In this interview episode, I’m chatting with Shea & Michelle, founders of Breakaway Bookkeeping + Advising. We delve into the innovative franchise model that encourages entrepreneurship and supports a healthy work-life balance, challenging the norms of traditional accounting firms. Join us as we explore Breakaway's unique assisted entrepreneurship approach, including mentorship programs and a supportive community for advisors.
In this episode you’ll hear:
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Meet Shea + Michelle
Shea Keats (CEO) and Michelle Löpez (COO) are founders of Breakaway Bookkeeping + Advising, a company on a mission to bring joy to accounting for both the accountant and the client.
Connect with Shea + Michelle
💼 LinkedIn
🌐 Become an Advisor
Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @ambitiousbookkeeper
For more information about the Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:
Thank you for your support of our show. If you haven’t left a review yet it’s super simple. Please go to: https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/podcast and leave your review.
Podcast Publishing Tools we use:
In this interview episode, I’m chatting with Shea & Michelle, founders of Breakaway Bookkeeping + Advising. We delve into the innovative franchise model that encourages entrepreneurship and supports a healthy work-life balance, challenging the norms of traditional accounting firms. Join us as we explore Breakaway's unique assisted entrepreneurship approach, including mentorship programs and a supportive community for advisors.
In this episode you’ll hear:
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Meet Shea + Michelle
Shea Keats (CEO) and Michelle Löpez (COO) are founders of Breakaway Bookkeeping + Advising, a company on a mission to bring joy to accounting for both the accountant and the client.
Connect with Shea + Michelle
💼 LinkedIn
🌐 Become an Advisor
Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @ambitiousbookkeeper
For more information about the Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:
Thank you for your support of our show. If you haven’t left a review yet it’s super simple. Please go to: https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/podcast and leave your review.
Podcast Publishing Tools we use:
we kind of jumped into what Breakaway is, but we skipped over like how you guys got here. yeah, so the breakaway, I mean, I think there's the breakaway story, and I think Michelle and I each have our own, um, way that, you know, we kind of came here. I think we've already shared a little bit, you know, our other two co founders were working at a big, traditional regional CPA firm. They literally broke away from that firm. Um, and at some point, if you look up there, they've told the story on other podcasts and you can look them up and hear them tell the story in their own words. Better yet. Next time you see them at a conference, get both of them a couple drinks and have them tell you the story because you'll, there's, there's some great moments in there. Welcome back to the Ambitious Bookkeeper podcast. Today I have Michelle and Shay, the co founders of Breakaway Bookkeeping and Advising on the podcast, and I'm super excited to bring this interview to you guys. I'm gonna let you guys take it away because this is a really exciting topic and something we've never really covered here on the podcast with, the franchise model and all that. So go ahead and introduce yourselves and then we'll dive into kind of what Breakaway is. Awesome. well, I'm Shea, I'm the CEO of Breakaway. Also one of the co-founders. There's actually four of us that founded the company. breakaway has been around since 2019, and I can get in a minute, a little bit more into how we work and what we do, but I, am really excited, to currently be serving the company as CEO. And it's been really, really fun to be, be part of this journey since day one. Yes, and I'm Michelle. I'm the COO and CFO for Breakaway. just really excited to be here with you and I know that your audience is such a great abundance mindset group. So I feel like we're going to get to it today. Yeah, I'm super excited. So, , briefly, well, not briefly, go into the detail, like, let's not be brief about this, but go into the detail about what Breakaway is and how it's different from other franchise models. so I'll start by saying, you know, what Braveway offers, because I think that's something that's really exciting, , to say up front. So first of all, we don't touch taxes with a 10 foot pole. Much love to all of our CPAs and EAs out there, but not our jam. we do, bookkeeping, um, but really, Bookkeeping with an advisory bent to it, so bookkeeping, fractional controller, and fractional CFO services. So that is our bread and butter, and it's been really fun. But our mission is to bring joy to accounting, and that happens, right, a lot for our end clients, but where it really comes home to roost is with our accountants. We are working, our ideal advisors, which is what we call our franchisees, come from a wide variety of backgrounds. but a lot of them are burnt out from, you know, working in traditional accounting firms or they have been, you know, working for themselves and just haven't really been able to make the The economics of it work, either the financial economics or the personal economics of, you know, I have no time to spend with my family, et cetera, work. So they're looking for some kind of alternative, some more support. or we're a really great place for people who have been out of the workforce for a little bit, and I'm not going to like pull any punches here. We all know that if you take Four years off to be a stay at home mom, you're not making partner at a firm. So we really wanted to have an alternative pathway where you could be a leader, you could have your own business, , you could have the leadership opportunities that you wanted, in a way that wasn't overwhelming, where you, and not to say that it's always easy, But we always try to bring a lot of ease to this for our advisors. We chose a franchise model for many, many different reasons, but mostly because it's the most accessible model when you want to work nationwide. But what's really unique about our franchise model is we have zero barriers to entry and zero barriers to exit. So that means you pay zero dollars for a breakaway franchise. And people are always trying to trick us, like, I bet I'll figure out where you're charging. a secret franchise fee, but it's truly zero dollars to join. And the second you sign that agreement, you have access to all of the same amazing back office resources that our advisors who have been with us for a while have. and then we also have no barriers to exit. So you've been with us for a couple of years. Myriad, again, of reasons why you might want to leave. and if you want to leave, you are free to solicit your clients to go with you. we give our clients the option of going or staying. It's ultimately up to the client. But we're not going to prohibit outgoing advisors from taking, you know, their relationships with them. Because we really, really value that. Yeah, we really want people to be a part of Breakaway who are happy to be on a team with us. The application process to join Breakaway as a franchise is, there's a lot of steps, there's a lot of interviews, because we want to be around people who get what it takes, and understand the idea that this has really assisted entrepreneurship. But it's still entrepreneurship. You know, we're really great about focusing on abundance mindset, getting compassionately clear with your goals as a business owner and accounting professional, but really where we love to land is you get to work for yourself, but not by yourself. Our community is one of the strongest pieces and why people stay and our business is continuing to grow more and more each day. Yeah, and we love talking about assisted entrepreneurship, and we feel like, you know, Breakaway is one of those paths forward, and , we'll share an article that we did in Accounting Today about this, last year. But, you know, whether it's joining a franchise like Breakaway, joining one of your groups, Serena. there's a lot of other amazing organizations out there. We always talk about Roundtable. We love Jason Stotz's Realize Group. Like, so many opportunities to join a community and get the support at the level that you need it., and Breakaway in our franchise model is one of those ways to do it. I mean, we probably think it's the best way, but, you know, we just want to encourage people, you know, because This is, it's hard out there in this industry and we want to give people, whether it's with us or with one of our amazing colleagues, a way to be successful,, doing what they love and serving small business, which is just such a vital and integral part of, our worlds. Yeah, I love that. When we met, I guess at this point it was like a month or so ago, maybe more. I'm not really sure. Time is, you know, out the window right now. but we, we chatted a bit about like what Breakaway was and how you help people. And I was honestly, like, blown out of the water because the whole, like, setting up a franchise is no easy task. But the way that you guys have done it is really awesome because, like you said, there's no barriers to entry or to exit. And I think you had an example of someone who had exited the franchise and then ended up coming back. Can you talk a little bit about that? Well, he hasn't come back to us yet. Okay. This is, , you know, he's still a buddy of ours. And, you know, he said, Hey, I don't really see my, I want to keep my current clients, but I don't really see myself continuing to grow in this way. And I just, you know, at this point, I, I just want to, you kind of recoup the money I've been spending on the monthly fees. And we're like, okay, great. We support you. We care about you. Good luck to you. And like, three months later, he's like, Huh, I don't think I'm ready, like, to come back, but, you guys really paid for a lot of stu So we were like, yeah, you covered all your insurance, your legal, a lot of your software, , and really that's what the franchise model allows us is that collective bargaining power. So, you know, what would be really expensive for us if we were a firm or what would be really expensive for the solopreneur accountant, we're able again to use those collective bargaining tools. and then. get, get better deals and take care of that for our advisors in a way that they don't even see it happening, right? Like, they know we have insurance, all of that stuff is available to them to review and peruse. They know that we have legal counsel, they know we have all these things, and we're very transparent about all of that, but they just are, like, I mean, it's truly, I mean, we like to call it Oz, you know, we're here in the Emerald City, and once they're here, like, it's, it just kind of becomes, part of their world that they don't I mean, I hate to say that they don't even realize it, because sometimes it feels You know, like that, but, they're very grateful for it. And when they do, you know, when we do have an advisor leave, or we have someone who's like, Oh my gosh, I went to a conference and I was talking to all of these miserable accountants. And then I'm just so grateful to be back here with you guys. So it's really interesting. Or we see that with our clients, right? You know, cause our clients aren't maybe having such a magical experience with their small business. And that, you know, really helps our advisors to continue to remember, you know, we give them a lot of freedom, a lot more freedom than most franchises give. Again, sometimes much to the dismay of our lawyer, but, it means that, right, they, they get to run their business how they want to run it. And, , we support them in that and take care of all of those stupid, tedious, I think, you know, joy is obviously something that we're focused on and an easy thing to use as like a compass for that. As it relates back to this advisor who left and wished that he hadn't was that our busiest advisor works about 30 hours a week. And that's because they get to focus those hours on the clients that they chose. They love serving and feel good. focused on really their skill set and the rest, all the back office stuff, we've got them, we support them. So for marketing, SEO, social templates, proposal software, legal letters, all of that stuff, we give you the playbook and all the materials right out of the gate. And so that really saves you time. With a proven business model. I mean, like, we're not just like releasing things. We beta tested everything before we released it to market. And so really you're getting the best of the best because we've put it through the ringer. Breakaway has put it through the ringer. So you're coming to market with a very professional Playbook. Yeah. one thing that's very cool about being a franchisor, I mean, it doesn't always feel cool when we're trying to do an annual audit, but, , all of our financials are out there. They're available. so, you know, there are certain things that we can share and I, I hope our most successful advisor doesn't mind if I share, but, you know, she's working about 30 hours a week now. She has an incredible team and she is on track to make a minimum of 750, 000 this year. Now, I'll have to say STAR, you know, results not typical, but most of our advisors are easily averaging 150, 000 or more a year in revenue. and over half of their business comes from our Breakaway HQ leads. So it's really exciting to have all of these options. And again, right, the nature of a franchise is that it is your own business. So we can't do anything except support you and give you resources and be the best cheerleader. But, I like to say it's our resources that are making this happen. Yeah. And I think it's, it's always, we love being transparent with people that you kind of brought it up where they're trying to trick us. Yeah. They're trying to figure out like, what's the catch. we're very upfront about what we cover and what the fees are. Our fees are based on revenue. So it's a percentage of total revenue. It's 25 percent what we call a desk fee. 25 percent of total revenue up to 8, 333. Then it drops down to 20 percent of revenue is the desk fee. But as Shea mentioned before, this is almost a no brainer because On average, our Average Advisors, we can't promise results, but our Average Advisors book is 50 percent made of breakaway leads. And so, really, we're coming alongside you with marketing efforts, with ongoing education, with access to community. so, and not to mention All the work that we do and continue to do and maintain on the atmosphere. I mean, all the changes that are going on with AI and apps and all of those things, we're trying to stay one to two steps ahead so that you don't have to dive into that pool. Yeah. I mean, I think for all of the, you know, independent solopreneurs out there, like, I think if you were able to just have a curated text stack handed to you, and like, how much that would just, like, I think a lot of our solopreneurs don't even realize how much they're thinking about that. Like, oh, should I, should I use Lycio? Should I use this other thing? But then I went to Xerocon and they said I should use this, but then I was at QVC and they said the total opposite thing. You know, so for us to be able to say like, hey, This is what we recommend. If there's something else you want us to check out, and then again, we also go and use that collective bargaining power so that we have wholesale or preferred rates with, our preferred tech stack. So that's been really exciting to have this relationship. And some of our best friends are our vendor reps. Oh my gosh, 100 percent. And so we, really get paired with Amazing vendor reps. And we're so grateful for those relationships, but that makes a big difference when we run into a hiccup, right, or need support. And I think that those kinds of onesie twosie accounting shops here and there just don't have the support that like you were saying, like our economies of scale can provide. And, you know, I think in terms of recruiting, it's important to say, right. If you are an independent. bookkeeper or controller out there and you're like, oh, this sounds really good, but I can't immediately give over 25 percent of my revenue, to join Breakaway because while it's a good deal industry standard, that's a lot, right? when we are bringing in, again, back to our commitment to no barriers to entry, when we're bringing on new advisors, if they already have a book of business, we give you up to a year. to transfer that book of business. And honestly, most of our advisors, new advisors, either transfer it, no problem, or they are able to let go of those clients, right? That it's all fine and good, right? We go to these conferences and people are like, you have to fire your clients that are being rude and da, da, da, da, da. But how do you do that if you don't have other stuff coming in? So we're able to help you replace with clients that are more values aligned. Right. And I'm assuming in, in situations like that, it's like, those aren't the profitable clients. And so it really wouldn't make sense to transfer them over because you wouldn't make any money off of them after you pay Fee, right? So it helps make that decision more clear for people. It's like they know they should have done it anyway But yeah, you gotta definitely make those calls so Other than the fee What are some of the other because you said there is kind of a You I don't know how rigorous of an application process, but I'm assuming it's pretty in depth. What are some of the other, like, key indicators of a right fit bookkeeper or, controller, whoever, makes for a good fit? Is it someone that is solo? Is it someone who has a team? are there other values that are really important that they need to Be aligned with. I think that our most successful advisors at Breakaway are able to go back and forth from taking the information that they get from the bookkeeping and making a plan. So it's easy to kind of rotate between wearing the COO hat. And the CFO hat, not to say all of our right of way advisors have to be CFOs, but if we can kind of vision cast together, what we're saying is you need to be able to know what the bookkeeping is saying so that you can come alongside the business owner and make a plan. And I think that kind of, ambitious spirit is very unique and we can call that, that entrepreneurial spirit. It's like, we want to understand. So I think that an ideal advisor is an amazing listener and is great at asking questions. And the question that I love starting with is what does your unique idea of success look like? And we kind of have the same conversations with potential advisors as we do potential clients, but we're going to focus on advisors. And we're going to say, you know, I love that you want to join Breakaway. What excites you most about being a part of Breakaway? And the most successful advisors have great answers to that. and they're willing to Go out and market really is not that we require them to do all of their own business development, but they have to be willing to kind of take a step to get on their LinkedIn and make a post that's authentic to them. So really authenticity, that bravery, the ability to ask and listen, really showing up for our breakaway team and the clients and having a really good conversation. understanding of bookkeeping is definitely an important part, but more importantly is what do we do with that information? Yeah, I agree with that. And I think, again, it's a, they've got to be at least comfortable in the discomfort around business development. I think that's really important. they have to be comfortable being a leader to their clients, right? So if you aren't comfortable and the language we always use is coming alongside. So, and that means sometimes having to speak up sometimes having to have difficult, fierce conversations. It means that you are not the bookkeeper who is the employee who's at the bottom of the food chain, like that's not what's going on here. You are a partner, you are a leader, you have to stand up, to your client. and I think all of that is really important. I think moving, you know, in addition to all of that, Understanding the importance of community. So our most successful advisors will be all over that Slack channel. And we built a company that was 100 percent remote from day one, including most of our executive team. We're together now, but you know, right, we're at my house. and we went 100 percent remote with the pandemic. We were about 98 percent remote before the pandemic. and we've never looked back. So I think being really comfortable, with being part of community, even though it's remote, and then along those same lines, embracing remote work. And this comes back to those hard conversations with the client. If your client calls you and says, okay, well, yeah, we'd love to work with you, but you're going to have to be in office four days a week, because that's where we want you to sit there and do the QuickBooks, and if you're like, okay, great. you're probably not going to be a great fit for breakaway, and you're probably not going to be serving that client well. Now, if I have advisors listening to this and they're like, well, I go, I work in office with my client. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. And certainly, some of our CFO advisors who, need to have a little bit more presence and they've got these really big, big contracts, they're going to go in more often. But if you're doing monthly bookkeeping or monthly advisory, you don't really need to be in office and you have to be a leader to your client in getting them to accept that. So I would say community, accepting, our kind of special, special way of working. if you can really get behind all of that and really trust us, right, that these are proven methods, that's how you're going to be successful. We've been asked before, you know, are you guys a place where you have to have a CPA designation or something like that? No. but we're also, we can have people that are CPAs, that's fine, but we're not exclusive to CPAs. we have people that were in banking before, we have people that were in controllership roles, VP of finance, really what it takes is a strong base in accounting and finance, and the ability to to be clear about your boundaries and maintain that partnership role with your clients. And we talk about how like our motto is bring joy, but joy is not happiness. And those are two very different things. And joy is really, we have to work at it, but it does require us to be compassionately clear with ourselves. compassionately clear with our clients. And that is how we get to joy is like putting in the hard work to be able to experience the happiness on the other side. So, you know, we do a lot of like work around that. And I think that what is important to our ideal advisor is that they desire and seek that as well. So aside from The back office, and the community. Is there anything else that you guys do for your advisors? Like, do you guys have annual events? Do you have rewards and things like that? Yeah, so, Many things. and I do want to say included in that back office is all of the brand. I think that's really important, really stressful for accountants to be like, how do I maintain a website and do a logo? So even just choosing a name, it's not easy. but one thing that we're really excited about is our specialty cohorts. So this started, kind of was born out of every group coming in with their They are like special little group of onboarding and then we wanted to continue to support advisors. So it originally there was a split for our advisors or advisory and bookkeeping and CFO. So we've got those cohorts, but just, This month, we have our next kind of, iteration of our cohort program, which is our Beyond Ambition cohort. So one thing that we are really proud about is that we are a CAFE, which is an age friendly certified employer, and I'm doing air quotes there, because we don't employ anyone, but, so we were like, how can we really support our advisors who are in the 50 plus age group? Because they're not necessarily thinking about revenue. They're thinking more about legacy, right? What comes next? How do I spend the last, you know, 15 to five years of my career, doing something that I love, being a mentor, yeah, making some money is great, but that's not necessarily the primary driver, but making sure that when I do retire, if I retire, you know, I'm feeling really good about kind of, you know, The way I like the cherry on the top of, my career. So we created this program called Beyond, Beyond Ambition, which is led by our, one of our founders, Martin Mahl, who happens to be in that demographic. I won't say his age on, on the radio, but, and he's just an incredible dynamic human and mentor, and he's really been helping them explore this idea of legacy, but also along with that, we have an opt in for a concierge, to serve, that age group who sometimes, right, they come in and a lot of Outbreak Away, there's a We have a big focus on mentorship, and that includes our younger advisors, mentoring the more mature advisors, and vice versa. But we are working on a concierge program, so there is someone there who, if they don't want to come and say like, Oh, I really I'm really stressed out about like all of the software stuff. There's someone who can be like, okay, we're going to sit down and look at your Google mail and we're going to get this figured out for you. someone who can do their calendaring for them, who can make appointments for them, who can help them with business development and just make sure that their time isn't spent, you know, spending, you know, Four hours trying to figure out how Dext works because right. They're not digital natives. That can be a little more tricky, so they're not spending their time on that, but they're spending their time out in the community, mentoring, doing business development, talking with other people, with other colleagues of theirs about legacy and about what comes next. So we're really excited about that. And then in the fall, we're going to launch the, companion project to that, which is called Bold Ambition. And that's for our advisors ages 35 to 50, 30 to 50, I guess, who are looking for like, okay, how do I supercharge what I'm doing right now? How do I get to the same level as that advisor we were talking about earlier, who has that huge book of business? how do they create, you know, traction, and growth and really explosive scalability in the moment, but also doing that in a way that feels balanced. That is kind of the way we do things at Breakaway. so we have those two cohort programs, which are, we're super excited about. we offer scholarships. We offer three, conference scholarships annually, which is really exciting. So advisors can get up to 1, 500 to go to, preferably it's like an end client conference. So we've had advisors go to Slay the Spray, which is for the spray tanning industry. we have one of our advisors going to AICPA, but that's because Auditing Firms is her ideal client. we have an advisor going to Xerocon, different things. So we're getting people to apply. So we're very excited about that. and then we do awards every year. We do our Pillar Awards at our annual meeting, which is our one time of year where we all get together in person. So we're celebrating joy, community, scalability, and brand. we also have our founder circle, which is for every advisor who hits half a million dollars, they get to join the founder circle. and I feel like I'm missing one of our awards, but we got, we did some new ones last year, so we're still, it's still, uh, getting, getting used to remembering them all. But, , and we're getting ready to launch Not named yet. Our next kind of level of award for those who reach a million dollars or more in total in gross revenue from day one. So we're excited to launch that. Yeah, that's super exciting. But there's a lot that we're doing and we're very excited about it. Did I miss anything? I don't think so. You did great. You know what's so fun is We create, we often refer back to like the Peloton badges as these things that exist that mean so much to us, as fake athletes, maybe. but we try and create sort of badges within our company because it feels good. It feels really good to be appreciated. It's not often in accounting that we get that notoriety or appreciation. And when we do, it feels so good and we see people the best we can. And we really default to like, everyone is doing the best they can and we want to celebrate that alongside. And that's why this mentorship, concept inside Breakaway is so powerful and these specialized cohorts, because we're all rooting for each other and it's. It's just such a unique and hospitable environment. Yeah, and I think something that's really important to note, too, is that, you know, while we have some revenue awards and revenue based groups, etc., we really encourage each of our advisors to set their own goals and what's scalable or what capacity, scalability or capacity looks like for them. So for some of our advisors, that might literally be one client and they are having a grand old time. We don't have any minimums people have to hit. and then for other advisors, that's going to be more and more and they're hitting a moving goalpost. But the idea is Wherever you are in life, whatever your phase is, you're returning to work, you're taking time away, or you're scaling back for caregiving or for a health issue. You want to take a sabbatical and go to Bali for six months, I don't care. Whatever it is that, There is a place where these things will fit for you, you know, and we've been talking about that a lot with Beyond Ambition because we really have a range. We have people who are taking on huge contracts in that group, but also people who are like, I'm semi retired and I, like one of our advisors, we love her so much. She, , is just started growing her book, but she's like super involved in her community and her church and she's on the board of the Christian Chamber of Commerce and she writes mystery novels with her twin sister. Like she's got this really full and active life and she's gonna have a great book of business, but is it gonna look exactly the same as she does? Everybody else's and no, not at all. And, but my point being is, and sometimes our advisors can feel self conscious like, okay, well, my book's only going to be 8, 000 a month. And I know this other advisor has a book that's 18, 000 a month. So, you know, a lot of the work that we do is like. We value the 8, 000 a month book just as much as the 18, 000 a month book. There's no distinction as long as you're hitting, as long as you're setting a scalability goal and hitting the goals that you set for yourself. Yeah, I, I can resonate with that so much because sometimes you get into these circles or networking groups where everyone's like trying to become millionaires and it's like, I'm just trying to actually like only work 20 hours a week so that I can focus on my kids and my hobbies and all that kind of stuff. So I totally get that. you do have to kind of like, It's a mindset shift to be around people that, and I'm like highly ambitious obviously, but I also like have other goals outside of work. So it's all, you know, it's all this balance and it's nice to know that there are other people out there as well that are like, yeah, I would, 8, 000 a month is a huge deal, especially if you're only working 20 to 30 hours a week. And I, I love that you bring this up, Serena. I was already on this soap box earlier this morning, cause I saw on, , well, I saw in a newsletter, someone had pulled this. Quote from Twitter or whatever it's called now, X, that was like, someone being like, Oh, you know, those first few months of starting a business and you've got to be working like 60 hours a week or probably more than that. He didn't say, he was like, yeah, and I working all the time and making my wife do everything. And I was like, it enraged me really. I got very upset. But, my reason I'm bringing this up is if we have an advisor who comes to us and is like, I'm burning the candle at both ends, like. But this is what I've been conditioned to think entrepreneurship or small business ownership looks like. We stop them and say, okay, you've got to rethink this. You are doing something wrong here. You know, you've got to raise your prices, drop some clients. Does that sometimes mean that you are getting slower growth at the beginning? Yes, but it's sustainable. And you're still going to be here in five years, in 10 years with the growth. Clients that are still there in five years and 10 years when you grow a little bit slower, but more sustainably and you're not like No, like, Michelle says all the time, no one gets a prize for being a martyr. No, and we've been, we've been protector leaders at Breakaway, Shay and I, in that when we feel people are bragging about the number of hours or have a bend towards complaining about whatever it might be, we kind of just say like, Hey, I want to touch base with you because it sounds like Things aren't going well. And they're like, Oh no, things are great. You know, I just, and it's funny because they're, they don't even, it's not even speaking truth, like they just are so conditioned come March, April to complain just because it's sort of in the air and we're like, that's not the atmosphere here and if you are feeling burnt at both ends, how can we delegate, how can we support, what can we release? So that you can really show up in the breakaway team and to your clients with a more balanced mind and heart and just really show up the best way you can, which isn't burnt out and trauma bonding, meaning like nobody wants to bond over the long hours we're working. That's not how we're doing it here. We're, like you said, this is Oz. We are striving for like balance and having a healthy nervous system. And what does that look like? And sometimes we set goals about wellness and that's often what we do. And we check in with each other about that. So it really is, , an environment where if we feel like people are bending to the negative or, giving that martyrdom, Attitude. We like to just check in and say like, how can we support you? Yeah. And I think, , you know, again, because we always, there's always this narrative when we're talking about breakaway of like, oh, there's gotta be something seedy under the surface. You know, I want to say that, you know, our most successful advisors have at least one team member. we use something that we call Blonde a Chore, , teams. So that means we've got contractors based here in the U. S. We have an incredible team out of Guadalajara, Mexico. We also have an incredible team in Coimbatore, India. and our advisors opt in and pay for these services kind of a la carte. or they, they're welcome to find, you know, their own combination thereof., but the reason I say this is it's not, We're not having, you know, the, you know, what roll downhill. That's not what's going on here with our independent contractors. One of our best practices is how can you only have your independent contractor work, 20 hours a week, because we've seen. That is where we get the best, highest quality work and the, the happiest, , contractors is when they're only working about 20 hours a week. And then on top of that, our team in Guadalajara works about 35 hours a week no matter what. and then they have an additional five hours that they can spend to do their own professional development. And then our team in coin be Tour has also been rigorously vetted. for amazing work practices. So, that's really important to us that it doesn't mean just like, okay, well, I'm working 20 hours a week, but I've got a contractor, you know, in India that's working 60 hours a week. That's not what we're doing. You know, we are making sure that wherever you are in the ecosystem, you are having the same, abilities to have an incredible work life balance. And again, I. Don't think that's happening across the board in the industry. You know, what's interesting too, is we talk about blended shore and support. What does support look like? And I think a lot of the industry is. Assuming that the first thing to go is bookkeeping. Well, honestly, I love the bookkeeping. I really take a lot of pride in, like, cleaning a bank feed or reconciling an account. And while that might be something that I could delegate, it brings me a lot of joy. So the thing that I don't like to do is clean my inbox, and take the first crack at replying to emails. So when BlendedShore to me, what that was to me is getting support for administrative tasks. So my BlendedShore looks like someone who goes through my inbox, buckets the things that are important, takes the first crack at replying to emails and leaves them in drafts so that at the end of the day or the middle of the day, I can pop in, review those emails, maybe add a few things and then send them because the email was the drag for me. Now that might be something else to someone else, but really that blended shore piece is doing more of what you love. And doing less of what you don't because that's how you really scale your business. absolutely. So I don't think we, the only thing that we kind of jumped into what Breakaway is, but we skipped over like how you guys got here. yeah, so the breakaway, I mean, I think there's the breakaway story, and I think Michelle and I each have our own, um, way that, you know, we kind of came here. I think we've already shared a little bit, you know, our other two co founders were working at a big, traditional regional CPA firm. They literally broke away from that firm. Um, and at some point, if you look up there, they've told the story on other podcasts and you can look them up and hear them tell the story in their own words. Better yet. Next time you see them at a conference, get both of them a couple drinks and have them tell you the story because you'll, there's, there's some great moments in there. but, they started this and, and they were really, passionate about finding the right people. So for me. I was doing independent strategy work at that time, and Kristen Keats, oh look, we have the same last name, she is my cousin, she called me and we've been going through kind of a tough time in our family, so her dad had just died, my uncle, and there was a lot going on and I remember she called me, I was on vacation and she was like, Okay, you get back on Monday, right? And I was like, yeah, she's like, okay, we're going to San Francisco on Tuesday to meet with the Xero team. And, you're part of this now, right? You can do like a couple months to help us get everything set up. And I was like, well, good, so I started and I was with, the team for, two months and my contract was coming up and I sat down and I said, I'm so passionate about what you're building because I think you are literally changing the foundation of the way we work in this country. Like, I think this is kind of the start of the tsunami in the best possible way. Like, I am not leaving, so you have to take it to keep me here. So, , they figured out a way and I joined the founders team and it's just been the greatest honor and, and, and joyful journey of my life. again, not to say that's always easy, but, it's definitely been incredible. So Michelle, let you kind of tell your side of it. Yes. So, I was the CFO of this amazing business that built, builds aerial obstacle courses and zip lines all over the nation, and I loved working with them. They had extreme explosive growth and basically. built a few engines for them that allowed them really to sleep at night, have amazing weekends knowing that their cash flow was healthy. And so I took so much time and energy and pride Building engines and KPIs that monitored success for business owners instead of just like profit or, you know, growth. I wanted to know like, what brings you joy and how do we get more of that? and so I was so passionate about this and I built the engine and I was really ready to find someone else and come alongside them and really help them execute their vision. And so I started talking to people in the industry and I came across Martin and Kristen and it was in a dimly lit back room over like a IPA and a basket of Cajun tots that I basically got their like time share pitch. And they were like, this is our vision. This is what we want to do. And I absolutely was bought in. I was so excited. And so I came in, As both, a founder and a franchise and built an amazing book of business with clients that I. lit me up. I was so excited every day to come alongside them. And I got to, instead of just being an employee for one company and help them build their one specific engine, I was able to show up for eight different companies, increase, , you know, or create, really take their vision and their mission from a napkin idea into employing a hundred people. And that was for one business. And I was able to come alongside eight and just see this like almost pebble in the lake. happen where we take these concepts, throw it out there into the world with joy and like clarity, and then watch it radiate through not just like the business, but like the employees, the employees, families, and just all of that really excited me and coming alongside and supporting now more in the advisory role, helping our advisors grow their book of business and help support their clients. Awesome. I don't think we even really touched on that when we chatted before. I didn't realize that there was two other founders last time we talked. So thank you. You know, what's really interesting too is, you know, it's been so exciting to watch the way Breakaway has grown because I don't know of any other business. kind of done it the way that we've done it. And, we're lucky, you know, Michelle and I, , are the primary leaders at Breakaway, which has allowed, and I think going back to beyond ambition, again, I'm not going to share anyone's ages, but those, the other, our other two founders are in a different phase of their career. They want to be working on multiple projects. They want to be thinking about legacy. So it's been really exciting to see them step into that part of their career while we step into this middle part of our career and really are able to build and grow something that supports, you know, not just the breakaway ecosystem, but now there's this bigger ecosystem as well. And that's, you know, it's been really special, you know, at times trying, but also, , really special to see again, if breakaway was the first stone that fell in the lake, you know, to see kind of how That's hit, all different, all different aspects. And I think that Kristen and Martin, those were the people that started the concept of Breakaway and have really offered us the mentorship that we've turned around and tried to exemplify by creating these mentorship opportunities, inside of Breakaway, which goes back to really how we started this call with, which is Breakaway is an assisted entrepreneurship model. And it's an incredible way to step into the ability to like control, your calendar. It's like freedom of schedule. You get to choose your clients while at the same time, like we have a proven business model. So you get to just grab that playbook run and also have access to our incredible hive. Everybody on the team brings a unique perspective and element and wisdom, and we all lean in and on each other. Yeah, and I think there's only going to be more of it. And it's why we are passionate, you know, about advisor acquisition because, there's so much. No desire for Michelle and I for us this to be the Shea and Michelle show as much as it's fun to to be a leader. But the more advisors that we have come in who are supporting each other, the better that community is, , and again, knowing that. And this is why when we talk about assisted entrepreneurship, and we'll give it other examples, right, or we have given other examples of what could be considered part of this concept, but at breakaway rate that, you know, that that community you're getting, if you say, hey, I've got this really complicated bookkeeping problem, and five people respond to you with an answer. You've got a pretty good guarantee that that answer is the right answer. As opposed to when you're in some of these other groups where it's just like free for all and we see it sometimes and we're like, oh, that's not right. but really thinking about, right, what is the value of being inside a curated community, but also giving back to that community. And our advisors have seemed to really understand that intrinsically, so I'm sure at some point we're going to have enough people that we've got to do more, leadership around that. But right now, it's just amazing because they support each other. So hard, like it's really, it's really amazing. Well, and what our business allows for the, the way that Breakaway does not do tax allows us to ask the question, what's best for the client? Because I think a lot of the bookkeeping questions are answered with the vantage point of I'm filing taxes, which is fine. That's great. But if we understand. why this information is important and how can we accurately capture this in a way that allows us to track what the business owner is trying to understand. When you come at it from that angle, now your question is very different. And while you might have a gap compliant answers, That's great. But what we really need to do is how is this bookkeeping going to help the business owner operate their business while staying GAP compliant? And so I think that the answers to these questions are unique because all of us are advocates for business owners. Yeah. And it sounds like, the community is able to be so involved because they're not burning the candlestick a little bit because they actually have time to give back and to to ask when they need something and it sounds like a really good situation for everyone. like a really good situation for everyone. We hope so. Yeah. Well, it's funny because, you know, we'll, we'll help support an advisor kind of tackle a complicated scenario. And the next thing you know, they're sharing a client testimonial and we all get excited about that. I think my greatest victories with Breakaway weren't my own, they were witness to someone else's greatness. And so we get to celebrate so much more Yeah, yeah. And just kind of circle back on like having rewards and stuff for your franchisees. It's, I was thinking about that while you were talking about it. It's like as the entrepreneur, as the CEO of your bookkeeping firm, You're most of the time, your team and other people that work with you, they're not going to be celebrating your success. So it's like, it's all on us. So it's nice that if you're a part of the breakaway community, and franchise, like you will be celebrated for hitting your goals and all those things. Right. So that's pretty cool. And I love that our advisors feel, you know, because they're doing things out in their own communities. We have advisors. I think we're officially in like. 13 states, and then that's not counting advisors who are digital nomads and are in Brazil or the UK or Spain or, you know, wherever they are when they're not at home. it's exciting that they'll come and they'll say, like, they, they have enough confidence to then come and say, Hey, I got this really cool, recognition in my home city. And then all of our advisors coming on and are like, that's so cool. That's awesome. And not even that, they're But like, I thought it was so cool. One of our advisors was, I, I forget, she was part of a conference. She works with the cannabis industry and she had like posted about it and we were all like, yeah, that's great. And then two weeks later, other advisors, like the day of the event, were following up with her. Like they clocked that like today is the day of her event. I need to follow up and I'm going to do it in a public way. Like I didn't even know. I mean, I got on the train once I saw the other advisors doing it, but like, that is so cool that they, that I don't even have to coach or mentor or do anything to that. They're just like, this is the momentum, that we're, that we're creating. I think it's also pretty fun to go to events like XeroCon and QBC and. You know, events like that and have a whole cabana of breakaway people, , which we do, we're a group that cabanas. Yes. Um, and just really have such a great time because while we are a virtual company, there are times that we get together that annual meeting and, you know, going on the wine tour, , and doing these really fun, fun things together and celebrating Ownership as owners, you know, we advocate for business owners as business owners ourselves. And that's really something to celebrate. Yeah. So will you guys be at XeroCon this year? Awesome. Well, I'm going to, I'm going to look for you because I'll be there with my whole team too. We're also going to be at the, Firm Growth Forum in San Diego in May. So if you're, if you're there, if you've got any team members there, find us there. And then we've got a few. Team members at AICPA, we won't be there, but, keep an eye out for, , for anyone in the Breakaway, Breakaway merch, so. Awesome. So if someone is listening and they're interested in learning more about being a part of Breakaway or connecting with either of you, whereas the Best place for them to go and we will link this in the show notes as well. Thank you. So the best way thing to do is go to breakawayba. com forward slash become an advisor. And there is more information. You can download our brochure. You can fill out our interest statement. Survey, or you can just shoot us an email to info at breakawayba. com, and either one of us will get back to you or, , Michelle Cervantes, because by the way, your name has to be Michelle or Kristen to work at Breakaway. Everyone's name is Michelle or Kristen, it seems like, but our, our amazing onboarding specialist,, Michelle Cervantes, who is also a member of our Blended Shore team out of Guadalajara, she'll get back to you, and then we will kick off. And if you just have questions, you can shoot us an email or fill out the form on the website and we can, we can answer those. Awesome. Thank you guys so much for coming on the podcast and sharing. I'm super excited to have you on here and, if you listen to this episode and you enjoyed it, please let us know. Are you guys mainly on LinkedIn? Yeah, primarily on, so Awesome, awesome. Shoot them a message on LinkedIn. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you.