From Cleaner to Builder: Leadership & Legacy Lessons
If you run a cleaning company, you’re not “just a cleaner.” You’re a builder.
That’s the heartbeat of our recent Five Door Media podcast episode with Ricky Regalado, founder of Rozalado Services, co-founder of Route, host of the Cleaning Cocktails podcast, and one of the loudest voices in the home-service world.
What started as a small janitorial operation has grown into a multi-million-dollar ecosystem: a cleaning company, a tech platform built for cleaners by cleaners, a media brand, and a movement around pride in blue-collar work.
In this blog, we’re pulling out the biggest leadership and entrepreneurship lessons from Ricky’s story so you can apply them directly to your own cleaning business.
From Hoops to Hustle: How “Unsexy Work” Becomes Your Advantage
Before he was running companies, Ricky was sure he was going to the NBA.
He grew up as a sports junkie: basketball, football, playground hoops, organized travel teams. But the real lesson wasn’t about winning games. It was about learning where he actually created value.
When he moved from street ball to organized ball, he went from star player to bench warmer real quick. That humbling transition forced him to ask a powerful question: “What am I really good at that nobody else wants to be good at?” His answer in basketball: defense.
Everyone wanted to score. Nobody wanted to be the one diving on the floor, guarding the best player, doing the unglamorous stuff. So he became the defense guy and that’s how he earned a starting spot.
Now translate that to commercial cleaning:
Cleaning isn’t “sexy” to begin with. But if you show up, do the unsexy jobs well, and become best-in-class at what others overlook… Eventually, you stand out - with customers, with team members, and in your market.
For your own business, that might look like:
Being ridiculously good at unglamorous work when others slack off.
Nailing detailed quality control inspections when competitors are “good enough.”
Owning the stuff your team avoids (scheduling, routing, training) and turning it into a strength.
People love recognition. But recognition follows results. And results usually come from doing the work nobody else wants to do.
Blue-Collar Roots, Builder Mindset
Ricky didn’t grow up around entrepreneurs. No uncles with companies. No family businesses. No “we’ve always owned our own thing” narrative. What he did have was blue-collar parents who worked like crazy: A dad working double shifts, often only around on weekends. A mom grinding in a male-dominated manufacturing industry. Ten family members sharing a three-bedroom home.
From that environment, Ricky didn’t learn how to write business plans. He learned:
Work ethic: you show up, even when it’s hard.
Responsibility: signing himself up for sports and travel teams because his parents were busy working.
Balance: work hard during the week, have fun on the weekends.
And when he finally said, “What if we own the business instead of just working in one?” - his family’s reaction was… mixed. That’s a real tension many cleaning owners feel: The people you love want safety for you. You’re choosing risk for a shot at something bigger.
Over time, as Rozalado grew - first office, trucks, passing the $1M mark, then $2M - his family started to see it working. His wife and parents all ended up working in and around the company. At one point, Ricky joked that if divorced people choose to work together in your business… you’ve probably built something pretty special.
Takeaway for cleaning owners:
You don’t need an entrepreneurial family to become an entrepreneur. Your blue-collar background is an asset if you turn that work ethic and loyalty into ownership and leadership.
The First “Real” Hustle: Getting Comfortable With “No”
At 19, Ricky answered a newspaper ad offering “fast money” selling cologne. Spoiler: it was basically a multi-level marketing scheme. He paid a few thousand dollars, got a backpack full of knockoff colognes, and was told to hit gas stations, walk up to people pumping gas and pitch them on the spot.
Door-to-door sales… without doors.
He only did it for six months, but those six months were a masterclass in two things:
Hearing “no” over and over and not crumbling.
Reading people quickly and connecting fast.
He started paying attention to small details so he could find a way in. Fast forward to running a cleaning company: that same skill set powers sales meetings, networking, recruiting, and leadership.
If you’re a cleaning business owner who still gets uncomfortable quoting jobs, talking price, or following up with prospects - this is your reminder:
Reps with rejection = reps with growth.
The sooner you normalize “no,” the quicker you find the right “yeses.”
Family, Legacy, and Why “Builder” > “Entrepreneur”
If you had to attach one word to Ricky, it’s probably family. He talks a lot about being a dad, a husband, a son - and he talks just as much about generational change and what he wants his great-grandkids to say about him one day.
But he doesn’t love the word “entrepreneur.” He prefers “builder.”
“To me, an entrepreneur might be a one-off or single business. I’m a builder. I’m building businesses. I’m building an empire. I’m building families. I’m building people. I’m building culture. I’m building a brand.”
He also connects that to resilience, the willingness to get knocked down, pivot, and keep moving. So what does he want a new employee to hear about him in orientation 50–100 years from now?
He led from the heart.
He stayed positive.
He set high expectations that became non-negotiable standards.
Expectations can be fuzzy. Standards endure. For your cleaning company, think about that difference: “We expect people to care” vs. “Our standard is: we don’t leave a building until the checklist is 100% complete and signed off.”
One is a wish. The other is a line in the sand.
From Mop Buckets to Marketplaces: The Pain (and Power) of Pivoting Into Tech
Most cleaning owners stop at one business. Ricky didn’t. After growing Rozalado, he started Route, a software platform built specifically for cleaning companies and facility service providers. And he’ll be the first to tell you: it’s been way harder than the cleaning business.
In a service company: You sell a service. You perform the work. You send an invoice. You get paid.
In software: You have an idea. You need technical people to turn that idea into code. You pray you’ve actually solved a painful enough problem. You learn a whole new language: CAC, LTV, product-market fit, sprints, releases… You still have to go out and find the customers.
Nothing in his janitorial background prepped him for that. He’s honest that he hasn’t “hit stride” yet with Route, even after years of building. The next big play: a Marketplace platform to reinvent how subcontracting works in the industry.
But the effort itself has changed him as a leader:
Forced him to trust technical experts.
Forced him to rely on A-players outside his comfort zone.
Forced him to navigate high-risk decisions with way more unknowns.
Where AI Fits In
Here’s the twist: Ricky started Route before the big AI wave and now he’s building in the middle of it. His CTO (who was originally skeptical of AI) now uses it daily to speed up development:
Prototyping tools in weeks instead of months
Using different AI tools for research, UX, code scaffolding, and more
Letting AI do 80% of the heavy lifting so the team can focus on the last 20%
But Ricky is clear on this: AI is not a magic bullet. One tool will not “fix” your business. The win is in knowing how to use the right tools at the right time.
For cleaning owners, that might mean:
Using AI to help write job ads or SOPs.
Using it to draft emails, proposals, or social posts.
Using it for idea generation, not as a replacement for strategy.
You don’t have to be an expert in AI. You just have to be willing to work with people (or partners) who are and stay curious.
The Hardest Leadership Shift: Trusting Others and Letting Go
In the early days of Rozalado, Ricky wore every hat: sales, operations, hiring, decision-making on everything. He admits he had an opinion on every detail. Route forced a change. Because he didn’t know engineering or SaaS marketing, he had no choice but to trust other people faster.
That came with upsides and mistakes. Today, he thinks about delegation like a pendulum:
One side: holding onto everything way too tightly.
The other: throwing responsibilities at people too fast without clarity or vetting.
The goal: swing back and forth enough that you eventually settle into a healthy middle.
He’s also built a culture where his long-term team members can joke with him about those early hiring mistakes. That kind of psychological safety mixed with standards is rare.
For your business, the questions to ask yourself are:
Where am I still wearing a hat I should’ve handed off by now?
Where did I delegate something too quickly, and need to reset expectations?
Do I have A-players in the right roles, or did I just rush to fill seats?
The real flex isn’t doing everything yourself. It’s building a team that can keep winning when you step away.
Measuring Success: Not by “Made It,” But by First Downs
Has Ricky had “I made it” moments? Absolutely. The wins are huge. But he still doesn’t walk around acting like he’s “arrived.”
Instead, he uses a football field analogy: The field is 100 yards. Your job isn’t to magically appear in the end zone. Your job is to: get to the next first down, then get into field goal range, take points when you can, then line up and do it again.
In business terms: Exit a business or hit a revenue goal? Awesome. That’s a field goal or touchdown. But then you reset, kick off again, and start marching back down the field.
“I don’t worry as much about what success ‘looks like’ anymore. I focus on the smaller wins. Wins stack up.”
For cleaning business owners, that might look like:
Landing your first recurring contract.
Hiring your first supervisor and getting out of the field.
Hitting your first $500K, then $1M, then $2M.
Systemizing your onboarding.
Reducing turnover by 10%.
Those are all first downs. Don’t discount them.
What Cleaning Business Owners Can Steal From Ricky’s Story
Let’s land this plane with some practical takeaways you can use in your business this week:
Own the unsexy work.
Build a reputation for doing the hard, boring, behind-the-scenes work better than anyone else.Leverage your blue-collar story.
Your background in hard work and sacrifice is a competitive advantage, not something to escape.Think like a builder, not just an owner.
You’re not just building revenue. You’re building families, people, culture, and legacy.Set standards, not just expectations.
Standards are the behaviors and outcomes that survive long after you’re out of the room.Get comfortable with “no.”
Rejections in sales, hiring, or partnerships are just part of the yardage game.Delegate and be okay with swinging the pendulum.
You’ll hold on too long sometimes. You’ll let go too fast other times. Keep adjusting.Hire for A-players, not just warm bodies.
Make people earn their spot on the team and take your time getting the right ones.Stay curious about AI and new tools.
You don’t have to be the expert, but ignoring it entirely will cost you.Measure your progress by first downs.
Celebrate the small wins. They’re what stack into the “highlight reel” moments.
If you’re building a cleaning company that you want to outlast you, this episode is worth a listen; not just as motivation, but as a playbook from someone still in the trenches, still learning, and still building brick by brick.
