How to Craft a Strategic Plan as a New Business Owner - Featuring Becky Beaulieu

In this episode, Kristin Roepke and Mike Zappone help new business owner Becky Beaulieu as she crafts a strategic plan and brainstorms marketing ideas.

Connect with Becky and her business here: https://www.championshipculturecoach.com/

Connect with the hosts:
Kristin Roepke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristin-roepke-6ab0903/
Mike Zappone: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-zappone-81b9598/

Owning a business is a challenge. Knowing how to keep innovating in your business is an even bigger one. Join restaurant owner, motivational speaker, and innovation expert Sara Frasca each week as she guides fellow business owners in taking the next step to level up their business. If you've ever pondered hiring a business coach but want a sample first, come along for the adventure!

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Transcript

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You're listening to level up your business, the podcast where we talk to hardworking business owners and leaders and help them solve real issues in real time. I'm your host, Sarah Frasca restaurant owner, keynote speaker and business coach. I've spent my career not only in corporate America, but also as an entrepreneur, carrying on my family's legacy through my restaurant, now a business coach and consultant. I'm helping other businesses to use creative problem solving and innovative thinking to drive lasting change. Stay tuned to hear some inspiring guidance that will help you to level up your business. Well, good morning, Becky, how are you? Good. How are you? Kristin? Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you as well. So for our audience, today, we are meeting with Becky BillyOh. Becky comes to us from Hudson Wisconsin. Correct. Awesome. But you are a native Minnesotan. I understand. I was. That's awesome. So Becky is the championship culture coach, and I'm super excited to talk to you about the culture piece. A lot of that is in my background. So I think it'll be really fun to to, you know, swap stories and learn tips and tricks from each other. Becky's mission is to help collegiate and professional sports teams across the United States to improve their team culture. And so tell us a little bit about we're going to start this conversation with just learning more about you, your business, how you came into this business, and then what you hope to accomplish moving forward. So tell us a little bit more about yourself, Becky? Yeah, so grew up in Shoreview, Minnesota. I was involved in athletics my whole life through college as an athlete, mostly soccer in gymnastics, but did gymnastics collegiately and then went to graduate school and became a licensed psychologist, worked as a licensed psychologist for a couple of years postgraduate school, and then started coaching, collegiate gymnastics worked was an assistant coach at a another school in Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin lacrosse for a couple of years, took over a head gymnastics coach position at the University of Wisconsin Stout for 18 years. But the last three years, I was also the mental health liaison for the athletic department. So and that's where I got to dabble into working with athletes with their mental health, you know, mental edge skills, some leadership talks at some of the teams. Yeah, how did you connect to the culture piece, which is a big part of the product and service that you deliver now in this company? Yes. So when I was a licensed psychologist, and a student was referred for special education, I would go into the classroom and every 30 seconds, I would jot down what they were doing, whether they were on task and off task and what they were doing. Right. So it's like that. But I observe teams and I observe dynamic standards, body language, words, actions, really on the sidelines, in the training room come in the weight room coming out of the locker room. And so I guess I've realized it's really combining those two worlds, right? It's combining being a licensed psychologist, trained and observation, former licensed psychologist trained in observation, and working in collegiate athletics over the last two decades, and it really started as a passion is just, you know, learning and observing the common traits amongst championship teams. But this passion project, it started October of 2022, so just over a year ago, but really, I kept waking up thinking about this idea of waking up thinking about this idea. And finally, after two months, I decided to send one email. And I did to John Gordon, have you heard of him? I have not. Where is he? So New York Times bestselling author of the energy bus you went in the locker room first power of a positive team, etc. Speaker to a lot of NFL teams SEC NCAA. But I sent one email about this idea and it said something like Kristen, read me all capital letters, profound business idea for John Gordon. And then I put a picture in there of the 20 copies of his energy bus book, a picture of all 20 copies. And I said the year that our team won the school's first ever conference championship, we I read your energy bus book. And then I went on to say, Would any of the teams that you speak to and serve three to four weeks after your super charismatic speech, and the spark settles would they benefit from a culture coach and someone who was trained in observation as a licensed psychologist, and has worked in NCAA athletics for two decades to come in and do a minute by minute team culture observation, words, standards, body language, etc. to then make championship culture recommendations for the team to improve their culture, get closer to this championship culture, and ultimately impact the win loss record of their season, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And within 12 hours, his vice president Marlow and one other Angela and John Gordon companies responded, and they love the idea. And we had a call the next day. And through email, the best advice that he gave me was to do a pilot of it with three teams. So I did. So the first was Adam, Barta's Blizzard baseball. And he is a club baseball owner out of the Twin Cities, but he's also an associate scout for the Chicago White Sox, okay, was the University of Illinois gymnastics and went down there. And, you know, it can involve a Survey Monkey, where the team assesses their own culture, you know, observations, interviews, and continued consulting. And then the third was University of Wisconsin Stout men's basketball. Now, the data is what's been compelling. So teams that have used at least three championship culture recommendations, their winning percentage has gone up by 61%, in the five following games, and by 23%, over the course of the entire season in year two. So in my it's a really like innovative way to look at athletics. And in my opinion, winning is the byproduct of improving your culture. In business. My opinion is, profits are the byproduct of having a great culture. Absolutely. And I think that's where you and I are very similar in nature, even though I'm doing culture work in businesses, and you're doing culture work with teams, they really share the same ingredients, which is if you can have those the culture within your team, you're gonna get the ROI on the backside, I was super impressed. And I would read your, your return on investment of that. That's very exciting. So how did you pull this together? You know, I know you've got this background, but did you instinctively come up with the questions? And what to observe? Or how did you know? You know, what are? What are good behaviors, if you will? And what are behaviors that are not going to espouse a good culture? How did you come up with that? Yeah, I mean, I would say both from, you know, learning about it, Jeff Janssen is the biggest culture author and guru in athletics, you know, so it's really a spin off of his model. But he would say that there's six traits of a championship culture in athletics, you know, having clear vision and core values and, and align staff and systems, I would add staff to that, you know, high standards of behavior, credible leaders, those kinds of things. As well as again, I would add, like verbal accountability amongst the athletes or the team, if you will, in business, where they're calling each other up and holding each other accountable. Yeah, like that. Those are not far at all. In fact, they're very connected with what we look at for high performing teams in businesses as well. Starting with their mission, their purpose, building trust, um, you talked about that, having values having having your team aligned around the purpose of why you're there together, those behaviors I like that credible leaders piece, and then the accountability holding each other accountable. Yes, awesome. So you you observe those traits in terms of whether they are showcasing those traits or whether they're, they're not showcasing their traits. That's how I observe and document everything. Right. So it looks like you know, 1202 athlete throws his bat 1203 He sits at the end of the dugout with his head in his hands 12 Four, there's eight athletes standing in the opening of the dugout watching and cheering on their teammates at bat. So I observe and document everything, which is really like, to my knowledge, the first of its kind in athletics. I don't know if it exists in business. I'm curious if you know if that type of detailed observation and then at the end of that and really at a two day observation is optimal. You know, I do, say, interpreting data from a one day observation you should do so. You know, with some hesitation. Yeah. But yeah. Do the athletes know that you're observing them? They did not. Okay. So then they're really in their natural state. That's perfect. You know, I would say, there probably isn't something super formal like that. We have a lot of assessments in corporate world around team performance. I would say when I was internal, as a consultant, that would be some of what I would do when I would coach is to observe teams. But I wouldn't say that there was anything real formal around that. But it's very consistent around those behaviors. In terms of because it's, it's a lot of the unsaid versus the verbal. Yes. That's those words are great. The unsaid. Yes, yeah. And you can see it in sort of, you know, it's like the fly on the wall. It's Yes. And that's how I describe it is it's, I'm really the fly on the wall. That's cool. Awesome. So So you told us a little bit about where you know, how you came to be in into this business that you are driving? What what's your plan for moving forward? What does that look like? Yeah, so I mean, in 2024, my goal is to serve 15 teams. I'd say like a five year vision is to have a championship culture coach, athletics department, you know, and one to two consultants under that would be awesome. I'd love to do and there's been some inquiries in our championship culture coach on Here's Mike. Like, I guy, sorry, I'm late. How are you? Good. How are you? Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. I was backstage for minutes. I got I got a little bit caught up. Great. That's one of the one of the things I just want to dial back. So one of your goals you mentioned was to have 15 teams that you're working with. And then you talked about a culture coach department. What what does that look like in action? Yeah, so culture, culture, championship culture, coach, that's the name of the business. So championship culture coach for athletic, so culture, coaching, culture, consulting, 15, teams for athletic, okay. Okay. But a five year vision is to have one to two consultants under that athletic department. And then to have one to two consultants. And there's been a couple of inquiries in the business realm and business department. Okay. And then I would add to that, I would love to have like one to two sports psychologists in an elite mindset department. So that's really like a five year vision. 2024 is 15 teams in athletics. So just out of curiosity, I think what do you do to you know, once you've set your goals, Tell me Tell us how you how you reach them, like we need to do break them down into action steps and put them on a calendar or to use some technology? Or what do you do to reach these goals? Yeah, and here's where I'm like, Well, I mean, I'm open, open ears and open for new ideas and options. You know, like I had told Kristen, I'm just four months into this business formally. You know, I've been doing some of this culture consulting, and elite mindset work. First was a passion project athletes have reached out personally. So culture the last year and two months, you're in three months, elite mindset type of work, probably the last five years. But yeah, I'm like to answer your question. Like, what are some action items to do that is, you know, marketing, both through email, and I've had quite a bit of success with this is just sending out you know, it's like can buy by graphic designer that works for me, but a Canva designed like a complementary culture coaching session. And really, in that I just serve them, I don't sell, I just serve these teams. And we just talk about what's working for you. And what are you walking through right now with your team related to culture and then I just give them a couple of out of the box intervention ideas. And I'm batting about 50% That sign on after that, maybe just under that's impressive. So I just need to run up more but yeah, it's a really like, innovative different way to look at athletics in perfect culture winnings the byproduct so that but my goal is to have one to two sign on sign a contract per month. So in January 2024, wanted to in February 2024 wanted to so that's worked out I'm what I still feel like I need ideas about closing the deal more, or I just need to get in front of more. So I'll go home mainstream is what you do. So if I so I have zero athletic ability, maybe you can maybe consult and help me out. He'd go back in time to high school and get picked first again. What what, how mainstream is this? So if I had a sports team, would you? Is it pretty well known as a pretty mainstream? Or is this something that's brand new? So I would say there aren't culture consultants in athletics. To my knowledge, this is the first of its kind minute by minute team culture observation. And so that's pretty groundbreaking. And it has been received really well, because the coach gets that feedback. Got it. That's really neat. So part of your is part of your sales process, then, in educating them on what you do. And then you know, the benefits behind it to seems like it's a, it's a pretty decent on ramp to getting someone who's not like you're going to buy a well known product, you need to educate them on the product. And then and then have them see the value and then buy. Yes, yes. And I think that So how long is the sales cycle in that process? Is it is it a six month sales cycle? Or is it a one month? Or how long does it take you from? You know, the time you targeted lead to the time you actually close them? Yeah, that's a great question. Like, I don't think I have an answer yet. So like the website just went live in September of 2023. So four months in? I mean, some have been let me think the sales cycle has been a month, six weeks, from like the initial zoom call, most of them have been over zoom to them signing the contract. Others are ongoing. Yes. And are these are these coming from people that you've had connections with? Are these brand new brand new people, mostly connections? Which is why I think, you know, I'm getting like, I'm close to that 50% They sign on? Is just people that I've known over the last 20 years, or others in the athletic direct the athletic industry that have introduced me. Yeah, yeah, that's really neat. I'm sorry, Christina. All right. Becky, when you're you had mentioned that it's ideal to have two days of observation. What then you give a report when you're done with that observation? And then how long is the how long do you work with the, I guess, the coach with the that you would be working with? Yeah, so right now we have three packages. One is like the CCC or championship culture coach sampler, which is a one day observation, and three, Zoom consultations. I've also spoken to that team when I'm on site in person, you know, up to Season Pass, which is more like six months of consulting. It's like all defined each package. And then there's the elite all access, which is a full year. I like the names of those those. That's their good marketing. Yeah. It's really, it's a really neat process. So and I miss part of the background, so I apologize, but can you just speed me up on how did you connect to this industry? What What brought you to that? And if he said it twice, I'm sorry. Yeah, that's okay. Not so I used to be a licensed school psychologist, Mike, that's what I went to graduate school for. And my master's degree is in. And then I worked in collegiate athletics the last two decades. So it's really like combining those. Really, yeah. So So are you seeing a lot of like, is, is part of it, the pressure that's on these athletes from the time they're, I imagine when you get to college athletics, you're there's a lot of pressure to perform. And there have been, you know, for their whole lives, they've probably been pushed to get to that D one level or wherever they may be going. So is part of it, managing their expectations when they're now competing in such a such a broad, you know, broad range of people talent. Yes, and just helping them thrive through that and, you know, seek pressure as a privilege. Yeah, just like yeah, he's their self talk and their big body language and, you know, all of those things. Very, very cool. So, so what are some of the challenges Can I apologize, please? So what are the challenges that you see pretty this is a brand new entity. So you're you're grinning, growing, which is really exciting. What do you see as your as your immediate challenges to your, to your one year, three year five year plan? Yeah. So I'm just welcome and love thoughts about strategic planning for 2024 as my small team of two, you know, we'll do that soon. But just your expertise and thoughts there. And then, you know, if there's time any marketing ideas or potential like collaborations with other businesses? Yeah. So from from, you know, and I've been an entrepreneur my entire life I've had during multiple companies from zero to, you know, to selling them. What I think is really interesting is as, as your company grows, you'll have more sophisticated infrastructure, you'll have strategic planning sessions and things like that. And when it's two people, you really don't take the time to sit down and talk about, you know, are we on target? Are we meeting objectives and all those sorts of scenarios. So I think one of the things we can know, you should yeah, and it's such a, it's such a missed opportunity, like going back in time, if I can go back and tell my two person team when it was, you know, me and one other individual, Hey, sit, you know, focus, even though you're talking every, you know, eight hours of the day, you really need to sit down and focus on on the, you know, the data, what's going on. And that's another scenario is breaking down those data points, you know, achieving a goal like, like going to the gym or saving for your retirement, whatever it's going to be requires you to have a planning to invest as much money I need to save, I need to do this, I need this kind of return. So these are the key metrics to look at to reach your retirement goal. The same is true within your business. What are those key things? If you need 15 accounts by the end of 2024? You know, that means you need to be doing, you know, 1.2 accounts per month? And how are you going to get that if you have a 50% ratio, which you recognize might come down, you need to really widen the reach to say, Where am I going to get these from with, with, of course, again, you've already recognized that you're number one, you know, opportunities and people that you know, so if I've known you my entire life, you know, those connections, or are going to be the ones who can vouch for you and your existing clients being able to trigger all that. But that, that's the tricky part about starting up, especially when you have, you know, really, really talented people on your professional individual. So until most, you have all that skill set already going for you, you need to then just apply to bootstrap startup, you know, get creative and find those, find those accounts from day one stuff. Much easier to learn it going your way than it was my way I came out of open my first business at 19. So, you know, barely got out of high school and started a company. So I had to learn all of the complicated things as I was going, you had a lot of that grid. So I think it's much easier for you to do it coming from your direction than it was mine. And I'm wondering, we had we had talked earlier, what would it be helpful to give you some tips on doing some strategic planning, I don't know how much experience you've done, either participated, okay. So maybe Mike, we could give a few tips on, I just put some things down on paper that I can go through. And then you can kind of pick and pull. Because what I was saying to Becky is I've literally facilitated hundreds of strategic planning sessions. But when you've seen one strategic planning session, you've seen one. So I'll give you just a few tips. And you can kind of pick and pull what resonates with you. And if there's something that you want us to go in a little bit more detail, we're happy to do that. When I do strategic planning, and I like to start with storytelling, you know, the history of your company, and you've kind of done that for us. And what's nice about that is you can lay out, you know, what are some of the events, you know, like when you wrote that note, I mean, that was the start of your company, that storytelling, that should continue for other people who come on board that are your employees to know that Becky did this, and this is how she started this. You had a lot of courage in doing that. And that is a part of your culture, in your company. So it's storytelling around the history of your company. What can you learn from that and draw forward? I also like to do environmental scans. And you know, whether this is I was just trying to think of this for you. What's changing in the environment right now? I know in Minnesota, you were lived here for a while. I know at least here in trade schools. They're starting to offer sports where they didn't do that in the past. We have a big sports family and It used to just be JUCO that would offer sports, but now trade schools are as well. So that could be another, you know, area that you take a look at in your marketing plan, you know, do you want to dive into that type of an environment? But you just, you know, you look at what's going on politically what's going on with colleges and universities, who are really, overall they're having less than less student enrollment. So what does that mean for your business? As you look at that, so those are just a few examples on, on doing an environment scan? Great ideas, and a great point. And it already gave me some ideas. So thank you, sir. I think you know, from there's a lot of information, and a lot of different perspectives. And I think what what Kristin highlighted is so important is to be able to take the bits and pieces that you find, you know, valuable to you. Not everything is going to fit for, you know, my perspective, and yours can be completely different. Somebody else that Kristin shared that I thought was really interesting is the is the why how what scenario and I think that so many businesses, do it backwards, you know, they're saying what they do and how they do it instead of why I think that's a really, you know, if you're if you reverse that order, I think you can attract clients at a much higher rate. And Chris, and I know that you're telling me it's what you I'll let you expand. Yeah, have you? Have you heard of Simon Sinek? Becky? Yes. So he, he talks about start with why. And that's what Mike is talking about. And that can really help you with your value proposition. Why are you doing this, it's the end, you'll get this because this is your this is your, your strength, it's the psychology behind it, your gut doesn't have words. But it's the feeling that's the emotional piece. So what's your emotional hook that really can become your, your value proposition to sell to be able to sell? So that's a great activity to do in your strategic planning as well, because that's going to be a great example of what carries through into your marketing plan as well. Okay, that's great. Yeah, people 100% want to do business with the why, you know, and, you know, the, the end result is not as important as as what's at the core, you know, what are you really, what are you really doing? Why are you doing this, and I want to line up with, with what you're doing more so than it's somewhat secondary, not to take us off track. But we have a very important objective here. This is our first live stream without Sara. So it's critical that our ratings are much higher. My ever been, yes. Like, we're going Yeah, so whatever it takes, we're all committed to this call. Can I answer the why? Only because it'll help me. Yeah, my memory. Okay. So I've said My why is to inspire and improve the culture in athletics, one team at a time. And in my opinion, winning is the byproduct of doing that. And then I guess it's a why or Simon Sinek would probably call it like a just cause is I believe all athletes should be able to experience that positive championship culture, where relationships and results matter, and the athletes are on a mission, but you can walk into a gym and feel that synergy in the air. That's impressive. Yeah, I love it. And it you know, it was really it was very natural, Becky. So that that's what's important, too, is because you believe in it. It's very natural. Yeah. Okay, that's good. Why, how what, thank you. I think the other side, I'm sorry, just to remind you of the other side that I would caution you is financials, run every business and whether you're whether you're a one person business, or 100 person or 1000 running your business from a financial perspective is always sell important and understand what you're making investments into the business and when you know what what you expect your return on that investment to be. So many people think that you know, the financials or their accountants scenario, and it's really not it's the lifeblood of your company, no matter no matter what size it is. So focus on your p&l, your cash flow, your bank, your balance statement, those are going to really be the indicators. And as you're, as you're doing this, there's no shortage of people trying to sell you products as a new business owner, like oh, you need this widget and you need, you know, this software subscription and some of them are really wonderful. A lot of times you have to decide whether or not you're is it appropriate for the size business that you have at the moment. So don't worry about capacity issues that you have an experience Instead, focus on what you need now set yourself up for success. I think that's really, really, really important. And I only know that from all the mistakes I've made from, you know, worrying about capacity issues we didn't have and oversizing too early where it's really expensive. Thank you. The last couple of, you know, areas, then, you know, so I talked about history that storytelling, the your environment, scan your value proposition, a couple other ones are, I know, you've heard of SWOT strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, I like to do, I call it spot. So instead of weakness, I call it problems, because problems are easier to turn into opportunities. And then I also like to in the threats area, I like to have you think about what are some really unthinkable scenarios, it kind of gets you a little agitated around and uncomfortable around, ooh, you know, this, this could happen to me. So then, then you take that and you turn that into an opportunity, which helps you then vision for your, your future goals. And then it's kind of the rest of it is kind of just normal stuff, goal setting, using what Mike talked about around the financials connecting that together, coming up with like, five, column five big rocks. So what are your five big rocks? And then what are your execution plans underneath each of those, and then that can carry those five big rocks take you longer term, and then the execution plan, you can do that on a quarterly basis or yearly basis, those kinds of things. Can you elaborate on five big rocks? Sure. So as you think about doing this piece of work, like what you know, you pull information out of your storytelling, right, your value proposition, so we've got to keep that core. So do you create some kind of goal around that to make sure you know, I'm always going to be using this particular assessment, or I need I need, I'll make this up, I need an online, let's say you didn't have an online assessment, I need an online assessment that might become a big rock for you. Because that's going to help you become a lot more efficient. Because you've made it I know, you're not doing this, but just as an example, maybe you've been doing it manually. So now I need to really figure out what my online survey assessment is going to be, or maybe not using Survey Monkey anymore, but maybe using something else that will help you be more efficient, that could be an example of a big rock, and then you're going to have a lot of things underneath that. To be able to execute to achieve that big rock. Yeah, if I can, you know, just to kind of expand on that as as, as you're setting your, as you're setting your goal, whatever, whatever the targets going to be, what's it going to take to get there. And you're going to break that down into X number of rocks or steps or whatever they may be. And those are, those are kind of, uh, that's how you're aiming your focus in your direction. So those rocks are, are what you're, you know, you're using target fixation to reach your goal. And by saying, like, I need to have, you know, whatever it may be in your case, it's, you know, 15 clients for 2024. So what is it going to take to get those 15 clients, it's these five steps, and those are your five rocks, you're going to try to reach to reach those each of those objectives or each of those rocks, you'll have maybe 100 action steps that will take you over the course of three months to reach. And so getting back to the strategic meetings, where so many small businesses don't apply that Chevron think this way, and they're just like, well, I know, we need clients and just kind of come in, I'm going to work as hard as they possibly can. But then you're working hard and not smart. And so when you when you have a target, it's really going to help you reach your goal and being able to break down. What is it going to take to get to that target every day? And those are, those are the rocks and the action steps that we do. And there's there's a million different terms within Microsoft. I think every there is, yeah, you could call your action steps a game plan. I mean, but it's things like what are the resources that I'm going to need? How much we lost you there, Christina? Oh, she's frozen. I get all the airtime. She's like, now you're stuck with me for a second. Yeah, it's it's, you know, that strategic planning, again, something that small businesses or new businesses want to I think it's really, really important. Write it down. It's your it's your budget, it's your it's your, you know, it's your work focus, what am I going to be doing? So, and how do you recommend doing that? So, there's different there's different levels of when you know, when you would go through so setting your long term goals. And the action steps to get into those goals. And then we meet every week. So we have we call them huddle meetings on a weekly basis. I do that with both of our older clients. And with our last year, she'll jump back in. We also do that internally at peony, and I do it within our own businesses. We meet every single week. You know, Becky, are you You were supposed to have this dismissed on this week? Did you get that done? No. Why? Because I'm stuck here. Well, I can help you or we're going to come together to try to reach that goal, like what are what are our pain points? And how can we how can we move on? If you don't take that time to focus on that? And I talked to so many small teams are like, well, you know, it's only a three person team. Do I really need to talk about having my you know, having a weekly huddle meeting? I just talked to Christian for eight hours today. Why do we have to have this meeting, but because in our conversation, our daily flow, We're surviving, putting out fires, you're not focused on what the targets are. So by week by refocusing on, hey, I need to reach I needed to have X, Y, and Z done this week. And I didn't because you know, sometimes one task ends up being 100 more to reach it. So you don't necessarily understand the scope of what you're doing. So while these plans, they call them rocks, and they're concrete, and they're, sometimes they're liquid, and sometimes you need to move things around, and you're going to be moving your dates, but you want to move them proactively, because you'd like to you've discovered, you know, there's more depth to the project than reactively. We don't want to get to December 31 24 and say, Oh, I only only ended up with eight clients, not 15. We want to know in advance the Hey, I knew I was going to miss that target. And here's why it was unrealistic. And here's what I'm doing. So it's not a it's not a disappointment. It's a discovery. Great launcher for a second person I had I had all the airtime in Becky's eyes. She said, Oh my goodness, I HOPE Christian comes back on I'm stuck with this guy saved me Christian. Well, I know that you also wanted to talk a little bit about a marketing plan. You know, and I realize we're we're in a little bit here, but just initial thoughts that weren't collaborations with other businesses tips. So I think, you know, first off, obviously, identifying your core client, who are your customers, and I would both identify them strategically, like I want to pick up x, y, and z as clients. So you're, again, setting those real specific targets, and then your look alike audience who is your client that you've you've not considered right, so maybe this also applies to, I don't know, right, we'd make it up, whatever, whatever the you know, the auxilary business is going to be so identify your clients. And then I think being a resource to your clients, if you're talking about the, you know, the marketing plan you're having really high success rate with is because you're providing information when you're the expert within your field, and you're sharing that information when people are seeking that, they're then going to seek you out to become a client, that's really the best way of, of obtaining new clients does pay per click work? Sure it does for certain for certain businesses, but unless you have what's a pretty quick, like, so when you have a Google ad, and I'm going to put up know that I'm a, I'm a coach for XYZ, and anybody who's searching a term, they're gonna, I'm gonna pay Google X number of dollars to show up. As you know, at the top of that, if you do programs like that, you really have to have a 360 view of what's going on. In other words, if I'm going to pay $9, for that, click or whatever I'm going to pay for that, for that lead to come through, do I have a lead capture on the back end is all my marketing is everything leading to the same spot. So many times we go to paid marketing, before we exhausted and paid marketing, I'm not I'm not against it, it's 100% necessary. But there's so much opportunity within you know, the organic marketing, especially for a new business. So focus on all that low hanging fruit, what's achievable today, then build up into your marketing plans. And when you do market, make sure that your message is consistent all the way through, like try not to market yourself for something that's way outside the scope of what you're doing. So if you know III don't want to consult on launching rockets. If that's not, you know, at all what you're going to be doing, keep keep your laser focus. Great. I would say some of the things that I've learned along the way in marketing is to really draw from your value proposition as a part of the exercise and your value proposition is to identify sort of the pain points of your client. And then what's the value that you can provide that reduces or eliminates That pain point. And even to the extent I mean, you're doing this, you're giving them value when you're meeting with them. Also, if there's just some short tips and tricks, things like that, if you go the social media or the email route, just keep bringing those kinds of things in so that they're getting value that again, reduces or eliminates their pain points that they have to continue to show that you're going to bring value and you don't give away the whole farm, you don't give away, you know, the whole assessment that you give them little tips and tricks along the way that are very much core to what they're trying to achieve. You know, and there's, there's a balance with, you know, not giving away the whole farm and ultimately withholding information. So the other side of that is, if you're if you're not giving out, you know, there's, there's a tipping point where you're providing value, and not, you know, exposing your entire proprietary information. So I think it's really important that you provide value, don't be afraid to, you know, put out that value to a point. And it shouldn't be very strategically allocated, like, this is the this is where that point stops. And here's where it goes from marketing to you need to sign up to be a client. I find that I find that businesses struggle with that a lot. They're, they're giving out really bland marketing, like, we're wonderful can be a customer and no one responds. And other customers are like, well, here's the secret formula to our business. Well, thanks, I don't no longer need to hire you to get that. So find that balance and be very aware of it. Okay, no, that's so helpful. Thank you. Is there any any other questions that you have for us, Becky? Do you have any other thoughts on like, possible collaborations with other businesses? That's something that I haven't done yet. Yeah, I would think that, you know, like, again, I'm not a sports person, by any stretch that some of these might be really funny. But I would say that, you know, trainers, rehab, you know, especially surgery, you know, unfortunately, athletes have a tendency to get hurt, and are going through rehab, if you can, if you can provide some support to, you know, to people that are that are reentering the field, that might be a really good collaboration, you know, businesses that you can line up with. I don't know, what other where, where are some of your clients coming from? I guess, you know, that would be, I would probably look at where those clients are coming from. And then what are the auxiliary businesses that support them. So it could be the, you know, the uniform store, the or the, or the whatever, you really want to just be, you know, lined up with, with the supporting industries all the way around what your clients use? And do so if I'm a client, you know, if I'm your client, what am I doing? Who am I engaging with another B, that the circle that I would, I would start with I'm just, I'm just trying to connect some dots, there's a lot of corporate organizations, that our sponsors to athletic teams, because like I, you know, I think about Wisconsin and Nebraska. Nebraska is a great example, they don't have a pro team. So there's a lot of businesses that are sponsoring collegiate teams, like just think about volleyball and all the great success women's volleyball has been having lately. So I don't know if there's like some kind of collaboration, where you can get in with a business that, you know, is a sponsor to a collegiate team. Because that the language that you use, that would be the other piece is to maybe it's very close, like I mentioned, when you were going through those six, those six areas, but to think about who your client is, and then maybe shape your language to a business a little bit different than you would to a coach. But anyway, I was just thinking of like Nebraska is a great example of they're so focused on their collegiate teams, and there's so much money being put into that, that there might be, you know, this might be like an something that a business offers to a team to do that they sponsor it, they pay for it, for the collegiate team. That's interesting. haven't thought of that. Business offers to a team. That's great. And I guess, you know, just a question would be how much of what you're doing is when when you have all these different people coming together, you know, and it's sort of the and I can only imagine that there's an ego contest community if I'm the number one pick from my high school for whatever sport it may be, and Kristin is the number one pick And now we're both getting there. And we're, you know, now we need to be on the same team working together. You know, that's, that's probably a bit of a challenge both in, in managing expectations for myself and for Kristen as well, as, you know, while I didn't realize Kristen is so much better than I am at this or that, and really being able to, you know, put those pieces together in a really great part of the team. So is that, is there an opportunity there? Maybe at the, at the level as we're coming in, or during the recruitment process? Yeah, I think that that's a challenge that many of the teams face because it's, uh, you know, in collegiate athletics, it's often a team of the best from their high school program, or the best from their club program, and a big swim and dive team out of the big 12 is signed on will swim and dive, you know, tends to be more of an individual sport. And as they get to college, with the snap of a finger, you know, we expect them to understand what it's like to be a team player. So, you know, there's for sure some things to work through and smoothed out. And, yeah, yeah, it's a process and flowers bloom at different times. But what we do know is when they can grasp that team mindset, and that we over me, although that's more difficult, I think right now for this younger generation, their own individual stats improve. So they care about that. And that's okay. Yeah, I've noticed, you know, again, just from my own experience, have hired some of the smartest people. And when you build this dream team, and again, it's not a done deal with sports, it's just in business, I hired really talented, smart people, and then have that team just fail miserably, you know, because not getting them to come together. And just because we had, and it wasn't for a lack of talent, there was certainly tons of talent on there, but really trying to tie a rope around getting them to work together. And you know, the leadership that's behind it, and there's a lot of moving parts to what you do. So I think there's a lot of opportunities for people to pick up, especially as the generations go through, you know, my generation from the next generation, being able to, you know, what motivates them. And you remember people coming to work, you know, I had a business through the, through the 90s. And, you know, that was we paid a significant salary. And that's what motivated you to, you know, what are we stand for? What do you mean, what do we stand for? You're getting, you know, we're paying your significant salary, but that did not motivate you know, some of the workforce we needed to, you know, got back to the why are we doing this? So, I think there's a lot of opportunities in what you're doing. I think I'm excited for your career success. Thank you. Well, Becky, it has been a pleasure talking to you and getting to know your business better. So how can potential clients get a hold of you if they would like to work with you? Yeah, the website is www dot championship culture. coach.com. And the email is Becky at championship culture. coach.com. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for being on. Sorry, I was late. All our best to you Becky. It was such a pleasure to meet you. I'm so grateful. I have two pages of notes of all of your advice. So thank you, Kristen. I appreciate it. Thanks, Mike. You're both great. And if anything after this, it doesn't have to stop the livestream. So if you need anything, please feel free to reach out. For sure. Absolutely. Happy to answer some questions. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Take care. You too. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of level up your business with me, Sarah Frasca. If you have a problem in your business that's keeping you up at night. Please join us in a future episode so we can help get you unstuck. Just clicking the link in the show notes and send us a message. Please remember, stay innovative friends.