Founder's Story - The Real Reason Entrepreneurs Burn Out—And How to Fix It | Ep. 206 with Aaron Marcum Founder of Breakaway365

Starting point is 00:00:00 Starting your business should be simple. That's why I love what Northwest's registered agent is doing. You can build your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Seriously, whether you're launching your first company or your fifth, you get more when you start with Northwest. More privacy, more guidance, and more freedom to run your business from anywhere. They've helped businesses grow for nearly 30 years and they've got your back. For just $39 plus state fees, Northwest will form your business, create a custom website and set up a local presence

Starting point is 00:00:34 anywhere you need it. One more, they'll protect your identity by using their address on your formation documents and their premium mail forwarding gives you a real business address that keeps your home info private which I have used this service for many years. Don't wait, protect your privacy, build your brand and set up your business in just 10 clicks in 10 minutes. Visit NorthwestRegisteredAgent.com slash founders and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent

Starting point is 00:01:07 at NorthwestRegisteredAgent.com slash founders. Ram trucks have always powered American freedom. Now with our freedom of choice pricing program, you can choose your offer, cash incentives or employee pricing for all. Hurry into your local dealer today for details because nothing stops America and nothing stops Ram. Hey everyone, welcome back to Founder's Story. Today we have Aaron Markham, a serial entrepreneur and founder of Breakaway 365, a coaching program helping home care leaders

Starting point is 00:01:54 scale their business and reclaim their freedom. And the great thing about Aaron is he's very positive and that's why I'm excited to have you here. And because I've been told sometimes I can be on the negative side and I need more positivity in my life. Everyone does. Thank you. See, everyone does. Right. Everyone does.

Starting point is 00:02:15 And we get we get I'm sure we can dive in all these things. And I'm excited. But I know you're doing these events, immersive events, and you're helping a lot of people and impact five time bestseller USA Today bestseller You've done amazing things. So before we go into all the nitty-gritty of those What was the spark that made you say I want to create three breakaway 365? Yeah, you know, it's a culmination of many years as an entrepreneur. I've been in the home care Space for 22 years an entrepreneur. I've been in the home care space for 22 years, 23 years.

Starting point is 00:02:47 I started as a home care owner. I started my own home care agency at 28 years old. And through that journey, and that's a highly charged emotional field, a lot of turn over, a lot of challenges in and of itself. And they're doing an amazing work. Like these home care agencies, home care owners are doing amazing work. What I found, I saw this in myself, is that I had a dream when I started,

Starting point is 00:03:18 what I wanted out of my business. And then through the day to day and the stress and the turnover and the challenges that that brings in that industry, they lose sight of that. And so really the foundation of our program after 23 years of having been involved, being a founder of one home care agency and owning another and I started a company back in 2009, data analytics companies that measured satisfaction and we raised the quality of standards for the entire industry. And I was seeing because we were measuring so much data in that company that I started, Homecare Pulse is the name of the company and It's now Activated Insights. I saw that a lot of the turnover and a lot of the challenges are being caused

Starting point is 00:04:09 by burned out leaders, you know, people who are just, we call it always on leadership or always on ownership. They thought they had to be involved in the business all the time. So, break away 365, as the term states, I'm a cyclist, I got into cycling in 2016 But helping people break away from all of that and get back to why they started their home care business in the first place Oh, no, I was gonna say reminds me of when I was a

Starting point is 00:04:37 corporate regional manager and I used to message people at two three four five in the morning and They would become very stressed out thinking they had to respond. It actually brought a lot of the morale down. And then I learned from that point bringing that into my entrepreneurialship is I need to be cautious in how I do things. So I'm curious around these data points, what you were seeing. Can you dive more into what were you seeing about these owners and then and then would love to go to the next

Starting point is 00:05:10 step yeah yeah so in the data points one of the key questions we would ask these are surveys we send out think of like what JD powers does for the auto industry we were doing for the home care industry and so one of the key questions we call it the net promoter question, but say it's a simple question. It's how likely are you to recommend services? Or on the employee side, how likely are you to recommend employment to family and friends?

Starting point is 00:05:37 And the other question that correlated the most to the impact, like whether or not someone is going to score that high on that highly recommend question, is when they would score their relationship with their supervisor really low or their owner, then that was the number one question that would bring down the highly recommend question. That's just one example is that their relationship with the owner or their supervisor and the connection they had with them was correlated to whether or not they would recommend someone to come work for them.

Starting point is 00:06:10 I mean, it seems obvious, but we would find little nuances like that in the data that said, okay, this is, we're causing some of our own turnover. Yes, there's industry, outside industry impact, like Medicare changes and Medicaid changes and reimbursement rates and all these things impact, certainly. But the greater impact, what I believe and what we found was often the leadership, right?

Starting point is 00:06:38 And that they didn't know how to delegate, they didn't know how to really let go of things and allow other people to come up and learn new skills and they wanted to own the whole process. And a lot of these home care leaders maybe didn't have a business background when they started their home care business, right? And so with our program, we're trying to teach them not only how to level up themselves, but also level up their leadership team. And so I went back, I was beginning to say I went back and got my master's degree in, when you say positivity, in applied positive psychology which is really the science of well-being and why some

Starting point is 00:07:17 people thrive and why some people don't. I studied under Dr. Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, very well-known psychologist, and really learned the science of well-being, and that's what we've incorporated into the program, to help people solve that always-on leadership. They don't always have to be on. They need time for themselves. I write in my book, I talk about this concept of the lie of the either or. And the lie of the either or is that people feel like either I can thrive personally or I can thrive professionally, but I can't have both. They have to choose one or the other.

Starting point is 00:07:57 We're trying to help people understand that they can have both. They just have to know how to go about it. And usually the how is the tough part. They know what they want maybe but they just don't know how to get there. They're in the day-to-day of their business and all of those things and so again in May that immersive that you mentioned is kind of the foundational, we teach them the foundational concepts of that how of how to get free of all that. It would be great to understand when you started studying under basically the you know the father

Starting point is 00:08:31 of this modern positive psychology. Psychology. Yeah, UPenn is the flagship program for that. That's where I went. Yeah, it's been around about 30 years. It's definitely one of the most researched in the last 30 years. It's the proactive side of psychology so often. Behavioral psychology, not to knock any of that kind of, that all has its place, but it's more reactive.

Starting point is 00:08:59 Like dealing with the problem when it comes up. Positive psychology wants to get in front of it, right and How do we do that? How do we help people thrive from the get-go right and really own? Their their their their outcomes regardless of what challenges they may be facing Can you give me maybe three ways two or three ways that you find? Maybe it's yourself or you know others that we can remain positive and the reason why I ask is I think we live in a world that sometimes promotes negativity and sometimes people thrive under the

Starting point is 00:09:41 ability to make others negative. Yeah and I sometimes it's hard for us, I think, to get out of the weeds. We gravitate to it. It's something we're all pulled to. I'm pulled to. Dr. Seligman, who's the father of positive psychology, he's pulled to this. In fact, he became fascinated with this topic because of his own mindsets at the time. And that he even proclaimed himself as a pessimist back then. I don't believe he does anymore, but that's kind of where his mind was at, where he's like, there's got to be a better way.

Starting point is 00:10:15 And one of the key principles I think that might be helpful for people to understand is that to think positively, you've got to think about how you look at setbacks. Optimists look at setbacks as temporary, right? Pessimists look at setbacks as permanent. And if everything you're being faced with, if you can stop yourself and say, is this, is this permanent? Usually most things aren't like there's always a solution or a way around it. Now I realize in death, like when we lose somebody, that can be permanent in that situation, but how we look at it, depending on our eternal perspective or how we look at God and how we look at that, can also be

Starting point is 00:11:01 temporary. We can see that as a temporary, like we're just going to see them again, for example, or how we keep that kind of perspective. And so I think optimists get kind of a bad rap sometimes. Like we think of them, they're all optimists, aren't realists. Actually, optimists can be realists as well as being optimists because all they're looking at, they're looking at these setbacks, is like, this is just temporary. We're going to figure this out. In positive psychology, we use this term called self-efficacy. And it's a fancy term for saying, I believe I can figure this out, that I can get around this. Entrepreneurs, successful entrepreneurs are wonderful optimists successful entrepreneurs are wonderful optimists because they see things as temporary and they have great self-efficacy. Like they really believe that they can figure things out. Like when I started my home care business, I had no knowledge of home care, like none.

Starting point is 00:11:59 I had some business knowledge that I could lean on. And by I was 28 years old and most of the owners in the industry, most of my competition, most of the my referral sources were all twice my age. But I believed I could figure it out and that's what created success for me is I had this confidence and this belief that I'm just going to figure this out. I'm going to somehow it's going to work out. And I saw that my knowledge, my lack of knowledge at the time was temporary, that I would figure it out. That's a huge, huge

Starting point is 00:12:33 self-awareness factor. If we could just be more self-aware of how we view current setbacks. That's amazing. Thank you for sharing. I sometimes will tell people I'm a realist, but I'm not really doing myself a favor and Now that I think about it. I need to rephrase how I say that I also need to rephrase how I'm thinking you're right We when I hear someone who's too nice or too optimistic We almost want to make fun of them and yeah, like you said, they're not real or they're just being too make fun of them and like you said they're not real or they're just being too optimistic. Like who wants to be so happy and positive? It's really funny now that I think about it but I'm going to change my mind. You have convinced me today and I appreciate that.

Starting point is 00:13:15 So I'd love to learn, I want to learn more about the keeping culture. Yeah exactly what that means and how does that help companies? Yeah, Keeping Culture is something we created at the Breakaway 365. KEEP is an acronym. It's our second element of our Breakaway framework. And it stands for Knowledge, Empowerment, Engagement, and then Partnership. That comes with keeping your top talent. Like those are four key elements to keep your top talent. We have this keeping culture model that reinforces those four areas through various, again, positive psychology, science back. I'm more interested in why people stay in a company.

Starting point is 00:14:01 Our principles are so agnostic, like I realize much of your audience, most of your audience are not home care agency owners, right? That's who we work with right now, but it's so, it applies to every business, every workplace that the more you can instill, like help your team members with more confidence. In positive psychology, there's a theory called self-determination theory. People are more likely to stay when they have these three elements. And this is part of our keeping culture. We help our members incorporate these three elements in the workplace. If people have more autonomy in the workplace, more better

Starting point is 00:14:43 relationships, and greater confidence. I actually, I use the term, so self-determination theory is the theory that supports this, but I use a term that we've created called the arc of growth, which is part of the keeping culture model, and that's just the acronym autonomy, relationship, confidence. That when their relationships and their autonomy is strong, their confidence grows. Yeah. So when you look at these home health care owners, I know a few people that own them. For example, I have a friend, it was started by his parents and then he's now in his 40s.

Starting point is 00:15:19 So now he started getting into it and then I'm guessing eventually he's gonna take over you know their business because they'll eventually retire but I'm curious on how you know for example his parents who are in their 60s how they see this compared to him who's in his 40s and then I'm sure you like you you were in your 20s so are you seeing different generations, different people from different decades being able to leverage this, but also like their openness to wanting to implement? Yeah. Do you mean on the receiving the care on the actual workers on the culture side? Yes. Like the owners of these businesses or management on the culture side, like keeping culture and these other things that you're doing.

Starting point is 00:16:05 What is their openness to this? Yeah, so going back to that arc of growth, the autonomy is that when you think about the younger generation coming up, they're very open. Like you're getting younger ones. Like I was a little bit of anomaly back then. Back when I started, the average agency owner was about 52 years old, which is how old I am today. Twenty, twenty-three years later, right? And so that was back then. Now you have younger coming in, but what they're looking for and what they're missing often because they get into the grind of their business and they may not know how to create a positive culture in the workplace is that they're lacking the autonomy that they're really looking for. This generation, this younger generation, they want even more autonomy than I wanted 23 years ago and more freedom in their business and be able to free freedom to pursue other passions, of course, and so forth. And so we

Starting point is 00:17:08 try to work with the, on the keeping culture, we try to work with even these younger owners on helping them get all that back. And then once they get that back, the autonomy and they strengthen the relationships and grow their confidence, then they can share, they can actually do that with their team far better. Like they're in a much better place. They can't do it from down here. We got to get them up here so they can pull their team members up who are also so overwhelmed. Care professional didn't show up for a shift. You know, there's an elderly person who doesn't have someone to take care of them in that moment. The stress that comes from this, they're doing such an important work, like helping people age gracefully in their home. I mean, you can't think of too many other

Starting point is 00:17:57 industries that have a greater impact on life, right? And so my goal with this program and Keeping Culture is to help them build cultures that retain top talent, that keep their best people and get them, these owners, back reconnected with why they started their business in the first place. But they've got to get the right people, as Jim Collins coined it, right people in the right seats, and build a better business to do that. So that they're not always on, that they have a support, a better support so they can actually grow their business and then grow in their community and make a greater impact on the lives of seniors that they're carrying. I mean I keep hearing it. It's, well first off I'm in California and it's very hard to even get,

Starting point is 00:18:43 from what I hear, licensed or even get approved to do this and there's very hard to even get from what I hear license or even get approved to do this and there's like a waiting list of people that would be willing to do it because it is can be from what I hear a lucrative business but also a very challenging business from I'm sorry regulations to like you said people it's it's a very people-centric business that is also relating to people as they age, which is a sensitive subject in itself. If I was to attend your event and I have this kind of business, what do you think I can walk away with in the end?

Starting point is 00:19:17 Yeah, there's so much, you know, because it's so customized, even in that three-day event, is that we want to figure out, what do you want out of your home care business? Like, what is it that you want? Don't don't be concerned about what your neighbor here wants or what other people want. What do you want? Because everyone seems to want something different. And it and based upon that, then you create this blueprint.

Starting point is 00:19:43 So by the end of the third day, they have more clarity on again, what it is they want out of their business and how to get there. And we call it the breakaway blueprint. We help them start the process. It doesn't happen overnight, but we help them start their kind of first draft on this breakaway blueprint.

Starting point is 00:20:02 We have other tools that accelerate that blueprint, but the blueprint has their vision, their goals, and not just goals, we hear that a lot. There's other programs that do that, but we do it in such a unique way to help them figure out, okay, if I want this, if I want to achieve, I want to double my revenue, for example, in my business, because these are for-profit businesses.

Starting point is 00:20:23 When they're growing, they're making a greater impact on the people that they care for and the people they employ. So we want them to grow. And so if they're grow, if they had this goal to grow to this certain level, and it's a big goal, they've got to be willing to drop a lot of things that maybe they hadn't even thought of before. So what we help them identify is what's the 80% that's getting in your way that you have to drop to get there? What do you have to decrease and stop doing? Maybe you're doing things too manually, right? All entrepreneurs are guilty most, at least most, I shouldn't say all, most entrepreneurs are guilty

Starting point is 00:21:05 of creating complexity in their business. And so what we try to do is help get rid of some of that complexity because that complexity creates chaos. Visionaries like myself, we constantly, if we don't have the right systems in place, we're constantly flying down from up above the trees, creating all kinds of chaos in our business, you know, trying to fix things. And then we fly back up and we just created a whole mess, right? And so we're really trying to help these members. And then that three days helped them get clarity on

Starting point is 00:21:36 what is it I want? How do I get there? What are the right team members? What's the right kind of structure to help get me there? So they're building a plan that's specific to what they want out of their business. We use technology. We actually use AI. We have some really cool AI tools that they get to work with, not just in those three days,

Starting point is 00:21:57 but throughout our program because our program is really a three year. They don't sign a contract for three years, but we're committed to them for three years to help them grow an exceptional home care business in that period of time. And that three-day immersive is kind of where it starts. We're pivoting from just three days. We're actually allowing people to start right out of the gates. They don't even have to wait for the three-day immersive. We have trainings in place that allow them to start right away.

Starting point is 00:22:28 That's amazing. I mean, I've attended events not only from, like you're saying, the learning experience, the networking, and then you get to be around other people, and then you learn you're not the only one. Because like you said, when we're working in the company, we're doing 15,000 different tasks and jobs, we rarely get to network with other people and everyone always complains about the loneliness factor. I like how it's not really three days, it's really three years.

Starting point is 00:22:55 It seems to me to ensure that their business grows. My last question is around AI since you brought it up. I am very curious of how AI is transforming more traditional businesses in the sense you know of businesses that normally lack the use of technology and I'm curious how is AI transforming this industry? Because we are a traditional, have been a traditional type of industry, right? We provide real hands-on care. And so I've really been on the forefront of how we can better leverage. One of the best things I've ever done for my personal growth was picking up a new language, whether you're traveling, leveling up your career, or just love learning.

Starting point is 00:23:39 Speaking another language opens up many doors, and Rosetta Stone makes it easier, more immersive, more fun. It's the leading language learning program available right on your desktop or mobile. Rosetta Stone helps you learn naturally, just like you picked up your first language through real world context and conversation. Just practical skills you can use right away. What I love most is the true accent speech recognition.

Starting point is 00:24:04 It gives you real time feedback so your pronunciation actually sounds like a native speaker. With 30 years experience, millions of learners in 25 languages choose from like Spanish, also Tagalog, which I'm learning. Rosetta Stone is the go-to for anyone serious about learning fast and retaining it long-term. Don't wait. Unlock your language learning potential now. Founders story listeners can grab Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off. That's unlimited access to 25 language courses for life. Visit rosettastone.com slash today to get started

Starting point is 00:24:42 and claim your 50% off today. Don't miss out, go to rosettastone.com slash your 50% off today. Don't miss out. Go to RosettaStone.com slash today and start learning today. April is Earth Month, a time to reflect on the impact of our choices. Sustainability starts at home and especially in the bedroom. Did you know most mattresses end up in landfills

Starting point is 00:25:01 within a decade? That's why I love Avocado Green avocado green mattress made with certified organic materials like latex, cotton, and wool. Avocado mattresses aren't just built for comfort. They're built to last and lasting quality means fewer replacements, less waste, and a healthier planet. Every avocado mattress is crafted ethically, climate neutral, certified and made in their own zero waste factory diverting 85% of waste from landfills.

Starting point is 00:25:30 This Earth moon, choose sleep with purpose, choose sustainability. Head to Avocadomatress.com today and save up to 10% on certified organic mattresses. Dream of better for you and the planet. We talk so much about technology on this show and you know that AI is incredible for all business owners. And something that has been an absolute game changer for me has been leveraging Notion Mail, which I have recently switched to Notion Mail is the inbox that thinks like you automated, personalized, and flexible to finally work the way you work with AI that learns what matters to you, it can organize your inbox, label

Starting point is 00:26:07 messages, draft replies, and even schedule meetings, no manual sorting required. We get so many emails on an everyday basis and I miss so many things. So I love how it filters what's important with the AI organized inbox. It lets me create custom views to stay focused and it helps me fly through emails using snippets, one-click templates for follow-ups and intros. If you're already using Notion, it integrates seamlessly with your docs, so everything just works together.

Starting point is 00:26:34 Get Notion mail for free right now at Notion.com slash founders and try the inbox that thinks like you. That's all lowercase letters, Notion.com slash founders to get Notion mailcom slash founders to get Notion mail for free right now. When you use our link, you're supporting our show. Notion.com slash founders. Virgin Utilize AI and there's companies coming out like on the scheduling helping match care professionals with the client more efficiently using AI and using some of the AI knowledge

Starting point is 00:27:05 and database, powerful tools that help. Like we have, like I'll give you a wonderful example that we're using in our program, is one of the biggest challenges and this ties in with the keeping culture, is when people hire a professional caregiver, you know, a nurse, an aide, whatever it might be, is that these people have never had someone sit down and ask them what their purpose is and help them identify that. And so we've created a tool that our members use with their employees, with their team members that help them identify.

Starting point is 00:27:43 It's an AI- driven tool to help their care professionals identify what their personal purpose is and then they can align the core values of the company with that personal purpose so that person in the first week feels more connected to their employer than they would have otherwise. While this employer took the time, they had this really cool tool that I use that helped me identify a purpose statement for myself. No one's ever done that. No one's ever tried to help them with that typically. They haven't been in that process and they haven't been able to maybe afford to go to a Tony Robbins event or something like that.

Starting point is 00:28:24 This allows the home care owner to be in the driver's seat and helping these home care professionals identify their own personal purpose. Too many employers, we are guilty of telling them how cool we are, right? And what our purpose is, what our core values are. We're not taking the time to find out what their purpose is and what really drives them. And this AI tool helps them do that. And I won't give away too much of the secret sauce of that tool, but it's really kind of, it's very innovative how we use it and how our members are using it to help them identify their personal purpose. So that's just one way.

Starting point is 00:29:05 Scheduling, more efficiencies, care plans, like creating a care plan for a client or a patient in a home health environment. AI is great about giving it, here's the information about this person, please create a care plan. Now you've gotta really be careful about HIPAA and other things that could be in violation there. You've got to make sure that you're in compliance.

Starting point is 00:29:27 But it's changing even our industry and the way we go about our business. Even the way we market, right? And the marketing, that's probably the biggest impact that AI has had on our industry. That's where it started was the marketing. And now it's trickled out into the care, which is pretty cool. No, it's amazing. I mean, yeah, the marketing and that was trickled out into the care. It's just pretty cool. No, it's amazing. I mean, yeah, the marketing of everything now. Jack Rive AI is like completely changing so much, but everyone I know who's at

Starting point is 00:29:53 least in this industry, it's never that they really have too much of a lack of people that they can take on clients. It's they don't have, they have a lack of employees, culture. There's a turnover. They can't take on new people because they don't have people to work It I'm always hearing complaints from them about systems and processes like they don't have the foundational thing set Which they could never really grow in scale it becomes so hard for them to do so and they're working 24-7 So I can although I've never had this type of business really growing skill, it becomes so hard for them to do so. And they're working 24 seven. So I can, although I've never had this type of business, I know many people who do.

Starting point is 00:30:30 I can relate to listening to their pain points and seeing what you are solving. But at the same time, many people today are gonna be able to learn how to be positive, which is amazing, because entrepreneurs, it's easy to get negative. Uh, and at the same time, we can take a lot of the things away no matter what industry you're in. So Aaron, this has been great. If he want to,

Starting point is 00:30:53 want to learn more about the events, I'll learn more about you. How can they do so? Let's go to our website, breakaway365.com breakaway365.com. They can also go to Aaron Markham.com. There's two sites there that you can learn more about me. My book is on AaronMarkham.com. More front and center there if they want to learn more about the book. But yeah, those two websites would be the best way to get ahold of us. Appreciate it. Well, Aaron Markham, thank you for joining us today. I feel like I need to just open this business

Starting point is 00:31:26 just so I can attend your event. Because it's- You should. I'll help you with that, Daniel. I'll document my journey, but it sounds amazing. Maybe I can live vicariously through somebody else that I know who will be attending. Maybe we could have a reporter attend it, you know?

Starting point is 00:31:41 I just report on the event. There we go. There you go. But Aaron, this has been really great and thank you for joining us today. Hey, I just report on the event. There we go. There you go. But Aaron, this has been really great and thank you for joining us today. Hey, thank you. Appreciate the time. Thanks to tax reform, American businesses have opened doors

Starting point is 00:31:59 throughout our communities, investing in US manufacturing, workers and innovation. Spurring half a million new jobs with higher wages and better training. And setting a new record high in corporate taxes paid. Tell Congress to extend and strengthen the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Paid for by Business Roundtable.

Founder's Story - The Real Reason Entrepreneurs Burn Out—And How to Fix It | Ep. 206 with Aaron Marcum Founder of Breakaway365

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.