Today we’d like to introduce you to Chadwick Gunner.
Hi Chadwick, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was raised in a single-parent household with two of my six siblings. My mother made the tough decision to let family members adopt three of her kids. To this day, I truly believe that she was making what she believed to be the correct decision. Like many, the story of battled beginnings fits my early years growing up in a small village called Verdunville, Louisiana. This little neighborhood was a perfect mix of love, family and just enough turmoil to really toughen the skin. We were poor, but today those memories of the struggle are beautiful and fill me with pride. There’s no way that I would ever have any resemblance of a success without “The Ville”, as we affectionately call it.
During my early childhood education, my effort was lackluster for lack of a better word, and in the third grade, my mother was informed by school administrators that there was a chance that I suffered from dyslexia. I heard the term just that one day because my mom was all about tough love and she didn’t dare accept nor explore the counselor’s theory. She would not let me have an excuse to “cut up and not do school work.” Claudie Dell Gunner’s action or non-action regarding this proved to be very significant in my life.
In high school I found sports which finally made me aspire to earn a high school diploma. Along with sports I was inspired by several teachers and boosters, both positive and negative alike. The idea of working hard enough to make proud my supporters and to demonstrate to my doubters that my book hadn’t been written motivated me. Sports didn’t work out on the next level for so many reasons that I wont mention, however my last coach planted the first seed in my psyche that I was destined to be a leader of some sort. While attending the University of Southwest Louisiana (Now ULL), I reluctantly began a career in retail at one of the largest home improvement retailers in the US. In my early career, I witnessed some of the best leaders and contrarily, I got to see those who should have never been in a roll that others followed. This is where I found my niche; to be a great leader who people would follow, not because of my title, my intellect or because of fear. The would engage because of inspirational leadership and because I served the people who reported to me. I took on many rolls in leadership with this company throughout my 23 years of service. The roll that I relished the most was Store Manager. This was because I was able to see the impact I had on the thousands of people I touched as a store leader. Focus on people was the only way I knew how to produce results.
Over the years I was recognized for results achieved by leading the way I always wanted to be led. My forced exit from this company put my wife, Shanelle and I in a place we had never been in our 20 year relationship. Uncertainty about what was next had escaped us for all these years. When the company changed direction, I was very aware of what could happen but reality has a way of forcing a different level of introspection. I had to consider many options, none easy. I was sought out by many companies because of my connections and reputation but for the first time I was able to stand back and see exactly how much of my life was consumed by that career. I realized that my eight year old son, Kohldin and teenage daughter, Chazlyn didn’t get the “daddy-time” they deserved from me and Shanelle was managing our family’s life alone. Easy Clean Janitorial Houston was not the initial plan. My partner, Eric Joseph, sold me on the idea of this investment through several months of conversation. He already ran a growing facilities maintenance business and this would be a great opportunity to expand. My skill set along with his 16 years of experience in this space just made sense for me. We intend to disrupt the commercial cleaning business through service differentiation. Every company can say this but our model is to create leaders and give our team members options to grow with the company. We want team members to not only learn the physical aspects of the job, but to learn to be operators who can one day own there own Easy Clean Janitorial business. These initiatives build pride in our team’s work, creates ownership and thus creates a level of service that will not be matched in this industry.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road has been rough for many of us. Being terminated from a job I loved was exceptionally tough but it did not rise above living in a house without a bathroom until I was in the sixth grade. Finding out how to run a business totally out of my wheelhouse was also very challenging, yet sleeping four on a mattress in a house literally in the middle of a junk yard was more difficult. Being in an industry where your name carries no clout after building rapport for 23 years elsewhere presented challenges, however obstacles and challenges seem to always cause less grief when compared to the moments I had to beat and already survived.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Easy Clean is a janitorial service provider and we are eager to serve the community that supports our business. As stated earlier, our service is unquestionably great. But we want to do more as a corporation. Supporting our local community after the recent winter storm with free water and even delivering goods to our neighbors in Lake Chares after the storm was important. As we grow and partner with our community businesses and leaders, we will increase our efforts to give back. Our interest in creating jobs and building leaders and future entrepreneurs sets us apart from the typical cleaning business. We take pride in our work and pay fair wages because the customer experience is as important as the profit.
Professionally, I’m most proud to see the droves of people whom I’ve mentored, trained and led become successful at whatever they desire. A short story of the most proud day in my career; It was not a award, promotion or financial metric achievement. It was a single moment at a national sales meeting, my colleagues and I were asked to work in groups to select a thankless leader who puts the success of the team ahead of themselves. They asked us to select leaders who got results and never took praise for themselves and always held his teams in high esteem. There were table groups arguing about who would choose me. The person who stood to explain why I was chosen asked this room of a hundreds of people, “Could you stand if Chad Gunner has positively impacted your career?” People from across the room stood and he then said, “I thought there would be more.” Then even more people stood from districts across the region. The air left the room. The VP who was new to our region simply said, “amazing!”
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Covid-19 has taught me to cherish time with the people you love. When social distancing was in it’s most restraining moments, I realized that what I had in those times was fleeting prior to travel and socializing restrictions. I learned to put down the devices, mute emails and spend time with my family. People like to say. “time is money” but time is much more than that. Time is the largest investment we can make into the most valuable asset we have, our loved ones.
Contact Info:
- Email: cgunner@easy-cleanllc.com
- Website: easy-cleanllc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/easyclean.llc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EasyCleanJanitorial
- Other: https://g.page/easy-clean-janitorial-houston?gm
