Fabian Geyrhalter
Welcome to the show, Michelle.

Michelle Penczak
Thank you. It’s good to be here.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Yeah. This is a real fun episode and I could not wait to tape this, so most listeners know about Hitting The Mark, that I have this rule to never invite any clients of mine or really people I know, because I feel it makes for a different dynamic. But this is a big and well deserved exception to my self-imposed rule. Some of you listening have emailed Michelle. They have spoken to Michelle and have appreciated Michelle’s help in the past and that is because Michelle has been my assistant for a few years, which now is quite a while back then. Yes. And then a couple of months ago, as I doom scrolled LinkedIn as entrepreneurs do, I learned that Michelle started her own company, Squared Away, a team of trusted assistants that made number 297 on the Inc. 5000. My mind was completely blown. I felt excited to look up the firm, and soon I learned that what you have actually created was, brilliant. It’s a brand that is rooted in the mutual bond between people, empathy and philosophies, and is doing what I keep advising everyone to be doing. It is a highly niche, focused brand. So with that intro, Michelle, tell us a bit about what makes Squared Away so different and really why you started it.

Michelle Penczak
Oh my goodness. Squared away. I mean everybody has always heard about outsourcing to virtual assistants and virtual assistants being a dime a dozen throughout the world for the past several years, especially with Covid. But what makes Squared Away different is we are a team of 400 military spouses across the world, and we are chief executive assistant, so we are not the typical virtual assistant that just takes care of your to do list. But we’re more of a partner with our clients to make sure that their needs are being met and their goals are being handled, and just being incredibly proactive to make sure that they are supporting their client as best as they possibly can. And it’s in a number of niches. It’s from venture capital to their portfolio companies, fortune 500 companies, as well as independent consultants throughout the world.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Like FINIEN.

Michelle Penczak
Yeah, like FINIEN absolutely.

Fabian Geyrhalter
So, so last January, I read I didn’t read it last January, but I looked through the posts and I found that in last January you turned Squared Away into a $20 million business, and now you have 400 military spouses working for Squared Away. That is so remarkable. How did you go about marketing this in the beginning? Was it because it was such a such a niche, was it pretty organic and just word of mouth, because you really filled something that people had an urge to be a part of?

Michelle Penczak
Yeah, absolutely. So I had, and you can attest to this, I had my own client base. So as I was growing Squared Away and sharing the story with other clients who wanted to work with me and adding teammates, team members organically over the past seven years, it kind of grew itself. They loved the mission and it was kind of like a two fold. You get support and you get some of the best team members you will ever have, and you’re also supporting an amazing mission at the same time. Military spouse unemployment is at 23% right now, is more than the national average. And that was 34% during peak Covid period. So you are really just supporting an amazing mission. And you’re also like getting a team mate that is absolutely incredible. And you have them on a part time basis, and you don’t have to pay the overhead of an employee. Plus all of our teammates, they’re not contractors. They’re all W-2 employees.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Interesting. And, you know, you touched on something super important, which is which is community. And it’s your superpower as a brand, you state that, often on social media, how do you foster that community? Because you were a pre-pandemic remote only company. So before everyone else became that, because as they were forced to become that, I’m sure you have some tips other companies can learn from on how you created a remote company culture. Like what did it take? I’m sure this didn’t happen overnight, even though you had a joint mission, which I’m sure helped tremendously in getting people together.

Michelle Penczak
Yeah, I honestly, I think part of our secret sauce was just being a military spouse. We PCS are moved every 3 to 4 years across the country. And, you know, it’s one of those situations where you really don’t have time to, you know, date new friends and get to know them over a period of time. We like to joke that, you know, you take your kid to the playground and you find your emergency contact person for their school while you’re there, because it’s such a fast, hard and fast relationship as military spouses, you are somewhere temporarily, and you have to kind of find your crew and find your support network very quickly. So being remotely, being at a remote company, especially during the pandemic, we could tap into our network from Japan to Germany and everywhere in between. And that was amazing because we would have teammates who were in the middle of a PCS or their spouse was deployed, or they didn’t have family around. So it was more of a holistic approach to our culture, supporting the whole person as opposed to just supporting someone in the capacity of an employee.

Fabian Geyrhalter
And it seems like what you were hinting at that idea that it is, look, it’s already hard for any adult to find friends, right? It’s kind of what you do as a kid. So it’s like once you’re an adult, it’s usually what you said. It’s like you know, like in school and, you know, you start, you start meeting, you know, people and in your lifestyle that is extremely difficult so it must have it must have helped tremendously that people are now kind of part of a tribe. And yes, that tribe moves. But you always stay together, even though if you only meet on Zoom once a month for however, however you get together. Are friendship’s built that way? I mean, is it really do you feel like your employees or your tribe that they actually all start becoming friends?

Michelle Penczak
Yeah, I would definitely agree with that. My six directors that are basically the backbone of Squared Away, we’ve worked together for over four years, and I feel like they’re some of my closest friends. Just because we have experienced such growth with Squared Away and we’ve all moved during that period, me multiple times and we’ve had children and, you know, just everyday life challenges. So even though I’ve, I literally just met one of them in person last year and I was like, I feel like I’ve known you my entire life. This is incredible. And we see those friendships fostered all across the board at Squared Away all the time.

Fabian Geyrhalter
That’s amazing. And, you know, I mean, pre-pandemic, it was such an anomaly, the way that the way that, you know, your tribe worked, right. Like everyone just went from one place to another. Now it is usual, right? I mean, this is something that in startups and creative companies, anyone can work from wherever, wherever they want as long as they show up. Has that shift from this type of remote work, from being in an anomaly to a bit more of a standard way of working, has that affected Squared Away in any manner? I mean, positively or negatively?

Michelle Penczak
Yes, I would definitely say it has been positive. I like to joke that we were remote before remote was cool. So we had the added benefit of already working remotely when the pandemic had kicked off in 2020. So we were having to teach our clients, you know, how can you work at home with kids and how can you time block your schedule better so that you can do both? And, you know, we really started digging into that partnership aspect of, okay, your kids are doing this, but you have, you know, fundraising meetings over here, like, how are we going to tackle this together? So we kind of taught our clients how to work effectively remotely. So it was very positive for us.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Huge added benefit out of nowhere that suddenly you were that you were the experts in something that you didn’t even know was important to anyone.

Michelle Penczak
Oh yeah, absolutely, it was something that I was like, oh wow. We’re now the subject matter experts on working remotely.

Fabian Geyrhalter
So good, so good. And a big part of brand positioning is pricing. And you have what at first glance, seems like a logical and familiar model. So you have a starter pack 15 hours a month, you pay 600 bucks, then you have a premiere package 75 hours a month at three K, but then you introduced, something called Squared Away tiers, where customers pay basically a salary increase as they work with their assistant over time. So the first two years, the rates are exactly as advertised. And then once you go past that with the same assistant, you create a relationship and the rates increase exponentially until you reach year six, at which point you maxed out and would pay 900 a month instead of the 600 a month that you started with. I hope I got that right.

Michelle Penczak
Yeah.

Fabian Geyrhalter
I think it’s a brilliant way to actually, you know, foster relationships, create careers, conquer inflation, etcetera, etcetera. Tell us how how this came up and how it is being received by both, your assistants as well as their clients.

Michelle Penczak
It actually came up because we always wanted to create a career trajectory for our military spouses. We didn’t want them stuck in, oh, I’m just an assistant for this amount of the plan. We wanted them to have something to be proud of and work towards. So as they become more experienced, at Squared Away, they move up in tiers and then they ultimately receive a pay increase. They’re getting more professional development opportunities and benefits across the board from our company, and it’s been very, very well received from our team. And on the client side, at the beginning, I was a little bit nervous.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Yeah, of course.

Michelle Penczak
Because they need to have, because anytime you’re introducing, you know, pay more to your client base, you kind of get kick back. But honestly, I had one person and one person out of almost a thousand clients say something negative about tiers. And honestly, the feedback was just amazing. They were like, this is so great. This is a wonderful idea for military spouses. This is a great way for me to do something for my person and my assistant that I trust so much, and I’m happy to pay it. It’s a phenomenal model, so I will say it was very well received.

Fabian Geyrhalter
It’s so I mean, it’s such a great way to really feel like you’re invested in someone, right? Because and I remember that from you and I when, when we work together, and we worked together most probably for, for at least two years.

Michelle Penczak
Yeah. I think it was almost. Yeah, it was right at three years.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Yeah. That’s amazing. So three years. So the first year is onboarding for everyone. I mean, I know it’s only a week or two the real onboarding, but after a year you really feel like everything jives perfectly. And you can kind of like finish each other’s sentences. And you know, everyone knows what’s going on. And then after a year or two, you just take everything for granted. Yeah. You know, it’s like, oh, this is just how it works. And I love that idea that I would feel the longer we work together, the more you are literally part of my team and you should be seen as such and you should be rewarded as such. So I think, I think it’s such a cool model that I haven’t seen around and so I’m glad that we had a chance to talk about that.

Michelle Penczak
Yeah. For sure. It’s definitely one of my favorite benefits internally. And like I said, we constantly get great feedback about it. And that allows us to do more for our team internally. And I can honestly say I don’t know very many US based, virtual assistant companies that provide a multitude of benefits to their team. So pat on our back for that one.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Well, and that also goes a little bit into your history, which we kind of skipped a little bit. Because you were, you were employed, at a virtual assistant company and then that company, what happened, they were bought, or something happened?

Michelle Penczak
Yeah. I worked for them for about two years at the very beginning of my remote assistant journey. And, this is where it’s going to sound like a really bad country song. But basically, I worked with him. I became a manager. I had a phenomenal experience. My husband deployed, and I was three months pregnant with Sawyer, my oldest. And, I woke up one morning and couldn’t log into my email because the company had gone bankrupt overnight with no warning.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Oh, jeez. Wow.

Michelle Penczak
So that was August of 2015. Yeah.

Fabian Geyrhalter
So it was like literally pulling the plug overnight.

Michelle Penczak
It really was, I logged off on Friday. I remember I was going to work remotely. Our family had gone to Hilton Head, my in-laws, and I had met them down there for the weekend and let them know I would be working, during the day, but I was happy to hang out with them during the week. And then I woke up on Monday morning and tried to log in and couldn’t log into my computer, and it was all over the news, so it was quite a shock.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Wow. And so that’s what I mean, it happened so often that out of that misery and out of that really horribly unfortunate situation, you know, you need to do something. And then that fosters creativity and entrepreneurship. And I mean, it happens over and over and over again. When I was like, when I was way down, with Geyrhalter design and like, you know, things happened that were very unfortunate, from client side and etcetera. That’s how I completely remodeled my company into FINIEN. And I’m so glad I did, because I’m so much better off. Right. So these things happen, and you just feel like it’s the end of the world, but in reality, it’s the beginning of something really, really great very often. So good for you. And that most probably fostered your need to create a company that’s very honest and culture based.

Michelle Penczak
Oh yeah. Absolutely. Transparency and integrity are my favorite attributes. I always wanted my team to know exactly where we stood, if there was a challenge that we were facing as a company, I went at it, you know, full steam ahead with them completely in the know because I never wanted someone to be as blindsided as I was. Because that was just a terrible feeling. And I wouldn’t want anyone to do that to somebody I cared about.

Fabian Geyrhalter
That’s amazing. I mean, it’s wonderful now because something that happened to you and I guess a lot of others. Right. But but it happened to you personally. Now you are affecting 400 plus people, you know, in a positive way. Based on what happened to you, it is amazing. And your company policy is that you don’t work with assholes.

Michelle Penczak
That’s right.

Fabian Geyrhalter
It’s actually really interesting because many of my clients. Let’s not say many, but they were a good amount of my clients that, that have that idea of we don’t work with assholes, as a culture message, but it’s usually very internal, right? It’s like, hey, this is like how we work, right? But you actually stated as a policy on your website, and then you followed it by these two sentences. You say it’s easy to be kind and it takes effort to be an asshole. So don’t be one. Because we don’t work with those.

Michelle Penczak
Like I said, full transparency.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Well, and you know, like I hinted at, it also kind of like, comes from the past of like, how do we not want to work, right?

Michelle Penczak
Yeah absolutely.

Fabian Geyrhalter
But I mean, this is a very serious matter, right? Otherwise you wouldn’t put it on the website. So how do you screen clients? How do you ensure you don’t attract assholes in the first place, right? Like, I mean, after working with me, that must have been the trigger for your policy.

Michelle Penczak
No not even.

Fabian Geyrhalter
But how do you screen people? Like, how does it work? I guess both sides, right. For your talent and your clients.

Michelle Penczak
Absolutely. So our on the client side of the house, the first impression is up to them after that, you know, we’ll kind of take it, step by step. But basically, we always assume good intent from all of our clients. so we assume that, you know, they’re going to be respectful and be very kind and professional to our assistants, like, no yelling, no name calling, that kind of thing. And on the assistant side of the house, we expect the same thing. We expect people to be completely professional, respectful, no name calling, no drama starting that kind of thing. So it’s definitely a 360 view of Squared Away that we don’t work with assholes. But unfortunately, some people can be and we have had to invite, luckily only a couple of people to leave Squared Away as a client.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Okay. Okay. So there’s really no screening process on the website besides saying these things, you know, out loud and just making sure that, because you really it takes time to get to know someone and how people explode, you know, like when you know, when they are under stress or whatever.

Michelle Penczak
Exactly. And I would always rather assume good intent at the beginning as opposed to, you know, somebody’s having a bad day and just going off and, you know, they could have had something detrimental happen. And it’s just taking it situation by situation and understanding. You know, this person may be absolutely amazing, but they just had a really hard day for whatever reason. So yeah, typically it’s only the people who are consistently.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Right exactly, exactly. Then it turns into a character trait. Yeah, exactly. So let’s move over to a topic that you already knew was near and dear to my heart from back when you worked with me, which is branding. How hard was it to come up with, the quite brilliant name Squared Away? Like, how did that happen? Was it a big process? Did you come up with it in the shower? Like what happened? Like, how did Squared Away get born?

Michelle Penczak
No, it was actually a very funny, situation. I had just moved to Hawaii. And the idea of Squared Away came about, and I was like, oh my gosh, how am I going to name this company? And I have no idea about naming and that kind of thing. So, my co-founder, Shane, he was the CEO of another company at the time, and his co-founder was Robert Stevens, the founder of Geek Squad.

Michelle Penczak
and Robert is a completely amazing human being. But, I got on a call with him and he said, I need you to drink a really good glass of wine and just start thinking.

Fabian Geyrhalter
That would be my advice too.

Michelle Penczak
Start thinking of really fun things. And I was like, okay, that does not sound like it’s gonna go very well.

Fabian Geyrhalter
That’s professional advice I promise you.

Michelle Penczak
It’s super professional. So my husband came home from work that day and,

Fabian Geyrhalter
You’re drunk on the floor.

Michelle Penczak
And he was asking me questions about stuff and he was like, oh yeah, I need to get this Squared Away and this Squared Away. And I’m like, oh, wow, I hear that from you a lot. Especially when you’re talking about Marine Corps stuff.

Michelle Penczak
So it just kind of stuck. And so now he likes to claim that he helped me named Squared Away.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Yeah. Yeah. No it is his name really. It’s all hundred percent his, that is so great. I love that story. I had no idea you had a great story about this, but that is, there’s usually a good story behind the name. That’s fantastic. I love that, and, I mean, look, you really, you know, there are not many companies where it’s basically a group of assistants that are a brand. I mean, you sell logos, swag. I mean, you have onesies and coffee cups with your logo on it.

Michelle Penczak
Yes.

Fabian Geyrhalter
That’s amazing. What was that one moment where you felt like, you know, like you onboarded the first people and people started working together, and what was that moment where you felt like, you know what? This is actually not so much a small startup anymore. This is actually turning into a brand like this is really turning into something, something that could be one day on the fortune 500, which it did. 5000. Well, it’s 500, actually 200 something. Right. That’s amazing.

Michelle Penczak
Yeah, I think the moment came honestly, right before the pandemic, I did a fireside chat in New York with several clients and, I had to do an interview with NBC news and, it was, they really loved the idea. And I always hear people say how I love that idea. And I’m just like, it’s so, it came so natural to me. I wish I could tell you the exact process, but it just I went with my gut on everything, and now I love getting emails from teammates saying, this company has changed my life. I never thought I would get a position remotely where I could be flexible for my family and grow in my career, and that’s all I ever wanted, because that’s all I ever wanted for me was to have the same opportunities. And before I became a virtual assistant, you know, the phrase military spouse felt like, you know, a dirty word and you kind of hid that from employers. So as we’ve kind of tended to grow, shifting the mindset of, oh, you’re a military spouse, you’re only going to be here for 3 to 4 years to, oh, you’re a military spouse. I can work with you and grow my company, and we can grow together for 3 to 4 years. That’s amazing. Yeah. And just trying to shift that mindset has been so huge. And I’m definitely seeing the table start to turn a little bit.

Fabian Geyrhalter
And how wonderful. for you to be able to basically create a legacy for yourself. And some people like hearing that some people don’t like hearing it, but really that idea that what do you do every day and what you have built is affecting a lot of people positively? some, you know, some who would have, well, all really who would have otherwise had to struggle a lot more. And that is amazing. I mean, that is such a great way to get up every morning and look into the mirror and say, yep, I’m doing something good. It’s going to be a stressful day, but I’m doing something good, that’s awesome.

Michelle Penczak
Yeah. And I will say the challenges. And I know you said leaving a legacy and I really don’t look at it that way. So on my, from my perspective at least. But it’s solving a problem that, you know, is so near and dear to my heart because nobody ever took a chance on me. Not really as a person that they can deep dive into my career and help me grow in a certain area, and I always wanted my team to have a cheerleader and I feel like military spouses are the underdogs that never get talked about. And I just want, you know, all 300,000 of us to truly be a force that isn’t silent and aren’t, you know, the heroes on the home front only.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Yeah. Yeah, it’s really wonderful. And it also brought up another, you know, another point, which is you say that it kind of came organically. You didn’t have to think about it that much. It kind of like it just made sense for you to do that because you yourself were in that position and you knew others had to.

Fabian Geyrhalter
but that’s how those great niche brands are being created. And I mean, what a niche, right? You have you have you have a target of 300,000 employees.

Michelle Penczak
Yes. Right.

Fabian Geyrhalter
It’s as niche as niche can get. But it is so heartfelt and so, you know, honest because it comes from someone in that position and you’re like, others would need that. Let’s do this. That’s how really some of the best brands are being created. It’s people finding a problem, finding a solution, creating a solution for a problem that they have for like minded people. And that’s exactly what you where almost forced to do in the situation that you woke up that one Monday morning. Amazing.

Michelle Penczak
Oh, yeah. It’s been a labor of love, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Fantastic. So now that, now that you branded your own company. And don’t say your husband did, because we know, we know you did.

Michelle Penczak
Me and the glass of wine did it.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Exactly. And he just happened to stumble into the room at the right time saying the right words. But, you know, you actually, over the last years branded your company. What does branding mean to you? I mean, I know when we worked together, you heard the word in every email that you have to send out. I mean, in every conversation. But like today,

Michelle Penczak
A little bit for sure.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Like, what does it mean to you. Like the idea of branding now that you went through it yourself with your company?

Michelle Penczak
So to me, branding is your North Star. It’s what guides you in every single decision that you’re doing with your company every single day. And you kind of live that. You live that internally with that externally. For instance, Squared Away. Our mission is to employ as many military spouses as possible, but we also want to give our clients a phenomenal experience. So our square so picture a square, every square has a point. So all of our four points are extreme attention to detail, the ability to think outside the box, being proactive and a team player. And so everything within that square is what we embody. So our North Star is to employ as many military spouses as possible while giving clients the best possible experience.

Fabian Geyrhalter
I love that, and I love that thinking outside the square is part of your square.

Michelle Penczak
Yes, exactly.

Fabian Geyrhalter
It’s right in the corner. It can be outside.

Michelle Penczak
Always an answer for everything.

Fabian Geyrhalter
No, that’s great. And I love, I love how a brand like that comes together. Right. Like from the name. And then suddenly the name, you go deeper into what the mission is and what’s important to everyone and what you want to, what you really want to create. Right. And then you go back to the name and everything kind of like starts becoming one. And that’s why I personally am so fired up about branding, because I think it is so, it is such a creative but also intellectual and emotional exercise. That can really help so many people, you know, guide, you know, guide through what that company does and what it stands for. So that’s why it is my passion. And you just nicely summarized that by how you, how you work your own brand.

Michelle Penczak
Again, and it came like completely organically. So and I don’t know if I said this correctly, so forgive me. Lots of caffeine today, but extreme attention to detail, the ability to think outside the box over communication and being a team player. So those are the points on our square. So I just wanted to clarify that.

Fabian Geyrhalter
You’re like, this is going to be out in the world. It has to be correct.

Michelle Penczak
Fabian I’m talking about branding. I don’t want to mess up.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Don’t jinx it. Not in this one. Exactly. What is, if you could, if you know now now that you now that you have been growing this company and you really get a feeling for you know what that what the vibe is, right? What you’re putting out, how people feel about what you’re doing. Like if you put your entire company employees, you know, clients, your philosophies, what you actually provide, if you put it all through a filter, right? And out comes one word of like, if I could describe my brand in one word, what would that be for Squared Away.

Michelle Penczak
Oh, wow. That’s that’s such a good,

Fabian Geyrhalter
Like your brand DNA.

Michelle Penczak
There’s a few. There’s a few. Either grit or care, and I say grit because we don’t quit. We’re very tenacious when it comes to our clients. And when it comes to just taking care of people and care, I say this all the time. People probably look at me like I’m crazy, but, you know, we take care of people. That’s what we do all day, every day. We take care of our clients. We take care of our teammates. Were supportive personally and professionally. So it’s kind of hard to pick one word.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Maybe it’s both. Maybe it’s grit and care which sounds like, you know, on the menu of a diner, but grit and care. I think the two together actually are quite, symbiotic. You know, and they really show who you are as a brand. Right? Because care is one thing. But if you if you don’t have that grit, then, you know, it’s, it’s a very different kind of company.

Michelle Penczak
Exactly.

Fabian Geyrhalter
So I love that. Very cool. Any brand advice for founders as a take away? We’re coming slowly to the end. And I always love to hear it from founders who created their own brands, and not only from people like me. Is there anything that you learned, along the way, of building your brand where you feel like others can learn from it, which of course, you know, drink a glass of wine and come up with a name. But anything else?

Michelle Penczak
I would say my best piece of brand advice is to feel that in your soul, feel your brand in your soul, and the words will come. You just have to know what that feeling is, and make sure that you identify personally with the words and that you can live that every single day. Because trust me, you don’t get, you know, off hours as a founder. So while a brand and, you know, guide may sound great, it might not always resonate with you. So make sure that you sit with it and feel it in your gut before you move forward.

Fabian Geyrhalter
I love that, and that’s what it is. I mean, branding really, it’s the heart and soul of a company. And so often, you know, to your point, founders are so busy that they just forget to really sit on that rock and say, like, what is that heart and soul of the company? Because people, yes, people might feel it, but you need to substantiate it. You need to you need to write it down. You need to show it to people in other ways. So it is extremely important, and it is what I do professionally. When I sit down with my client and over eight hours, we literally, you know, identify what that soul is. It’s not me coming and doing it. It’s them. It’s like it’s like therapy. It’s like them just telling it. Right? Like I get it out of them.

Michelle Penczak
Oh, it really is like therapy though.

Fabian Geyrhalter
It is.

Michelle Penczak
And it’s such a Northstar. It’s like, what guides you as a person? What do you want to guide you as a founder? And you know, you can’t just come up with that in five minutes. You really need to sit with that and figure out, you know, what works for me and what do I want to truly be the base for my company because you’re mission and your brand is going to guide you everywhere. So really getting that right in the beginning is so important.

Fabian Geyrhalter
100%. Well what’s next? What’s next for the Squared Away brand? What are you excited about in the next six months? Any any big changes or improvements or what’s happening?

Michelle Penczak
We don’t have any massive changes. We recently became a military spouse employment partner with the Department of Defense. So we are very, very excited about that and being able to reach more military spouses. And, you know, just being backed by the government is just amazing. Because we always feel like we’re kind of left out. When our active duty members and spouses who are in the military, you know, are doing all this stuff for the government, it’s it kind of feels like we’ve come full circle to not having support, to having amazing support. So it’s great. I’m excited to see what our partnership holds over the next year.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Congratulations. I’m sure just, just understanding how the government works, those, you know, those things are not easy to come by. It’s a it’s a most probably a lengthy process.

Michelle Penczak
Oh yeah it was about a seven month process to submit that.

Fabian Geyrhalter
That doesn’t even sound long. Seven months, but I, congratulations on that. That’s amazing. And that most probably it’s going to open up some floodgates, hopefully. And, so that’s, that’s what you’re readying for. How can people listening, people interested in hiring, one of your amazing, team members, how can they, follow you either personally or get to know, Squared Away online?

Michelle Penczak
Yeah. our website is www.gosquaredaway.com and if anybody has any questions, I personally love hearing from people who have questions about Squared Away. So feel free to email me at Michelle@GoSquaredAway.com.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Michelle I can’t believe it. This was the strangest way to talk to you after a couple of years, on the air, on Hitting The Mark after you’ve been hitting it on the mark with your brand. Thank you so much for being here. Like, that was so great.

Michelle Penczak
Thank you for having me. And we have to do catch ups you know, more than once every like three years or so.

Fabian Geyrhalter
Absolutely we do.