The Wize Way

Episode 142: Wize Factor Chat: Jamie Johns - Sky Accountants

• Wize Mentoring for Accountants and Bookkeepers • Season 1 • Episode 142

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In this special edition of The WizeFactor Chat, join Jamie Johns, owner of a $7M firm, who shares his journey from a one-client home office to building a thriving business that runs without him. 

Jamie reveals what a typical morning looks like for him, the game-changing moment when he met his mentor, Ed Chan, and why working smart beats working hard. He also reflects on the biggest lesson he’d tell his younger self and the power of taking full responsibility in business and life.

If you’ve ever wondered what’s possible when you build a firm that doesn’t rely on you, this episode is a must-listen!

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2. Download our famous Wize Freedom Strategy Map for FREE - Find out the 96 projects every firm owner must implement to build a $5M+ firm that can run without them - Download here

2. Need to Hire right now? Book a 1:1 FREE discovery call with our WizeTalent hiring coaches to help find your next team member the Wize Way – Click Here

4. Book a 1:1 Wize Discovery Session – Spend 30mins with our Wize CEO, Jamie Johns, a $7M firm owner who is ready to give you his entire business plan to build a firm that can run without you – Find out more here

Wize Mentoring:

From Wize Mentoring is The Wize Guys Podcast, a show about accounting and bookkeeping practice owners and the many stories, lessons, and tips from their experience of transitioning from a time- poor practice to a business that runs without them.

Wize Claudia:

Hi, Jamie, so I'm excited to have you. It was literally the best um invite guest we could have here, because, basically, we are doing the mentors edition of the Wize Factor Chat, so who better to have here than the mentor?

Jamie Johns:

Oh, thanks. Thanks for having me, Claudia. Yeah, very excited.

Wize Claudia:

First of all, where are you right now? I can see a beach and it's not a zoom background yeah, no, no.

Jamie Johns:

So I live at. I live on the lawn, which is on the world it's sort of world- famous, I guess the great ocean road here in Victoria in Australia, so um, so this beach is about a seven- minute drive from my house and that's where I am, yeah.

Wize Claudia:

And you decided that was your office for the day.

Jamie Johns:

I decided, yeah, so what I often do is I'll grab my laptop and you know I'll go for a run and do my. You know we've got the daily non-negotiables, so I'll do my exercise. You know, once I've gone for a run, I have a, have a coffee, go down, have a swim at the beach and then, yeah, you know like these days you can be anywhere, with the laptop and the and the phone, and you know the iPhone. So why? My thing is, Claudia, why sit in the office all day when you got this?

Wize Claudia:

Totally agree. So I'm so excited because this is a perfect scenario to really showcase what Wize is. Wise is all about that and achieving that. So I wanted to ask you some simple questions about you and your firm, and then we'll go with the mentoring side of things. So first of all, let's start from the very, very beginning. When did you start your firm, Sky?

Jamie Johns:

Sky Accountants, yeah, yeah, about 20 years ago. So, um, yeah, before that I think I had about seven, seven different jobs and then, uh, I just started sky accountants from, an office. M y wife and I got married, bought a tiny little house and I started Sky Accountants. You know, it was a little bit longer than 20 years ago because, um, you know, I had another job at the time and just started in the home office, and then, I think, oh, I say, my wife kicked me out to the garage, so we had a garage, so I renovated the garage and then I moved out to the garage and that's how I started, Claudia, yeah, just with one client, with one client, one client.

Wize Claudia:

So you started from that client and then you started getting more. But when did it get serious enough for you to say, okay, I'm starting to get challenges here, this is growing, this is going up there. What were the challenges at that time?

Jamie Johns:

Oh look, the biggest challenge was just no time because I was doing everything. So probably, you know, probably about seven or eight years in, and when I was at about like 700,000 in revenue, you know, it just got crazy, you know. And back in those days, Claudia, I did it by brute force. You know, my mentor, Ed, always talked about brute force and it was just long hours and, yeah, it was all about mindset because my, you know, my parents were farmers and you know they probably worked seven days a week realistically. And I just thought that you know, probably worked seven days a week realistically, and I just thought that you know, I just need to work harder, uh, but that didn't really work in the long run because I, at one point in time, I got like, I got run down, tired, I got sick, um, and then I ended up in the hospital, I got like a, I got like an inner ear virus from stress.

Jamie Johns:

You know, like stress, um, stress, a little bit of stress, is good in your life to perform well, but stress over the long term it's terrible like it will, it will cause so many things with their health. That's ridiculous. So if anyone's listening to this and you're stressed. Don't let it go on yeah, totally.

Wize Claudia:

So we're going through this stress episode. And then you thought about getting a mentor.

Jamie Johns:

It was Ed, also one of the Wize yeah, that's right, yeah, so so it was a searching journey, Claudia, because, I'd had a lot of different coaches and mentors. and But but when I Ed ed, uh, he was just sort of totally different. Ed was all about more choices in life Ed ed was all about getting a business that isn't like, solely reliant on you, you know A a couple of books that Ed's ed life The E-myth e-myth Michael michael Gerber and The Seven seven Habits of Highly Effective People. So Ed was an extraordinary guy in the sense that he could read those books and he could apply them to his own firm in life. And so when I met Ed, I was just at a workshop one day. I met Ed and I said Ed ed, a couple of hours later on email can you mentor me and help me because I'm struggling? It was so good that he said yes.

Wize Claudia:

Oh, that's amazing. I love that. Didn't know that that was how it happened, and it's now mentioned that actually, when you listen to it, you feel like he's quoting a book all the time, but it's just his wisdom pouring out of his mouth.

Jamie Johns:

Yeah, Ed never had any coaches or mentors himself, but he read those two books and another book called How to Manage a Professional Service Firm by David Meister. So Ed read those books and he applied them. And then, yeah, and then Ed became my mentor and you know, after that, my life started changing. Yeah, wow, and Ed became my mentor and you know, after that, my life started changing, wow.

Wize Claudia:

So we're going to skip a couple of years then, because I'm very interested to know which click, what's that happened that you went from needing a mentor, receiving this mentoring for some years, your firm, it transformed your firm, your life, and then you said at some point I want to be the mentor. I have so many things to share. When was that moment?

Jamie Johns:

Yeah, well, I got mentored by Ed for about three years and then sort of just exhausted, I guess, his knowledge and just kept applying the knowledge and so I'd form new habits by that time. I'd form new habits and then, of course, a few years earlier, I'd met Brenton Ward, who's one of our co-founders and is based in Dublin in Ireland co-founders and is based in Dublin and Ireland and Warty, as I call him Warty, and I got talking and you know, uh Warty knew that I was working with Ed. And then, about that's probably over six years ago now, Brenton and I decided to meet Ed. It was actually on Zoom, I think. I think I was uh Warty and I were insane and we called it on Zoom.

Jamie Johns:

We said, hey, look, can we take you know your knowledge and everything that you've? You know taught Jamie and everything that we know, because, you know, Brenton had his Brent, he had his own skills and I had my own knowledge. And so that's about six years ago, we decided to uh form wise mentoring and then started helping you know another Claudia was only supposed to be accountants just in Australia, but, as you know, now we've probably got, you know, team members from nine countries and, um you know, only yesterday I got a like, a like an inquiry from bookkeeping or accountant in Latvia, in Eastern Europe. So accounting and bookkeeping are common the world over and that's where we are to this day.

Wize Claudia:

Yeah, that's very powerful and we're going for more for all of you watching.

Jamie Johns:

That's right.

Wize Claudia:

I actually have a question related to that, because you went from being very stressed out to having not- so- great moments with your firm. Then you went to that's right finding the the answers with your mentor. Yeah, then went from that to mentoring others. So yes when you talk to this Jamie from 2012 years ago, who wasn't in this world yet, and you see him all stressed, all you know, acting by brute force. Which advice would you give to Jamie back then?

Jamie Johns:

That's a good question. Look, the single best thing you can tell people is to find a coach and find a mentor. The single best thing you can tell people is to find a coach and find a mentor. You just it's, it's just priceless because if you think about it. You're taking someone's consolidating entire life right, to put it this way, someone's consolidating their entire life and they're bringing it to you on a silver platter. They're saying look, these are the roadblocks I hit. These are the setbacks that I had in achieving that goal that I've done. And so the single best advice I would give to people is is find a coach, find a mentor, so that you can help avoid those roadblocks, so that you can overcome the setbacks and the challenges that you know that person's already done.

Jamie Johns:

You know learning through others is so powerful, you know it's, I guess, to a degree it's no different why we spend, you know, the first 20 years of our life at school, isn't it? You know we go to preschool or prep, we go to elementary school or primary school, then we go to, you know, secondary school, and then, you know, know some of us off to university as well. But, like even you know, I did a degree, but my degree didn't teach me anything about growing businesses and doing it sustainably like it taught me really not much about that at all. So you got to keep investing in yourself, I think. I think the problem is, Claudia, that we sort of stop. We get busy and we stop investing in ourselves, and that's a real trap. If you're not doing self-development, you'll get caught and you'll get caught in a trap.

Wize Claudia:

And you won't see the light at the end of the tunnel, which is… that's right, but ultimately it happens, you turn out to be very pessimistic with your own business and lifestyle yeah, yeah, everything goes, it all becomes overwhelming.

Jamie Johns:

You know you work too many hours. You know you, you might make good money, but money's not everything. You know more choices, freedom, and just the journey, you know, like the journey of self-development is a great thing to do. You know it's a great thing to do, yeah.

Wize Claudia:

Yeah, and you somehow become rich, but you don't become rich because of money. You become rich in the experience, because of this. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, I think it's like.

Jamie Johns:

I think it's like Jim Rohn says, you know, like success you don't. You know you don't demand success, I guess, or happiness in what you want to say, but you attract it. You know, Jim Rohn says you attract it by the person you become. You know, and so I think it's important to you know Ed always said to me Jamie, you've got to take responsibility for your life. You know Ed was here and he said you know, if you asked Ed what's the number one thing that an individual needs to do, and particularly when you're a business owner, is take responsibility. And that's really the first step. You know you can't blame Claudia, you can't blame the government, you can't blame the weather. You know you can't blame your staff. You know it's like a lot of people say to me oh, Jamie, you know I can't find the right person, I can't find people. You know, oh, no one's good enough. You know it's actually not true. You've got to start with yourself and then help others and develop others, and that's been my experience. Yeah, but it's having the knowledge.

Wize Claudia:

Absolutely, I agree with you. I have a last question because we are teaching everyone how to build a business that can run without them, to set themselves free from that business that is dragging them down. And you've managed to do that. You're actually at the beach working this morning you're actually at the beach working this morning, so I want to know what are some hobbies you and you enjoy doing now that you have so much free time.

Jamie Johns:

Oh, yeah, look, that's. That's the amazing part of it, like when, uh, when, you know, the team and I, Claudia, we, we work with accounts and bookkeepers, right, and one of the things we say, Claudia, is, you know, if you weren't working, what would you be doing? And a lot of the time people can't answer it, they go I don't know. Yeah, but that's what they say. But, yeah, look what I'm doing, since I've got my, you know, I guess, life back to where I want it to be is, you know, professional sprinting. So, even though I'm nearly 53, I sprint all the time. So I run professionally.

Jamie Johns:

Um, that's been a great transformation of my life. Um, I do a lot of landscape gardening, so I've got an excavator. You know, I've got, you know, guys, toys, if you like, excavator, an all-terrain vehicle, and I just love, I love, you know, guys', toys, if you like, excavator, an all-terrain vehicle, and I just love, you know, buying properties over the years and just transforming, making beautiful gardens and, you know, just spending more time with my family. So I've got four kids and, you know, it's great that I can be there you know anytime I need to be there.

Jamie Johns:

You know, if I want to go to Sydney, I can see my daughter in Sydney. I can go to Ballarat. You know where my kids go to school there as well. So it's just flexibility and more choices. And you know, perhaps my background today just shows that it's about choices in life. It's about health and fitness. Let's face it, Claudia if you haven't got your health and fitness, what have you got? You think about it. If you haven't got your health and fitness, what have you got? It's a pretty tough life without that. So for me, my health and fitness are a big focus, and that helps me be the leader that I need to be mentally as well, so staying on top of my game. So just because I'm in a different location doesn't mean I'm not helping my team, you know, at Sky Accountants or Wise Mentoring or any of the other businesses that I might be involved in. It's just about more choices, and so they're some of the hobbies that I love to do. Yeah, yeah, they're my passions, I guess sprinting and landscaping and gardening.

Wize Claudia:

I didn't know that landscaping was a hobby of yours. That's amazing.

Jamie Johns:

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I love doing that.

Wize Claudia:

I get a lot of time you have to share some pics in the Wize Mentoring Tribe for us to see your landscaping abilities. But, James, I want to take more time from your beach day. I really enjoyed talking to you and asking all these questions. I hope you had fun too, and I hope that everyone sees this is inspired by what you share with us today. It's very powerful actually. We could sit here for hours um but, you have things to do, so do I, but we would love a part two of this.

Wize Claudia:

So we can, but it was great seeing you, Jamie

Wize Claudia:

Yeah, it was good to catch up with you, Claudia, and thanks for all the work that you do there in our, in our marketing team. You're brilliant and, uh, everyone watching. Um, you need someone like Claudia, but you can't headhunt Claudia, so she's Wize.

Wize Claudia:

No, I'm on the Wize train.

Jamie Johns:

I did.

Wize Claudia:

Have a great day, thank you All right, see ya.

Wize Mentoring:

Thanks for tuning in. If you liked this episode, please remember to subscribe and leave us a five-star review. For more practical Wize tips on how to build a business that runs without you, head over to wizementoring. com/ podcast to download a free copy of the Accountant's 20-Hour Workweek Playbook. We've included a link in the show notes below. See you in the next episode!