Brooke Eastman has had a busy 20-plus year career in corporate marketing, working for clients that include Jenny Craig, Sony and Nike as well as working with GreatCall, Inc., the parent company of the Jitterbug phone.
Franchisee
Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning
The 44-year-old Orange County native has long considered starting her own business that would allow her to spend more time with her husband and their two young children. After being laid off in January 2021 from a job at Ace Fitness, Eastman said he took some time to think about what he wanted to do.
“I’ve done tech ed, I’ve done tech, consumer packaged goods, but always on the marketing side,” said the University Town Center-area resident, a graduate of San Diego State University who decided to stick around in San Diego County after earning a degree in communications.
“This is really where I found my passion for creating customer experiences. That’s what I loved to do, and I wanted more and more to be in the driver’s seat to do those things. And that’s one of the reasons why I started exploring having my own business.”
Instead of taking a full plunge into the small business world, concerned that would force more financial risk than she was comfortable with, Eastman instead decided last October to become part of the Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning company, opening a franchise to cover a portion of North County.
Her territory includes Carlsbad, Oceanside and the western parts of Vista and San Marcos.
“I needed something with low risk,” Eastman said. “I centered on franchise fits. I probably looked at about a dozen, drilled into three or four built-up models and Oxi just kept coming up as being the one that had the match for how much time I could give it, for how much structure they have. It’s a labor-driven business and I love that they stand by using technology to work smarter not harder.”
Eastman also said that Oxi Clean maintains her website and handles “some of the things that would require this to be a full-time job rather than part-time,” and allows her to focus on giving “great customer service with every interaction – that is the part that I love.”
Ongoing drought issues in California and ways to help the decreasing water supply also drew Eastman to Oxi Fresh, which was founded by entrepreneur Jonathan Barnett in 2006 in Denver and now boasts more than 400 franchises across more than 40 states.
Before she made her final decision to become a franchisee last fall, Eastman traveled to Colorado to meet with the Oxi Fresh team and said she was sold on what the company was about, and how it went about its business.
“The products and the equipment… it’s smaller than I thought and less than I thought,” Eastman said. “More and more I saw how Oxi Fresh makes sense. It’s better for the environment with low water and green cleaning solutions, and not using a giant van that burns gas and uses pipes and long hoses, extra cords and all this stuff that’s involved in carrying around a lot of water and using a lot of water .”
Eastman said she cares about the environment in California, especially for her kids, who are 2 and 5, and their futures. She said the company’s eco-friendly products and green cleaning methods were a primary factor in her decision to invest in the franchise and bring it to the community.
Oxi Fresh touts itself as the “World’s Greenest Carpet Cleaner,” using environmentally friendly, oxygenated cleaning methods that save an average of 58 gallons of water per home cleaned, compared to traditional steam cleaners.
Helping Water.org Globally
Oxi Fresh also has a corporate partnership with Water.org, a non-profit co-founded by Matt Damon that seeks to solve the global water crisis. Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning’s website notes that it “has saved tens of millions of gallons of water since its inception.”
Oxi Fresh donates a portion of its fees for all services it books online to help Water.org empower families in need with access to safe water and sanitation.
“It all gives me a good feeling about Oxi, promoting something that is good in the long term,” she said.
While running the franchise, Eastman is currently head of marketing for Territory Global, a business consulting and services company based out of Portland.
“Marketing is still my passion and something I’ll always want to do,” Eastman said. “Starting a business is about exercising a different muscle. I’m passionate about both. I feel like I have the best of both worlds.”
