EXPERIENCE 46 | Successful Small Business Transition with Elizabeth LeDoux, Founder and CEO of Transition Strategists

My guest today was Elizabeth Ladoo, the founder and CEO of Transition Strategist, an international succession and transition planning company, headquartered right here in Fort Collins, Colorado. We talked about her earliest days in business and relatively young transition to consultancy, whereas she now tallies more than 25 years of experience. Elizabeth shares principles from her newest book, It's a Journey, and throughout the show she shares abundantly from her special knowledge and experience. We also spent time discussing best practices for peer advisory groups, like Loco Think Tank. Elizabeth was a long-time chair for the women's president's organization and currently serves in the same role for Tiger 21. If you're like me, you're going to love Elizabeth and this episode is full of gold and business nuggets in a super crucial business area, successful leadership transition. Let's have some fun. Welcome to the Loco Experience Podcast. I'm your host, Kurt Bear. This show is produced by me and my team and sponsored by my small business, Loco Think Tank, and sometimes others. Episodes feature a range of local and regional business and community leaders as guests in a conversational interview format. Our guests are interesting and successful people with unique business journeys, and the more business education and unbarnished truth we can uncover the better. You'll feel like you really know our guests after each episode, and if I'm doing my job well, listeners will find business principles and tips from their journey and a greater appreciation for each of our guests. Woven into these long-format experience episodes are occasional thoughtful episodes, topically focused snippets of five to fifteen minutes where our guests unfold important and timely business truths, and also I'll read the local perspective blog posts because I'm lazy to infer to listen and read, and maybe you do too. Thanks for tuning in, and if you'd like to show a please subscribe, review, and share it with your favorite people. Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. This is your host, Kurt Bear, and I'm joined today by Elizabeth Ladou. Elizabeth is the CEO founder and all the things in many respects at the transition strategist, and she's also the author of four books, one of which I was just gifted, and it's called It's a Journey, which is her most recent, and so I think let's just set the stage a little bit Elizabeth and talk to me about the trends and strategists. What is that firm and what do they do? Yeah, so first thank you, Kurt, for having me here because this is a pleasure, and yeah, so the transition strategist, it is a firm consulting firm that helps businesses transition generationally, successfully. So we work with companies internationally. Our work is primarily done virtually, we're in person now and then, but there's a lot of a lot of work virtually, and again help generation, the incoming generation learn how to take over a business and not to run it, and we help the generation leaving trust and do well. Yeah, yeah, I love that, and you're just another example of people with like global enterprises that choose to live in Northern Colorado, and we're just blessed by that. So, thanks for sharing today. I'm sure people will be tuning in on some nuggets in this conversation. How did you get in? And I guess first before we go there, talk to me about your team and how you engage with businesses, how you find your clients, who are those clients, I guess? Yeah, there's a lot of questions. There's a lot of questions, a few in there. So our team, our team is actually amazing. So I've been a consultant now for over 30 years, which is a long time, and over that time frame have figured out how to build a team that actually works in a consulting firm. So we've got, I've got a project, we've got project coordinators, we've got other consultants that work with us, full on back office, and so yeah, we're a full operating company, all virtual. Wow, and has it been always all virtual? Many years ago, I actually had a firm in Denver, and I helped to found an international consultancy. So we had 25 different locations across the world. Yeah, we were Australia, Europe, Canada, and the United States, and I decided that I wanted to be international. So I opened up a Canadian company up in Calgary, and so I had an office there, and we had to figure out, this was at least probably 15, 20 years ago, how to operate virtually. And ever since I did that, that's been my dream is to be able to live anywhere and do work anywhere and have a team that can do the same. So yeah, long time we've been virtual. And when did you land in the Windsor areas, that way? Yes, so I actually grew up in Denver. Okay. And so landed in this kind of Windsor Fort Collins area about 11 years ago. Okay, okay. And what drew you up, if I might ask? Truly, my, so my husband is a helicopter pilot. We got tired of living in Denver and needed access to the airport. Yeah. I also have family up here. My mom and dad live up here. Okay. And so we just came, we came north because it was just as easy to get to DIA and a beautiful place to be. Yeah, awesome. Well, we love it. And I got here in 99 and it was like, I'm home. Yeah. It just feels that way and still does 20 years later. That's so neat. So let's, let's go back to like, who's Elizabeth? Like, talk to me about your family, where you came from, where you grew up, and with it in Denver, what you grew up? I grew up in Denver. Yeah. So I grew up kind of in South Denver. Okay. And just had a, you know, great childhood went through high school there. Cherry Creek High School sports academic brilliant person or what was your, what was your like school experience like? Yeah. So my school experience, I like science and math. Okay. And love skiing and love being outdoors. And I always was kind of a runner and just did a variety of different things played golf. A little bit of that. Yeah. But my main thing was skiing and I'll tell you more about that later. I actually came to Fort Collins to school for a whole semester after high school and decided it was too far away from the ski areas. So I ended up at Colorado School of Minds. Oh great. And I ended up getting a degree in petroleum engineering. And then I was, I drilled oil wells for a while. Interesting designed and drilled them. Wow. Yeah. And what was the technology like at that time in comparison to today? Completely different. Yeah. Yeah. We were doing vertical wells. Horizontal wells really. Fracking wasn't really a thing yet. We did a little bit of that, but not like they do now. Sure. Yeah. So yeah, totally just different. I was mostly in Oklahoma, Texas, a little bit in California. Okay. So yeah, no Colorado drilling at the time. And how was school of minds? I know they pretty much only take like super bright kids there, right? They do. They do. And that petroleum, that petroleum school is one of the best in the world. And so it was interesting. You either love Colorado School of Minds as a student or you don't. Right. And I happened to enjoy it completely. So I was completely immersed in it. It was close enough to go skiing if I wanted to. So close to the mountains. And yeah, fell in love with it. Well, talk to me about skiing a little bit. That's obviously one of your joys. And were you like semi-pro or working on anything special? I ended up being on the Colorado School of Minds. ski team. So no knowledge of a patch though. This is not like it at all. But had a great time doing it. I think there was as much beer as racing involved, but had a great time. And yeah, so skiing is a big passion of mine. It's a place where I get to go and think and, you know, be on top of a mountain. And you don't think about much of anything else when you're swooshing down a mountain. Not really. Not really. You just get to enjoy. And there's a little bit of the adventure and some other things that go along with that that are just beautiful. I'm a motorcycleist, much more than a skier. And I think it's kind of a similar experience to my mind. Yeah. A little speed involved. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, whooshy, whooshy. And if you're there fully, it's easier to be present fully than it is in so much of our day to day. Exactly. And so, yeah. It's, yeah, I like it. It's an individual sport, but it's also social. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, one of the nice things about skiing or running or bicycling and stuff is if you want to drink more beer than you should, it's okay, because you're burning all these calories. Maybe that's good. So, uh, so you roll off to the low country then, at the start of your career, Oklahoma, Texas, whatnot, um, just live in the petroleum engineers' existence, I gather. Yeah. I was and then I ended up having my first son. Okay. And at the time, oil and gas was really not doing well. It was kind of late 80s. So it wasn't doing very well. And so I ended up deciding that I wanted to be a mom, instead of be a month off month on, because they were sending the drilling engineers that were mostly going offshore. Right. And so, yeah, being on an offshore rig for a month and leaving my brand of baby, I'm like, that is not happening. And I gather that you fell in love and got married along the way here as well. Did. Yeah. And we'll get more into the family and love story. But tell me about that where you like out of college in the work of due life and met another oil drilling guy. Yeah. I met, I met, he was my first husband and I met him at, um, mines. Okay. And so, yeah, we got married not too long after that. We kind of stuck together and we got married shortly after that and had two boys. Okay. And they are, yeah, they're amazing. And so, they're just wonderful. And so, anyway, I ended up being a mom. And when I, when I decided to leave petroleum engineering, I know that I'm a, I am a mom that needed something else to do. Fair. So, yeah, just fair enough. And so. These are some of the greatest untapped resources in the country, really, as moms that want to be there for their kid, but have a brain that just won't quit and wants to do things. And interact with other adults regularly still. Exactly. Exactly. And so I ended up, um, I decided that I was going to start a consulting company. Okay. And um, navigated that for a little while and I've been in consulting ever since. I imagine though at the beginning, it was not like transition consulting. It was consulting on petroleum engineering because you didn't really have those other skills yet. Um, actually, so I was in Colorado because I wanted to, you know, have my kids grow up here with my family. And I had, my dad had been an orthodontist. And so from the age of 13, I worked in his office and I did all of this work. And then from mines, I knew computers and computers were new. They, right. Like there were wires in the walls and plugs and, you know, yeah, all different kinds of things. We're figuring out how to run email and what not. The email that wasn't hardly even a thing then. Right. It was, now that tells you how old I am. So, uh, you're lovely. I'm like, I'm sure. Anyway, yeah. So I, um, I started working as a contractor putting in systems for dentists and orthodontists that were, you know, they were like 50 or 70,000 dollars back then in the 80s to put these in with all the wiring and everything. So I just did that and ended up then consulting for them. And I would do logos because I have a little, you know, little artist in me too. Yeah. And so I did some, uh, yeah, logos and ladders and you were their easy button taught everybody how to use the computers to just how to do this, make that work better, fix this process. Yeah. Bringing some structure because those medical businesses are notorious where they, you know, they're doctors and like they're not passionate about running a business well. Right. Yeah, they're busy. Yes. Well, they're already busy. The two, yeah, the best run medical offices aren't like really run by the doctors or the dentists usually. They've got a professional in there doing it. Exactly. Or in your case, a young person that's learning all the things and putting it all together for them. That's right. Yeah. And we ended up, um, to me, I learned more and more about private companies. And so then I started doing, I went and got some education on strategic work. Okay. And so started, I'm a great strategist. And so I started learning actually how to do that, um, how to build great strategies and also implement them. Yeah. And then I found out, do you know that only nine percent, statistically only nine percent of companies that spend money on a strategic plan actually implement them? Oh, it's terrible. Yeah. So again, I don't like that very much. I'm like, well, let's just get the strategy, get it done and move on. So I about 20 years ago started studying people, which some of the things in the book are, you know, focused around that and that's part of the foundation, but just started studying people. And how do you get people to shift and change and shift mindsets and actually implement and you know, do things well. Yeah. Can we do a thought bubble on that? Like, let's just zero in on that. How do you get people to shift and and learn new things and accept the change that's coming regardless? Yeah. So foundationally, and I have some models and different things, but foundationally, unless you believe that whatever you're going to do is going to make a dramatic difference and for a positive for you and also for others, you won't leave where you are and you have to want it so much that you're willing to give up because every single time there's change, there's loss. You give up the old ways. Yeah. Yeah. There's always loss. Yeah. And we hope there's a gain. And if the gain, if you're in your mind, see that the gain may not be greater than the loss, you'll stay where you are because it's comfortable, easy. I don't have to do anything, you know, and everybody, the relationships don't have to change either. Yeah. So it's just an interesting thing. So when we do our work, one of the things that we, well, a foundation is people first. Right. Right. And then your objectives, your why, and there are a lot of books out there on why, you know, and starting with your why, you're, well, the reason one of the reasons is because your why is your reason for moving. Yeah. It's your target. And everybody might have a little different why on the whole team. Absolutely. Yeah. Everybody does because we're all different. Right. Yeah. And we want to our vision of our, my vision of my life and what I want in mind is different than what you want. You want a motorcycle and I want skis. So does it start with like asking people about their wise and stuff like that when you're trying to institute these kind of big changes? Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. What do you want? And especially when you have multiple people, we go into companies where partners will have worked together for 20 years and they'll be best of friends and they're all in line and they're building and growing together. And then one day, one of them says, you know, I think I am done. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, it's like, well, wait. Yeah. How do we navigate this? Yeah. Because we've always been together. And now we still want to be together. But I have to help you as my partner go and live the life you want. Hopefully, you're going to help me do the same. And we're both going to be whole. And we're going to keep the business going to leverage this thing or this of that to make this happen. Right. And and we all are tangled up with financial dependency. Sure. And also experience and knowledge dependency. Because hopefully if you're leaving, you made a difference. For sure. And I was thinking to myself that I've seen more than once where the founder wants to pass the business along to one of their children and the children are at least nervous and sometimes downright scared. And they not sure that they want this gig or not. Yes. Yeah. That happens often. And yeah, the the number one reason that I found that businesses fail when when people leave is because usually the the owner left too soon. And the people aren't ready. And so there's, you know, it's big to take on a business. And if you're a child, and a child could be 50 years old, yeah, it could be 50. And they're going to do their very best. However, you know, their knowledge, their skills, how they approach it. The economy, everything goes into that. And so business is risky. And you can lose your home. For sure. And lose a lot of things. Yeah. So it's so you have to really think about it. So yeah, fear is good. But also, yeah, well, working through it and helping them to understand and gain confidence is huge. And I guess do you see that transition sometimes where there's there's fear, but earnest desire, but it just takes a training ground before they're ready or do you do some personality profiling and things like that as part of your research to understand if they're cut from the right cloth. So to speak. And is there a right cloth for entrepreneurs? Yeah, definitely. There is a right cloth. But I'll say there are characteristics. So you can see the engineer kind of coming out of me. There's a talk that I do. And there are entrepreneurial characteristics for sure. And there was a study done a while ago where about 40 or 45% of entrepreneurial characteristics can be inherited genetically. And then the other are learned. So and some of the places that you learn are from parents or people around you that you grew up with, you'll see, you know, entrepreneurs and and that. But some of the characteristics are the ability to when you fall down, get back up on your own. Yeah, yeah. You really aren't fearful. This episode is sponsored by Loco Think Tank. Loco Think Tank provides pure collaboration for business owners. We build smart, safe places to help business leaders navigate every stage of the business journey. And we love what we do and who we do it with. Our model features gift back minded business veterans and the role of Loco facilitators. And we're always looking for abundance minded individuals to add to our membership facilitator team, local community or to feature on this podcast listeners of this podcast who go on to become members of Loco Think Tank get their sixth month of membership for free. Just mention the local experience podcast on your application. To learn more, visit our website at localthinktank.com. That's L-O-C-O thinktank.com. Right. I don't have fear. Honestly, that's one of the characteristics of me. Even if I've been in close to being in a fist fight of defending, you know, I'm not scared. I might get my face beating because I'm pretty skinny and don't have any training. But I don't really have fear even on the motorcycle. I have sensibilities. I don't want to crash. Right. But I'm not afraid. Your thoughtful calculated risks. Sure. But yeah, definitely you have a, yeah, you just don't have fear like some people would. And yeah, the other thing is entrepreneurs typically will see an opportunity in a problem. So instead of seeing a problem and going, oh, you know, that's a problem and we can't get up at you also end up being able to contribute to the community and you take care of a lot of people. And so back to kind of this book concept is when an entrepreneur founder leaves a company, typically they've, you know, done their very best to provide jobs. The business typically will contribute to the community, whether it's a soccer team or, you know, the arts or something. Yeah, local medical foundation. Yeah, food bank. So, so these businesses actually, you know, aren't just about the owner. They're about all the families and all of the people that, you know, use the business and, and so as I think as an owner and that leader, that responsibility, when I see people trained to transition, they're trying to figure out how the business continues to do that without them leaving it. When accepting that mantle isn't for the faint hearted necessarily. No, it's a, you know, almost like getting into politics in a way, especially in smaller communities like Fort Collins and Loveland and things like that. Exactly. So who are your clients? Are they, you know, the, the 10 and 20 and 50 or 200 million dollar companies a lot of times that are family owned but looking to, to set up that next generation and it might not even be a family generation, right? Like some of the next owners are maybe most of the time it won't be strictly family involved. Yeah, definitely. So the, our clients tend to be businesses that are functioning. Typically they have an owner and a couple of people that are working with them. They can be any, I mean, we've worked with under a million in annual revenue. Okay. The, the typical size that we'll work with is probably five to, I don't know, 20 maybe. Okay. 25. Yeah. It's that, it's the one that's going well. Yeah. That has enough of a value. Yeah. That if they want to transition it to somebody internal like an employee, for instance, so let's take that one. Yeah. Or a set of employees that typically the employees don't have the money to just go say, hey, here's a few million dollars in cash. Right. Or even, hey, Mr. banker, I, I could, I scraped up a hundred thousand. All I need is three million more. Exactly. Yes. They, they don't have that. And so that's why I think of business transition in those situations as a journey. Right. So that, so, yeah, three foundations are one name of the book. It's a journey to put people first. And then three, this roadmap is your best tool. Yeah. So when you're doing that, those are clients that they're just trying to figure out how to keep the business whole, how to keep the culture going, how to continue to provide for the community, how to move on to their not retirement, but next adventure. Right. Because typically that's what they want. They've spent 20, 30 years. Yeah. 10 years. They want to play more now. Oh, yeah. I go do something different. Like have another passion because entrepreneurs get bored. Totally. Yeah. That's one of my reasons for starting to look with Think Tank in a way is seeing these underutilized retired business owners that and a lot of times that's men, right. And hopefully more and more women. But they get bored and start golfing and drinking too much or chasing young girls. And bad things happen when entrepreneurial type men get bored, especially. Oh, I know. Yeah. There are some of our most favorite types of people that, you know, our consultants are typically contractors. And they'll have, you know, a few, they'll be able to do as many projects as they want or not. But, yeah, those, those people that have been there done that and successfully figured it out. They're so useful. And then helping others. Yeah. Yeah. So what are some of the biggest stumbling blocks that when you, when you've seen failures, not necessarily with your team engaged, but that would have should have could have kind of stories that what's the whole that's left behind when that founder owner tries to leave too early. So a couple of holes that I can think about. One is that the so I'll start with one one is that the successor or successors are left not knowing how to weather a bad time. Owners tend to want to make the business look good and, you know, and make it pretty kind of it's like, you know, cleaning your house before you're going to sell it. Want it to even if you're not going to get more money for it, you still want it to look good. Yeah. Because you care about it. And so one thing is I've found that business owners want to transitioning good times. And sometimes it's nice to transition in a challenging time. Just because or at least have gone through a challenging time. So that the new successor knows what it's like to have to understand that. Yeah, because it's easier to run a business in good times and bad. The other one is making sure that the I find a hole where the successor doesn't know something. So in one of my in one of my talks that I do and I reference Colorado School of Mines, right? Because I graduated. I graduated with honors. And so I come out of that school. And it was a tough school. So my example is that I had to go through and, you know, I had to pass calculus three calculus three is pretty hard. And if I would have been given a calculus three problem even one year prior when I was in calculus two, I would have not I wouldn't have been able to solve the problem. Yeah. Not because I wasn't capable. But because I didn't have all the pieces, I didn't have the knowledge. And so I think about that. And you know, some of these people that are coming in, especially if they're much younger because the the gap in age, if you're a parent bringing in a child, that gap in age is at least probably 20 years. Yeah. Could be 30 years common these days. Right. And if you're bringing in younger people, I mean, the age gap used to maybe be five, 10 years. And now it's growing to, you know, even non-family, 15 years, 20 years. Sure. And so, so that's like bringing in, you're doing calculus three and they're in algebra. Right. Well, and worse than that potentially is the new boss comes in and he's 15 years younger than the old timers that have been around for 20 years. And, you know, I knew you wouldn't, you were knee high to a grasshopper. What do you mean to be telling me how to run my division? Exactly. Yes. Yeah, definitely. So, uh, so let's get back into the life journey a little bit. And so you, you're, you're banging it out, getting some consulting work. Pretty regular. It sounds like sounds like there was, you know, high demand for your services and, and circa me a little bit in terms of like, is this early 2000s by now or late 90s in the 90s? I don't even know for sure where we're at. Yeah. Well, I've been a, I was in consulting for, I've been doing it for 30 years. So I've just continued to evolve. So that was 91 when you started, really? Yeah, probably about 1991. And then, um, and then I started learning about strategy and did that. And I started that international consultancy. And that was kind of in the late 1900s. And then, yeah, 1990s. Yeah. And then, um, yeah. So then I, uh, continued on. I actually left that consultancy and went out on my own. Interesting. And, yep, kept Calgary and kept Denver. And so I was working in, okay, my revenue was almost split 50, 50 in both countries. Interesting. I just their Canadian root branch there somewhere or just a great town for oil and companies generally. Yeah. It's pretty up there. It's pretty up there. Well, I went. Good skiing. That's great. Yeah. Good skiing. I had a lot of good things, but how I ended up up there, um, was I, so as my kids, I really focused on my kids. And it was one of my, I think of entrepreneurs. They, they do things, you know, and build their businesses around how they want to live. And, um, so I focused on my kids. And when my youngest was 16-ish, I was going to be a single, right? Mom with an empty nester. Right. And I thought, hmm, what could I do? And so I actually went back to mines and talked to the head of the department who was the same person, um, when I graduated. Yeah, same guy. And, um, so I went up there and I talked to him and I said, what do you think? Should I go back into petroleum? Or should I stay doing what I'm doing? And he said, well, if you like the oil industry, go to Calgary and continue to do what you're doing because my knowledge of both, my knowledge of, sure, you know, background. Those companies have problems to solve and money to spend. Yeah. So go get them and help them. Yeah. So that's when I opened up that, that's when I opened up that Calgary office. Interesting. It's a two and a half hour flight. You can fly back and forth. And so I did that for many years. Wow. And we've only, only in the last couple of years, we've brought in a couple of several now oil industry companies, you know, that are different service companies and things. And I've, I've never really learned much about it because as a banker for most of my career was like, you know, just stay away from the oil stuff. It's too scary. And I imagine that's part of the channel and working with those companies as well. Yeah. Yeah. They, they're, um, when you look at a business, their internal types of things, strengths and weaknesses that you influence. And then there's all the external stuff outside. Right. That cause, yeah, they're either opportunities or threats. And, um, oil and gas is so dependent on those external. You can have the prices on from a nickel, a barrel up to 90 bucks or 85 bucks a barrel today or something like that, right? In the two last 24 months. In the last 24 months, it's been, yeah. And so the oil and gas industries and wild ride. Yeah. Yeah. So, so you're building this consultancy up there and kind of splitting time. You're momming. Tell me about maybe some highlights in the rest of that kind of intermediate journey. And, and maybe even the road to transition strategists. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I, um, I continued to do the consulting and, um, yeah, just grew and build. That was when I wrote a couple of the initial books and developed a lot of intellectual property. Oh. So some, some nice models and all the processes that we use in our company. Wow. We own. So the other developed by me or, um, I purchased a couple of things from a couple of people. Very interesting. Yeah. So I don't, yeah, I don't. Yeah. License. You're not a, you're not a Maxwell guy or a toolkit of anybody else. And, can I ask, um, like, where you were inspired the most by, because there's not that many super new ideas, but where did you learn how to create this stuff? This stuff. Um, so two big, two big influences in my world. Well, I'll have to say probably three. Um, I, I started leasing some tools out of Australia. Okay. And became a ran one consultant or consulting firm. And that was the international consultancy that we put together. Okay. So that was a big influence, because I learned strategic work there. Yeah. And used other people's models, for sure. Sure. Um, then I joined up with strategic coach, which is Dan Sullivan. Oh, yeah, I've heard that name. Yeah. And I was a Dan Sullivan student directly by Dan for many years. Wow. And it was fun to go because, um, you know, a day every quarter, just to spend on building and thinking about the company. And I would, I draw a lot. And so I'm very visual. And so I draw a lot. And so I draw models so that I can explain what I'm trying to talk to people about. And so that's where that came. Well, and that's how you can make complex things more simple, sometimes to understand, I imagine. Yes. And then last would be a, he's a PhD psychologist that I was partners with. And so he came in to be a partner left. And then we partnered again. Um, and he and I developed a lot of, um, great models and fun things that he, yeah, the PhD side was where I started really learning about people. Yeah. And how to, how does shift their thinking? Interesting. Yeah. Um, and do you have some people outside of just your, your experience? Do you have some psychology education as well? Or was it, uh, his, his PhD and your smarts and imagination to build diagrams and things to help people understand these elements? Yeah. So I do not have any official training as a psychologist. Sometimes I think it's 30 years of talking people into doing things. I'm very, I can persuade people as well. Um, but yeah, I, I learned from him. Yeah. And we worked on many, many clients. And so, yeah. So it's just kind of the school of, um, experience. And is there, is, I mean, you wrote a whole big, long book here and there's a roadmap and things like that. But is there, you, you mentioned, I think that kind of the three pillars, um, to the, it's the journey of people first in a, in a roadmap. Is there some, like, waypoints on the roadmap that you'd care to share with people listening in and, and wondering if they should buy this book or not? Sure. The, um, well, so in the book, um, I, we segmented it into two different portions. And it's a part of our process. So the one thing that I think it's foundational in when you're getting ready to transition is it starts soon, you know, start the earlier you start the more options you have. Yeah. So I'll just say that, um, you know, with people, taxes, money, purchase, all of it, it just gives you so many more options. And when you do this work, it's like putting together pieces of a puzzle because the dilemmas are what keep us stuck. Right. And the dilemmas, the dilemma by definition is, um, that no matter which way I go, I have a belief that I'm going to get something I don't want. No matter which way I go. So, you know, it's like, oh, I could do this, but then Sally's going to be mad at me or I could do this and then, oh, my wife won't like that. Or, and then so you walk down these roads and the question is, is it true Sally will be mad or is it true that your wife will be, you know, won't like it? Right. We don't know. But there are all things that we're thinking about. So, yeah, we imagine we paint these pictures or the stories we tell ourselves is what I learned in a different workshop about what Sally's going to think. And we don't even necessarily bother asking Sally, we just draw these imagination problems. Yes. And then, and then we draw those and then we don't move. Right. Because there are too many. Right. Right. So doing this is like, you know, putting together pieces of a puzzle and it is, it's not a linear process. It's not like if this and this and this and this and then you end up at the end, it is, oh, if I do this, then that won't work. So then I got to go back to the beginning. Right. Right. And retool. And we've definitely got a problem in customer service here. We put these pieces in a place that's not working. What are we going to do about that or whatever that looks like? Yes. Or somebody leaves or somebody won't. Yeah. So so we started with this thing called the transition compass. Okay. And the transition compass has six questions. And those six questions must, they will be answered by the time you leave. Okay. Whenever that is. And so by starting with the compass, you know, where you are today, it gives you a direction. And so the direction could be for instance, I like using roadmaps and you'll see that in the book. So if I'm sitting in four Collins and I'm thinking about going somewhere, right, a transition going somewhere, I could either go north to Canada or I could go south to Mexico. Sure. Right. Or I could stay in the United States. Well, it'd be nice to know which direction you're going. Yeah. So we start by just, you know, let's just get a direction. Doesn't have to be a pinpoint address. Yeah. Yeah. But let's get a general direction because it helps us to narrow and to organize. And it helps you to also communicate. So if you have a partner or a successor or or even your advisors, like your CPA lawyer, all of those, you can actually start to talk about a direction. Yeah. And so the compass helps you to know of those big six questions. Which ones are you sure about which ones are you kind of sure and which ones do you have absolutely no idea? Right. First time I've thought about this almost. Yeah. No idea. And then what, so that's the first portion, then take that and put that into a road map. So start today. And part of the journey is the answer. And either validate the green. Yeah. Yeah. Validate that and figure out the others. Figure out the yellow and the red because you got to figure them out by the time you go. I'm almost thinking about the game of life, that old game where you kind of wander around through these different things, but then in puzzle form. So you're like got to build the road as before you can walk there kind of thing. Yes. Yeah. That's a great analogy, great vision of that. So thank you. And I love the compass. Also, it like helps you get a reading of where you're at. It's kind of that or we can be fairly comfortable with this spot right here. Well, and even, you know, it's sort of a fact. I think of I think of a phone. And sometimes you don't want to really look, you know, you're like, oh, the business isn't what I need it to be. Yeah. Oh, you know, I won't get enough money or oh, I don't want to look at my financials because I've, you know, invested everything I've had into this company. I really don't even have, you know, savings. Right. Unless I can get a lot of money for this business, how am I going to retire? Yes. So, and you know, every, I think people are fairly familiar with a phone like, you know, maps. And if you pull up a map, one thing, one thing the map has to know to give you directions is where you are today. Sure. For you at this very moment. And even though you may not like it, it's true. So I'm imagining and maybe you could describe like a, you probably have lots of different kinds of engagements. You probably do different seminars and things also. But, but like a client engagement, I'm imagining kind of like a checkup to begin with where you're like just learning a lot. And then you give them a report card of sorts like, oh, you're going to need a lot of work here. This is the engagement we would propose. And it's, you know, once a month or once quarterly kind of engagements and coachings along with, you know, some of the key employee development and stuff is that part of that? No, not quite. It's not quite, but so what I found is that so we do kind of an interview process and it's no charge to do that just to get to know each other. Because I want to make sure that, and you know, we want to make sure that it's a great fit. And that you're in the right place and that we could be helpful. Because sometimes there's work to be done before you're ready to do the work. And then we have a packet that we can give you that says, you know, these are some things that you might want to focus on. And we could kind of if you get your GED with this kind of stuff and come back and talk. Then you'll be ready. And we can do some coaching at that level if, you know, if you're interested. So we can help with that strategy side to build, grow, develop, and do that kind of thing. And then with the transition work, that everything we do is basically flat rated. So it's a project. And so we're project focused. And I like that because we have milestones. We've got deliverables and then people know what they're buying and then know what they're going to get. Yeah, yeah. And it's not, I will tell you that the documents that somebody receives, those are nice. Right. Really the value in any coaching worker, any consulting work is your process and going through it. Yeah. It's what you learn and how you shift and think when you get done because then you're on your way. It's like joining a gym but with also getting a personal trainer. Like there's a lot of work to do. We have a lot of opportunity to get you stronger, skinnier, faster, whatever. You're going to do a lot of the work and here's my part. Exactly. So that's really interesting. I guess talk to me about other stages or is there something else? Oh, well, I have one thing that I want to make sure. And it was in a conversation that I had a few days ago. We actually help you implement the whole thing. So in that, you know, once we finish the roadmap and we know what we're going, then we start working on things like governance and relationships and communication and letting go and engaging because, yeah, the successor coming in and then the person transitioning. The person transitioning is used to leading. The successors used to following right. And what you're trying to do is get those to flip where the successor leads and right, the owner of the who's leaving starts to follow follows, but also cheerleads and yeah. And their number one job becomes to help others be successful without them. Yeah. Which is a really interesting job to have. Right. That is a really interesting job to have. Yeah. A parent is kind of the most like that that I can think of. You're out ready to go to the nest now. You know, go on. Yeah. Yeah. And it's kind of the same. So anyway, I just, some of the clients that we have have been with us for six, seven, eight, nine years. Oh, yeah. And yeah, when we help their second generations learn and grow. And even after that transition has passed, they may retain you on a monthly or quarterly basis to do project work within that and talk about how much work you need. Yep. Keep people. It takes years to transition. Yeah. Yeah. It takes years to make sure that. Yeah. Well, in the early start, the more options you have. Exactly. So, um, I guess talk to me about some of your other pursuits as well as you're a Tiger 21 chair. Right. Do you want to talk about that? Is that something you're at liberty to even talk about? Yeah. I can tell a little bit about. So over my career, I am a, I am a connector. And I also love bringing people together that don't know each other. Oh, I have the same hobby. It's a great great hobby. Um, so I, I enjoy traditions, which is why, you know, maybe I value this work comes from my heart, truly the work that I do. Um, so I am a Tiger 21 chair. And that's a, basically, it's individuals who have been in a successful business. They've probably had a liquidity of an event of some sort. And more zero has done my own liquidity with more zeros. Yes. Yeah. Because the minimum is 10 million in investable assets. So, and they can be invested. But they, they have, you know, had a good liquidity event. Right. And yeah. And we, um, it's just a peer learning group. And it's a lot like what local think tank does just much wealthier people. Yes. And, and people that are, um, have, they're looking for that next adventure. And we talk about, um, philanthropy, and we talk about all different kinds of things. And they're very engaged in the communities and yeah, all of that. So it's really a, especially in Colorado. I think it's an amazing group of people. That's awesome. I was, I was going to say like it feels to me from the outside looking in that it's a very heart-forward kind of an organization. Even those, these are big, wealthy individuals. They, they want to do good with what they've been blessed with. Yeah. That meant very grateful. Yeah. How does one get into something like that? How did I do that? Yeah. And somebody from Tiger like recruit you like, hey, you'd be a, I ended it. Share. Yeah. I ended up getting recruited. But I also have, um, I, I was a facilitator of groups, um, for 14 years. I did the woman president's organization. Okay. Yep. And I chaired the Denver group. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. I took it over when it was a few years old and, um, then managed it and grew it for 14 years. So I had that group. So the, the WPO is women owners, entrepreneurs who are what they would call tier two. Women entrepreneurs, which means they're, um, a couple million or more in annual revenues. Yeah. Yeah. And when I started, they were, they were hard to find. And now they're much more prevalent. So then I went up and founded Calgary, of course. Okay. Sure. Hey, because I was up there anyway. Good skiing up there. Yeah. Good skiing up there. So I went up and did that. And then I turned that over, um, to another lady. And she still is chairing that also. And then, um, helped another chair start the second Denver group in about two and a half years ago. I gave that my group to her. So she's now managing out of Denver too. And there also is one in Northern Colorado. Oh, there is. That I helped to get off the ground as well. That's good. Yeah. So if anybody wants to know more about that, yeah, they can go to look up the women president's organization. It's an amazing group of people also. Yeah. Yeah. And that peer learning, um, is invaluable. And what is that a standalone organization, WPO, um, it's separate from anything, Vistage or Renaissance Forum or young presidents or whatever. Yeah, it is. It was founded, Marsha Firestone. Okay. Is the lady that founded it and she, um, it's headquartered in New York. Been around for a long, long time and it's international worldwide. Okay. So I just did a podcast or a webinar actually, um, seminar for 30 women owners in South Africa. Oh, is that right? Yeah. That's great. Yeah. 30 women owners in South Africa and on, you know, the concepts of transitioning well. Yeah. Yeah. One of our active members today is a former member of WPO in Denver. Nice. She liked the shorter commute and the different price point as well. You bet. You bet. But I'm very frankly, everybody, whether it's Tiger 21 or WPO or local, like I'm a big fan of peer advisory and there's way too many owners slugging it out, trying to make the same problems go away with the same kind of decisions that they've been doing. And just to get these kind of peer learning things together, I just think there's a lot of opportunity for way, way, way more. It's, it's incredible being a chair and being in the position because now I'm close to 17, 18 years that I've been doing, you know, facilitating groups like this. Yeah. And what I've seen, um, in just how quickly people can take in information and do things differently instead of, you know, pounding it out. Yeah. And the number one way that adults learn is from each other. Totally. And it's that. And that, but you have to have trust and those kinds of things. So the repetitiveness of any organization like that is so valuable. Well, and getting through those hard times, you know, it's, it's a lot harder to make the decision to let a long time employee go to say to be a steward of the company in a declining revenue environment. If you've got other peers saying, hey, Elizabeth, it's time. Yeah. You know, I know that they're a great team, but you got to cut your expenses by 50,000 a month. Yeah. And you got to figure out how to do it quick. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That's a wasting or even, yeah, those ideas and, you know, support and up to and including gosh, in our WPO, there was a lady that had to, she found out that she had cancer and she needed to be out for about three months to do, you know, surgery and chemo and everything else. And the members stepped in and they took turns and went in and they managed her company for her. And they they helped out her team so that and when she got back, she came back to a stronger company than she had before, probably because of those different perspectives and having to turn over stones that hadn't been looked under maybe and stuff. Yeah. And it's so yeah, the community is, oh, I'm kidding. The community is a big deal. Emotional, it seems like you are as well. We've got a tissue over here if we need it. Well, that's great. And I think we share a passion for that kind of thing. And so, I guess if you wanted to share some like best practices of facilitation of both learned from WPO and Tiger, is there, you know, do you have like a little roadmap of the top three things or five things that a facilitator really has to do well? Yeah. So first, I think selecting and helping the group come together, helping the group to have some common values and common ground. Because one, one member who doesn't fit, yeah, really makes changes the dynamic. One bad apple kind of spoils the barrel of the group. Yeah. And it's the chair's job to help to make that happen all the time. Yeah. So including have the card conversation. So that's one thing. Second, the members help them to give and receive. So, you know, it goes both ways. And in a good peer learning organization, you have every single person is learning even if you're working on somebody else's issue. Totally. Right. If you structure it properly, so it's not about them, it's about every single person participating. That's how you get that. I love the diversity of that. And then I just blanked out my last one is that the facilitator, if you can create a safe split, a safe place for any conversation to happen. Because it's sort of a sacred room. Yeah. Where anything can be discussed, it's confidential. And no one's judged. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a safe place to come and just kind of bear your soul and go, wow, my life is falling apart. I love we I like to say two parts board meeting, one part support group sometimes. There you go. And you know, you can process those hard questions here. Also, I don't know if I shared a motto, I bet not, but it's a ask of your needs and share of your abundance. Oh, nice. And it goes right to that given receive. Everybody's got to give. Everybody's got to receive. And you don't have all the answers. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here, I guess. That's true. And yeah. And to that point, your life, you know, you're sharing the things that are falling apart, but you're also sharing like, oh my gosh, I just got an offer for $20 or $30 million. I never thought it'd be worth five. So, you know, what do I do? And even being encouraged, you know, because most of us have an imagination of what our business is going to look like and we're still far away from that thing. That's that poll that keeps you pulling toward it. But have fellow members that say, hey, look back and look at what you've done in the last three years. You know, your twice is big and you've got a much stronger team than you did before. And so give yourself credit because you didn't see Bob leaving and that's going to have a hard impact on your company. But people leave, you know, stuff happens. And celebrate because we so forget to celebrate as owners and as as even leaders, you just keep on plowing. Yeah. And yeah, take a moment. Yeah. And even even just that positive peer pressure to say, hey, you guys just past five years at your new location or this with that. Did you celebrate that with your team yet? Because I don't think I heard anything about it. If you did, you know, yeah. So, uh, so we'll talk to me. Um, I guess other like business principles are our life journey stuff that's really highlights that we might have breased by. That's a big open point. It sure is. Yeah. Well, we're going to jump into our faith family politics segment here for too long. And so that's where I would, that's probably where I would go is, um, uh, yeah, when I think just, I think a practice of gratefulness is, again, important, um, business owners tend to tackle problems, tackle issues. Sometimes, you know, they, they thrive on that. Yeah. Tackling that and fixing it and, and that and that's part of their cycle. Right. Is to do that. But I think, um, the, just a practice of gratefulness is important because they're, there are so many good things that are going on right now. Yeah. And in life, yeah. So awesome. I love that. I think that's, uh, I kept a gratitude journal and I'm still supposed to be writing it every Monday and Friday morning, but I've been slacken for like three weeks now. Oh, no. Yeah. But it's still a lot of gratitude. I've been expressing over this time. Yeah. Well, thank you for that. Um, let's jump in, uh, faith, family politics. What, uh, what do you have the most to say about and, uh, and say as much or as little as you care to you? Yeah. So, um, I think in faith, so I, I definitely have a lot of faith, um, in my world and in my life. And one of the things that I found is that when I take the time to slow down and actually pay attention and listen to the universe, which skiing helps me to do that, right? Running helps me to do that. Just getting out a little bit out of my element. Um, then I can see the direction. And so I think paying attention and, uh, and doing that. So faith is important. And in order to do that, you do need to be grounded. So the kind of that rat race where we're getting up and plowing through and getting up and plowing through again. And we stay on that, you know, that treadmill. Yeah. Um, we actually don't have time to think. And business owners, it was one thing that I learned from my PhD business partner is, um, even, there's a reason why kids go on recess. Right. There is. And he used to tell me that he'd say, you know, there's a reason why kids go on recess. And I would be running along, you know, just doing my thing and go and we were going to have lunch and he goes, you know, we're going to take five minutes and go one, one loop around the park. Yeah. Right next door. So we go one loop around the park. And I would come back refreshed and ready. Yeah. And ready to go sometimes with an idea that solved that tricky puzzle you were coming for. Yes. Yeah. So being grounded means that you have time to think in that you have time to use your thinking brain and not your reactive brain. And we're so used to being, you know, I think right now on the treadmill all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that would be my, my faith is take time to stop and listen to the universe because it tells you where to go. Yeah. I've shared that whether you think it's, you know, God's plan for you or the universe sending you signals or being in the flow state, it's all the same thing. And if you just open yourself up to it and take time to listen, you might hear just hear something. Yeah. And I truly believe it. I truly believe it's God's plan. I believe that we are every single one of us is different. We all have our natural wiring that and it's one of the tools that I own and use. Ask me if I use a profiling tool. Okay. Yeah. That's what I use. And truly, I just, I think that it is God's plan. Some people prefer the universe. And I actually believe there's both. I think, yeah. Yeah. I think there's energy, but that's part of being a petroleum engineer. There's, and we know because of cellular phones and everything else, there's a lot of energy that you can't see that is around us. Totally. You know, not just there's all there's all the people's creative energies and thoughts and fears and things like that. And then not to mention all the just cell phone signals and power lines and this and that is just a field around us all the time. That's right. Yeah. So that's faith, family, gosh, family first. Well, this tells the story. My brother, my dad, my mother, we used to go skiing and they sat us down once and they said, they said, you don't know it yet, but you two are best friends and you will be for your entire lives. That's awesome. Because you can always count on each other. And this is your brother sister. My brother. Okay. Only one brother. Do you want to name him? Yeah, Eric, Eric Blake. And he's a CPA down in Denver. All right. Yeah. And your best friends still? We are best friends. And it's really interesting, but you know, we were told that from when we were young and we were taught great values and we were taught how to how to navigate not getting along. Because we know that we don't get along all the time. Right. But we know that when, you know, foundationally, if I need him or he needs me, that we're best friends. Yeah. And so I think of family first. And I think of, I go to transitions. I'm working with two brothers. Okay. Out of, yeah, they're on the West Coast right now. And they're coming together to be partners and their family put them together to be partners. Interesting. And they didn't trust each other. So I said, well, we might want to pause this transition for a moment. And let's figure out if these two want to be partners and how they want to be partners. And if they trust each other and all of that. And you know, they're coming back together because family glues you together. Yeah. Yeah. You don't get to choose your family. But anyway, family, I would just say great values start early with your kids and and remember that there's a lot of good in family. And you have two boys, is that right? I have two boys and a stepdaughter. Okay. Yeah. And I like to do even though they're probably nearing adulthood or they're in their 30s, Mary. Yep. You got grandkids and stuff too. One granddaughter and one on the way. So let's talk about the kids first of the boys and the stepchild stepdaughter. I'd like to do one word description for the kids. As a collective unit. No, one for each. Oh, man. Yeah. Two words if you want to stretch it is too hard. Two words. I have amazing earlier. Yeah. Well, I would do as a collective unit, independent and amazing. They're they're amazing people in their own world. But one of them, I would say, is a very, he's an analyst in his work and he's just a very kind person. My other one is he's a navy pilot and he's like flana f18 doing amazing things for our country. That's like harder than getting into the school of minds. Harder than getting into the school of minds. Yeah. So he's giving of his time and helping us all. So he is a servant-hearted servant. Yeah. Yeah. So one's more mechanical, right? One's more analyst, one's more mechanical. And then the third one would be truly like an artist, a free spirit artist choosing credible as well. Those are some of my favorite people to be around because they see things differently than I do. And you've got a little of that in you as well as you shared as well as the system was kind of thinking. So you're definitely a strange breed a little bit. Not too many people wired like you. I bet people say all the time. That is true. So would you like to you're married now as well? I am. And would you like to brag on your hubby a little bit or talk about the love story there? Yeah. That was going to be part of my crazy experience actually. Okay. Well, we can wait for that if you'd like to. Yeah, but I can brag on him a little bit. He is a helicopter pilot. He used to work for the city of San Diego's fire department for fire rescue. Okay. And currently he is a he's a firefighter for a company called Colson Aviation. Okay. And he he puts out fires and saves people's homes with the helicopters. Yeah, he's the guy that you see on the TV. Yeah. Yeah. It's flying around and picking up honor and dropping it and really helping the firefighters to get. Yeah. So he seems kind of dangerous. Like there's updrafts and things like that trying to crash your helicopter. There can be it. There's a whole over the years. I've been with them for a little over 15 years. Okay. Yeah, I've learned a lot about how fire is fought. Yeah. And it can be dangerous absolutely, but it is. Yeah, he loves it. That sounds pretty exciting actually. I bet that I'll get a sign right up. That's very interesting. Yeah. So what's his name? His name is Lion Lion. Lion Lion Ladoom. Lyle L於ke helicopter, pilot. So no relation to Shepherd. L.D., I guess no? Unfortunately, you have some of his albums, at least. Okay. So faith, family. And what would you care to say about politics? Oh, gosh, politics politics are that what I have to say about politics is they truely are kind of a wild ride right now. And I think that they're important to our community and to our country. We live in one of the most amazing countries in the world. And so appreciating our politics is important but also trying to figure out how to come together. Yeah. I think is something that we need to work on not only just in our politics but as a country. Yeah. Yeah. I think that there's a lot of division and when I wrote the book people first. Yeah. There is a lot of judgment going on I think right now in our world. Yeah. Some of the I heard a poll about that like the Democrats literally think that Republicans would ruin the world if they took charge and vice versa. Yes. Within minutes or months, you know, they were given their full sway. Yeah. And that's all about power and you know you know, power, money, greed, whatever. But when I do my work, it's interesting one of the there are three rules of engagement and one of them is best of intent. And then the second one is honest, direct, not accusatory. And the third one is be playful. And so best of intent. And we we do this. I mean, there are politics inside of businesses too. Sure. You know, who's going to get to be CEO and who gets this. But if you assume best of intent, truly just as a foundation in your family, with any friend, even if they hurt you, hurt your feelings, assume best of intent is like, oh, it makes you curious. Yeah. Why why did you say that to me? You know, that really hurt my feelings. Right. You know, and there's a difference between, you know, truly being physically hurt. And of course, but yeah, that that best of intent. That's critical. Yeah. So I don't think that we're using best of intent in our politics or some of the other things that we're doing as a community. One of the definitions for politics that I've heard is that the system that's been developed so that we don't actually hack each other to bits with swords or shoot each other with guns. Definitely. And that playful, you know, there used to be a pretty good, you know, you would do speeches and things and actually try to sway the other guys. But to me, it seems like both parties, the party exhibits too much control over the like, I mean, there's the pariahs of our nation right now are mentioned in Kristen, whatever her name is because they've got, you know, a lot of power in this in the Democratic caucus to shape this legislation. And I was like, you could along with the good along with the ride, everybody, you know, it's pretty interesting. There's a lot of pressure on those those books and and and maybe that's just them looking for some spotlight. You know, probably not. I don't think. Yeah, no, I would, you know, if I live, if I live, what I say, if I assume best of intent, then I would hope that they actually, and I would hope our politicians would have best of intent for the people. Yeah. Right. And not put not for me or for my district. No, but for the for the people and what they believe would be the best. You would hope or what would you believe? You said, I would hope that our politicians do, do you believe that they do? I actually don't know. Yeah. Because I, you know, if I wanted to, I want to believe that. Yeah. Sometimes I listen to the news or listen to some of the conversations and I especially if our news takes it out of context, I don't know. Right. Right. Because I don't. The same story. I don't trust our news. Totally. Oh, terrible. Gag me with a spoon of news, right? Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. Well, no, I was going to say I used to, I used to enjoy going to Canada. I haven't been up there for, well, since pre-COVID, but I used to enjoy going to Canada because their news is so different. And their news, I would learn more about the United States and what we were doing and about the world up there. Right. Then I would hear. I totally clicked BBC more regularly when I want to learn actually what's going on right here. Yeah. Yeah. Because otherwise there's definitely a spin. You know, in some other ways, you have to figure this spin into the news story to try to figure out what actually probably happened. Right. Or take a lot of sources in, which is probably what I do too much of. A lot of different sources. Yeah. Yeah. Form your own opinion. Right. Get somewhere in the middle there. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. Well, thanks for sharing that. And then your local experience. So what's that crazy experience of your lifetime? Like to tell the story of. So my crazy experience of my lifetime, I was a single mom, right? Two kids in school and trying to figure out how to put, you know, put the money together and keep family first and build up my company and do some different things that I needed to do. Not independently wealthy yet. No. Unfortunately not. And I had this, um, a ski instructor that I'd skied with for a while. Good friend. And he knew that I had always wanted to go heli skiing. Hmm. And heli skiing is expensive. And so he called me up and he said, we're going heli skiing. You're going. And I said, no, no, no, no. And this was like April. And I said, no, no, no, no, no. I can't go. There's no possible way. You know, it'd be totally irresponsible for me to do this. It'd be awful. Then but through the summer, he, he didn't let me leave me alone. He. And so then he said he would train me for free. Okay. I had a go up to Winter Park and ski and he would get me into shape and he would do that at no charge and just as a friend. And so anyway, I end up going heli skiing that next winter. Okay. And so this is the love story. So I go up, feel like I shouldn't have been there in the first place. Big trip. Everybody else that goes heli skiing has like corporations that they own and they don't have two kids at home trying to figure out. No. And so yeah. And but I did go on the shoulder season. So it was a little cheaper. Right. But I end up getting off of the bus. And the helicopter, they were picking up the passengers. And so the pilot, you know, bangs on the side of the door and he yells to this guy, Tom says, put the girl in the red coat in the front seat. And that was me. And he's now my sweet husband. Oh, it's also. Yeah. So that was my wild experience. Is one meeting him, but two just going heli skiing because yeah, tell us about that. It was incredible. The place. So Canadian mountain holidays, their ski areas about the size of Switzerland. Oh, God. I've got 13 lodges. And so I was in one of the lodges. It's you fly in and you're there for a week. And there's no. You have to be. If you want to leave, you're flying out. Yeah. The only way out. But yeah. So being dropped off on top of this amazing mountain, as far as you can see, or just white caps, blue sky. And there's no noise. And there are no. There's no noise there. Yep. And you can't see any power lines. There's nothing. And two things, one, I realized how small I am on this earth. Yeah. Right. And I try so hard to make a difference for people and to do great things. But, you know, in the scheme of life. Yes. If the helicopter wouldn't have come and picked us back up, we probably wouldn't have made it. Right. Because I didn't know how to survive in the middle of, yeah. Yeah. And you invest for skiing, not for outdoor survival. No. No. And then, and then, um, yeah, just that, um, how amazing it is to be on this earth and how, um, incredible our world is. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And what a big difference. Like, yeah, God's a part of my life. So does he put you up front because he thought you were cute? He was like, with the girl in the red coat. Yeah. But he's, yeah, he was, he's a really wonderful person. And was it just kind of love from there almost like exchange digits went out the next Thursday night and then Friday night and then Saturday night? Well, we, he, he was, he was the pilot, right, all week. And so he would drop us off and pick us up and drop us off. And then, oh, right. And then everybody has dinner together. And it's a, you know, just big tables. And, so, and then there's the bar. And then we would play games. And so we did that. And then, when I left, um, he asked me if he could call me. And so he did. And then he asked me if he could come visit me. I said in Colorado. And I said sure. Yeah. Yeah. Nope. And so, but I did tell him I was like, you know, I just skied with you for a week. And I kind of don't know you. So why don't you call me for a while? Let's get to know each other before you come to Colorado. I love it. Yeah. But it worked out great. That's awesome. So, uh, I guess unless there's anything else you feel compelled to share, we can just let people know how to find the amazing Elizabeth Ladou and Trent color our transition strategists. Sure. No. Well, one thing I'd like to share is just to thank you. Oh, this has been, no, I've really enjoyed this. And I really appreciate being invited to come here. And if anybody's interested in knowing more about the transition strategist, we have our website. It's, um, it's just, uh, transition strategist.com. And strategist. No way. Strategist. Okay. A strategist. I thought so. Okay. Yeah. plural. Yeah. transition strategists.com. And then, um, we've got all different kinds of things. So, so you can connect with us. There's, yeah, there's seven principles. Yeah, you can buy books on Amazon. And we do, we have a kind of a survey. If you want to have a conversation with us, I love sharing ideas and learning about people. And so, and I don't think that there's any way to work with anybody if you don't get to know them a little bit. So, yeah, I would encourage if you're interested to go on the website and set up a time to talk with us and see if kind of where you are in your journey. And, um, yeah, we do have that package that we give to people if you're not quite ready. Yeah. But it gives you an idea of, you know, some things to do to get ready. Yeah. So like, local is about a half million dollar business next year. I think maybe a little bigger, you know, we're not, and, and I'm trying to craft a role where I don't have to be the everything guy, but I can just run around and do podcasts with amazing people like yourself. Uh, is it too soon for me to engage potentially? No. Wouldn't be much to work on right away, but we could at least have the framework. Absolutely. And, and the first thing to do is to, like I said, do the compass. Right. And figure that out. And that's relatively straightforward. And the timelines that we build are 10-year timelines. They can be, or longer, because it's the, you know, what am I going to do today? Because every decision that you make today makes a difference in the future. Yeah. Fair enough. I know I can find somebody that's better at my job than me. I don't know. We hope that we're all replaceable at some point in time. Fair enough. Well, this has been a joy. And, uh, you know, happy to share about you. And I hope that we can find other ways where, where we can sprinkle your knowledge and, and experience into the local sphere here with local think tank. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to this episode of the LogExperience Podcast. 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