(Email sent to customers on October, 12th 2023)
Hello Dallas Maids’ friends and family,
I want to start this email by saying it doesn’t have a coupon or discount code or a sales pitch. I just want to share a personal moment with each of you that is genuine, honest, and grateful. If you rolled your eyes when you saw another email, I get it. I hope you’ll offer me just a minute to speak with you and express gratitude and wonder as we enter this time of year.
A couple of weekends ago I was a little floored when I found myself dressing for my 30th high school reunion. I can’t be 49 – that’s not real, is it? Despite double checking the mirror a few times along with my calendar and watch, I am. If there was any doubt, seeing friends from way back when really brought home some unexpected emotions.
As I sat with classmates, friends, old girlfriends, old rivals, and that kid that always got that one math problem right, I was stunned by the passing of time. I sat there taking stock of the past thirty years. I started Dallas Maids 20 years ago, right around my first 10-year reunion.
Time Goes By So Fast
How could it be that in the blink of an eye, so much had happened. I made the decision to hire an office staff, worked to build a team of stellar employees, and bust our collective tail to carve out our place in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Can that really have all started 20 years ago?
And I can’t dare to forget each of you, our customers. You’ve welcomed us into your home to help make it a haven again. A place where chores aren’t even on the backburner. They’re stored in the attic next to that old high school yearbook. No longer a concern because home feels like home again. I just can’t put into words how humbled I am to have had your support. Twenty years ago, I started Dallas Maids. It was a dream and a hope. Fast forward twenty years to having a team of 28 cleaners and staff and a group of customers that have given us the privilege to serve them.
Has it really been twenty years?
Yes. It has. Twenty amazing years made up of days scrabbling to book cleaners, customers surprising us with cookies or a fresh pot of coffee, a pandemic, five national elections, four summer Olympics, babies born. 20 years of laughing at funny little things that tickle our funny bone unexpectedly. 20 years of working with our team and you to come up with creative solutions to challenges. Twenty years of friendship and business.
As I’ve reflected since my 30-year reunion, my mind has kept wandering back to a quote from Stig H. Johansson.
“All those days that came and went, little did I know that they were life. All those days that came and went – I didn’t realize those were life.”
As Halloween approaches and I get ready to take my two daughters trick-or-treating, these thoughts and feelings have struck a chord with me. They have reminded me that life isn’t something that happens tomorrow.
What is Life?
Life happens moment-by-moment. It’s waking up five minutes late for a meeting. Life is forgetting to call the pharmacy, again. Life is cuddles with my kids. It’s the coffee pot overflowing. Life is making customers smile by doing what we do. And life is pausing to listen when a friend, family member or even customer shares about their hard day.
Life is this thing in front of me. Even as I type this right now. Having learned the lesson that have been laid on my heart at my 30-year reunion, I am committing to live this thing called life. Committing to be present. Committing to not be distracted by my cell phone so dang much. To not sweat the small stuff. To listen more intently when complements come our way and genuinely receive them. And to respond with empathy and ownership when things go sideways from time to time.
To laugh. Genuinely laugh not just with my body or face, but from the core of my very being. To smile in wonder and amazement at this brief gift of time I’ve been given in my life.
Thank you for being a part of my life these past 20 years. Thank you for letting our company be part of yours for however long we’ve been connected. Thanks for putting up with my wordy ramblings and attempts at simply putting into words my gratitude for being alive at the same time with you. Gratitude that of all the possible pathways life could have taken you and I, synchronicity saw fit to have them intersect here and now. For that I will be grateful, for the next 30 years and beyond.
With gratitude and awe,
Greg