July 29, 2025 • 36 mins
Military spouse unemployment is 21%, which is 5 times the national average, often because employers don't want to hire people like Michelle Penczak who move every 3-4 years. So Michelle started a virtual assistant company called Squared Away where location wouldn't be an issue. And it's skyrocketed to employing 400 military spouses who serve 1,000 clients!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks,
and we continue now with part two of our conversation
with Michelle Penzac, right after these brief messages from our
general sponsors. So tell me what that first year looks like.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Insanity?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well, well, I was going to get to that in
a second, but I mean, that's funny you say insanity
because pretty much the last six years of her life
feel like it was just evolving insanity at all times.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Oh yeah, pretty much. I think that is the theme
of my life this point is just chaos.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
First year, he says, you got to get a name, right.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, right, like you gotta name this thing. Robert Stevens,
who was actually his co founder, Shane's co founder with
his company, and he was just an absolutely branding genius.
He said, you got to talk to Robert. So get
on a call with Robert, and Robert's like, do you
like one? I said, I love wine, and he goes, well,
(01:16):
you need to take the pressure off, sit down with
a good glass of wine and just start running the
ideas through your head and thinking of different phrasing. So
I was like, Okay, I'm going to do it. And
I sat down with a glass of Miomi shout out
to that company. And I started thinking, okay, military phrases,
(01:37):
military phrases. And Sean had actually come in the house
and was on the phone and he goes, you gotta
get this squared away, and you gotta get this squared away,
and you gotta get this squared away. And I was like, amazing, amazing,
and so yeah, he likes to take the credit for
that one. But it clicked instantly, like this is it
(02:00):
getting things squared away?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So you named it squared away, which makes sense, a
virtual assistant getting everything squared away. What's first your life?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Shane kept telling me, you can't do everything yourself. So
you've always been delegated too. Now you have to become
the delegateur. So brought on my first teammate in July,
so three months after July of twenty seventeen, seventeen, and
then gradually started adding a few more people. And it
(02:37):
was a different mindset, like I'm used to being the doer,
not the delegator, So reframing how I was operating was huge,
but then also documenting all of our processes from day
one and just saying we're going to do this again,
we have to make sure it's documented. How are we
going to train people, how are we going to bring
people on, how are we going to get clients? We
(02:59):
were kind of.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Michelle, that's exactly how a business owner asks.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
But I never want to be a CEO and I
never I'm the person who got a c an econ
in college like this was not on my Bengo card
for my life was being a CEO ever. So it
was just figuring it out and thinking what's going to
break next, what do we fix next, what do we
get ahead of now before it becomes an issue?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And how many clients did you have after the first year?
I went from the original seven.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
We went from seven. I don't remember how many we
had after the first year, but we hit sixty seven
employees in twenty nineteen sixty seven. I will never it
was right before COVID. It was also right before Halloween.
And with his sixty seven employees.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
How many of those sixty seven military spouses?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
All of them at that point in time, they were
all military.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Spouses from bases and just why you are everywhere everywhere?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
We had people in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Texas,
Washington State, California, Like, how are.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
You finding them or were they finding you?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
They were finding us. I think we've only actually put
out a handful of times that we needed assistance, but
it was all word of mouth through the military spouse
community and Facebook pages because those are beehives in and
of themselves, So I got it completely organically.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
I got to believe you were talking to countless spouses
who repeated to you the very feelings that you felt
when you were first in jackson Oh.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, Bill Jackson, Jacksonville. Yeah. Are Everybody's stories are so
similar with different variations. We've we've all struggled with becoming
a mom and losing ourselves, which being a military spouse,
which is depressed, which is super depressing. And I have
(05:10):
countless emails and messages from people who worked with Sweared
Away over the past eight years and just said thank
you for being a part of my journey because you
gave me myself back. That theme has been everything that
we've wanted.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
So even if your company was breaking, even it wasn't
even making money.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
So worth it, so so worth it. But we're still
completely bootstrapped eight years later, and it's amazing to be
able to say you know we've paid out over thirty
million dollars to military spouses and military families over the
last eight years. How much over over thirty million at
(05:51):
this point, and.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Salaries in salaries and income to military spouses, Yes, and I.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Wish I had an exact number, but I know it's
over thirty million.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
How many clients stay up today?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
We have about a thousand.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
A thousand clients. How many people do you employ?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
About four hundred right now?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yes, how many of those are military spouses?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I would say about ninety five percent of our team
is military spouses and we are almost one female at
this point.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Holy crap, you're a nanny.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I question.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Do you pinch yourself?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
It's hard to believe almost every single day, Like I
look back on my swar and I'm like, I'm crazy.
I gotta screw loose somewhere, Like nobody just pointed it
out to me exactly. But the impact that we've had,
the people that we've been able to interact with. I
I just started a podcast about a month ago, Oh good,
(07:03):
And it's telling the stories of our military spouses that
have worked with Squared Away. What's it called Beyond Orders?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Of course? Beyond Orders that's awesome. So everybody needs to
tune into Beyond Orders and so each one of your
episodes are the stories of military spouses that are in
your organization.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Or they've worked with us previously. We just we did
one last week with Tiffany McCauley and her story is
just absolutely powerful. She started in a very similar situation,
but she came to Squared Away with desperation because she
was trying to find herself after losing two of her
five children in a tragic accident in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
So what's her husband deployed when that happened.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
They were in the middle of a PCs that happen,
They were getting ready to move from North Carolina to
South Carolina and she lost two child lost two children.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yes, wow, And now she's an employee squared Away.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
And now I believe her title is business manager. But
her client actually bought out her contract with Squared Away
and brought her own full time with their company.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Okay, it's just unbelievable that we went from where we
went to in warp speed to where you are now.
But let me get this right, you.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Employee, how many about four hundred.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Four hundred military spouses you're the CEO of a company
with a thousand clients, all from the bathroom, from the
bathroom toilet, all from this. How does that have it?
(08:45):
Assuming from a toilet?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I need that on a T shirt. All from the toilet.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That is hilarious. So where are you guys? Now?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
We are.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
No, where are you? I mean he's still Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
He's still he's still active duty. He's actually back in
North Carolina and he's deploying in a few months. So
where are you North Carolina or Wilmington?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Wilmington and where's he going? Ah?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Good question.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
You don't even know.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I'm not exactly sure, but he's going to deploy that
he's deploying this fall. Yeah, so it'll be number six.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
For US sixth deployment. Do you still have the same
drug or are you getting more used to it?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, it's it's the same. I have a rule and
my the very first CEO's wife and our very first
squadron with our very first deployment told me that in
order to function, you need to give yourself one day
to be sad after he leaves, and then you pull
your pants up and you go on with life, because
(09:56):
you have to do that for you, and you have
to do that for your kids in the future. So
me and the boys know that the day after he leaves,
that's our day to be sad. Eat ice cream, watch TV,
plany on tablets whatever, that's our sad.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Way, we allow ourselves twenty four hours of pout.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
And then exactly and then we put on our big
kid pants and we do what we do every single day.
And our world is going to keep spending regardless of
whether or not he's here. So that's what we've done
for the last four all of three deployments.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Once again, that's a hell of a piece of dedication, commitment,
not only to your husband but to your country. I
find that rought with courage, to be.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Honest with you, it doesn't feel very courageous sometimes. It
feels very much like survival mode and putting on a
strong face for my kids and you know is carrying on.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
We'll be right back. But I got to believe these
four hundred employees of yours are all experiencing the same
thing at some point or another. Oh yeah, And so
(11:27):
not only have you created a business to make money
on a living and all of these wonderful things, but
you're also helping each of these military spouses find themselves
after that day of power.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Oh yeah, they have something to look forward to. They
have clients that they enjoy working with and depend on them,
that depend on them for growing their businesses and keeping
their lives straight. And I always tell people, you don't
have to be a square away forever. We can just
be a chapter in your book. We can help you
get to where you want to be. And a lot
(12:05):
of people or a lot of companies, don't necessarily celebrate
when someone leaves, but we do because we know that
they're moving on from us for a better opportunity, one
that we can't necessarily provide to them, but we're happy
to have introduce them to something new.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
So at the top of the show, I said, we
talk about a lot of ways to be a part
of the army of normal folks. And on some occasions
we find for profit organizations that also have a specific
social mission that gets accomplished just in the mechanics of
the business. And I can't decide whether or not I'm
(12:47):
more inspired by the fact that you have a thousand
customers and four hundred employees from your meager beginnings in
only six years from a purely business perspective, or if
I'm more inspired by the fact that you can feel
(13:09):
in a very real, empathetic personal way what each of
your employees have gone through in their life and how
important this job is to them, not just from a
financial perspective so they can make a living, but for
their psyche yeah, and the service you're providing to them.
And so my question is to you what inspires you
(13:33):
both about your own story.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
I don't know if there's one particular piece, but I
feel like my just drive to take care of people
has kind of been what's guided me through the entire journey.
It's insane as it is. I like taking care of clients,
(14:01):
I like taking care of friends and eildren, my husband,
my kids are my absolute number one, and I want
to be able to instill values in them that are
taking care of people. My husband has said from the
very beginning his job as a marine is to take
care of his marines. My job is to take care
(14:24):
of my family, take care of my teammates, take care
of my clients, and I think my boys being able
to see it hasn't been easy. It has been a struggle,
but at the end of the day, it's your job
to take care of people. Always. I think that's been
the biggest pieces, that's been our motto as a family.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I say, I speak, I do a lot of speeches,
and one of the points I make in almost every
speech that I think the greatest leaders of our time
we're servants. Think of Martin Luther King, think of God.
If you're a Christian, think of Christ. Yes, the greatest
leaders of our time served in order to lead. Christ
(15:07):
surrounded himself with stinky fishermen and hookers and wash their feet.
King could have sat in Atlanta and told the freedom
marcher's good luck, but he got in front of him
and paid with his life. In my very city right here,
think of Mendela and Gandhi and all of the greatest
(15:28):
I mean, Mother Teresa, you think of the greatest leaders
that we celebrate in herald across the vastness of humanity.
The one common denominator all of this service is the
greatest leader of our time served. And I think it's
very interesting to hear you say in my business, in
(15:50):
my family, in my culture, the things that I just
want to take care of people, which is served.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yes, that's always been our north star for everything.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Which ultimately is what an army of normal folks is about.
It's just seeing an area of need and filling it
with your willingness to serve. And that our entire society
culture could improve exponentially if we just had an army
of normal folks seeing areas of need and.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Filling them exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And that's what your company does for its clients. But
that's also what your company does for its employees, which
is phenomenally squared away. So tell me what squared Away does.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Everything but taxes, everything but taxes.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah, something to expand to possibly.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
I'm not trying to get anybody al caponed or be
al caponed myself, so we stay away from taxes.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
You don't want anybody showing up with a RICO warrant.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah, No, I'm not trying to get arrested by the
IRS or something like that. But anything that our clients need,
anything that they can pull out of thin air, social media,
social media, absolutely, website, devine, website design, virtual assistant, virtual assistant,
wedding planning, wedding plan I'm not even kidding. We had it.
(17:15):
We've done client wedding planning, finding a name I wish
I wish. Okay, that'd be fun. The most random task,
coordinating a move, coordinating off sites for clients, doing due
diligence for venture capitalists, helping with a fundraising.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
We have due diligence for wow.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
So yeah, helping with that and oh.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
No no, no, that's that's that would that's beyond what
I would have fathomed. So ru venture capitalists who are
looking to invest money and buy businesses, you will do
the due diligence for them. Yeah, we have the perspective purchasing. Yes,
who does that?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Oh, we have quite a few assistants that I actually
started doing that when I was working on with venture capitalists.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Is I mean, that's not an answer in the phone.
That's real.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
No, that's real, getting in the weeds and trying to understand,
you know, if this company is worth an investment, and
on the flip side of that.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You can do that for them. Yeah, and they trust
you to do that.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
What kind of people are you hiring? Then you're not
just hiring folks that don't have anything to do. You've
got some talented folks.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
We have some immensely talented assistance. People who have master's
degrees can't get jobs. They can't get hired, but they
can do due diligence for v season PE companies. Make
it make sense? Right?
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, I think you did make sense, and I also
think you're sticking your thumb and na of a lot
of people have probably passed on a lot of really
talented health of folks that could have been to their businesses.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
And that's kind of my mission is to reframe the
mindsets of businesses and show them, don't tell them, let's
squared away. These are the talents that are out there.
You just need to jump off the cliff and trust
that we're gonna set you up for success.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And we've talked about a lot anecdotally, but can you
share some of the stats Michelle of like the unemployment
rate for military spouses, how many are unemployed to day?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yeah, military spouse unemployment is twenty one percent, which.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Is national unemployments what four or five five, So it's
four or five times worse among military spouses than the
general public. Absolutely that that is sinful, that our society
is not supporting the very people we should Supportevable.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Oh, it gets better because it dropped from twenty eight percent,
which is what it was pre COVID. During COVID it
was thirty four unemployment, which a third, which is higher
than what the national unemployment rate was during the Great Depression.
Just to put it in perspective.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Let's also for everybody. Sorry, we're going back to my econdoy.
What I'm doing is the definition of unemployment are the
numbers of people who do not have a job who
are actively seeking a job. A lot of people think
unemployment is just the number of people who don't have jobs.
That is not true. The true unemployment rate in our
(20:37):
country is much higher than four or five percent because
there's a lot of people that aren't seeking a job.
The unemployment rate is the number of people who are
unemployed that are seeking a job, and that number hovers
between two and a half and five percent historically in
our country, but right now it's round four. So when
(20:58):
you're saying that it's thirty percent among military spouses, these
are not military spouses that don't have jobs, because there
are military spouses that have three kids that are perfectly
happy and don't want to work. Right we're talking about military.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Spouses actively seeking employment.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Who want a job. Only only two thirds of them
can get a job, and these are the same people
who you have hired that can now go to work
for venture capitalists and do due diligence on whether or
not they're going to spend millions of dollars on a company. Yep,
Let that sink in for a minute. How much talent
is out there that is.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Just there's I mean, there's over three hundred thousand military spouses.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Do the math like, and you pully four hundred as
big of a deal as your deal is, it's.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Still scratching the surface exactly because and we work with
some global companies that are clients right now. But I
think it's reframing the business mindset of larger companies out
there and saying, hey, if you do it, others will follow.
Try this. If it doesn't work, pivot a little bit.
We can help you tweak it. But I would love
(22:10):
to see companies adopt different processes for employing military spouses
so that we can get out of the nineteen fifties mindset.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
We'll be right back. I love this metaphor picture of
squared away. Every square has a point, so your four points.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Are extreme attention to detail goes without saying the ability
to think outside the box over communication and being a
team player.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
You need to watch out. You're starting to talk like
a CEO. Don't watch yourself, girl, you don't sound like
an osprey palette spouse with two kids at a house.
You're starting to sound like a CEO. Maybe you have
found yourself, Michelle, what do you think?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I mean, this accent ain't going nowhere. So I mean,
I think talking about our people and talking about how
big of an impact it has, I mean, I guess
I have found my sea legs.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
So I looked up your website. You've been featured on
CNBC Wall Street Journal, seeing in a bunch of other
people have told your story, and the headlines always read
military spouse can't find jobs, so she starts start her
own company, and she's now the ship or whatever. It's
(23:47):
not what the headline says, but it's basically, can you
believe that your story is being told by MSNBC and
Wall Street Journal? I mean, can you sit there and
leave that the girl, the young lady who was a
nanny twelve years ago is now.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
This I think it. It really hit home when we
did feature in CBS Evening News and a cameraman came
to my house and my oldest son was there and
he's asking him like why are you here and what's
that camera do? And he goes, I'm here to feel
(24:31):
in your mommy and sorry goes, oh well, she just
works on the computer. And I was like interesting. And
then it came out on CBS and it just really
hit because I was getting people coming to me after
(24:52):
that saying, oh my gosh, we needed this. We needed
this as a community. We needed this with the military
and having something to look forward to and thank you
for not quitting on me or not quitting on us
as a community. And those stories are so impactful and
(25:13):
I take them with me every single day every time
I have a hard day. As CEO could, trust me,
it's not easy. And when I get in my feelings,
I'll read through the folder of emails and then I'm like,
this is my why, this is my why, and go
back to the drawing.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Old Sawyer, he's nine. Will he listen to this? Oh yeah,
oh yeah, Sawyer. My name is Bill Courtney and I'm
the host of this show. And I've been a football
coach and my dad left home when I was four.
My mom was married and divorced five times. And you
can look up my story one day if you want to.
(25:54):
But I will tell you Revere your mom. She has
a bad app and does far more than we'll get.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I'm gonna have that one like repeat. So then when
he's being sassy, I can just be like, and what
did he tell you?
Speaker 1 (26:14):
No?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I think him seeing a lot of the challenges over
the years. I hope he has a good appreciation for Oh,
he will taking.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Care of down the road. Okay, so what's next? I mean,
you're now employee four hundred people. You got a two
hundred that's a twenty million dollar business? Uh in twenty
twenty three. I mean, I can't believe I'm saying this
about it. Twenty twenty three, you were a number two
hundred and ninety seven on this year's ink, five thousand lost.
(26:47):
Come on, dude, I'm blowing and you're only seven years old.
You're still a baby business.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I wish these wrinkles the other wise.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I understand, But you are. I mean, you're crazy, You're
not even you hadn't even hit your apex my opinion,
I don't know if you've heard of Bill.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
She's only thirty eight years old.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I'm older than Alex.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Oh well, that's it.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
How tall are you?
Speaker 1 (27:08):
She's a lot more accomplished. How tall are you?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Five? Two in a quarter?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah? In a quarter? Yeah, yeah, just I could. I
haven't stood next to you, but I can tell you're
not tall, and I just you know, fitting fitting into
the the thing that are amazing things oftentimes come in
small packages. So yeah you can kind So really, what
(27:33):
is next? I mean, what what's next? What what's next?
For the How many do you do you have a
goal of how many spouses you an employer? Or what's
I mean, what what's you've got to have? Two? Three?
You're way too organized not to have a one, three
and five year plan? Tell me what's next?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Keep going? Honestly, there's so many spouses out there. There's
people that have never heard of us.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
There's I I've never heard of you before this, and.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
We got to get better with our storytelling. But just
letting people know that we exist is our biggest struggle
and has been our biggest struggle. So getting better with
our storytelling, teaching people and teaching client potential clients and
companies that hey, we're a good resource, please look into us.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Have you thought about other stuff you can do? Like
other things you can offer other clients.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yeah. One of my passion projects that I haven't I'm
still in the weeds of figuring out, is teaching clients
how to delegate. There's a lot of people out there
who don't know how to delegate and delegate.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Effective virtual consulting. Really, yes, Now that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
I've done it for a handful of clients and they're like, oh,
you should probably start consulting, And I'm like, I just
told you and taught you what to do. I mean,
it makes sense, and I really enjoy helping people in
that capacity. And just so the first thing I got
to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
First three things you need are a cell phone, a laptop,
and a bathroom.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
You know what, I'm off it. I got it.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
You get that, Been there, done that, y'all. Here's the
other thing that's very cool. You can email Michelle at
Michelle at gosquaredaway dot com and she'll respond to you,
which is so cool because she has not lost the
sense of the facts that she's just a normal person
(29:30):
who extraordinary things have happened for And I think go
squared away dot com is the website, yes, and you
can find all about all of the different things she
could do for your business if you need it, or
I assume if your military spouse happened to be listening,
that would be a good place to find out how
maybe to find employment.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Absolutely our applications on our website. You can deep dive
and you need more people always always what.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
What kind of military spouse expect to make? How does
the pay work? And how do the hours work? Because
you know, I can't help my find myself wondering can
this be part time employment? Is this full time employment?
Do you work towards military spouses with children's schedules so
(30:21):
they can take on what they can take on and
can't take on? As it hourly is a salary? You
know what I'm saying? How's it work?
Speaker 2 (30:27):
So you can work as little or as much as
you want. So we have a hybrid model. Our managers
and our internal directors and c suite is they're all employees,
but most of our assistants are independent contractors, so they
kind of pick and choose what works best for them.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Are they paid hourly.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Based on a block of hours? So for instance, if
a client comes in for a fifteen hour plan and
an assistant says, I only want one fifteen hour client
that client.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Does that mean fifteen hour weekly a month a month?
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Okay, so they'll get a percentage of what the client
pays on a fifteen hour plan.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Oh really, so they're paid. There's a fly, there's a fly,
So they're basically they eat what they kill. Yeah, that's
really a neat way to do it. And so it's
not an hourly thing. It's a percentage of the contract.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Right, and it averages out to around twenty two and
twenty five dollars an hour roughly.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
So if somebody works full time for you, they can
make thirty five forty thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Oh easy, if not more, we have assistance who are
making sixty seventy eighty thousand based on client contracts.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Do you have insurance? No kidding, and.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
We are fully legal.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
And so here's another Do you have But you don't
have an office? Everybody's home is their office, so you
don't have the overhead of the fixed capital stuff sitting there, right,
so you are able to invest in your clients and
your people. That's where all the money goes.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Absolutely yep.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
That is in our guess systems.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
We incentivize our team to do their best work. A
lot of companies out there who work on a similar
model are like, Okay, well we're going to pay you
a percentage of the contract, but if the client doesn't
use you, you still get it anyway, which sounds shady
as a shady business practice, But we are the pains
(32:35):
in the butt to our clients because we're like, you're
paying for fifteen hours. I'm going to poke you in
the butt until you use all of those fifteen hours,
or I'm going to make suggestions for you to delegate
to me, and I'm going to pull things out of
you slowly over time. So we want them to use us.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
That is so cool, That is amazing. So anybody need
virtual work, It's go squared Away is not only going
to do good work, but by using them, you can
support some folks that need support, that deserve our sport.
And if you're a military spouse or I guess anyone
else that has these stalins.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Yes, we have to be legal and say that we
support everyone, and we do. We have about five percent
of our team who are not military spouses.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
That is phenomenal. Your story is awesome and your business
is awesome, and I can't wait I mean you're thirty eight.
Is that that what you said? Ali, he's putting your
business on the street, by the way, telling your age.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
You know what, It's fine, it's fine, I fully admit
to be sure.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Can you see yourself doing this even after he comes
home and yeah, this is your thing, this is this.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Is my jam, these are my people.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
I would do it forever.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
One of other thought, Bill is, now it's either the
way to people get activated you mentioned right if you're
a company, or the unemployment side. But also too, it
kind of reminds me of the Cornbread Hustle story.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
It reminds me a lot of share Garc.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
I don't know if you've heard of Sherry Michelle, but
she started a second chance staffing agency so those returning
from prison, oh wow, you know, the same kind of
problems that people are not wanting to hire them. And
she employs over a thousand people.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
And her name is Cornbread Hustle.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Cornbread Hustle, Yeah, actually has a very similar kind of
second chance staffing you know thing here in Memphis.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
So just for people to think about, right, there's other
employment challenges out there in the universe. You've created one
to solve this problem, but people also might see other
employment challenges in their community.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Both are for profit businesses, but have have managed to
blend a for profit business with a societal mission fit
need like you have. And it's important that we tell
these stories because we talk about a lot of nonprofits
and a lot of people who do amazing things in
(35:00):
a nonprofit world. But we can be part of an
army and normal folks. We can be servant leaders. We
can exact positive measure of change in our communities in
all aspects of our life, and both the nonprofit and
poor prophet and our families inside everywhere, and you're a beautiful,
glowing example of that.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Thank you very much. It's hard to believe some days,
but I've been a labor of love that I will
enjoy forever.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I love it. Thank you so much for coming to
Mophas and tell us your story anytime. Thanks good, that's
a rout, And thank you for joining us this week.
If Michelle Pensac has inspired you in general, or better yet,
to take action by checking out squared Away, sharing it
(35:49):
with a friend who's a military spouse, becoming a social
entrepreneur like Michelle, or something else, entirely. Please let me
know I'd love to hear about it. You can write
me anytime at Bill at normal folks dot us and
I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, share it
with friends and on social Subscribe to the podcast, take
(36:12):
the time to rate and review it. Join the army
at normalfolks dot us. Consider becoming a premium member. There
any and all of these things that will help us
grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. Until
next time, do what you can
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks,
and we continue now with part two of our conversation
with Michelle Penzac, right after these brief messages from our
general sponsors. So tell me what that first year looks like.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Insanity?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well, well, I was going to get to that in
a second, but I mean, that's funny you say insanity
because pretty much the last six years of her life
feel like it was just evolving insanity at all times.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Oh yeah, pretty much. I think that is the theme
of my life this point is just chaos.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
First year, he says, you got to get a name, right.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, right, like you gotta name this thing. Robert Stevens,
who was actually his co founder, Shane's co founder with
his company, and he was just an absolutely branding genius.
He said, you got to talk to Robert. So get
on a call with Robert, and Robert's like, do you
like one? I said, I love wine, and he goes, well,
(01:16):
you need to take the pressure off, sit down with
a good glass of wine and just start running the
ideas through your head and thinking of different phrasing. So
I was like, Okay, I'm going to do it. And
I sat down with a glass of Miomi shout out
to that company. And I started thinking, okay, military phrases,
(01:37):
military phrases. And Sean had actually come in the house
and was on the phone and he goes, you gotta
get this squared away, and you gotta get this squared away,
and you gotta get this squared away. And I was like, amazing, amazing,
and so yeah, he likes to take the credit for
that one. But it clicked instantly, like this is it
(02:00):
getting things squared away?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So you named it squared away, which makes sense, a
virtual assistant getting everything squared away. What's first your life?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Shane kept telling me, you can't do everything yourself. So
you've always been delegated too. Now you have to become
the delegateur. So brought on my first teammate in July,
so three months after July of twenty seventeen, seventeen, and
then gradually started adding a few more people. And it
(02:37):
was a different mindset, like I'm used to being the doer,
not the delegator, So reframing how I was operating was huge,
but then also documenting all of our processes from day
one and just saying we're going to do this again,
we have to make sure it's documented. How are we
going to train people, how are we going to bring
people on, how are we going to get clients? We
(02:59):
were kind of.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Michelle, that's exactly how a business owner asks.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
But I never want to be a CEO and I
never I'm the person who got a c an econ
in college like this was not on my Bengo card
for my life was being a CEO ever. So it
was just figuring it out and thinking what's going to
break next, what do we fix next, what do we
get ahead of now before it becomes an issue?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And how many clients did you have after the first year?
I went from the original seven.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
We went from seven. I don't remember how many we
had after the first year, but we hit sixty seven
employees in twenty nineteen sixty seven. I will never it
was right before COVID. It was also right before Halloween.
And with his sixty seven employees.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
How many of those sixty seven military spouses?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
All of them at that point in time, they were
all military.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Spouses from bases and just why you are everywhere everywhere?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
We had people in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Texas,
Washington State, California, Like, how are.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
You finding them or were they finding you?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
They were finding us. I think we've only actually put
out a handful of times that we needed assistance, but
it was all word of mouth through the military spouse
community and Facebook pages because those are beehives in and
of themselves, So I got it completely organically.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
I got to believe you were talking to countless spouses
who repeated to you the very feelings that you felt
when you were first in jackson Oh.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, Bill Jackson, Jacksonville. Yeah. Are Everybody's stories are so
similar with different variations. We've we've all struggled with becoming
a mom and losing ourselves, which being a military spouse,
which is depressed, which is super depressing. And I have
(05:10):
countless emails and messages from people who worked with Sweared
Away over the past eight years and just said thank
you for being a part of my journey because you
gave me myself back. That theme has been everything that
we've wanted.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
So even if your company was breaking, even it wasn't
even making money.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
So worth it, so so worth it. But we're still
completely bootstrapped eight years later, and it's amazing to be
able to say you know we've paid out over thirty
million dollars to military spouses and military families over the
last eight years. How much over over thirty million at
(05:51):
this point, and.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Salaries in salaries and income to military spouses, Yes, and I.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Wish I had an exact number, but I know it's
over thirty million.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
How many clients stay up today?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
We have about a thousand.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
A thousand clients. How many people do you employ?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
About four hundred right now?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yes, how many of those are military spouses?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I would say about ninety five percent of our team
is military spouses and we are almost one female at
this point.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Holy crap, you're a nanny.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I question.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Do you pinch yourself?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
It's hard to believe almost every single day, Like I
look back on my swar and I'm like, I'm crazy.
I gotta screw loose somewhere, Like nobody just pointed it
out to me exactly. But the impact that we've had,
the people that we've been able to interact with. I
I just started a podcast about a month ago, Oh good,
(07:03):
And it's telling the stories of our military spouses that
have worked with Squared Away. What's it called Beyond Orders?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Of course? Beyond Orders that's awesome. So everybody needs to
tune into Beyond Orders and so each one of your
episodes are the stories of military spouses that are in
your organization.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Or they've worked with us previously. We just we did
one last week with Tiffany McCauley and her story is
just absolutely powerful. She started in a very similar situation,
but she came to Squared Away with desperation because she
was trying to find herself after losing two of her
five children in a tragic accident in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
So what's her husband deployed when that happened.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
They were in the middle of a PCs that happen,
They were getting ready to move from North Carolina to
South Carolina and she lost two child lost two children.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yes, wow, And now she's an employee squared Away.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
And now I believe her title is business manager. But
her client actually bought out her contract with Squared Away
and brought her own full time with their company.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Okay, it's just unbelievable that we went from where we
went to in warp speed to where you are now.
But let me get this right, you.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Employee, how many about four hundred.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Four hundred military spouses you're the CEO of a company
with a thousand clients, all from the bathroom, from the
bathroom toilet, all from this. How does that have it?
(08:45):
Assuming from a toilet?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I need that on a T shirt. All from the toilet.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That is hilarious. So where are you guys? Now?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
We are.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
No, where are you? I mean he's still Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
He's still he's still active duty. He's actually back in
North Carolina and he's deploying in a few months. So
where are you North Carolina or Wilmington?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Wilmington and where's he going? Ah?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Good question.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
You don't even know.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I'm not exactly sure, but he's going to deploy that
he's deploying this fall. Yeah, so it'll be number six.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
For US sixth deployment. Do you still have the same
drug or are you getting more used to it?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, it's it's the same. I have a rule and
my the very first CEO's wife and our very first
squadron with our very first deployment told me that in
order to function, you need to give yourself one day
to be sad after he leaves, and then you pull
your pants up and you go on with life, because
(09:56):
you have to do that for you, and you have
to do that for your kids in the future. So
me and the boys know that the day after he leaves,
that's our day to be sad. Eat ice cream, watch TV,
plany on tablets whatever, that's our sad.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Way, we allow ourselves twenty four hours of pout.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
And then exactly and then we put on our big
kid pants and we do what we do every single day.
And our world is going to keep spending regardless of
whether or not he's here. So that's what we've done
for the last four all of three deployments.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Once again, that's a hell of a piece of dedication, commitment,
not only to your husband but to your country. I
find that rought with courage, to be.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Honest with you, it doesn't feel very courageous sometimes. It
feels very much like survival mode and putting on a
strong face for my kids and you know is carrying on.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
We'll be right back. But I got to believe these
four hundred employees of yours are all experiencing the same
thing at some point or another. Oh yeah, And so
(11:27):
not only have you created a business to make money
on a living and all of these wonderful things, but
you're also helping each of these military spouses find themselves
after that day of power.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Oh yeah, they have something to look forward to. They
have clients that they enjoy working with and depend on them,
that depend on them for growing their businesses and keeping
their lives straight. And I always tell people, you don't
have to be a square away forever. We can just
be a chapter in your book. We can help you
get to where you want to be. And a lot
(12:05):
of people or a lot of companies, don't necessarily celebrate
when someone leaves, but we do because we know that
they're moving on from us for a better opportunity, one
that we can't necessarily provide to them, but we're happy
to have introduce them to something new.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
So at the top of the show, I said, we
talk about a lot of ways to be a part
of the army of normal folks. And on some occasions
we find for profit organizations that also have a specific
social mission that gets accomplished just in the mechanics of
the business. And I can't decide whether or not I'm
(12:47):
more inspired by the fact that you have a thousand
customers and four hundred employees from your meager beginnings in
only six years from a purely business perspective, or if
I'm more inspired by the fact that you can feel
(13:09):
in a very real, empathetic personal way what each of
your employees have gone through in their life and how
important this job is to them, not just from a
financial perspective so they can make a living, but for
their psyche yeah, and the service you're providing to them.
And so my question is to you what inspires you
(13:33):
both about your own story.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
I don't know if there's one particular piece, but I
feel like my just drive to take care of people
has kind of been what's guided me through the entire journey.
It's insane as it is. I like taking care of clients,
(14:01):
I like taking care of friends and eildren, my husband,
my kids are my absolute number one, and I want
to be able to instill values in them that are
taking care of people. My husband has said from the
very beginning his job as a marine is to take
care of his marines. My job is to take care
(14:24):
of my family, take care of my teammates, take care
of my clients, and I think my boys being able
to see it hasn't been easy. It has been a struggle,
but at the end of the day, it's your job
to take care of people. Always. I think that's been
the biggest pieces, that's been our motto as a family.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I say, I speak, I do a lot of speeches,
and one of the points I make in almost every
speech that I think the greatest leaders of our time
we're servants. Think of Martin Luther King, think of God.
If you're a Christian, think of Christ. Yes, the greatest
leaders of our time served in order to lead. Christ
(15:07):
surrounded himself with stinky fishermen and hookers and wash their feet.
King could have sat in Atlanta and told the freedom
marcher's good luck, but he got in front of him
and paid with his life. In my very city right here,
think of Mendela and Gandhi and all of the greatest
(15:28):
I mean, Mother Teresa, you think of the greatest leaders
that we celebrate in herald across the vastness of humanity.
The one common denominator all of this service is the
greatest leader of our time served. And I think it's
very interesting to hear you say in my business, in
(15:50):
my family, in my culture, the things that I just
want to take care of people, which is served.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yes, that's always been our north star for everything.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Which ultimately is what an army of normal folks is about.
It's just seeing an area of need and filling it
with your willingness to serve. And that our entire society
culture could improve exponentially if we just had an army
of normal folks seeing areas of need and.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Filling them exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And that's what your company does for its clients. But
that's also what your company does for its employees, which
is phenomenally squared away. So tell me what squared Away does.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Everything but taxes, everything but taxes.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah, something to expand to possibly.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
I'm not trying to get anybody al caponed or be
al caponed myself, so we stay away from taxes.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
You don't want anybody showing up with a RICO warrant.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah, No, I'm not trying to get arrested by the
IRS or something like that. But anything that our clients need,
anything that they can pull out of thin air, social media,
social media, absolutely, website, devine, website design, virtual assistant, virtual assistant,
wedding planning, wedding plan I'm not even kidding. We had it.
(17:15):
We've done client wedding planning, finding a name I wish
I wish. Okay, that'd be fun. The most random task,
coordinating a move, coordinating off sites for clients, doing due
diligence for venture capitalists, helping with a fundraising.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
We have due diligence for wow.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
So yeah, helping with that and oh.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
No no, no, that's that's that would that's beyond what
I would have fathomed. So ru venture capitalists who are
looking to invest money and buy businesses, you will do
the due diligence for them. Yeah, we have the perspective purchasing. Yes,
who does that?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Oh, we have quite a few assistants that I actually
started doing that when I was working on with venture capitalists.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Is I mean, that's not an answer in the phone.
That's real.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
No, that's real, getting in the weeds and trying to understand,
you know, if this company is worth an investment, and
on the flip side of that.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You can do that for them. Yeah, and they trust
you to do that.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
What kind of people are you hiring? Then you're not
just hiring folks that don't have anything to do. You've
got some talented folks.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
We have some immensely talented assistance. People who have master's
degrees can't get jobs. They can't get hired, but they
can do due diligence for v season PE companies. Make
it make sense? Right?
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, I think you did make sense, and I also
think you're sticking your thumb and na of a lot
of people have probably passed on a lot of really
talented health of folks that could have been to their businesses.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
And that's kind of my mission is to reframe the
mindsets of businesses and show them, don't tell them, let's
squared away. These are the talents that are out there.
You just need to jump off the cliff and trust
that we're gonna set you up for success.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And we've talked about a lot anecdotally, but can you
share some of the stats Michelle of like the unemployment
rate for military spouses, how many are unemployed to day?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yeah, military spouse unemployment is twenty one percent, which.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Is national unemployments what four or five five, So it's
four or five times worse among military spouses than the
general public. Absolutely that that is sinful, that our society
is not supporting the very people we should Supportevable.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Oh, it gets better because it dropped from twenty eight percent,
which is what it was pre COVID. During COVID it
was thirty four unemployment, which a third, which is higher
than what the national unemployment rate was during the Great Depression.
Just to put it in perspective.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Let's also for everybody. Sorry, we're going back to my econdoy.
What I'm doing is the definition of unemployment are the
numbers of people who do not have a job who
are actively seeking a job. A lot of people think
unemployment is just the number of people who don't have jobs.
That is not true. The true unemployment rate in our
(20:37):
country is much higher than four or five percent because
there's a lot of people that aren't seeking a job.
The unemployment rate is the number of people who are
unemployed that are seeking a job, and that number hovers
between two and a half and five percent historically in
our country, but right now it's round four. So when
(20:58):
you're saying that it's thirty percent among military spouses, these
are not military spouses that don't have jobs, because there
are military spouses that have three kids that are perfectly
happy and don't want to work. Right we're talking about military.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Spouses actively seeking employment.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Who want a job. Only only two thirds of them
can get a job, and these are the same people
who you have hired that can now go to work
for venture capitalists and do due diligence on whether or
not they're going to spend millions of dollars on a company. Yep,
Let that sink in for a minute. How much talent
is out there that is.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Just there's I mean, there's over three hundred thousand military spouses.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Do the math like, and you pully four hundred as
big of a deal as your deal is, it's.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Still scratching the surface exactly because and we work with
some global companies that are clients right now. But I
think it's reframing the business mindset of larger companies out
there and saying, hey, if you do it, others will follow.
Try this. If it doesn't work, pivot a little bit.
We can help you tweak it. But I would love
(22:10):
to see companies adopt different processes for employing military spouses
so that we can get out of the nineteen fifties mindset.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
We'll be right back. I love this metaphor picture of
squared away. Every square has a point, so your four points.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Are extreme attention to detail goes without saying the ability
to think outside the box over communication and being a
team player.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
You need to watch out. You're starting to talk like
a CEO. Don't watch yourself, girl, you don't sound like
an osprey palette spouse with two kids at a house.
You're starting to sound like a CEO. Maybe you have
found yourself, Michelle, what do you think?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I mean, this accent ain't going nowhere. So I mean,
I think talking about our people and talking about how
big of an impact it has, I mean, I guess
I have found my sea legs.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
So I looked up your website. You've been featured on
CNBC Wall Street Journal, seeing in a bunch of other
people have told your story, and the headlines always read
military spouse can't find jobs, so she starts start her
own company, and she's now the ship or whatever. It's
(23:47):
not what the headline says, but it's basically, can you
believe that your story is being told by MSNBC and
Wall Street Journal? I mean, can you sit there and
leave that the girl, the young lady who was a
nanny twelve years ago is now.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
This I think it. It really hit home when we
did feature in CBS Evening News and a cameraman came
to my house and my oldest son was there and
he's asking him like why are you here and what's
that camera do? And he goes, I'm here to feel
(24:31):
in your mommy and sorry goes, oh well, she just
works on the computer. And I was like interesting. And
then it came out on CBS and it just really
hit because I was getting people coming to me after
(24:52):
that saying, oh my gosh, we needed this. We needed
this as a community. We needed this with the military
and having something to look forward to and thank you
for not quitting on me or not quitting on us
as a community. And those stories are so impactful and
(25:13):
I take them with me every single day every time
I have a hard day. As CEO could, trust me,
it's not easy. And when I get in my feelings,
I'll read through the folder of emails and then I'm like,
this is my why, this is my why, and go
back to the drawing.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Old Sawyer, he's nine. Will he listen to this? Oh yeah,
oh yeah, Sawyer. My name is Bill Courtney and I'm
the host of this show. And I've been a football
coach and my dad left home when I was four.
My mom was married and divorced five times. And you
can look up my story one day if you want to.
(25:54):
But I will tell you Revere your mom. She has
a bad app and does far more than we'll get.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I'm gonna have that one like repeat. So then when
he's being sassy, I can just be like, and what
did he tell you?
Speaker 1 (26:14):
No?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I think him seeing a lot of the challenges over
the years. I hope he has a good appreciation for Oh,
he will taking.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Care of down the road. Okay, so what's next? I mean,
you're now employee four hundred people. You got a two
hundred that's a twenty million dollar business? Uh in twenty
twenty three. I mean, I can't believe I'm saying this
about it. Twenty twenty three, you were a number two
hundred and ninety seven on this year's ink, five thousand lost.
(26:47):
Come on, dude, I'm blowing and you're only seven years old.
You're still a baby business.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I wish these wrinkles the other wise.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I understand, But you are. I mean, you're crazy, You're
not even you hadn't even hit your apex my opinion,
I don't know if you've heard of Bill.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
She's only thirty eight years old.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I'm older than Alex.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Oh well, that's it.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
How tall are you?
Speaker 1 (27:08):
She's a lot more accomplished. How tall are you?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Five? Two in a quarter?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah? In a quarter? Yeah, yeah, just I could. I
haven't stood next to you, but I can tell you're
not tall, and I just you know, fitting fitting into
the the thing that are amazing things oftentimes come in
small packages. So yeah you can kind So really, what
(27:33):
is next? I mean, what what's next? What what's next?
For the How many do you do you have a
goal of how many spouses you an employer? Or what's
I mean, what what's you've got to have? Two? Three?
You're way too organized not to have a one, three
and five year plan? Tell me what's next?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Keep going? Honestly, there's so many spouses out there. There's
people that have never heard of us.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
There's I I've never heard of you before this, and.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
We got to get better with our storytelling. But just
letting people know that we exist is our biggest struggle
and has been our biggest struggle. So getting better with
our storytelling, teaching people and teaching client potential clients and
companies that hey, we're a good resource, please look into us.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Have you thought about other stuff you can do? Like
other things you can offer other clients.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yeah. One of my passion projects that I haven't I'm
still in the weeds of figuring out, is teaching clients
how to delegate. There's a lot of people out there
who don't know how to delegate and delegate.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Effective virtual consulting. Really, yes, Now that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
I've done it for a handful of clients and they're like, oh,
you should probably start consulting, And I'm like, I just
told you and taught you what to do. I mean,
it makes sense, and I really enjoy helping people in
that capacity. And just so the first thing I got
to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
First three things you need are a cell phone, a laptop,
and a bathroom.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
You know what, I'm off it. I got it.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
You get that, Been there, done that, y'all. Here's the
other thing that's very cool. You can email Michelle at
Michelle at gosquaredaway dot com and she'll respond to you,
which is so cool because she has not lost the
sense of the facts that she's just a normal person
(29:30):
who extraordinary things have happened for And I think go
squared away dot com is the website, yes, and you
can find all about all of the different things she
could do for your business if you need it, or
I assume if your military spouse happened to be listening,
that would be a good place to find out how
maybe to find employment.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Absolutely our applications on our website. You can deep dive
and you need more people always always what.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
What kind of military spouse expect to make? How does
the pay work? And how do the hours work? Because
you know, I can't help my find myself wondering can
this be part time employment? Is this full time employment?
Do you work towards military spouses with children's schedules so
(30:21):
they can take on what they can take on and
can't take on? As it hourly is a salary? You
know what I'm saying? How's it work?
Speaker 2 (30:27):
So you can work as little or as much as
you want. So we have a hybrid model. Our managers
and our internal directors and c suite is they're all employees,
but most of our assistants are independent contractors, so they
kind of pick and choose what works best for them.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Are they paid hourly.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Based on a block of hours? So for instance, if
a client comes in for a fifteen hour plan and
an assistant says, I only want one fifteen hour client
that client.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Does that mean fifteen hour weekly a month a month?
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Okay, so they'll get a percentage of what the client
pays on a fifteen hour plan.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Oh really, so they're paid. There's a fly, there's a fly,
So they're basically they eat what they kill. Yeah, that's
really a neat way to do it. And so it's
not an hourly thing. It's a percentage of the contract.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Right, and it averages out to around twenty two and
twenty five dollars an hour roughly.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
So if somebody works full time for you, they can
make thirty five forty thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Oh easy, if not more, we have assistance who are
making sixty seventy eighty thousand based on client contracts.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Do you have insurance? No kidding, and.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
We are fully legal.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
And so here's another Do you have But you don't
have an office? Everybody's home is their office, so you
don't have the overhead of the fixed capital stuff sitting there, right,
so you are able to invest in your clients and
your people. That's where all the money goes.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Absolutely yep.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
That is in our guess systems.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
We incentivize our team to do their best work. A
lot of companies out there who work on a similar
model are like, Okay, well we're going to pay you
a percentage of the contract, but if the client doesn't
use you, you still get it anyway, which sounds shady
as a shady business practice, But we are the pains
(32:35):
in the butt to our clients because we're like, you're
paying for fifteen hours. I'm going to poke you in
the butt until you use all of those fifteen hours,
or I'm going to make suggestions for you to delegate
to me, and I'm going to pull things out of
you slowly over time. So we want them to use us.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
That is so cool, That is amazing. So anybody need
virtual work, It's go squared Away is not only going
to do good work, but by using them, you can
support some folks that need support, that deserve our sport.
And if you're a military spouse or I guess anyone
else that has these stalins.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Yes, we have to be legal and say that we
support everyone, and we do. We have about five percent
of our team who are not military spouses.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
That is phenomenal. Your story is awesome and your business
is awesome, and I can't wait I mean you're thirty eight.
Is that that what you said? Ali, he's putting your
business on the street, by the way, telling your age.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
You know what, It's fine, it's fine, I fully admit
to be sure.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Can you see yourself doing this even after he comes
home and yeah, this is your thing, this is this.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Is my jam, these are my people.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
I would do it forever.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
One of other thought, Bill is, now it's either the
way to people get activated you mentioned right if you're
a company, or the unemployment side. But also too, it
kind of reminds me of the Cornbread Hustle story.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
It reminds me a lot of share Garc.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
I don't know if you've heard of Sherry Michelle, but
she started a second chance staffing agency so those returning
from prison, oh wow, you know, the same kind of
problems that people are not wanting to hire them. And
she employs over a thousand people.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
And her name is Cornbread Hustle.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Cornbread Hustle, Yeah, actually has a very similar kind of
second chance staffing you know thing here in Memphis.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
So just for people to think about, right, there's other
employment challenges out there in the universe. You've created one
to solve this problem, but people also might see other
employment challenges in their community.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Both are for profit businesses, but have have managed to
blend a for profit business with a societal mission fit
need like you have. And it's important that we tell
these stories because we talk about a lot of nonprofits
and a lot of people who do amazing things in
(35:00):
a nonprofit world. But we can be part of an
army and normal folks. We can be servant leaders. We
can exact positive measure of change in our communities in
all aspects of our life, and both the nonprofit and
poor prophet and our families inside everywhere, and you're a beautiful,
glowing example of that.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Thank you very much. It's hard to believe some days,
but I've been a labor of love that I will
enjoy forever.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I love it. Thank you so much for coming to
Mophas and tell us your story anytime. Thanks good, that's
a rout, And thank you for joining us this week.
If Michelle Pensac has inspired you in general, or better yet,
to take action by checking out squared Away, sharing it
(35:49):
with a friend who's a military spouse, becoming a social
entrepreneur like Michelle, or something else, entirely. Please let me
know I'd love to hear about it. You can write
me anytime at Bill at normal folks dot us and
I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, share it
with friends and on social Subscribe to the podcast, take
(36:12):
the time to rate and review it. Join the army
at normalfolks dot us. Consider becoming a premium member. There
any and all of these things that will help us
grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. Until
next time, do what you can
Host
Bill Courtney
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