when it comes to OSHA requirements, things to know about hiring practices, as well as trends you may want to consider when doing business in a post-pandemic world.
SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) and Paychex
“Paychex: Human Resource Trends for 2022”
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Virtual Webinar
9:00 a.m. EST – 11:30 a.m. EST
FREE
https://orlando.score.org/event/paychex-human-resource-trends-2022-february-23-2022
WORKING ON THE INSIDE...because we know our culture has a hard time asking for help:
Women Helping Women
Many women benefit from having a support network as they confront the challenges of entrepreneurship.
This roundtable will provide an open and welcoming environment to help you with that gain that confidence by discussing connections, how to create community partnerships and the mindset of not giving up on the product or service you want to sell, but also of not giving up on yourself. Here are more details:
SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives)
Friday, February 25, 2022
Virtual Roundtable
10:00 a.m. EST – 11:30 a.m. EST
FREE
https://www.score.org/event/womens-roundtable-february-2022
INSPIRATION FOR THIS ISSUE:
I’m sure you’ve heard some variation of a quote on courage. The one I like to use acknowledges that courage is not the absence of fear. Rather, it’s being scared and going through with it, anyway.
I like the following quote because I think it really puts things into proper perspective for everyday use:
“Courage does not always roar. Sometimes, courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’”
It’s by Mary Anne Radmacher, and it really addresses why little victories and achievements are so critical.
I like it because it reminds us that courage doesn’t have to be some grandiose, lofty accomplishment. More often than not, when you do little things that scare you, one of the byproducts is that you build up your tolerance for risk.
It makes it easier for you to have confidence in accepting the next challenge and the one after that and so forth.
I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have had the courage to start my own business at 23. Heck, most of us are still figuring out what we want to do and if we’re actually going to go into the career we studied in school.
The fact that Yanet Herrero started her business at 23, even though someone else approached her with the idea, says a lot about her appetite for risk and faith in just going for it.
To Herrero, it was a case of “… preparation meets opportunity.” Then, she added, “I never thought it would be janitorial, but I’m very blessed that it is.”
For too long, Latinos have been typecast as working janitorial jobs. It’s cliché at this point. Yes, there are many Latinos in the community who are janitors.
But there are also many who are also business owners. That’s why I wanted to highlight someone in the Latino community who OWNS a janitorial business.
I also thought many of you might benefit from hearing about Herrero’s approach to expanding her business – by buying out the bigger competitor.
What works for one person won’t work for another. What works in one industry won’t work in another. But the idea of being prepared for an opportunity and taking on challenges, no matter how big or small, both serve as good reminders for all of us to keep pushing ahead – even if the road is uncertain and, yes, even if it’s scary.
Yanet being honored by the Orlando Business Journal - 2022 Women Who Mean Business award
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