Tell me about your vision.
So I have this crazy vision for shooing entrepreneurs
outdoors so they stop being glued to their screens
and stuck inside all the time.
I spent the first 17 years of building my first business
trapped indoors, you know, by my own trapping.
I just figured like, I got money to make.
I have a family to feed.
I've got a business to run.
I don't have time to be outside, you know, like outside.
I'm like, that's where the car lives.
I don't have time to be out there.
It's buggy hot and boring anyway.
But I noticed that after I read this book by Trevor G. Blake
called Three Simple Steps, and he was talking about
how he spends like most of his days outdoors
and his work day is about four hours.
And of those four hours, probably three of them,
he's out walking his dogs.
I'm like, what?
And he's built like multiple nine figure businesses
starting after he turned 50.
I'm like, this is crazy.
So in the book, you know, he recommends
spending time outside.
So I started doing that.
And I didn't like it at first, but after a while,
I did like it.
And then I wanted more and more time outside
because I kept finding like, oh, I'm
getting great ideas out here.
I just have to capture them.
That's it, you know?
And so I got this crazy vision for building a retreat
center for entrepreneurs to do the same thing for them.
I was driving in my car on a really long car trip.
And all of a sudden, it was like a download.
Like, hey, you should totally build this thing.
Are you nuts?
Who's talking to me?
This is crazy, you know?
But here we are.
So I know, like I just have this passion for entrepreneurs.
I feel like they're the best people ever
because they take ownership of a problem they didn't cause.
And then they devote themselves to finding a solution.
And usually, at great personal cost,
risk all this anxiety.
The hard work.
And they put it out there.
But not too many people are really
like supporting them or helping them
to break free from all the hustle,
the work your face off kind of mentality.
And I know what happens.
Being a veteran entrepreneur, I know
what happens when you're just constantly
pedal to the metal trying to grind it.
It's miserable.
So my vision became getting them outside, almost like recess.
In fifth grade, when your teacher's like, OK, kids,
you know, that's me now.
That's awesome.
Well, thank you for sharing that.
Where would you say that your vision, I mean,
how did you get started on this journey of you going in
and going in the retreat?
And how did this all come together?
So once I got the vision for creating this retreat center,
I was like, all right, that'll be a nice thing for some day.
You know, maybe I need to build a couple of physical products
brands and then sell them.
And then I can fund this thing.
And it was going to take 10, 15 years
before we actually could get started building this.
And I had a mentor who was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
You're doing this all backwards.
Like, build the retreat center now.
And then you can build the brands after that
if you even want to.
But there's nothing that you have to, like,
there's nothing holding you back.
Just start on this.
So I'm like, sounds crazy.
But OK, maybe.
So I started looking at property.
And I told the realtor, I'm like, dude,
this could take years before we find something,
before we could possibly afford to buy it and build
and all that.
But wouldn't you know, like, one of the first properties
we looked at was the one.
And we kept checking out different ones,
like, oh, you know, it couldn't have been that easy, right?
We got to keep looking at everything.
But this was the one.
And so I started talking about it
and ended up attracting a couple of people
who ended up attracting a couple of angel investors who
helped us start buying the property.
And within months, I'm like, this is actually happening.
Absolutely nuts.
And then this passed, like, it's almost six months.
Six months ago, my husband and I sold our old house,
sold a bunch of stuff, closed a business, and moved up here.
And our homesteading, because we're like,
we want to get going on this thing.
We've got to get rolling.
And so we're just homesteading as we build it.
It's insane.
Most people are like, that is so cool.
But every day, we're like, this is crazy, but it's really fun.
What is the why of what you do?
So the why for why I'm doing this is, you know,
we have this, I at least, and I know every entrepreneur
I've talked to, has this drive to do something really
significant with their life.
You know, it's like, it's one thing to go make a ton of money.
Fine, whatever.
It's a whole other thing if you can really serve people.
And to me, it's an even deeper thing
if I can serve the people who are serving the people.
It just feels like the most possible leverage
for making a massive impact in the world in a good way.
And that drives me.
I'm 56, almost 57.
Like, in a couple of weeks, I'll be 57.
And so there's also that.
It's like, you start to hear the clock ticking a little bit
louder and louder as you get a little bit older.
And I just, I know that 10 years from now,
I'm probably not going to want to do this,
like to start this anyway.
I wish I'd started it 10 years ago.
And so, you know, as I was debating, should we do this?
Is this too crazy?
You know, people kept saying, if you don't do it,
you're always going to wonder.
Should I have?
I wish I had.
I wonder, you know.
So this is it.
I'm doing this.
I've got two grown kids.
I know they're watching what we're doing.
And I just want to show them, like, you can do this.
Think of somebody amazing to serve, that you really love,
and go create something awesome for them.
So that's my why.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.