0:00

I feel like I'm on a high after just

0:00

interviewing this lovely guests that I'm

0:05

about to introduce you to today on this

0:05

episode, it is so mind blowing how much

0:11

Holly Skog has literally transformed in

0:11

her business over the past eight months.

0:16

And she specifically shares a

0:16

lot of these wins coming from

0:19

joining our group coaching program

0:19

breaks through it is so crazy.

0:23

She's literally getting ready

0:23

to take a maternity leave.

0:25

And she shared with us on the episode that

0:25

she's actually taking 30 days unplugged.

0:29

For maternity leave and three months from

0:29

client facing activities, all from all the

0:34

work that she's put into place from within

0:34

Breakthrough, our group coaching program.

0:38

I am so excited because

0:38

there's so many wins.

0:42

She talks about how she's

0:42

establishing her bonus plan with KPIs.

0:45

I give her some tips and tricks. If you're wondering what that looks like,

0:46

we actually break that down today as well.

0:50

She talks about letting go and. Of certain clients and increasing

0:51

her prices and how she went

0:54

from a 51.4% profit margin.

0:57

To a 60.5% profit margin.

0:59

And she's increased your average

0:59

client fee, which is so amazing.

1:04

She's maintained her sanity. She's been working really hard with

1:05

her team to make sure to build out the

1:09

internal training programs they need. And all the resources for their teams.

1:12

That way she can really take an

1:12

unplugged time off to be a new mom.

1:17

I am so excited to be

1:17

interviewing her today.

1:19

If you've been looking for that inspiration or you've been really looking at an eyeballing

1:21

Breakthrough, and this is a great.

1:25

A great recording to listen to. As we are going to dive into what

1:27

that program looks like, the winds

1:30

that can come from it for you as well. And I hope you enjoy today's episode.

2:30

Hey, everyone. And welcome back to the podcast

2:31

with your host here, Alyssa Lang.

2:33

I am so excited because the other

2:33

day I posted inside of my lovely,

2:37

coaching program Breakthrough. And I was looking for students who

2:39

wanted to share their story and their

2:41

wins about Breakthrough and all the

2:41

different things that have happened

2:44

in their firm since really joining. And I was so blown away because

2:45

she is definitely one of those

2:50

students that like, you don't realize

2:50

are doing so many things in the

2:53

background because they may not be. Super, super active in the group, but

2:54

man, did she blow me away with all of

2:59

these incredible wins that she's had

2:59

from being inside of Breakthrough and

3:02

also the other things that she's done

3:02

in her business to really grow her firm.

3:05

So I'm so unbelievably excited

3:05

to introduce Holly Skoog and he

3:10

actually owns Happy Books Solution. So thank you so much,

3:12

Holly, for being here today. Please feel free to introduce yourself.

3:15

Yeah, so Holly Skoog here

3:15

running Happy Books Solutions.

3:20

I started my business, let's

3:20

see, back in the middle of 2021.

3:25

At the time I was working in corporate

3:25

finance as a financial analyst.

3:28

And I was just getting really

3:28

sick of the corporate grind.

3:31

And, you know, as is the story of

3:31

a lot of bookkeepers out there.

3:35

I was just really ready to be done with it. With corporate finance.

3:38

And so I kind of, you know, dipped

3:38

my toe into the bookkeeping side,

3:42

you know, business ownership. And, you know, I wasn't really sure that

3:44

I could even really make that much money

3:48

that I could replace my corporate salary.

3:51

You know, I did a ton of

3:51

research and I was like, okay,

3:54

maybe I'll just give it a shot. And after about nine months, I was

3:56

able to leave my corporate job.

4:00

I hadn't quite replaced my salary

4:00

yet, but we were able to sustain

4:04

things with my bookkeeping business. And yeah, now here we are.

4:08

I just, I went full time

4:08

in, let's see, March, 2022.

4:14

And so it hasn't, yeah,

4:14

that's kind of mind blowing.

4:18

It's just, it's hasn't even

4:18

been two years yet that I've.

4:21

Been full time in business and

4:21

and the fact that my business

4:23

is where it is at today. Like, yeah, kind of amazing.

4:27

I also wanted to mention too that I.

4:30

Um, so I kind of accidentally ended

4:30

up niching in interior design.

4:33

I have literally no background in interior

4:33

design, but I started off with one

4:39

client in interior design and all of a

4:39

sudden all of these designers came to me.

4:44

So yeah, so now we are now

4:44

exclusively taking on new clients

4:48

in the interior design industry. Oh, how exciting.

4:51

I believe that there's one other

4:51

student inside of Breakthrough

4:54

who niches and interior design.

4:56

And the same thing, they like kind of fell into it. It was like, all of a sudden

4:57

it just fell on their lap.

5:00

And I really think that when you lean

5:00

into niches like that, like sometimes

5:03

you don't come from that background,

5:03

but if you really lean into something

5:06

and you see that there's a desire or

5:06

a need in an industry, it's like, it's

5:10

one of the smartest things you can do. Yeah.

5:12

Oh, absolutely. And it definitely brings like so much

5:14

more Ease of systems, ease of like knowing

5:18

who your ideal client is, your marketing. It just like seriously makes things

5:20

so much easier to streamline.

5:23

Oh my goodness. Yeah, that's totally

5:24

what we've noticed too. And honestly, a lot of the reason

5:26

that we decided to exclusively serve

5:30

interior designers because it is

5:30

kind of a unique industry as are, I

5:33

mean, a lot of industries out there. Because this is a unique industry, we

5:35

have systems that work very well for

5:40

interior designers that might not be

5:40

very translatable to other industries.

5:45

And so when I was approached by a couple,

5:45

you know, non designers earlier on before

5:51

I'd officially been like, yep, we're

5:51

only going to take designers on now.

5:54

I was thinking like, man, it's

5:54

going to be tough to implement

5:57

with my team because we don't.

6:00

We don't have the right systems in place

6:00

for this different industry, right?

6:04

Like my team is used to working

6:04

with interior designers now.

6:06

So yeah, it absolutely

6:06

makes us way more efficient.

6:11

Oh yeah. It makes it easier. I just love it. Also the marketing side of things,

6:12

cause then it doesn't have to get

6:15

distracting and you can be guest features

6:15

on podcasts specific to the industry.

6:19

And I just love it. So. I'm excited to dive into some of the

6:21

niche stuff before we dive into that.

6:25

I do actually want to read what you

6:25

commented on my post inside a Breakthrough

6:29

when I was looking for people or

6:29

students to interview on the podcast.

6:32

So I'm just going to read out what

6:32

you wrote because it is so incredible.

6:36

It just blows me away. How much work you've done since

6:37

implementing Breakthrough.

6:39

And it's just so fun. So this is literally what

6:41

Holly said in response to being

6:43

on the podcast and whatnot.

6:45

So she said the wind that is at, I,

6:45

she's absolutely the most grateful

6:48

for is that she has a plan in place

6:48

for maternity leave this spring.

6:53

We have the systems in place such

6:53

that I can take my time off from my

6:56

business and learn how to be a new mom. Knowing that my current clients are

6:58

well taken care of, and there's a

7:00

plan in place to really maintain

7:00

the pipeline and continue to grow

7:03

wherever that pace really comes from. And some wins that you said thanks to

7:06

Breakthrough is establishing a bonus

7:09

KPI for your team members for 2024.

7:12

It's far from perfect, but we have

7:12

a new employee onboarding program.

7:15

Yes, we can win. I love that. Conducted a profitability analysis by

7:17

client, identified a few of those prices

7:21

really needed to be raised, got rid of a

7:21

PETA client by raising prices and accepted

7:26

that increase in the other, the rest of

7:26

them except those increased, streamlined

7:28

internal communications with Slack. It doesn't stop there.

7:31

People wins from my business that

7:31

were supported by Breakthrough has

7:34

started 2023 with seven monthly

7:34

clients and ended 2023 with 16.

7:39

That's a pretty impressive jump. Love that.

7:42

and increase your average monthly

7:42

client fee from 478 to now 511.

7:47

So exciting. Hired two part time employees.

7:49

Increased your net margin by 51.

7:52

4 percent to 60. 5%. Officially declared a niche.

7:57

So excited. And maintained my sanity.

7:59

Oh my gosh. So many amazing things. Like I just.

8:02

Want to sit here all day. This can go so many different

8:03

directions, but I would just love to

8:07

hear the last piece there was the thing

8:07

that always makes me really excited,

8:11

which is the maintaining sanity. Cause we can talk about

8:12

vanity metrics all day.

8:15

We could talk about how we built these

8:15

things, but really like our business

8:18

is just one tiny sliver of our life,

8:18

especially moving into this new version

8:22

of you into this mom version where you're

8:22

also, you know, going on maternity leave.

8:26

So I'd love to dive into like the sanity

8:26

aspect of things with the business.

9:38

Oh, yeah. I mean, so since the beginning of

9:39

my business, I was very committed

9:43

to working four days a week.

9:46

I knew I only wanted to work four days a week. I knew, you know, like I had said earlier,

9:47

I was just so sick of the corporate life

9:52

that I was like, Give me my Fridays off.

9:56

I'm going to lean into that as a business owner. So I, for the most part, still

9:58

do only work four days a week.

10:02

You know, obviously there are

10:02

busy seasons where I'll log

10:06

in on a Friday here and there. End up staying a little bit later

10:08

logged in than I anticipated

10:11

during the rest of the week. But, you know, the fact

10:13

that I've been able to.

10:17

Maintain my sanity. Like I said, like I mostly work 830

10:18

to 430 Monday through Thursday, and

10:24

that has been beyond perfect for me.

10:28

And, and because of Breakthrough, I was

10:28

able to increase our capacity in the

10:34

way that I was and still mostly work.

10:37

Four days a week. like that has been beyond valuable for me.

10:41

I am not a self proclaimed workaholic.

10:44

I, really value high quality

10:44

work, but I, Also highly, highly,

10:48

highly value work life balance. So, so I am not tempted to be

10:51

working a kajillion hours a week.

10:55

I love what I do, but I don't

10:55

love doing it all the time.

10:59

And so the fact, like I said, that I

10:59

was just able to like, have that split

11:04

while growing my business as much as I

11:04

did in 2023 is kind of amazing to me.

11:11

Yeah. And I like what you said about

11:11

how, like, I love what I do, but I

11:13

don't want to do it all the time. And I think that that, like, there's

11:15

this, you know, conversation that kind

11:19

of gets thrown around that like, if you

11:19

don't, if you really love what you wanted

11:22

to do, you can always do it forever. It's like, I don't believe in that.

11:25

I think like at the start of my business,

11:25

it was a little bit different, but I

11:28

love when people touch on that because

11:28

it's like, I do love what I do, but I

11:31

still have moments of being burnt out. I still have moments of

11:33

like, I don't want to work.

11:36

And I've got to like, Do what I got to do.

11:38

So I'm really glad that you touched on that point. Yeah, so yeah, 2023 was the first

11:40

year that I had part time employees.

11:45

And it was mind blowing to me to

11:45

be able to take a day off and know

11:49

that work was still getting done. I was like, this is insane.

11:53

It's amazing. And yeah, so again.

11:58

Without, like, without Breakthrough,

11:58

we would have been able to get through

12:02

it, but just to know, like, my team's

12:02

efficiency is, fairly optimized and

12:07

yeah, like, we have everything in place

12:07

to know that, like, if something comes

12:10

up, they can reach out to me, but they

12:10

know the boundaries of, like, when to

12:14

reach out to me, when to bother me,

12:14

you know, quote, unquote, bother me.

12:17

I love my team. They're amazing. when exactly is it an emergency versus

12:18

when can this wait till tomorrow

12:22

or next week or whatever? I love that.

12:24

And did you implement that from

12:24

the Notion setup that we gave?

12:27

Did you guys implement Notion? Yes, we did implement Notion.

12:29

I did. That's another thing I

12:30

didn't even put on there. Notion has been like life changing.

12:35

I have one team member specifically

12:35

who was really instrumental in helping

12:39

me put that together and we just

12:39

like totally nerd out all the time

12:44

about all the different things. So I haven't officially implemented the

12:45

vacation, you know, leave section yet.

12:51

However, I've been exploring that

12:51

for my maternity leave, because I'm

12:54

planning on taking a more substantial

12:54

chunk and, you know, all of that.

12:58

So it's, it's so cool. I

13:00

love it. Notion is the best. It's my favorite.

13:02

It really is. And honestly, that, that was like my,

13:03

one of the main reasons that I joined

13:09

Breakthrough in the first place is

13:09

because I wanted the Notion template.

13:13

I guess that's like, I, like,

13:13

I love the idea of Notion, but,

13:18

but having to build it out and

13:18

spend time building it out myself.

13:23

Is beyond stressful to think about.

13:26

And so like even if, all I got

13:26

from Breakthrough was the Notion

13:30

template and not even the rest

13:30

of the amazing other offers, I it

13:35

would've been worth it hands down Oh, I love that.

13:38

And then let's unpack that a little

13:38

bit because we have a lot of, a lot of

13:42

people who reach out very similar to

13:42

you, who just want Breakthrough because

13:44

of notion, like, because of the way

13:44

that I've set it up and the way that the

13:47

template is, and, and I try to explain to

13:47

people over and over and over again that.

13:52

Unfortunately, the reason why I don't

13:52

separate out the notion piece from

13:56

Breakthrough and just sell it separately

13:56

is because notion, the way that we have it

14:00

built is so intertwined with the concepts

14:00

that you learn inside of Breakthrough.

14:04

Like you have to learn how

14:04

to run an effective meeting.

14:06

If someone just gives you a template that says. Agenda for a meeting.

14:09

Like there's, there's so many different logistics. There's logistics about, well,

14:11

who attends the meetings?

14:14

How can I even like get them to show up? What are ways I can keep it interactive?

14:17

Like what conversations do we have? It's like, it's so much more beyond that.

14:21

So I'd love to hear from your

14:21

perspective, someone who did come in.

14:24

Really just focusing on wanting

14:24

the notion part of things.

14:27

Did you see why I didn't separate it out?

14:30

Oh, without a doubt. Yes. Without a doubt and and I think

14:32

like that was that was such a I

14:37

shouldn't even say pleasant surprise

14:37

because I feel like everything you

14:39

put out is like so well thought out. But, I just like, like, seriously, the

14:41

value the value of it was something I

14:46

couldn't have anticipated before joining.

14:50

And once I was in, and once I got to, you

14:50

know, explore the Notion template, and

14:54

at first it was like very overwhelming

14:54

just because there's so much to even

14:58

like get through, but yeah, I feel like

14:58

the way that you have things set up

15:03

you know, being like, all right, here's

15:03

where you specifically should start.

15:07

Here is the things you need to focus

15:07

on, like, just pick one thing, start

15:12

there, and, you know, it's been, what

15:12

eight months, I think, since I joined,

15:18

and in those eight months, yeah, it's

15:18

kind of amazing how much we've gotten

15:22

through, and exactly what you were saying. Like, I feel like not only have we gotten

15:24

through the actual like setup of notion

15:29

and we're not even totally done yet,

15:29

but the portions that we have done have

15:33

been so informational and I've learned

15:33

so much as a business owner as to how

15:39

to optimize our business operations.

15:43

In a way that I never would

15:43

have personally come up with on

15:45

my own. Yes, I love that.

15:48

And I'm assuming, because I know

15:48

that you mentioned one of your wins

15:50

was the employee training program.

15:52

Because I know I just recently, it was

15:52

probably before this episode goes live.

15:56

I have done an episode. I'm like, is it live yet

15:58

as we're recording it here?

16:00

But I do know by the time that this

16:00

goes live, it will have been done.

16:03

Where I talked about the internal training

16:03

program and like what it means, what

16:07

it does, like the beauty of what it. brings to people.

16:10

And I think there's this misconception

16:10

that people think that they have

16:13

to be constantly hiring new people

16:13

in order to create some sort of

16:16

an internal training program. So I'd love for you to kind of dive

16:18

into what did that process look like?

16:22

I know it's not easy because I have been

16:22

there myself having to having to build

16:25

them twice in two different companies. What was that process like with one,

16:27

the introduction of what this internal

16:30

training program was you actually doing

16:30

the work to it and the involvement of the

16:33

team and to now these new team members

16:33

going through this training program.

16:37

so when I hired my 1st part time

16:37

employee, I did not have it built out yet.

16:41

And it was definitely like, here

16:41

you go drinking from the fire hose.

16:46

I, when I hired my 1st team member

16:46

in January of last year, and I

16:51

didn't join Breakthrough until. I think June or July.

16:54

And so it's kind of amazing to compare

16:54

the two different onboarding experiences

17:00

because we just had so much more

17:00

built out so much more fun formalized

17:06

when I heard my second employee.

17:08

And so that said. my second employee actually

17:10

started as a contractor.

17:13

She had been working with me for a

17:13

while, but was like very, very, very

17:18

part time and worked on like very

17:18

specific things in the business.

17:21

And so she hadn't really been super

17:21

involved in the bookkeeping side

17:26

or in like the client side so much.

17:29

And so when I was building out my, my

17:29

onboarding, it was to bring her from a

17:33

contractor to a bookkeeping employee.

17:36

And so I, I had that. background to fall back on that.

17:39

I like, it made me feel a little bit

17:39

better as I'm building out my employee

17:42

onboarding, that it doesn't need to be

17:42

perfect as a lot of business owners are.

17:46

I'm such a perfectionist and there's,

17:46

I have to like constantly fight

17:49

the, the urge for things to be.

17:53

I had this attitude of like, it has

17:53

to be perfect or it's not worth doing.

17:56

And obviously that's not but so that

17:56

said, I knew that she at least had

18:00

some context of what it's like to

18:00

work for happy book solutions and you

18:05

know, kind of the work that we do. So it gave me permission to be okay with

18:07

things not being absolutely perfect.

18:11

So that said it was really, Like,

18:11

I just, I love the way that you had

18:15

it set up is just very like you gave

18:15

examples and it was very systematic.

18:21

And I think it was a little bit hard

18:21

sometimes to think through, like,

18:25

okay, where do we begin, you know,

18:25

in order to, start, you know, the

18:30

training we, we pay for training.

18:32

So the, the person needs to know how to

18:32

do Clockify and needs to set up Clockify.

18:37

So we'll maybe start with Clockify,

18:37

but wait, in order to start with

18:40

Clockify, we need to make sure

18:40

they're set up in their email.

18:43

And so, you know, it's like,

18:43

I remember building this.

18:48

Oh my gosh. It was such an exercise to go through.

18:50

Like, what is the proper step number

18:50

one, step number two, kind of crazy.

18:57

But yeah, I feel like, I feel like it was.

19:00

By the end of it, you know, it took me, I

19:00

don't know, I would guess probably two to

19:06

three weeks to like, really do my first

19:06

pass, record all my videos all of that.

19:13

But now that the, that contractor has

19:13

gone through that training, has been

19:18

on board as an employee I've learned

19:18

from her experience and I was very

19:23

clear, like, This is not perfect. Any questions?

19:26

Let us know. But with the way that you have it

19:27

set up where they're giving daily

19:30

feedback, they're letting us know

19:30

if there's anything that they feel

19:33

like is missing or we were able to,

19:33

you know, with each quiz understand.

19:38

Okay. This maybe wasn't explained totally

19:39

well, or, you know, we need to

19:43

flesh this out a little bit more. So I feel like.

19:45

You know, in the future, as we continue,

19:45

hopefully onboarding more employees,

19:51

we will continue to be able to improve

19:51

based on the feedback we're getting.

19:56

And just like, you know, SOPs in

19:56

your business, like it's just, it's a

20:00

constant improvement and any incremental

20:00

improvement is still improvement.

20:05

And so. We call that good. Oh, I love that.

20:08

Yes. It's, it's so funny because for anybody

20:09

who's listening right now, who's like,

20:12

what are you guys even talking about? So this is not even like what Breakthrough

20:13

is when we talk about program,

20:17

this is like an internal program. So if you've never heard of the concept,

20:19

just imagine if you've ever worked for a

20:21

more of a corporate company, probably at

20:21

the very beginning, when you were trained,

20:24

they sat you in a room on a computer. To learn about the company and

20:26

the values and all the different

20:28

things that helped you to train

20:28

up into working with the company.

20:31

Well, I came up with this concept a

20:31

couple years ago for Workflow Queen.

20:34

It started as what it was for and

20:34

then other people in the industry

20:37

were like, Oh my God, Alyssa, like

20:37

we need this for our firm and we keep

20:40

growing and we need new team members.

20:42

And so essentially I was like, I

20:42

remember when I got hired at a credit

20:45

union and they made me sit down and

20:45

they made me to go through all the

20:47

stuff and it helped me foundationally

20:47

without anybody having to train me.

20:50

And then by the time I went to get

20:50

hands on experience, then it was.

20:53

The hands on piece and

20:53

then I got to implement it.

20:55

And then you got the practice and the training. And so when we built Breakthrough, I

20:58

really wanted to make sure to touch on

21:02

inside of the empowered company culture

21:02

module where we talk about the hiring, the

21:05

finding, the onboarding, the maintaining

21:05

the team members and letting go.

21:08

I wanted to include this

21:08

internal training program.

21:11

So essentially we don't

21:11

build it for our students.

21:14

Because your firm, even just Holly here,

21:14

her firm is so different than mine.

21:17

Like we serve two different niches. Like we're e commerce and course creators.

21:21

Like it would be wildly different

21:21

if I try to put my team through

21:24

your internal training program,

21:24

you use different tech than I do.

21:27

And so essentially it doesn't have to be.

21:30

as crazy and a lot of time

21:30

that people think it does.

21:34

You don't have to even get

21:34

ready because it's internal.

21:36

You can literally not be wearing makeup. You don't have to like put,

21:38

put shirt, please put a shirt

21:40

on because HR reasons people. I was going to say you don't have to

21:43

put a shirt on, but you definitely do. but what I'm saying is you don't have

21:46

to be on camera if you don't want to.

21:49

All the concept of this is to get

21:49

things to be organized and consistent

21:53

because we've all made the mistake. Like you said, when you hired

21:55

your first contractor, you

21:57

brought them in and you just. they had a drink from a fire hose.

22:00

You want to zoom call being

22:00

like distracted all of a sudden

22:02

being like, Oh wait, and then there's loom and here it is. Oh, and then there's last pass.

22:05

Oh, and you're, you're popping back

22:05

and forth and it's not organized.

22:08

They're confused. They don't want to ask questions cause

22:09

they didn't want to interrupt you.

22:11

So that's what the whole point is. So if you're listening and that's

22:12

something that you're intrigued about,

22:14

then I really recommend just taking

22:14

a step back and saying like, how

22:18

can I create some sort of an agenda? And build onto it, make it

22:20

repeatable, make it really easy.

22:23

And then, like you said, as you

22:23

get feedback and as the company

22:25

adapts, you just update things. And for us, sometimes what we do, I don't

22:27

know if this is gonna be helpful for

22:30

you as you tweak your internal training

22:30

program is at the bottom, like inside

22:34

of wherever our videos are hosted to

22:34

explain that lesson of what they're

22:38

learning, we'll usually put at the

22:38

bottom, if something has changed, like.

22:41

In this video, we mentioned that

22:41

LastPass, it's here, but they

22:44

actually moved a couple of things. Yeah, so then you don't have to like,

22:45

re film until, I think our rule of

22:48

thumb is, when it's so much that someone

22:48

would get so confused that they cannot

22:52

complete the thing, then we go update.

22:55

It's like, same with, for our programs. Like, just because Asana changed a

22:56

couple of buttons, doesn't mean we're

22:58

going to go record a whole entire. You know, kick off with Asana,

23:00

which would be a beast on its own.

23:04

I do have to get ready

23:04

for that, unfortunately.

23:07

But yeah, so for anyone listening, like

23:07

it doesn't have to be super complicated

23:10

and like you said, you're getting

23:10

feedback from your team and you're

23:14

tweaking and you're knowing what's wrong

23:14

and you can figure out the gaps of what

23:18

they're not understanding to help them

23:18

when they get thrown into the fire and

23:22

start to actually do the client work. You know, and the order, it's

23:25

so funny that you were talking

23:28

about that, I hear that a lot. That's why in Breakthrough I wanted

23:30

to give like a generalized idea of

23:33

the first like two weeks of stuff. I know, I'm so grateful you did.

23:36

Because it really is, I seriously remember

23:36

going through this, at the time Alyssa

23:39

True Love used to work for me, and it was

23:39

at Workflow Queen, and I remember getting

23:42

on a call with her and we were talking

23:42

about like what order to put everything

23:45

in, and I was just like oh my god, we have

23:45

to teach Gmail before we can talk about.

23:50

Clockify because that's where they're going to get that. The thing, same thing that you said,

23:52

it was everything that went through

23:54

my mind, because how do you do it?

23:56

You don't just go straight to QBO

23:56

and say, this is how you do the work.

24:00

Exactly. Exactly. I know it's so, so convoluted.

24:06

Yeah. It's just like it all intertwines

24:07

because we're also so close to it that

24:10

we just can't step away and see it. So I'm glad that it's really working out.

24:13

So right now, can you repeat one more time? So you have three team

24:15

members or is it two? I have two.

24:18

So, one I onboarded as an employee

24:18

in January of last year of 2023.

24:25

And then one had been a contractor for

24:25

about a year, almost a year and a half.

24:31

Before I ended up onboarding her

24:31

as a full, you know, full part

24:35

time employee. I love it. And do you plan to hire any

24:37

more team members coming up?

24:39

Absolutely. Yeah. So hopefully, you know, right now,

24:41

the big focus is maternity leave.

24:45

So I'm not, planning on doing

24:45

anything crazy in the next

24:48

couple of months, but absolutely. I definitely have a vision for having

24:50

a larger team and having, you know,

24:55

more full time employees even, and

24:55

especially, you know, my desire is I'm

25:01

entering into a totally new life phase.

25:03

Right. And I. Would love to continue to be able to be

25:05

more hands off on my business and you

25:10

know, be there for my family and in a

25:10

way that I might, I definitely wouldn't

25:14

have been as a corporate employee.

25:18

And that, you know, it just offers

25:18

flexibility for me in a way that I just.

25:24

I'm so excited for you.

25:26

I can't wait to hear how

25:26

the maternity leave goes.

25:29

That's going to be one of my questions

25:29

for you actually is what's your plan?

25:32

Are you taking it fully

25:32

unplugged for maternity leave?

25:34

Or what's the time frame look like? Like, tell me the details.

25:37

So my goal is to take 30 days, 100

25:37

percent totally unplugged, and then

25:43

take three months altogether off

25:43

of any client facing activities.

25:48

So I'll still, give myself

25:48

opportunity after 30 days to, you

25:53

know, very, very slowly ramp back

25:53

into the internal operations.

25:57

And not put too much pressure on myself

25:57

or my team to get things really growing.

26:04

Oh my gosh, I love that. And so, 30 days fully unplugged,

26:05

that's already a feat on its own.

26:08

I know what it's like to have prepped

26:08

my very first 30 days off that I

26:11

ever took fully unplugged was back

26:11

in 2021 or 2020, I think it's 2021.

26:17

And man, it was like three months of prep.

26:20

And I can only imagine that you're

26:20

probably prepping Months in advance

26:23

because when do you go on maternity leave? So babies do april 10th.

26:27

Okay. So Yeah, whenever baby comes

26:30

You're like that's what the other thing is that is

26:31

that babies, you know, don't

26:35

always operate on my timeline. Yeah As much as

26:39

we love that. That'd be great. Yeah.

26:41

I just keep thinking like,

26:41

Oh, what if baby comes early?

26:43

What if baby comes early? So we've been, I've been in like hardcore

26:44

prep mode for quite some time now, but

26:49

you know what though? I had, do you have to say that the first

26:50

time you do it as the hardest after that,

26:53

because you're doing it again, you're

26:53

going to come back and you're going

26:55

to realize like, I actually don't need

26:55

that back on my plate because they've

26:59

been fine for the past 30 days doing

26:59

it without me or needing me to do it.

27:02

I remember the first 30 days I

27:02

took when I came back, I legit was

27:05

like, I actually don't want to do

27:05

this and I haven't missed doing it.

27:09

And I just didn't put it back on my plate. And so like, I can't wait to see how it

27:11

goes and fully unplugging and also your

27:15

team to kind of be uplifted because there

27:15

is power and then feeling and knowing that

27:20

you trust them enough to walk away for 30

27:22

days. Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

27:24

Absolutely. Even. Just yesterday. I was feeling super sick unexpectedly.

27:28

And so I had to unexpectedly take

27:28

the day off and You know, I feel like

27:34

there was a decent amount of things to

27:34

do But I was able to text my team and

27:40

be like, hey guys, I am NOT feeling

27:40

good today I have to take the day off.

27:45

And They were totally fine.

27:49

They got their stuff done and it feels

27:49

super good for me to know that they

27:53

have what they need to get their job

27:53

done, and they feel super good to be,

27:57

like, it brings them joy to be able to

27:57

support me when I'm not feeling very

28:01

good and they can give me the gift of

28:01

a day off when I need it, you know?

28:06

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. It's so funny that you say that

28:08

because yesterday, I woke up sassy.

28:11

Let's just say that that's how I woke up. I definitely woke up a little sassy.

28:16

And honestly, I went to the gym

28:16

the day before and I've been trying

28:18

to like get back in the rhythm. But man, they're like, you should

28:19

be happy after you work out.

28:22

I was so sore. I was not happy the next day.

28:26

And it was to the point where

28:26

like everything was miserable.

28:28

I even got mad at the bread that

28:28

I was trying to slice for like my

28:31

avocado toast in the morning, because

28:31

I'm like, I've been there thing

28:34

was going right in the whole day. So anyways, I got on one call with one

28:36

of my team members for my firm in the

28:40

morning and I immediately got on and

28:40

I said, I am not having a good day.

28:43

I'm just going to warn you, but I'm going

28:43

to get what we need done out of this

28:46

conversation that you needed support with. But I'm just letting you know, I'm

28:48

going to be done for the rest of the day

28:50

because nothing good comes from Alyssa,

28:50

who's the sassy version of herself.

28:54

Like it's just not good. And so. It was just a whole day.

28:58

Like my whole, I ended up getting in a car accident last night, which was really crazy.

29:01

I'm okay. The other person was okay, but they

29:01

swiped me on the back of my forerunner.

29:05

And I was not very happy about

29:05

that, but it is what it is.

29:07

The silver lining is I've been

29:07

wanting to replace that bumper

29:09

anyways, with an off roading one. So it actually was like, it couldn't

29:11

have hit the most perfect spot.

29:14

That sounds really bad. But anyways, so the reason I bring that

29:15

up is because when there's days like

29:18

that, it's so empowering to know that

29:18

like, everything's going to be fine.

29:22

The clients we had just signed on a new client. Was still sent all the onboarding stuff.

29:26

My cleanup people were

29:26

still doing the cleanups.

29:29

Like everybody was still

29:29

doing what they needed to do.

29:31

Granted, there was some like marketing

29:31

things that I wanted to get done,

29:34

but I'm like, nobody's going to die

29:34

if I don't get it done yesterday.

29:37

Oh, exactly. They don't need that in my

29:39

marketing, sassy me in marketing.

29:42

No, no. Yeah, that's true.

29:45

That's very true. You know, exactly.

29:48

My, my attitude too, is like, you know.

29:51

Yes, there were things that I meant to get

29:51

done yesterday, but you know, everything

29:57

that needed to get done, got done. I'll probably work a

29:59

little bit late today, but that's not a big deal.

30:02

I think it's fine. But your team loves it and

30:02

they're supporting you. And you probably do things as well

30:04

for your team to make them feel

30:08

supported, to want to support you. Because it's not just a one,

30:09

it's like a relationship. I think a lot of people think that

30:12

your team is just going to love

30:14

you and because you're the boss. It's like. they kind of have to like be

30:16

supportive because you are paying

30:18

them, but at the same time, like if

30:18

you just treat your team good, they

30:22

want to genuinely treat you good. Yeah.

30:24

Well, they have, they

30:24

have the same opportunity.

30:27

You know, we haven't, we haven't had any

30:27

maternity leave systems in place for,

30:31

you know, either my employees right now,

30:31

but you know, one of my employees often

30:36

lives the digital nomad life, and so she

30:36

travels a lot and, it works out really

30:42

great because she's a super reliable

30:42

employee and because of that I don't

30:47

really care if she, you know needs a day

30:47

off to travel or whatever and you know,

30:53

I know that she's super grateful for that

30:53

and Yeah, exactly what you're just saying.

30:58

it's so empowering for me to to be

30:58

able to offer that type of thing

31:03

that Would never be available to

31:03

either of them in the corporate

31:06

world, you know, yes. Yes. I love that.

31:09

And I like how you touched on,

31:09

it's not just about you too.

31:11

It's also about the team because that

31:11

was important for me too, was to build

31:14

the system that not just I was going to

31:14

be able to take a leave, but I've had,

31:18

you know, team members that have worked

31:18

for me that have had family really sick.

31:22

We've had dealt with

31:22

anxiety and depression days.

31:25

Like I've had team members

31:25

who just go travel across the

31:27

world for two weeks straight. And it's like, I didn't want the

31:29

opportunity only for me, but how can

31:32

we fit that opportunity in for them? And it's funny because if you can

31:33

teach yourself and learn how to do

31:38

this, leave that you're doing what

31:38

you are, you're learning from the

31:40

different resources and the different

31:40

ways that you can get support.

31:43

You can bleed that into your team. And so the beauty is whenever

31:45

like Mackenzie's a really great

31:47

example, she's the one who loves

31:47

to frolic across the world.

31:49

And she just loves that kind of stuff. And I want her to have unplugged time.

31:52

I don't want her to work. Just go for two weeks to, I think last

31:53

time she went to Santa land in like Norway

31:57

or something, a bunch of different places. Yeah, I was like, I want to know what

31:59

this place is, but like really cool stuff.

32:02

She loves to travel the world and like one

32:02

of her big things is going every national

32:06

park in the US, which is really cool. And I want to be supportive.

32:09

But it's funny when I know that

32:09

Mackenzie is going to be gone.

32:11

She initiates the Asana project.

32:13

She initiates the notion page. She gets it all set.

32:16

My team is trained to prepare themselves.

32:19

For leave and it's really cool

32:19

because by the time that they go to

32:22

leave, we didn't have to do anything. They got everything ready.

32:24

We just double check that it's all good to go. And then she's on her merry

32:26

way and we don't bother her. Oh, exactly.

32:30

Exactly. And I love, the way you said that too. It's like the vision isn't just

32:32

for me to be able to take time off.

32:36

Like the vision is also for my team to

32:36

be able to do that exact same thing.

32:40

And yeah, it's, it's really fun to

32:40

like be an employer who can offer

32:44

that, you know, and, and just like

32:44

you were saying, it means that.

32:47

there is definitely more of a team

32:47

feeling than like, Oh, I'm your superior.

32:52

And so you have to listen to me,

32:52

you know, and it's, it's much

32:56

more like we are supportive of one another.

32:58

Yes. I love that. I think you nailed it on that one.

33:01

So I wanted to talk through. A couple of different things that you

33:03

kind of brought up, because I know that

33:05

our listeners love logistics of things.

33:08

But one of the things that you brought up

33:08

was establishing a bonus plan with KPIs

33:12

for your team members coming into 2024. This is so funny because especially

33:15

during the end of the year, this

33:18

conversation was huge inside of

33:18

the Breakthrough community about.

33:22

Bonuses, what do I pay him out? Do I just give him a bonus for no reason?

33:25

Or do I actually like have a plan? And so I'd love to talk about the bonus

33:26

plan with the KPIs and what part of that

33:31

was like given to you and Breakthrough. And how did you kind of go about it?

33:34

What type of support did you get building it? I'll admit it's still

33:36

being built as we speak.

33:40

I've gotten the bonus

33:40

side figured out, I think.

33:43

And now it's just a matter

33:43

of narrowing down KPIs.

33:46

But I'm going to back

33:46

up from that and say.

33:48

I was super motivated to get a bonus plan,

33:48

a KPI driven bonus plan in place for this

33:56

year because that was one of the things

33:56

that drove me crazy in the corporate world

34:01

was that you could work your tail off and.

34:05

You would see no extra

34:05

reward because of it.

34:09

And in fact, the more diligent employees

34:09

ended up kind of getting screwed over

34:14

because you are, because you're more

34:14

reliable, you get assigned more projects

34:19

and the less reliable people just don't

34:19

get assigned those extra projects and

34:23

they just get to live their merry life.

34:26

and so it's so frustrating to me

34:26

to be part of that type of culture.

34:31

And so the idea of saying.

34:34

And if you go above and beyond, you

34:34

are getting monetarily rewarded for

34:39

that and commensurate with how far

34:39

above and beyond you go, you know,

34:44

and so, and of course you don't get,

34:44

penalized for just doing your job, but

34:48

we like to reward extra work, right?

34:51

and not make you feel like

34:51

you have to work extra just

34:53

for the same amount of money. So anyway, that said.

34:57

I absolutely started off by scouring

34:57

the Facebook group, and I'm sure that I

35:04

participated or worked in all of those

35:07

conversations. There was a lot, a lot of those

35:08

conversations at the end of last year.

35:12

Yes, and I was so grateful because that

35:12

was exactly what was on my mind as well.

35:17

And especially because, yeah, it was my

35:17

first, like, basically full year with an

35:20

employee and she just absolutely knocked

35:20

everything out of the park, but I didn't

35:24

have a KPI, you know, system in place.

35:28

So I, did give my employees

35:28

a bonus, but it was just kind

35:31

of, here's what I can afford. And here's what I think seems fair.

35:35

And it was totally arbitrary. So anyway, that's.

35:40

What makes me excited

35:40

about about this year.

35:42

I did all the analysis towards the

35:42

end of last year when I was planning

35:46

for 2024, but I think I ended up doing

35:46

similar to what you did, where based

35:53

on my projections for how the business,

35:53

you know, business profitability in

35:58

2024, I set aside a certain percentage

35:58

of that to be employee bonuses, I

36:03

then split that up farther between my

36:03

employees based on how many hours I

36:08

expect each of them to work or, like,

36:08

what their pay structure will be.

36:12

So yeah, so I've got, like, a nice little

36:12

grid of, like, if we hit this percentage,

36:17

you know, above and beyond our profit. And you hit, you know, these KPIs, then

36:20

you get paid out this amount of money.

36:25

they then have the opportunity to say,

36:25

okay, if I perform over and above in

36:29

this regard, and the business achieves

36:29

110 percent of its profitability goal,

36:33

then I get paid this amount of money.

36:35

So it's very clear for them, very clear

36:35

for me and still put some, Constraints

36:41

around, you know, like, if we don't do so

36:41

great, people aren't expecting a bonus.

36:46

Right? So, I loved it. Yeah, literally all of it's coming

36:48

from the Facebook group, so.

36:51

I know, it's crazy, like, because we have

36:51

lessons inside of Breakthrough on the

36:54

KPIs, we give the KPI spreadsheet, what

36:54

you should be tracking, all that stuff.

36:58

It's funny, I just need to get around

36:58

to actually creating a, like, an

37:00

official lesson on bonuses, but. It's worked really well for people

37:02

to go to coaching calls and pick

37:05

mine and Brooke's brain about

37:05

how we've structured the bonuses.

37:08

And then also the Facebook

37:08

community, like has been crazy

37:11

and just great conversations. I love it. I don't know if this is really

37:13

helpful for you if in any capacity,

37:15

but I know you're talking about the number of hours that they work, but we call them salary weights.

37:19

So, so based off of everyone's

37:19

salary weight, is there a percentage

37:23

of what they're going to get? With their their bucket.

37:25

So like there's 100 percent of

37:25

opportunity for X dollar amount.

37:28

100 percent of it can go towards bonuses. If you're paid X dollar amount and

37:30

you have a higher salary rate than

37:34

my other two employees, and maybe

37:34

you're at 60%, then they're 30 and

37:38

30 or whatever would equal up to 100. That's how we do it.

37:41

I don't know if that's helpful, but

37:41

that's been it works for us really well

37:44

for the bonuses of the pool itself. Yeah, yeah, I think that's I think

37:47

that's how I ended up structuring it.

37:50

Is that we've got the pool

37:50

and then just based on.

37:52

wherever their share is, you

37:52

know, their salary, then, then

37:56

that's how it gets split out. Yeah, exactly. Cause that's the way, and then like,

37:58

we go another level deeper after that.

38:01

So it's like, here's your full opportunity, your a hundred percent opportunity of what you can earn

38:03

if you're hitting your goals.

38:06

And the thing is, I know a lot of

38:06

listeners who are probably like, Well, I

38:09

have an account manager and I also have a

38:09

bookkeeper and I also have an assistant.

38:12

How is it fair? How am I going to track

38:13

all these different KPIs? Well, we put weight.

38:16

So if we, if you assign two to three KPIs

38:16

per team member per role then what you can

38:21

do is say like, if they're hitting like 40

38:21

percent to 60 percent would be their good,

38:25

better, best, like whatever that little,

38:25

you know, yeah, we teach that and break

38:28

through the good, better, best system. You essentially pick.

38:31

whatever that is. And no matter what they're doing,

38:32

as long as they're hitting their

38:34

percentages in those areas of those

38:34

three, it's like, are you hitting

38:38

all three of your four major KPIs?

38:41

And then that's how it's bonus. It's like the account manager

38:42

will bonus for different reasons

38:44

than what the assistant would. But everybody still gets opportunity

38:46

to bonus with the high, high level

38:49

weight, and then the low level weight. Exactly.

38:52

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love the bonuses.

38:55

Like I can just talk about that. But yes, I love that you set aside

38:56

a certain percent because I believe

38:59

ours is anywhere from 2 to 4 percent

38:59

of every dollar we make in the

39:02

company goes into a salary bonus pool.

39:04

But if we're doing like a very special

39:04

promotion, then it's like, I think 7%.

39:08

Like they have more opportunity

39:08

during like larger peak seasons.

39:11

Like right now we're doing it

39:11

in my firm for cleanup season

39:13

because it's peak season for us. So they actually get a set.

39:15

Now the increase of the pool goes into

39:15

7%, which is great because if they can

39:20

push us over some cleanup people and

39:20

they can bring us anybody over onto Our

39:23

level and there's other opportunities

39:23

bonuses for sending people to us

39:26

like as long as they're with us and

39:26

you're with us, you will always get a

39:28

bonus for the person you send to us. Yeah, yeah, that's all

39:30

I think I'm right now.

39:33

I'm also going to try to come up

39:33

with some KPIs for when I'm on leave.

39:37

And, you know, to, to be able to

39:37

have a light at the end of the tunnel

39:41

of like, you know, four to 12 weeks

39:41

of like me being quite hands off, I

39:47

think, I think the team could probably

39:47

use a little bit of extra, you

39:51

know, Push to not reach out. You know what a great KPI for that

39:53

would be, would be number of reach outs.

39:57

So your best, so you're,

39:57

I'm writing that down.

39:59

Yes. I love that. So your good, better, best would be

40:00

the best would be zero reach outs.

40:03

Like that's what you're aiming for. Maybe the bonus is like, if nobody

40:05

reaches out to you and then it has like.

40:09

The better would probably be

40:09

something like maybe twice or

40:12

three times, whatever's realistic

40:12

with what you can feel feels good.

40:15

And then good is like,

40:15

yeah, like, it's fine.

40:17

Like maybe it's five reach outs,

40:17

but anything after five reach

40:20

outs, like nobody gets the bonus. But at the same time, you also need to

40:21

have some sort of errors, tracking,

40:25

because if you find that there's zero

40:25

reach outs, and this is where lag lead

40:29

in lag metrics will come into play. If there's zero reach outs,

40:30

but a spike in errors.

40:34

Then it was the fear that people couldn't

40:34

reach out to you because they were scared

40:38

that they would not get their bonus, that

40:38

they were willing to risk the non quality.

40:43

So if you find that the quality decreases,

40:43

AKA errors increase, and the result was

40:49

zero reach outs, then we need to make

40:49

sure that they don't feel like they

40:52

can't reach out when it really is an

40:52

emergency to make sure it's accurate.

40:56

Yeah. Yeah. So I would layer that in

40:58

there. Yep. That's super good.

41:01

I love that. Well, I love that conversation. I just, I love KPIs and bonuses.

41:06

And then for you, I would just dive

41:06

into like the lesson around KPIs that

41:09

we have inside of Breakthrough, because

41:09

it will break down the different ones.

41:12

And then Brooke did a

41:12

guest expert session.

41:14

I don't know if you got the chance to look at it. She did one.

41:18

On KPIs, and she actually gave like all

41:18

the different additional ones that she

41:22

does outside of like what we do inside

41:22

of Breakthrough, and it's awesome.

41:26

Yeah, profitability. I will. Yeah, you will.

41:29

I know you will after this.

41:31

You're a silent lurker,

41:31

which you're just like me.

41:33

I am. I'm such a lurker. I definitely am a silent lurker.

41:38

I don't really attend calls. Like I won't really ask too

41:40

many questions, but I'll read them and I'll consume.

41:44

Yep. And actually you, when I, I had initially

41:44

reached out before I joined Breakthrough

41:49

and we had a conversation and you,

41:49

mentioned something about that, about

41:53

like, you kind of tend to just go at

41:53

your own pace, kind of do your own thing.

41:56

And I was like, that is 100 percent me. I almost felt like I

41:58

had permission to like.

42:01

Join and just kind of like do my

42:01

own thing, join and lurk, right?

42:04

Yeah. Yeah. No, but I totally agree. It's super valuable to me.

42:07

Yes. Well, thank you for saying that

42:07

because then that reminds me that sometimes we just need the permission

42:09

that like, it's okay if you are one

42:12

of those, I'm one of those people. I just not really a big

42:13

coaching call person.

42:16

Do I like actually hosting coaching calls? Well, I mean, like as the coach, I am

42:17

obsessed with it and I know the trend

42:21

of who typically will come to all

42:21

of our coaching calls just because.

42:24

I've been doing this for almost two years of Breakthrough. So yeah, I would definitely like get the

42:26

support and submit your KPIs for homework

42:31

because you know, inside of Breakthrough,

42:31

we get the homework reviews, submit it.

42:34

Cause I'm more than happy to

42:34

give you feedback on the KPIs

42:36

that you choose for the team. All right.

42:39

You can be looking for that in the next couple of weeks. I love that.

42:43

I love, love, love. So I know that we're

42:44

coming up to the end here. So I just wanted to kind of wrap up

42:46

a couple of things we talked today

42:49

about your internal training program,

42:49

just really how amazing it's been now

42:53

that you have all these different team

42:53

members, the bonus and KPI structure.

42:56

We kind of like nailed that part

42:56

down and had that conversation.

43:00

I can't wait to see what kind of

43:00

flourishes of the KPIs that you

43:02

choose and what you end up doing. but we also talked about like the

43:04

maintaining the sanity aspect of things.

43:07

But one last thing I kind of wanted to touch on. Was the client aspect where you said that

43:09

you guys did a reevaluation of all your

43:13

clients, let go of one of them, everyone

43:13

else agreed to the price increase.

43:17

And now your guys average

43:17

invoice value is a lot higher.

43:20

So I'd love to talk about what was

43:20

that process like having to one

43:24

face the fact that you have to let

43:24

go of someone to the risk of losing

43:27

clients with increasing your rates. Yeah, so part of this was motivated by

43:31

the fact that in 2022 and prior before

43:39

I'd hired on any help, you know, I.

43:43

Realized I was way undervalue my

43:43

work and I already at the end of 2022

43:50

knew I have to increase my prices.

43:53

And so what I did is I ended up

43:53

with any new clients that I brought

43:57

on my prices were increased. I, majorly increased my minimum.

44:02

And especially once I had

44:02

Employees that I needed to pay.

44:06

It definitely was a motivator

44:06

to make sure that I was.

44:09

adequately pricing. I had already a list of people

44:10

that I knew for a long time I

44:15

needed to increase their price. And I was just dragging my feet because

44:17

I was like, well, we've got this influx

44:20

of new clients that are paying more. So what's the big deal if I

44:22

just leave these other ones that

44:26

are not paying us very well? But anyway, I knew, I knew for a long

44:29

time I needed to, increase some prices.

44:33

And this one other client, That

44:33

ended up leaving, which, yeah,

44:36

it was a blessed subtraction. We were kind of glad that

44:38

it worked out that way.

44:41

it was one of my first clients. I was not servicing them in the way

44:43

that I was servicing other, clients.

44:46

You know, they were just kind of a

44:46

black sheep and not really interested in

44:49

changing the way that we worked with them. And you know, they were really,

44:51

really, really nice people, but just.

44:55

not the best fit anymore. And so yeah, it was one of those

44:56

things where I said, you know what?

45:00

Let's increase your price to this. If you're willing to pay

45:02

it, then we'll keep you on. And if not, then yeah,

45:05

sayonara of best of luck.

45:10

It worked out really well for them. And i have been so.

45:14

grateful now to not have it weighing

45:14

on me that we have these clients that

45:18

are way underpaying us just because

45:18

I haven't had that conversation where

45:22

the, other two that I had identified

45:22

that really needed to be increased.

45:27

They were more than happy

45:27

to pay the increase because.

45:30

For them, like we've delivered over and

45:30

above the value that they had been paying.

45:35

And they also had grown a bunch.

45:37

So it was one of those things

45:37

that I built up in my head for

45:41

way, like literally like a year. And once I finally did it, it really was.

45:45

Fairly painless. You'd be surprised how many people

45:48

like really want to pay you more, it's

45:51

just like they're busy business owners,

45:51

like they're not going to remember to

45:54

reach out and be like, Hey, we think

45:54

you deserve to be paid more at your

45:57

firm, like, and blah, blah, blah. It's just, they're way too busy.

45:59

That's why I always tell my team members,

45:59

you ask me when you're ready for a

46:02

raise, because I'm not thinking about it. Like, not that I don't

46:03

care about you guys. It's the fact that like, I am distracted

46:05

by the 50 million things that really want.

46:08

I have all these ideas are coming

46:08

into my brain all the time.

46:11

That's like the last thing I'm thinking

46:11

about and not because I don't care.

46:14

And it's like, thank God I have Asana

46:14

to remind me to like consider raises.

46:17

But like, I just tell them, just tell me,

46:17

cause I'm not going to remember, like, I'm

46:20

not going to remember to do these things. So I liked that one thing that you kind of

46:22

touched on there was how you priced then.

46:27

Is not how you needed to price now.

46:29

And I think that that's the big

46:29

misconception in this industry is

46:33

that a lot of us came from maybe

46:33

a bookkeeping program or from

46:36

the accounting space, wherever

46:36

anybody came from that helped you.

46:40

Some guru or some coach told you. You should price your clients at 100 a

46:42

month because it is just you and it's just

46:46

a side hustle and it's really only meant

46:46

to help you maybe pay a couple of bills

46:49

at home, but then all of a sudden you grow

46:49

bossed way too hard and now you've got

46:52

this big business that actually needs you

46:52

to fund it because you have more expenses.

46:56

You've got more team members. I see a lot of people in

46:57

this space that are trapped.

47:00

In this vicious cycle because they were

47:00

taught not from the beginning to consider

47:04

growth in mind because they're told you're

47:04

probably not going to hire anytime soon.

47:08

You don't need to worry about

47:08

that, but then you need to do a

47:10

significant jump and it's hard. And so one of the resources we added to

47:11

break through, I think almost around the

47:15

time that you had joined, we actually

47:15

implemented, I forgot the name of it

47:18

and I don't know if this is helpful. It sounds like you've kind

47:20

of got this figured out, but. Any of our Breakthrough students who are

47:22

listening, essentially, it's this resource

47:25

that says, how are you currently pricing?

47:27

And then like, how much time

47:27

and how much do you think you're

47:30

going to pay a team member? So that way people can dream up the

47:31

future team that they're going to have.

47:34

And it will literally spit out the

47:34

data to say, you need to increase

47:37

your rates by X dollar amount to

47:37

be able to afford that future team.

47:42

And that's been really helpful for

47:42

Breakthrough students who are like,

47:45

I don't even know if I can afford it. I don't even know what to

47:47

price if I want this team. And that calculation is

47:49

not very straightforward.

47:52

Oh, absolutely. But the thing that has really motivated me

47:53

honestly has been we've brought on so many

47:59

new clients in 2023 that I have realized

47:59

that the quality of work that we do.

48:05

It far exceeds the quality of work that

48:05

a lot of other people do out there.

48:11

And so, so I was like, man, I feel

48:11

so justified and charging more

48:17

and the fact that, like, we've

48:17

literally we've had people who.

48:22

Had said no to a proposal before, because

48:22

we were, you know, we came in higher than,

48:28

you know, any somebody else that they

48:28

talk to they go with that other person.

48:32

And it's happened 2 or 3 times where

48:32

some that person has now come back

48:35

to us and said, hey, it did not

48:35

work out with that other person.

48:39

I would feel so much more comfortable

48:39

going with you guys and even though I know

48:44

that now that it's been almost a year. It's going to probably

48:46

be even more for me. I know.

48:49

It's so crazy. Yeah, there's a lot of people.

48:52

It's so funny that we're the same

48:52

because I, I do price very high.

48:55

I mean, our base rate is barely

48:55

400 for just basic businesses.

48:59

If they are course creators, like

48:59

in the service provider space, if

49:02

they're e commerce, it's no less

49:02

than 600 because it's more calm and

49:05

that's just like the baseline and then

49:05

everything else, most of our clients.

49:09

Price at our baseline because

49:09

they have more than one account.

49:12

They might follow profit first. They have all these different layers

49:13

and stuff, different seller platforms.

49:16

And I also have gotten like where people

49:16

have gotten on intake forms and been like,

49:20

this is way too out of like price range,

49:20

or this is just going to be too much.

49:24

And a lot of people who are listening,

49:24

I'd be like, Oh, they're not my people.

49:28

I beg to differ. Get on the call anyways because

49:28

sometimes you don't understand

49:31

the value of what you actually do. And I, I can't tell you how

49:33

many times someone's gone on and

49:35

been like, yeah, I really only

49:35

want to budget about 75 a month.

49:38

And then we get on a call and I

49:38

have to explain that like, this

49:40

is our baseline and how many times

49:40

we've actually converted them into

49:43

like paying clients that are like. 500 plus to work with

49:45

us on a monthly basis.

49:48

It was because of how much we had

49:48

explained to them that like, we're

49:51

not going to leave you in the dust. You're not going to have reporting

49:52

that you don't understand. You're going to hear from us.

49:55

Like we're going to, you know, put

49:55

together and compile a list throughout

49:58

the year that you give to your taxpayer

49:58

of things that need to be flagged.

50:00

Like we take all that off your plate. And I think that that's where.

50:04

I wish more people really

50:04

understood that concept.

50:06

I feel like me and you have a lot of,

50:06

we have a lot of shared values in that

50:09

way where if you just sit down and

50:09

show someone like this is really what

50:13

value you're getting for this amount,

50:13

you can change someone's mind about

50:16

the pricing without resentment on

50:16

their end or even on your end as well.

50:20

Absolutely. One of our core values is approachability.

50:24

We want to be approachable to our clients.

50:26

And one person in particular who has

50:26

now come back to us said that part

50:32

of the main reason that she did is

50:32

because every time she talked to the

50:36

other bookkeeper, they made her feel

50:36

stupid or she just felt like she can ask

50:40

questions because she was afraid that

50:40

she, you know, that it was something

50:44

that she should have already known. And the feedback that I got immediately

50:46

from her, like reaching back out almost

50:52

a year later, she was like, man, I

50:52

forgot how nice it is to talk to you.

50:57

And even just that basic like client

50:57

mindedness, I feel like people are willing

51:04

to pay a premium for, because that is

51:04

not what our industry is known for.

51:07

It's not known for approachability. And so when people encounter.

51:12

financial professionals

51:12

who are approachable.

51:14

They're like, I want to work with you

51:14

and I'm willing to pay a premium to not

51:18

feel stupid every time I talk to you. Right.

51:20

Yeah. Especially like women too in this space.

51:23

I mean, this is nothing to any of my

51:23

male listeners, but a lot of women feel

51:27

very mansplained too, for a lot of the

51:27

firms that they've worked with that

51:31

are old school, you know old suit and

51:31

tie type scenario that they do feel.

51:37

down talked, they're using big words. And so that's a big thing.

51:39

We're so similar in so many different ways. Cause that's one of my big values

51:41

too, is like one approachability and

51:44

making sure that they understand that

51:44

like, we're going to use analogies.

51:47

We're going to explain things

51:47

in ways that make sense to you.

51:50

Because if it doesn't like,

51:50

there's no point me using

51:52

big words, isn't impressive. It actually just makes

51:54

them feel more dumb.

51:56

And the more that I want from them

51:56

is that they feel smart and that they

51:59

feel empowered and that they feel like

51:59

they know what's happening and not.

52:02

You know, just throwing things and

52:02

hoping that it sticks for them.

52:05

So I really, really enjoy that

52:05

you're taking that approach too.

52:08

Cause that's one of the big compliments

52:08

that we get is that we do break

52:11

down things in ways that like are

52:11

kind of like for third graders.

52:14

And that's really how you should,

52:14

you're marketing legitimately, like

52:16

good marketing professionals will tell

52:16

you, you need to break things down.

52:19

Like as if you're talking

52:19

to a third grader, because.

52:22

People sometimes don't

52:22

understand what you're saying.

52:24

Like, this is our industry. We get it every day. We know what a debit credit is.

52:27

When they hear credit, they think they're credit card. When they hear debit, they

52:29

think they're debit card. They don't know that that actually

52:31

means an increase or a decrease or

52:33

whatever these things are, right? Oh my gosh, I love this.

52:36

I think we've got so many notes. So we're here at the very end, but one

52:37

of the last questions I like to ask my

52:40

Breakthrough students is what is something

52:40

that you want to say to someone who might

52:44

be on the fence of joining Breakthrough? What would you leave with today?

52:48

Letting them know Do it. It's, it's so lame, but honestly,

52:49

like I said, I don't, I did not

52:57

realize the full value of what

52:57

I would be getting out of it.

53:01

Like I said, to be totally honest, I was

53:01

kind of in it for the notion template.

53:06

And I was just so blown away with the.

53:10

It's just such a great, incredible

53:10

value that I received such that

53:14

my business would not be where

53:14

it is today without Breakthrough.

53:17

Seriously, not that I'd be doing bad,

53:17

but it's certainly I certainly would not

53:23

have been able to maintain my sanity. I certainly would not have been able

53:24

to experience and realize the growth

53:28

that we have in the second half of 2023.

53:31

I love that. Well, thank you so much. You definitely have worked hard.

53:34

I always tell people, y'all

53:34

can figure it out on your own.

53:37

You 100 percent can. You all are smart enough

53:38

to make it happen. It's just sometimes having the fast

53:40

track and the support is really what's

53:44

going to get you there faster and

53:44

get ready for maternity leave and

53:47

get ready for vacations and time off. So I'm very grateful.

53:51

I'm so happy that you, you

53:51

silently posted on the thing.

53:54

I'm like, Holly's just been like

53:54

kicking ass and taking names.

53:57

And I didn't even realize. So thank you for today

54:01

and for sharing your wins.

54:03

I'm sure that you're inspiring a

54:03

lot of people to just really take

54:06

their business to the next level

54:06

and just really implement the

54:10

things that we talked about today. So for anyone who's listening, if you

54:11

want to check out Breakthrough, I'll put

54:14

a link in the chat below this episode.

54:16

And also if you want, if you want to

54:16

talk through if Breakthrough is the

54:19

right fit for you, especially right now. I will also put a link for you

54:21

to do a free 15 minute consult.

54:24

I am not afraid to tell you you're not ready. The last thing I want is for

54:26

anybody to spend money on something

54:28

that they're not gonna use. I want it to be implementable

54:29

and for there to be success.

54:32

So where can people reach out

54:32

to you, get to know you if maybe

54:36

a designer's listening to this

54:36

episode and get into your world?

54:39

Yeah, so our website is

54:39

www.happybookssolutions.com.

54:44

My email, uh, people are more

54:44

than welcome to email me,

54:47

holly@happybookssolutions.com. I'm also on Instagram at.

54:50

Happy. books. solutions I'm a little less

54:52

active on Instagram personally.

54:55

I outsource my social media. Yeah.

54:58

Same, same. I'm not on there very often.

55:01

They're doing all the posting. Well, thank you so much, Holly.

55:03

I appreciate you being here today and

55:03

just sharing everything that you've done.

55:07

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me Alyssa.