How a Franchisee Became CEO of 200+ Locations

Some of the latest research is showing that these indoor air quality conditions actually can contribute

to Alzheimer's or exacerbate that condition. What we like to do is we make air better and we're in the indoor air quality space and we do everything for mold remediation to air filtration. Jeff Penella's a visionary growth-driven business leader, franchise expert in the president and CEO of Green Home Solutions. Drawing from more than two decades of executive experience, he helps entrepreneurs build scalable businesses, develop strong leaders,

and create lasting value through innovation and operational excellence. It's really the passion that has brought me to this experience of being a next-level CEO taking the company to new heights so we can just help more people. Franchizing is to me it's the biggest passion in my entire life. The deal with being a franchise or, and with bringing out franchisees is that it spans the goal like a super-highest coal

into their health, and today Apple is going to reinvent the fall. It's our home home, I'm telling how we're! The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host again, Jason Lange, and we're here in the sunny studios of Miami Beach, Florida, and yeah, we get the

opportunity to speak with some of the best entrepreneurs from around the country, the top-level CEOs,

“but yeah, doctors, and lawyers, and honestly, it's such a privilege to interview some amazing”

people, and we got another amazing person here from Connecticut, right, which is where I grow up, so a local Connecticut guy. So yeah, please introduce yourself, and what's your business? Yeah, thank you very much, honor to be here. My name is Jeff Penella, and I am the president and CEO of Green Home Solutions, and our business is what we like to do is we make air better, and we're in the indoor air quality space, and we do everything for mold remediation to air filtration.

Yeah, two important things, that no one really kind of, you know, when they're walking by, and they kind of just smell something, and it's like, oh, that just smells a little off, right?

Right. But they go in and out of their place every day, they never do anything about it, right?

And I learned a lot kind of filming your episode, you talking about mold, right? So give us some insight into if something smells a little must the, I guess, right, or a little off, right?

“How important is it for us to kind of look into it and dive deeper into it?”

Yeah, great question. Extremely important, as I said to you before, in New England, we have these kind of comfort smells, right? And one of the comfort smells that I can remember is going into my grandfather's basement, and it always smelled a little musty, and I was like, oh, it's grandpa's basement. It's just an old house, just an old house, and New England is very common, but but also throughout the country, right? Anywhere where it's a little bit, you know, it's moist, right? You get these kind of

smells, and it's very, very critical. I mean, it's probably one of the best questions you could ask.

It's critical that you address that right away because that smell is actually not must. There's actually no such thing as really must. Yeah. And there's no such thing as mildew. Actually, mildew is something that happens outside. Yeah. So if you see inside, you know, some kind of moisture, and you have a smell, very important to get that taken care of right away, why is it important? Because those things can contribute to indoor air quality issues that

lead to very serious problems with your health, like, like what, bronchitis, or migraines, or pneumonia. Some of these molds, and you can look it up online, but things like Staki Batrice, or Penicillium, these molds can create very serious, harmful conditions. And I will tell you, too, one of the facts about childhood asthma is that childhood asthma is actually the leading cause of school absence in children. Gotcha. The leading cause of childhood asthma is indoor

air quality. Oh, wow. Specifically mold. Wow. And mold can be, you know, across the country.

“In fact, there's a forensic bile out there. And I think it's a mold killers or, or, I forget the”

exact, I forget the exact episode, but the that forensic bile talks about how this little leak in a kitchen took over the entire house. And actually the people became so severely ill. They,

a mold. And I hate that scare tactic issue, but you're, you're right to point out that those things

should be addressed. And we can address them quickly and be in and out of a home in half a day, if it's not serious. But any issue where you have that smell or anything like that, yeah, should be taken care of right away. Is it mostly kind of like lung disease issues or can it come to like older people like Alzheimer's or brain damage or something like that? Also excellent questions. So one of the latest, some of the latest research is showing that these indoor air quality conditions actually can contribute

to Alzheimer's or exacerbate that condition. And so very important that these things are taken care of, especially for people that have serious health needs. We do a lot of remediation for cancer patients or Alzheimer's patients or people that are referred to us through homeopaths or, you know, natural paths. And a lot of those natural paths actually come to us and say, hey, they do test, they do blood testing a lot. And they'll come to us and say, hey, I have clients that

have mold toxicity. Mold toxicity can go not only into your lungs, but actually gets into your blood. Yeah. So you can test for it and see it in your blood. Wow. So I mean, very, very interesting. Yeah, I go back to Connecticut, walking to my mom's place and it's just like, oh, yeah, it's mom's place.

“You know, just just like you said, right? But we got to be aware of these things because honestly,”

you can walk past it every day. Not give, not think about it. But when you look under the microscope and you look at these molds, it's some scary stuff going on, right? Scary. Yeah, that's that stuff you're breathing in, right? But so great to bring that up, right? About the air quality, but you are next little CEO and talking to you, you are actually an amazing CEO, right? I don't know if that's the Connecticut issue. I think it is, right? Right, Connecticut, boys. Yeah,

a Connecticut shout out, right? Shout out. So yeah, when you grew from a franchisee to the president and CEO of this massive company, right, how do you do that, jump? Well, I think it's like eating an elephant. You do it one bite at a time, right? Okay. So yeah, it's a series of circumstances events and a bunch of decisions and a bunch of mistakes and a bunch of things put together nicely

“and circumstances coming together. But I think it's really about the passion, right? So I've,”

I've got a passion I've always have for really a few things, entrepreneur working hard and also

helping people. So being a talent. And being a talent, yeah, you got it. Absolutely. That's where the hard work comes from. So yeah, so, you know, so it's really the passion that has brought me to this, brought me to this experience of being a next-level CEO taking the company to new heights. So we can just help more people. Yeah, yeah. And so you're passionate about franchising, right? Yeah, it's one of the things that your company, you actually talked about in a lot in your episode.

Talk about franchising, talk about what makes a franchisee successful. Sure. Well, franchising is to me it's the biggest passion in my entire life. I first saw it at a Howard Johnson's I worked in and I couldn't believe that someone could own something thriving like that. Hmm. So exciting. So are the Howard Johnson's those are franchises? They, they were.

“Oh, yeah. Yep. Yep. I think there's probably a couple left in the country, but”

they were thriving franchising franchises. Yeah. That's right. Yep. And so I saw that and at a young age, I thought, wow, I could own something and be successful. I can't believe somebody owns this. Yeah. And when I got into franchising, I was watching franchisees go from jobs they hated, you know, getting fired from big companies and just wanting to be, just wanted to control their own destiny. Yeah. And I saw them come to a franchise organization where we could

teach them to be successful. And whatever it was from all walks of life, franchises come from all walks of life, teachers or engineers or construction workers or whatever it is. That is, oh my gosh. Yeah. Veterans are some of our best franchises. They know how to lead and they know how to follow.

Hmm. So they know that the system is really important and in franchising, ultimately,

if you follow the system, it's like a recipe and you'll be successful. So yeah, and we've got no words for being a good one. Well, also more like baking, right? Because totally, a recipe there's still some art form in there, you know? Like, you know, everyone's got that pasta sauce, but there's different variations, right? But with baking, it's down to an exact

melted at room temperature, not like the liquid microwave butter, right? It's like a science, right?

“Right? In order to get that lift in the baked goods, right? So I guess if you follow the franchise”

system, like a baking recipe, right? Whereas like exactly like that, then that will help create a more opportunity for a successful franchise. Agreed. Agreed. The franchise is that I've seen in my 20 years plus of franchising that are most successful, they follow the recipe. A franchise or does this hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times a successful one. Yeah. And the franchise

is that are successful, they're always following the recipe. And the ones that, you know,

frankly, some are not or not as successful or if a franchisey fails, which does happen from time to time, they're not following the recipe. They're going off and diverging. And unfortunately, that's leads to, yeah. And it's more about that or is it also like, ah, this wasn't really the area for that or it's, it's, it's really more, um, the first part. It's really more the first part. Yeah, because you guys, before you hand out a franchisey, you guys probably do research on the

“area as well and you're like, okay, it's got all the things to have a successful franchise, right?”

And then you, you give it to the person and then they're like, you know, we, we set you up for a home run,

right? And then you kept on making foul balls, right? Right. I mean, it's, it's a great point.

So, all over the planet is indoor air quality issues. Yeah. And it's, um, and all over the world, it's become, um, and I guess the pandemic helped that, although the research shows that even before the pandemic, people were really paying attention to their indoor air quality more than they ever have. Yeah. And so after the pandemic, even more so. And so these, these issues exist. We will, we will teach a franchisey about all of the sciences, right? How to use the right

products. We use, um, you know, we're very science-based company. We're not a transactional company. And so we use EPA registered products and products that, you know, we can say,

kill mold. And also, we do, if we follow the proper processes and we use the proper products,

we can kill what's called microtoxins. So killing mold is only part of the, the problem. Yeah. Right. So you kill the mold, but there's, there could also be microtoxins, which is huge right now. If you look it up, just look it up. It's, it's just, like, it's crazy that right now, we're learning more and more about these microtoxins and how they can make you sick. So you can, you can kill a mold for and leave behind a microtoxin and that can make

people sick. Yeah. So we're into that science. We have a whole science department. We have a whole science wing. I guess it's a microtoxins that are kind of floating through the air. You know, it's not through the air. It's not the toxins that you could see. It's not the moldy brain bits that are flowing through the air. It's like the stuff that you can't see, right? Right. So tiny that, that they go into your lungs, even if you were wearing a mask, they would still go

into your lungs. So, okay. It's how tiny they are. What was, what was the, sorry. What was the mask that we were all wearing? The K, K, 95. Yeah. And yeah. And 95. Yeah. So these microtoxins that can they go through those N95s? Not those. Okay. But perhaps some. Yeah. Yeah. Perhaps some. Because we've all learned about masks now. Well, all of us are free to equal, right? But that's good to know that the N95s are still doing their job. They're solid. Yeah. Yeah. They're solid. I still got mine.

That's the, actually, I might even have them in my bag. Yeah. Anyways. Yeah. Yeah. So another thing I like to ask you, right? To go back into this, you also do air filters, right? Air filters. So

“how important is it for us to be changing those air filters in our aircon units? Well, you know,”

I shared with you that one of the experiences that's very personal to me is my mother-in-law got very sick from wool toxicity. And what we have running in her house right now is two forms of air filtration system, a dehumidifier, and we do regular testing there. And thankfully, things are great. But, and we also spray probiotics on a monthly basis for her. And so that, what probiotics do actually just kind of like an offshoot is that the good bacteria multiplies at a faster rate than

bad bacteria. Okay. And so it keeps, it keeps the healthy ecology. It can help. So you could spray to help it spray. It's usually you think about your regular probiotics, right? Right, probiotics for that. You have a prebiotics and gummies, prebiotic gummies are in that probiotics, but you talk a lot of spray in it. Yeah. These are airborne probiotics that help instead of your tummy, it's helping your your indoor air quality. So gotcha gotcha. And those air filters. I'm just

difference? Huge. Yeah, not only those air filtration systems, but also like your HVAC, yeah, people don't realize those need to be changed for regular basis. Yeah. We'll do that for you, but also air filtration. And those, you know, the dehumidifiers also have filters on them. And the thing to, for consumers to understand really is those dehumidifiers and those, those off the shelf air filtration systems, they're not doing a lot. Gotcha gotcha. And there's a lot of smoke and mirrors

in that business. Unfortunately, a lot of bad actors. So, but we've got the science-based research around how these things can help you. So, one of those $70 air filter systems that sits in the corner of your room that looks all nice and trendy with the lights on it. Yeah, from, you know, like, they're like $70, like you would kind of say away from those. It's, I mean, it might look nice, but it's not doing much. Gotcha gotcha. And so, yeah,

going back into franchises. You said, you know, one thing that franchisee, a possible franchisee

“should look for from a franchisee or is like, what are they offering you long term, right?”

Talk to us a little bit about that. The deal with being a franchisee or and with bringing out franchises is that it's not just one transaction. It's a relationship you build over time.

Yeah. And I always say it's, it's essential that you have the before-during and after

support in order to get your franchisee off to the right start. But then after that, it's a relationship, right? It's, what's the ongoing support? Do they have webinars? Do they have ongoing training? Do they have an LMS system? And what's that relationship, like, if a franchisee gets into a jam with something which doesn't happen occasionally, is the franchisee, is the franchisee who are going to be there to support you? Yeah. Are they going to have for back, right? You know,

a circle of stances happen. People get have health issues or cancer or things like that.

“Yeah. What's the franchisee we're going to do with that point? Are they going to support you?”

I feel like we do based on our core values. I feel like we do a great job with that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there's just also the different levels of the business where after running a business, it's like, oh, okay. Well, you know, like, I'm to the next plateau, right? How do I get over that next plateau, right? And sometimes it's like problems that are, you would think they're good problems, but their bad problems. Like, oh, I'm growing too fast and I can't take on all these

customers, right? Like, what kind of support do you give me in that situation? You know, I'm sure that you guys have all kinds of models and probably your SOP list is pretty crazy, right? So sure. Yeah. Yeah. So I asked everyone on the show, what are they most excited about? You know, kind of what's going on in the forefront of their industry or, you know, did they got plans on the horizon with growth or that next project? You know, so what you got cooking? Wow. Yeah. There is so much going on

“in the indoor air quality world. What I'm very excited about is we, you know, is technology, right?”

So we've just rolled out a whole AI driven portal for our franchisees where it's a one-stop shop, all of our strategic partners or all integrated into that. Like, I got to give a shout out to my man, Alwenak, who's our COO, who's leads these projects for us, also leads the support of the

franchisees. So, you know, and training and development reports to him as well. And so we're always,

you know, working on that ongoing support. So the next level of, I guess, franchising and indoor air quality right now is about technology. And I feel like based on all of our marketing we're doing, which is AI driven, also all of our training and all of our portal work, and all of our strategic ventures are integrated with AI and some fashion. And so that's helping our franchisees have more efficient businesses be able to analyze their business better and for us to actually

analyze their business and help them with their needs. So those things we've been really, really working on actually interesting, the biggest, one of the biggest projects we're working on is in the franchising industry, franchiseeers offering health care to programs to franchisees, doesn't exist. Yeah. But we found it, again, I have to say Alwenak worked really, really hard on this, my COO. And we got these contacts that have years and years and years of health care experience,

and they were able to put a program together for us for our franchiseeers. And they're really excited about it, our franchiseeers are saving money because it's really tough, health care is expensive, and yeah. You know, that's one of the benefits we can help provide to franchiseeers. So yeah,

that's really exciting. Amazing, especially in a health-based, I don't think it's like you guys,

And so how do people find you? People find us at www.greenhomesolutions.com, okay?

“And greenhomesolutions.com, you got it easy enough. Yep. All right, there's a store locator on there”

or a locator for each one of our franchiseeers. Okay, and what about you yourself? You linked in, you got any of the socials, you want to follow a great CEO like yourself? Well, thank you for that.

“I'm honored. Thank you. Yes, I am on LinkedIn, I'm on Facebook, and I am on Instagram.”

Yes, perfect. And how can they find you on that? It's just just your name? Yeah, just by name. All right.

First type of that. So your name again for the people. Jeff Penella. Jeff Penella. There you go, guys. So

“if you want to get, you know, follow this guy, right, for franchise solutions for next little CEO,”

expert advice. But yeah, he's got his stuff together, right? And it's been great. You know,

looking ahead and answer the questions, right? Always nailed it. Never stuttered. But when it came

time, he would just kind of like think about it for a second and then boom, right there. So he knows this stuff. He's on it. He's a great job today. But yeah, looking forward to your episode, when it airs, you know, if you guys are interested in franchisees about coming from that, you know, immigrant background from the Italian and Polish side, I would tune into his episode, some really great stuff there. Thanks for watching. Yeah, thanks for the pleasure. All right, man.

Yeah, Connecticut. Now, the shout out to the boys, right? All right. Let's do it. Where are they? The wheelers. Bring them back. Come on. No back wheelers. All right. So thank you, guys, also for joining us. And we'll see you next time. Cheers, everyone.