76 - Accelerate & Elevate: Strategic Planning Opportunities for Business Growth

In this episode, Steve Bousquet and Christeen Era dive into the core elements of strategic business planning, sharing insights from their extensive experience working with small to mid-sized businesses. Fresh off a productive workshop in Ohio, they discuss the positive feedback they've received from listeners and emphasize the importance of sharing valuable content with a broader audience.

Steve and Christeen introduce two key programs designed to bolster business growth: the Business Accelerator Workshop and the "Mind Your Own Business" Retreat. They highlight the significance of strategic planning, the development of business plans, and the role of immutable laws and benchmarks in guiding business decisions. Through real-life examples and personal anecdotes, they illustrate how these programs can help businesses at any stage achieve clarity, direction, and sustainable growth. Tune in for an educational and inspiring discussion that underscores the transformative power of strategic planning.

Enroll in our free Accelerated Business Strategy Webinar on August 28th, 12:30 PM MT /1:30 PM CT / 2:30 PM ET:  bit.ly/freewebaccelbiz 

Business Accelerator Workshop:  growgpa.com/GBAKW 

Starts August 10th @2PM MT/ 3PM CT/ 4PM ET 

“Mind” Your Own Business" Retreat & Business Accelerator Workshop:  growgpa.com/retreat-accel

Retreat runs from November 4th to November 8th

The Green Profit Academy Pros Podcast digs into the challenges in growing a Lawn Care and Landscape business while maximizing your profit. Christeen Era, and Steve Bousquet. are green industry experts in profit, growth, and leadership.

Transcript

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Hello, Christine, how are you doing today? I am good. It's Monday. We just got back from this long trip. So we are starting off with a podcast and these are one of my favorite things to do. Like I love talking about what we talk about and sharing it with all of our listeners. So I am happy to be doing this on a Monday. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Yeah. We got back from a nice long trip. were out in Ohio helping a company build their team, refocus and use some of the tools that we work with. It was nice. I got a couple of texts on Friday from some of our listeners who are friends of mine too, saying how much they were enjoying the podcast and how they're listening to one episode after another episode and they're catching, they're all caught up. They wanted to catch up, so they were caught up. And so that was really good to hear and how much they're getting out of the podcast. They're sharing it with other people. So if you're enjoying our podcast, please share with your friends and people that you know in the, in the business. And they're even sharing with people that are not in the lawn care and landscape industry. So if you're enjoying the podcast, share it with your friends that are in any business. Because what we're talking about really does affect. people in any business large or small. So thank you for listening and thank you for sharing. I'm super excited about what we're going to be talking about today because you and I have worked very hard on this program and today we're going to be going and going over and exploring two essential pillars of strategic business planning. The business accelerator workshop and the mind and our mind your own business. Retreat we felt the need to share. these details about this because not everyone's aware of ways that we support small business growth, especially our listeners. And it's really important that you know what we're up to and how we support you and how we can elevate your business. In this episode, we're going to be unpacking what we do. It's very educational. It's very insightful. We've spent a lot of time developing this based on the results that our clients have received. based on my 40 years of experience, what I needed, based on Christine's 20 plus years of working with contractors and watching what they needed and what she's worked with them on and how she supported them over the years and how they've grown with that support. Yeah, and I love these programs because they support one of my favorite topics, which is strategic, right? strategy plays in so many areas of the business from how are we profitable? How can we be more profitable? How can we be more efficient? And do we have a plan in place? working with all these business owners, found They didn't have a plan in place. You know, they had something written down, but it was very hard to execute and it was challenging to follow. And so that's what kind of inspired the development of these workshops. And as well as the retreat is providing the space and the tools to give them something that they can implement. They can follow and they can create it and make it their own. You know, and when I hear strategic, I'm like, what is that? Right? Sounds really, it's a fancy word for taking time out to plan, write things down. like look at where I'm at, look at where I want to go, look at what are the tools available to get there. And really that's what it is. Like even a GPS is strategic. So where are you? Where am I now? And where do I want to go? And how do I get there? And that's really what strategic is. Right. And what are the resources, who's on my team and how do I intentionally with lots of purpose, write that out and then how am I going to be realistic about that? Right. So if it's a hundred miles and I say, I want to get there in 30 minutes. Well, you know, that might not be realistic. You know that, and especially where's the traffic jams, right? Where's the constraints? And I have to be realistic about. You know, five o 'clock in the afternoon driving through a city, hundred miles might add an extra hour on. So I need to know where my constraints are. And that's part of the plan. Yeah, so we have this business accelerator workshop and it is a seven week program that is designed to equip not just the business owners, but also their emerging leaders. And we've had several emerging leaders in this program working right beside the business owner, putting together this strategic plan, like working through each of the steps and helping bring to the table. And I love this because I can see that they have people on their team helping them do the heavy lifting. And I think that's the hardest part when it comes to putting together strategic business plan for a business owner is it's a very lonely place to be and there is a lot to do. So doing it by yourself, especially if you're a larger company, can be very challenging. And having people to talk to about this is very helpful and insightful because you can have the conversation of, What are we focusing on? Is that what we really should be doing this year? How are we going to get there and who do we need to get there? So it allows that space to not only ask those questions, but to work on that, especially if you have a, you know, team member that is showing up for the workshop as well, they can help get some of those things done. So it's not as daunting. So seven weeks is about the right time to develop a strategic business plan, right? So it's not gonna be 30 minutes. It's not gonna be an hour. There's some time that it takes to think about things. You're gonna have to get some information. It's gonna have to be well written. It's gonna have to be well thought out. So we can't rush this, but it has to be time constraint. It can't be when I get around to it. So seven weeks is the time constraint. And that's a reasonable amount of time. Like I was saying about how long are you going to it's going to take you to go 100 miles for this strategic business plan. It's seven weeks and that's a reasonable amount of time. And who's on our team, right? Who's going to be with us? You know, if it's a larger company, we're going to have people are emerging leaders. So the people that were counting on our company to help us lead and grow our team. And if it's a smaller company, maybe it's just one person. Maybe you have a right -hand person, maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's somebody, a foreman. This is also a good place to start, to get you in the practice of creating this strategic business plan. Christine and I are also available to support you in this process. We walk you through week by week. And you know, the first time that you do this is not gonna be easy. Up front, it's gonna be tough. But if you do this, this is where the growth, is where the success comes from. So it might be daunting at first. It should be daunting actually. If you're serious about it, it should be a little daunting, but it's worth the work. so small or large, there's really gonna be a benefit for anyone who wants to go through this. Yeah, and it's for any stage, right? It's we have people in there, you know, that they're starting out their business. They are, you know, have been a few years in and they don't have something officially in place. So they're working on things. We also have business owners who have been in business for many, many, many years. And this is the first time that they have a full strategic business plan that they're putting together and implementing or even one at this level. So for any entrepreneur at any level, this workshop is going to give them the clarity and direction that they really need to move forward. And it takes some key elements into consideration. So when we look at, know, what's the company's mission, we look at what is your vision? What do you, what are you looking at for this, for your business? And we also look at, we call them immutable laws. You might also know them as core values. Immunizable laws are a little bit more in depth and they kind of are those things that just go way deep down into our core of who we really are. We talk about benchmarks. We go through a really great goal setting process and at the end there is a template that I have that we put all this information into and it is a strategic business plan that you walk away from in your hand. that you can hand to a bank, you can hand to your team, you could hand it to, let's say maybe a business coach, but it's going to be something that you have and you can read and use and it gives you guidance. And it's interesting because, know, people, hear people say all the time, you know, you can't find people who want to work. You know what? You can't, you literally cannot find people who want to go to work and don't dig a ditch and put a hole in, put fertilizer down. But you can find people who want to support a mission, who want to be part of a vision, be part of a purpose. They want to show up for someone who has a story that they're trying to. build something in a community about you can find people for that. if you have something, if you say, what do you, what do you do? Well, I do this, but if you, know, a thing, but if you ask someone, what are you building and you show them this, that's a different story. That's a different experience. And that's what we're creating. Yeah, and that's what we want to speak to. So it's not I know when I first did mine, I'm a high executing person to where I'm like, I like task lists. I will write something on my to do list that wasn't on there. If I did it in addition, just to check it off like that gives me energy. Right. It's silly. But I'm like, and I did this as well. So for me, when I started putting mine together. and working on this, and this was several years ago, it was really hard for me to wordsmith the story of the vision and the story of the mission. And even though the direction said, create a story about your vision or your mission, I put them in bullet points. And I'm like, here you go. This is what I'm doing. It was like a checklist. And it was very difficult for me. So I can relate with other business owners where they're like, well, I'm not good at all that writing and creating like this, you know, image of this story and this journey. And that's part of this process is we support you in doing that. And that I would say is probably one of the biggest things I do besides say, hey, how is that goal measurable? Right. Pointing that how are you going to accomplish that is I help support. Surprisingly now, you know, Miss Bullet Point here. I help support them in getting it into a story form so it can really have a reaction with people and they can connect with it. Right, and I mean, that's why we go to the movies. That's why people read books, right? They're really stories that people are sharing with us. That's what movies are. That's what books are, they're stories. I have never been to a movie where people are just reading off bullet points to me. That's classrooms, I guess. We want stories, that's how our brains think. So that's why we work on storytelling with our mission, vision, and purpose. And that's how people think, that's how we wanna connect. them. So and you are very good. I mean, I've seen people really struggle. And then you've worked with them and we help them to write that story. And it's so hard because it's not something we do every day. When they read it and people hear it. It gets quiet because people want to listen and it's connecting to people. And it's such a powerful tool to change the messaging of, you know, I want to make money to, you know, to buy things and support my family. to having a story of why, why it's that important and why is the community and why is their family important and why is building this business so meaningful to them and it changes everything and that's what people will show up for. That's why people want to work and be part of that company. So that's really a powerful thing. And it also, I think, gives those insights to the team on why you are making the decisions you're making, because sometimes they don't understand. But if we outline, hey, this is where we're going. This is why we exist. These are all of our ingredients that make us who we are. Then they'll have a better understanding of why you need to have certain items on your list, your goals, to get you there. So it's another way of getting their buy -in so they understand is sharing. What's our vision? Why are we here? What's our purpose? Why are we in business to begin with? And we have companies that not only tie their services they provide and the customers they provide it to, but also how they support their team members who provide those services. And bringing all three of those together and sharing that with other business owners and other emerging leaders, it's just so powerful and it creates an emotional reaction. Instead of just like, yeah, we can do that, know, nodding of that. Yeah, I think we could get that done. You know, it's this drive that comes up with the people when they hear this story. So I really love this method and putting these into a strategic plan. And it just attracts people once they hear it, it attracts people that believe in that same concept, same beliefs, same community ideas, same work ethics, everything that you believe in. And it just attracts them they want to be part of that. So, you you talked about immutable laws earlier. What are immutable laws and how do they influence that business strategy we're developing? Yeah, immunitable laws, it's kind of interesting when it comes up over the years talking to business owners and saying, hey, what are your immunitable laws? And then kind of going back and saying, well, they're kind of like your core values. And they go, well, what do you mean kind of like my core values? And these are just, immunitable laws are different because as I said kind of earlier, there are these very deep seated principles that you have. So they're almost just a part of who you are. You know, we could have a core value to where it's like, well, I just don't do that, or I don't believe in that. But there's these parts of us that are just part of almost like our makeup of how we were born that way, we were raised that way, we believe things in this way. So they're foundational principles that guide our behavior and decisions within our business. And like one of mine is walk the talk, right? Which means if... you need to do what you say you're going to do. I don't want to hear lip service. So for me, it's always been, well, you can talk all day, but when I see you do what you say you're going to do, then I know you mean business. So that's one of my immutable laws where it's just part of who I am and it shows up in everything that I do. And people even come back to me and they go, well, when Christine says she's going to do something. She is going to do it. So, you know, it's one of those just part, a deep foundational part of me and it will consistently show up. And there are also those things that when they are violated, we can get really, really upset. So we're just like, something's wrong. You know, I don't like that that happened. And we get, you know, there's lots of emotion that shows up. when one of our immunitable laws is violated. Yes, it can be very upsetting when they are violated. And you have to have your own. help guide people with examples, but they could be regional, they could be very personal. One of the things that we have is beyond time. And so people have different concepts around what untimely is. And so that could be a struggle for different people and explaining why that's important. It goes back to respect. goes back to being honest, doing what you said you were going to do and on and on. know, being honest, right? Even if it's a mistake, owning up to it just so we can work through it and fix it and move forward. So mutable laws are a big part of supporting the mission, vision and purpose. Because if we're not honest, we're not on time, then we don't do what we say we're going to do. When we say we're going to do it, it's hard to follow through with that mission, vision and purpose. Committable laws are super, super valuable. And then you also talk about benchmarking, setting and achieving benchmarks. So what is a benchmark and why are they so important? Yeah, so benchmarks, are standard in any business. Every business is going to have a standard set of benchmarks, and then they're going to have additional ones that are industry specific. Right. So these are going to be where you're marking like, okay, last year we were at this revenue and this year we want to be at this revenue. So where were we before and where do we want to be? So if we know what we've been measuring, then we can manage it to get it where we want it to be. So there's going to be some that are like revenue, know, sales, percentage of closes. Some of the other ones is like gross profit margin. Right. So we want to track certain benchmarks in our business. I always say start off with a few if you don't have them and then continue to add. to them. So we start off with the standards and then for businesses that are more advanced, we offer some other key benchmarks that are important to track. And this allows you to measure your progress and your performance as you move forward. So if you know where you were last year, last month, last quarter, you know, two years ago, three years ago, then we know, what is, what is our growth? What have we improved and what areas of improvement do we still have? So for my company, we want to have some benchmarks in at least all of the five functions of business, right? We want to have some marketing benchmarks. We want to have sales benchmarks. We want to have deliverable or labor installation benchmarks. We want to have some financial benchmarks and we want to have people benchmark. So we want to have, you know, at least three benchmarks in each one of those. We don't want to go, you know, they have to have meaning. So we don't want to have benchmarks just to fill up the board. so we start with at least three, like in, in sales, like how many leads did we go on? How many leads did we close? What was the average revenue per sale? Those are kind and then we can compare that to the previous years and see, we're looking for trends, right? How much marketing money did we, did we spend? How many leads did that marketing money, generate? How much did we spend in labor? How much did the labor spend generate in revenue? So there are things that we want to just track and then just compare it to previous years. So super important to have your benchmark set up. We're going to talk about that. That's what we develop in your strategic business plan to make sure that you're tracking this. And the key, the most important thing is that you track the same ones against each other year after year after year. because that's what we're going to be measuring and that's what we're going to be tracking because we're looking for trends and we want to make sure that if the goal is to increase your sales, we're tracking that year over year. If it's to improve closing ratio, we're tracking that. If it's to improve how much each labor dollar produces in revenue, we're tracking that. And you want to develop those and track that. Next is developing a business strategy plan. And that's a big part of this program. Yeah, and when you have a strategic business plan, it's going to give you that clear roadmap of, okay, where you are now and where do you want to go? And these are going to include some short -term and long -term goals. You're also going to be looking at resource allocations as well. You know, how much time is that going to take? Is that something to invest in? And one of the ways that we leverage those benchmarks that we just talked about is we look at, we're looking at where are you now and where do you want to be? And what's the gap? So what's going to support that gap that is not in place now to improve those benchmarks to get you to that goal? So we're not just putting these goals, these short term and long term goals down in the strategic plan, you know, kind of willy nilly. We're looking at what you're trying to achieve and we're tying those action items to what you're trying to achieve or what's missing. You know, let's say your close ratios aren't great. Okay, what can we do about it? We can identify some goals short term and long term to improve that benchmark from this year to the upcoming year. So, and we're making sure that the strategic plan, these action items are supporting the overall business and making sure, hey, do you have the team? Do you have the team to build out that new system? Maybe it's a new software you need to implement. Do you have the capacity to do that? is this year the year to do that. So being aware and realistic of what are your goals? Can you implement them? And do you have the right people in your team? So that's where the resource allocation comes from. We look at the short term and long term goals. And then we also like to advise, hey, and we've had to do this before, be flexible. and willing to adapt to change. So there's going to be some things that you may put on your strategic business plan that mid -year changes or you realize you're not going to be able to accomplish. And I'll just share a quick example. This year we did not have software implementation or migration on our business plan. In fact, when we were doing strategic planning last year, I said, I do not want to do any software migration. And right out of the first quarter, we decided to pull the trigger on a software we are researching and implement that software in Migrate because we realized that the return on investment with that time, with our resource allocation, was going to get us there faster if we did it now and made the space for it with what we had planned in the future because the amount of time it was taking our team to mine all the data from our services and our hours spent. So we had to go, well, do we want them spending this much time mining that data, or do we just want to rip off the band -aid and invest the time now? So that data just comes to us. So there are going to be some things that come up when we do our strategic planning where we realize we have to shift gears and shift our focus. And that means some of the stuff is going to move later down the line. So we have shifted some of those goals to be achieved next year because we made space for this other action this year. And i think you brought a really good point because you you are gonna have to shift but at least you know you're shifting in in which year you're shifting right so we've been kind of waiting to move some software down the road a little bit now we're at the point where it has to be done right we know where we are but if there's no plan and no strategic plan in place you're just kind of like well There's, you don't know when you're getting off the road or on the road and where you are in any progress. You're just kind of winging it. So at least you know when, if you do have to implement something out of plan, you know, it was implemented out of plan. otherwise you just, you're at the whim of any, you know, wind that blows. So, and then you can get back on track and you know, when you get back on track where you are in pro in process. So it definitely lets you know when you're out of track, it's kind of like. off at first, right? If you don't, if something's not the numbers aren't there, it quickly alerts you that your percentages are off. Your percentages are off. Look alert, you know, pay attention to something, something's not right. And it lets you know that otherwise you're just like, I don't know where where's my money? Where's my money? And you don't know why. Yeah. You know the why you're sharing it with your team. It's something that you can manage because you're measuring it and you're saying, hey, we're moving these things out and this is why. And, and I would also add when we did that, the team was totally bought in, in making sure that this was successful because they knew what we had to say no to with what else we had on our goals because we were saying yes to this. So they really wanted to make sure that this was successful because we didn't want to waste our time, get through it, then be like, this is just such a mess. They're like, OK, if we're going to put those things off, we're going to make sure that this thing is successful so we can get to these when we say we're going to. Right. You know, and it's interesting. So if you're a lawn spray company or a lawn application care company, you're like, hey, we're to put on X amount of new customers, right? You know that whenever you put on a lot of new customers, there's going to be a lot of new issues because new customers have more service calls. They have more weeds. It takes a couple of years to get their lawns in shape. You're to have more material costs. You're to have more service calls. you know, knowing that ahead of time. If you're going to spend this amount more on marketing, you're going to have to have this more man, more man hours to do the service calls. Your material cost is going to go up. You can know that and prepare for that. So if you're like, OK, in 2026, we're going to do this marketing push to increase our customers by X amount. Well, guess what? Now you also know you're going to have labor increase, material increase, marketing increase. So you can prepare for that in that year. So when it comes, you're not shocked by it. You're ready for it. Your team's ready for it. Your budget's ready for it. And if you're doing profit first, you might even have an account saved up for that year. You might have some money put aside so it's not stressing the cash flow. And then you're not wondering, in 2026, where's my money? Because you've prepared for it. That's strategic planning. Yeah, and that is what contributes to the long -term sustainability of a business, right? Just what you said is being prepared, planning it out. What are you going to say yes to? What are you going to say no to? When is that? Do you have the resources? Not being caught by surprise. So making sure that you're looking at your business and what you're trying to develop and being intentional about it. So proactive. not reactive and most of the growth that happens in a business is reactive. You know, because whether they are like, well, we intentionally launched a marketing campaign. OK, well, did you intentionally plan for all the other things that were going to come along with that marketing campaign? Or as we've seen in many businesses lately is, you know, through the whole covid thing, all these businesses, you know, they grew, they expanded, and now they're looking back and then they had all this you know, cash from services and all this cash from the government money that came in. But now they're looking at their company and they're going, well, we're going backwards now. You know, they're dropping in revenue and it's because they didn't build the systems and processes and the foundation to support the company at that new revenue growth. Yes. was like a flush of revenue came in and they did the dance, the revenue dance, and the executor got the work done, but they had no strategic to support it in a sustainable way. Absolutely. Yes. And that's what a lot of companies are going through right now. Where's the easy money? Where's the easy money going? Yes, I must have had this conversation five or six times in the last three weeks. Yeah. now they're like trying to change their, their business model in August or late July and trying to increase, you know, revenue by 20, 25 % for, the rest of Q, three and, and the remainder of Q four and, without cutting any overhead, which is a challenge. so they got caught a little bit off, off guard. so. a lot to think about, right? That sustainability piece. And I think that's really the most critical piece because, you know, a lot of times I've talked to people and I talked to them 10 years ago and I see them at a trade show or I see them at an event. And it's the same conversation this year as it was 10 years ago. So they're sustainable, but it's in the same model that they're not happy with a decade later. They literally did nothing to change anything. And so, you know, it's like, well, what happened? What happened was nothing. They did nothing. You know, they got a new x or y or whatever mowers kids, they're a new plants or new soil or new fertilizer, new more microbes in the bag, but nothing else changed. And they're stuck. And so if you are feeling stuck, Or you're wondering how do you get out of that? Or maybe you're struggling with how I'm trying. I'm making great progress, but it's not feeling as great as I thought it would be, or I thought it would be easier. You know, this is just as much work or more work than I thought it was going to be. the first step is this business accelerator program, right? To get that strategy, to get that mission, vision, purpose, immutable laws. and the planning, that's really the first place to start. Get it out of your head. Get it out of our heads. Get it on paper. Get something you can share with your team that they can help you build. Yeah, and the Business Accelerator Workshop, there's all this information in it. It is a really great workshop. We only do it live once a year. And then the rest of the time, it's an on -demand self -paced course that you can take, a webinar that you can take. But in this workshop, this is where we really provide the support and the support calls. if you need this, I would say definitely invest it now. So it is a standalone workshop that we do. But one of the things I love about this is we also offer this workshop with our Mind Your Own Business retreat. And I felt that it was vital that whoever was going to go to our Mind Your Own Business retreat did this workshop. So they were coming with a sense of connection with their business, a plan of where they are now and where they need to be. So the conversations that they could have and the time that they're spending at this retreat was really going to give them the most opportunity. And mind your own business retreat. It's an amazing experience. Christine and I have put a ton of time into designing this with a lot of intentionality. It is a five day immersive experience designed to help business owners and their emerging leaders. So you bring someone for your team. If you have an emerging leader to focus on an annual business planning event, tackle their biggest challenges, their constraints. as well as learn some new leadership skills. It's really a powerful event. And it's located in a really tranquil area. It's in Granville, Tennessee. It's not in the downtown area. Once you get there, you stay there. There's the kind of the lodge area. It's right next to where we meet the meeting room. It's gorgeous. The wall is a glass wall overlooking a lake. and we eat on site, there's no transporting, there's no traveling, we stay there, it's very relaxing, and it's a great experience. And we're there for that five day immersive experience. Yeah, and we intentionally designed it because we've been to retreats, we've been to events and things like that. And we want to make sure that there's time and space to process what you're getting on the day to day from our workshops that we have, the learning experiences, you connecting and having those conversations. So it's really important to have that space to think. you're absorbing and to connect with people. So it's not all day grinding it out, learning, connecting. It's very balanced with breaks in between. We end off early every day to try to make space for people to either go do something fun with a group of people that they already know or someone they just met or just hang out and have conversations. And then we come together for dinner. after that and then people have space after dinner to talk and connect as well. So I love the topics that we cover there. We're always trying to up the next topic of what we've talked about before and keep the topics diverse that support the challenges with these business owners and the emerging leaders that they're experiencing every day in the business. And so right, we don't, it's not a grind. We don't go from seven in the morning till 11 o 'clock at night, grind, grind, grind. And it's not a, like an executing task master to do list, right? If you're looking for that type of thing, we don't do that. We don't, we're not the task master to do list grind machine. Also, it is not where we have a whole bunch of speakers come in and each one talks for an hour. telling you about how great they are and how wonderful they are and then they try to sell you a course. It is not that either. We're working literally on your business, your skillset, your emerging leader. We're working on your knowledge base. It's not about selling you more stuff while you are there. So we have a nice breakfast together, then we start the day, we work on stuff together. and we have, it's kind of like, it's a workshop really parts of the day. And then we have a nice lunch. then we work in the afternoon. Then we go do something together in later afternoon. Then we have a nice dinner together. Then we'll have some educational games. and then we have some activities in the evenings. We have a nice bonfires if the weather's nice. and there's lots of conversations. The golden moments and the conversations are in between, it's a networking, it's the conversations in between the workshops when you're talking to other business owners, other emerging leaders. That's where people share because people are authentic, they're vulnerable, they're sharing, they're learning from each other. And that's where you really gain a lot of perspective and education at the retreat. Yeah, and I would say a lot of help to like, feel like the people that we invite and attend our workshops or this retreat, they're so open and helpful, you know, to share what they experienced and what the outcomes were, or what they have done that was successful for them and what the outcomes were. And I think that that's valuable because we get this truth where, you know, I don't know if you've been to a conference where You connect with people and they're like, I do this and I've been doing this and this is so great and everything's so great. Right. And that's not how business works. Business is not so great all the time. Right. It's not great for the business owner. It's not great for emerging leaders. And this environment creates the space to talk about to what's not so great and coming up with those solutions and. being positive about it, you know, instead of like, could be like, this isn't so great. And, you know, we could be judgmental and be angry about it, or we could say, hey, I'm having this challenge and I need support with this and I want to make a change, but I don't know what that change is. And getting support, not just from Steve and I, but from the people that attend this retreat is so valuable because it gives us that opportunity to learn and connect in a different environment. away from the day to day of our business. And that's one of the best things that any business owner can do and even emerging leader is to step away from the day to day to raise our awareness about what are the challenges that we are experiencing, what's contributing to them and what can we do and have some thinking time on. It is so nice because when people are away from their business for a few days, they get to recharge. can watch them just on day two. They just start breathing, right? They're not in the day to day of the business. It's not, everything's not urgent and important and they can start to think clearly, right? A little relaxation there with other business people, emerging leaders. They're having these conversations. People can relate to them, understand them. People are asking really powerful questions and they're not shooting all over them. You should do this. You know what's wrong with you. We don't do that there. There's a lot of curiosity and a lot of support. So that's the other thing, right? It's not that what's you're not going to hear. You know what your problem is. You know what's wrong with you. You know what you should do. That's not this. That's not this either. Like so we don't do that. Matter of fact, if people do that, we stop it immediately. There's a lot of curiosity and there's a lot of support. We do not do that. We support each other. We respect each other's natural strengths and talent themes. That's a must as a matter of fact. So people really respond to that and they respect each other for that. Because we want what's the very best in people to show up every time, all the time. Because that's when you get the best of everyone. say to you that the attendees, you know, we're bringing our expertise, Steve and I, and we come from different backgrounds. You know, we have different companies that we both own outside of this. We also work with different companies outside of this. But the people who show up here, they're just not all from one industry. We have different trades that show up. We have some service professionals that show up. I have some of my team members there as well, because I think it's important for them to take that time out from the business that they're running and come there to create some connections, to have space to think on things, and also get experiences from others from different backgrounds. Because even if it's, doesn't matter if let's say it's a cabinet company or... a lawn care company or an accounting company or a coaching company or a speaking company, a leadership company, we're all business owners and we have very similar challenges. And I guarantee what works in some of our other business models will work in your business model. So it's just listening to that experience and making it your own of how could this work for me and my team? And I think that's extremely valuable to be able to gain that insight and then also walk away with some tools. absolutely. You're having different people from different industries. It definitely helps because business is business. We all have balance sheets. We all have P &Ls. We have cash flow statements. We all have employees. We all have vendors. We all have clients. I mean, it's not that different. you know, typically if you really look at our COGS, it's almost very similar percentages. So a lot of it, and we all have similar mindsets and mindset challenges. So it's really good to hear that a lot of times. because it always seems like, we're the only industry that has this challenge. And then the reality is, no, we're not that special. We'd like to think that I am, but I'm not. Nope, nope, we're not, unfortunately. So this is a great lot of time. Like I said, Christina, I put a lot of time into this. There's a lot of details. We take care of you. We make sure that you're fed, that your housing is great, that you're not. encumbered with lots of weird travel arrangements or waiting for shuttles and buses. We get you from the airport to you know, the Wildwood Resort Marina. And then once you're there, you're there. And then we get you back to the airport or if you drive, you just show up at the resort and you're there and we feed you and everything is taken care of. And it's a wonderful time. Lots of smart business people are there. people with lots of experience, life experience and business experience, lots of great sharing and definitely the ROI, you you get one idea, make a couple of good decisions and the ROI return on investment on this is years and years of payback. Yeah, because we touch on, it's not just about the numbers, right? We want to touch on the strategic business plan. We want to be aware where the pinch points are with the numbers, but we touch on mindset. We touch on communication, leadership tools. So it's a little bit of everything that can help every area of the company and making those changes. And you walk away every attendee, whether you are an emerging leader or a business owner. And we even have some business owners that just send the emerging leader. Or we have people who attend together. Some will show up with multiple emerging leaders. And it creates an environment to where they can connect and talk. And especially the emerging leaders, they're always super fun for me to watch because they are a lot more focused. and have higher executing than most of the business owners. So they're really getting things done. And then the other business owners that don't have the emerging leaders there, it shows them what's possible, you know, when we bring people up and we share these types of environments, these learning environments with them. And it can be a game changer for a business. whether you're a business owner or you are an emerging leader, you leave with a clear action plan for this coming year, you have specific action items that you can take with you, you know, to focus on of what's next. And you have in addition to that, that network of peer support that you may not have had before to where you can reach out to people, have conversations, you know, and continue to stay in touch with them. So it's very powerful. This really This type of environment for me really changed the game for me as how I showed up as a leader, how I showed up as a business owner and really got me focused. So what I was spending time on was intentional and it had a lot more traction with what I was investing my time in. So it's really been a game changer for my business and my team. And some of the things that I've seen and some of the owners have shared with me about the emerging leaders is, and I've seen this from the emerging leaders myself. So they bring their emerging leaders, the owners to this retreat. It changes how the emerging leader views themselves, right? They take themselves very much more serious. It changes how the people in the company view them because, the owner took them on this leadership, right? So they're viewed it with more. higher regard and take more serious. They also have more skills, leadership skills. So they're using the choice map. They're using their strengths more in depth. So they're talking differently. They're behaving differently. They're managing differently. And it also takes pressure off of the owner because they stepped into this new role. So it really, and they've stepped up into new roles. So it has really impacted the owners. And I think that's who's getting the bigger benefit, the big benefit out of the bringing their emerging leaders. And that's, it's been brought up to me by every single owner that has brought an emerging leader that that's what they've seen. even, you know, there it's surprised, it has surprised a few of them how quickly that that has happened. Yeah, yes, a lot more traffic. for years and they were like, what? I've been doing this for five years and they come for five days and this person now of a sudden steps up. Mm -hmm. Yes. It's like they gave him permission all of a sudden and the tools and they shined into the light. So, you know, it's just like my wife tells me stuff for years and then I hear one person say at a conference and all of a sudden I come back and say, you know what they said at the conference? And she's like, I've been telling you that for years. So we don't hear until someone else says it. So that's what happens sometimes. I'm sure other people have done similar things. I've heard stories. All right, so what's next, Christine? So we went over the Business Accelerator Workshop, which I shared that that is a standalone, or if you go to the Mind Your Own Business retreat, that's included in that. We talked about what the Mind Your Own Business retreat is about and how it supports you and your emerging leaders. And if you're interested in learning more about the Business Accelerator Workshop, I'll include a link in our show notes. I will be hosting a webinar this coming Wednesday. When the show drops, it will be the Wednesday that from when you're listening to this podcast and you're welcome to sign up to learn more about the Business Accelerator Workshop and the strategic planning if you're interested. I invite you to come there. And I will also include the links for our Mind Your Own Business retreat with the Accelerator Program and the standalone workshop in our show notes today. Awesome. And I hope to see you at the retreat. I hope to see you on the Business Accelerator Workshop. It will make a huge impact on your business and your life. And as always, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast and I look forward to you joining us on the next podcast.