Cleaner Conversations

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Cleaner Conversations Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Cleaner Conversations, Dry cleaner, 4030 Henderson Boulevard, Tampa, FL.

Cleaner Conversations is a podcast for the garment care industry, featuring conversations with industry leaders and founders about business, growth, operations, technology, and the future of the industry.

A look back at Season 1 of Cleaner Conversations.23 episodes, dozens of great conversations, and plenty of lessons on le...
10/05/2026

A look back at Season 1 of Cleaner Conversations.

23 episodes, dozens of great conversations, and plenty of lessons on leadership, growth, resilience, culture, marketing, and the future of the garment-care industry.

Justin and Sam recap what stood out most and the biggest takeaways we are carrying into Season 2.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIAwhd4sq4E

This Sunday on Cleaner Conversations, Sam and Justin break down the biggest lessons, the best stories, and the standout ...
10/02/2026

This Sunday on Cleaner Conversations, Sam and Justin break down the biggest lessons, the best stories, and the standout moments from every guest so far, the operators, the POS founders, the association leaders, all of it.

If you've been following along, this is the one that ties it all together. If you're just finding us, this is the perfect place to catch up before Season 2.

Don't miss it. Drops Sunday.

Thanks for listening everyone! Nicole at Xplor Spot mentioned industry data, so here it is!
09/29/2026

Thanks for listening everyone! Nicole at Xplor Spot mentioned industry data, so here it is!

What happens when someone goes from working inside a dry cleaner to helping lead one of the most widely used technology ...
09/28/2026

What happens when someone goes from working inside a dry cleaner to helping lead one of the most widely used technology platforms in the industry?

This week on Cleaner Conversations, we sat down with Nicole Kirby, General Manager at Xplor Spot.

Nicole has spent nearly two decades at Spot and has been inside thousands of dry cleaning operations along the way. That gives her a pretty unique perspective on what successful cleaners do differently, why change is so hard, and where technology can actually make an operator’s life easier.

We talked about:

• Going from paper tags to heat seals
• Automation and labor-saving technology
• AI and what it could mean for garment detailing and support
• Why pickup and delivery still has so much room to grow
• Industry consolidation
• What Spot learned from launching new technology
• Why company culture is one of the biggest differences between struggling and successful operators
• And a few crazy dry cleaning stories from Nicole’s 20+ years in the industry 😂

One thing I appreciated about this conversation is that Nicole has actually been in the stores. She understands that technology can look great on a screen, but if it doesn’t solve a real problem for the operator or the employee using it every day, it doesn’t matter.

🎙️ Nicole Kirby: From the Counter to Leading Xplor Spot

New Cleaner Conversations episode is live @ https://youtu.be/r8NJp77quoo?si=hEc1yKeCyAjKGIQC

09/27/2026

Due to circumstances out of our control (horribly slow Marriott wifi) this weeks episode with Nicole at Xplor Spot will be about an hour delayed! Thank you for listening and hope you guys enjoy this one!!!

09/26/2026

18 YEARS in the business. And she’d never pressed a pair of pants. 👖😳

Until now.

After spending most of her career front of house, Bonnie Blum stepped behind the counter and experienced the production side of professional garment care firsthand.

She pressed pants. Used a spotting gun. And walked away with a whole new respect for just how much goes on behind the scenes.

Her reaction says it all: “I should have taken the initiative to learn how to do some of these things earlier.”

There’s something powerful about experiencing the work your team does every day.

🎙️ Catch Bonnie’s conversation on Cleaner Conversations.

Would every owner or manager benefit from spending a day in production? 👇

She showed up to help a stranger's pressers stay hydrated in 120-degree heat. Eighteen years later, she's running the co...
09/25/2026

She showed up to help a stranger's pressers stay hydrated in 120-degree heat. Eighteen years later, she's running the company that runs half the industry.

This Sunday on Cleaner Conversations, Nicole shares how a random act of kindness turned into a career at Spot, the moment her own dry cleaning plant burned down and taught her the real value of cloud software, and why labor is still the #1 problem every operator is trying to solve, plus what Spot is building to fix it.

No script. No pitch. Just two decades of stories from inside the industry.

Don't miss it. Drops Sunday.

09/23/2026

“Our turnover was HORRENDOUS.”

Bonnie Blum became a new manager in 2020. Not exactly the easiest year to learn how to lead a team.

Hours were constantly changing. They were only open a couple days a week. Turnover was brutal.

And Bonnie was learning by fire.

But one question kept driving her:

“How can I make this not a thing a year from now?”

She got into the frontline work. She learned what her team was dealing with because she was right there experiencing it too.

That changed how she led.

And today? They have a solid team.

Sometimes the best way to lead people is to show them you actually understand the work they do.

🎙️ Bonnie Blum on Cleaner Conversations.

Do you think every manager should spend time working frontline roles?

What happens when a dry cleaner gets tired of adapting his business to software and decides to build the software around...
09/21/2026

What happens when a dry cleaner gets tired of adapting his business to software and decides to build the software around his business instead?

Magnoli.ai --> Justin Koh, owner/operator of Al Phillips and founder of Magnoli, joins us on Cleaner Conversations to talk systems, staffing, AI, scaling, and how he says they brought labor from roughly 65% of sales down to around 35%.

For every cleaner who’s ever said, “I’ll just build my own POS,” this is what that actually looks like when an operator does it.

🎧 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/K6OpkIYIifA

09/19/2026

Every new customer gets a PERSONAL phone call. 📞

Not an automated text.

Not an email.

A call.

Bonnie Blum’s team calls every new customer the morning after their first visit to personally welcome them and offer 50% off a comforter.

And it’s working.

Bonnie says customers have even mentioned the personal touch in their reviews.

That’s the kind of customer experience people remember.

🎙️ Bonnie Blum on Cleaner Conversations.

Would you answer a welcome call from a business you just tried for the first time? 👇

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4030 Henderson Boulevard
Tampa, FL
33629

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