Creating the World's Best Client Experience

Ral West describes her 45-year business career, beginning with a tourism marketing consultancy and later helping her husband run a scheduled charter airline between Alaska and Hawaii for 25 years. As the company grew, they carried most decisions themselves, worked long hours, and faced health and relationship strain, operational confusion, and customer complaints.

Ral says that studying business systems and management approaches helped them restructure the airline, improving procedures and staff training, and focused on the customer experience. About five years later, they were able to step away from daily operations and act as owners.

Ral’s coaching focuses on helping entrepreneurs move from doing every task to leading their businesses. She outlines six principles for running a business: systems, measuring and tracking performance, leverage through a team, intentional company culture, a capable team, and customer delight.

West works primarily through individualized virtual coaching, sometimes including a six-month program and an on-site business assessment. She assesses how a business operates and whether the owner’s mindset or processes need to change, then tailors the work to the client’s needs.

HIGHLIGHTS:

2:18 A Business Built on Hard Lessons

5:58 Why Owners Get Stuck Doing It All

8:26 Mindset, Trust, and Team Empowerment

10:42 Duplicate Yourself to Delegate

13:35 Six Principles for a Self-Running Business

15:39 Personalized Coaching for Business Owners

18:11 Making Self-Care Part of Success

connect with Ral

website: https://www.ralwest.com

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INNOVATION AVENUE: Fitness and Self-Care Revolution

Alison discusses how to build a business ecosystem that supports retreat bookings and revenue beyond the event, from free content and low-commitment experiences to retreats and follow-up offers.

She covers inviting people who already know our work, positioning a retreat around the transformation it offers, and planning the next step before registration opens.

She also shares how retreats can lead to testimonials, stories, content, and referrals, and suggests mapping the ecosystem, clarifying the retreat’s promise, and identifying potential invitees.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1:16 Building a Retreat Business That Lasts

5:42 The Four Stages of Your Business Ecosystem

8:56 Why an Ecosystem Makes Retreats Easier to Fill

11:30 Turning Your Retreat Into a Business Growth Engine

13:11 Plan the Post-Retreat Next Step

15:00 Use Retreats for Content and Referrals

17:07 Action Steps to Strengthen Your Ecosystem

19:01 Personally Invite Warm Leads

20:15 Plan Your Retreat Business for Next Year

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INNOVATION AVENUE: Fitness and Self-Care Revolution

Alison welcomes business consultant, Todd Krause, about the role of human conversation in business, even as technology and AI expand what companies can do. Todd says customers still want human contact, especially when they need help, and that businesses should focus on solving operational problems while improving customer experience.

They discuss how leadership affects turnover, complaints, and morale. Todd argues that moving employees from a compliance mindset to a commitment mindset, and changing negative management habits such as micromanaging or using critical language, can improve both employee behavior and customer outcomes.

Todd also describes changes he made after buying a cleaning company with high turnover and frequent complaints. He says replacing criticism with clear instruction, recognition, and rewards helped reduce mistakes and complaints, while improving reviews, employee engagement, and overall results.

HIGHLIGHTS:

2:13 Todd’s Business Background

4:14 Customers Want Real People

7:13 Rebuilding Workplace Culture

10:17 The Cleaning Company Turnaround

13:26 Rewards Over Reprimands

16:32 Practical Leadership Tips

18:34 Real Profit Gains

19:35 Why Relationships Matter

connect with Todd

website: https://silversunconsulting.com

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INNOVATION AVENUE: Fitness and Self-Care Revolution

Alison introduces the first part of a two-part mini series on how retreats fit into a business. She discusses why retreats are often hard to fill and explains that the issue is not always marketing, but whether the wider business ecosystem supports the retreat.

She talks about common problems such as one-off retreats with no clear next step, offers focused on deliverables instead of outcomes, and businesses that rely on social media or a venue deposit before the strategy is in place. She also explains that a retreat should sit within a larger offer suite, with entry points before the retreat and a clear path afterward.

Part 2 of this series drops October 22 so stay tuned!

HIGHLIGHTS:

1:16 Retreats Are Not the Business

6:01 Why Retreats Feel Hard

9:31 Human Connection Sells

14:00 Sell the Transformation

16:02 Stop Relying on Social Media

21:15 Map Your Retreat Journey

related episodes

Stop Selling the Engine - The Problem (part 1): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stop-selling-the-engine-part-1-the-problem-why/id1676688929?i=1000775118557

Stop Selling the Engine - The Application (part 2): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stop-selling-the-engine-part2-the-application/id1676688929?i=1000777026347

Stop Selling the Engine - Retreats & What They Carry Home (part 3): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stop-selling-the-engine-part-3-retreats-what-they-carry-home/id1676688929?i=1000779057508

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INNOVATION AVENUE: Fitness and Self-Care Revolution

Alison speaks with Dr. Laura Roy about the difficulty of sorting through the large amount of health and nutrition information available online. Laura discusses her background in biochemistry, teaching, functional medicine, and clinical nutrition, and says that this training has made her more critical of misinformation and oversimplified claims.

They emphasize that nutrition and health are nuanced and that no single supplement, diet, or fitness approach works for everyone. Laura says the basics matter most, including protein, fiber, sleep, exercise, stress management, hydration, and a diverse diet, and that supplements should support, not replace, those habits.

Laura also introduces her Nutrition and Supplement Help Desk, where people can bring nutrition, fitness, and supplement questions or claims for research and explanation in a forum format. She says it's intended as a lower-cost option for people who want help evaluating information before committing to one-on-one coaching.

HIGHLIGHTS:

3:13 Drowning in Misinformation

5:24 Science Over Noise

7:55 Supplements Aren’t Magic

9:33 Foundations First Always

11:59 Building the Help Desk

15:10 Why Credibility Matters

17:53 Slack Access Explained

21:43 Coaching vs Help Desk

23:38 A Lower-Cost Entry Point

connect with Dr. Roy

website: https://foundationalmetabolism.com

IG: https://www.instagram.com/drlauraroynutrition

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INNOVATION AVENUE: Fitness and Self-Care Revolution

Back from her Sancerre retreat, Alison shares behind the scenes of the retreat and how she and her team prepared, ran it, and what she learned from the experience. She talks about the setting, the schedule, the welcome activities, and the mix of downtime, local experiences, and closing exercises she built into the week.

She also discusses the business workshops, focusing on how retreats can generate profit beyond ticket sales through pricing, expenses, upsells, and mini offers and reflects on the challenges of selling retreats, the need for clear messaging, and the value of addressing what keeps people stuck.

Alison closes the episode with her main takeaways from the retreat, including the importance of unscripted conversations and in-person connection and more importantly, her vision for the future of Luxury in Business Retreats.

HIGHLIGHTS:

2:39 Luxury in Business Retreat’s New Chapter

7:14 Arriving in Sancerre

10:53 Teaching Six-Figure Profit

15:25 Pricing and Mini Offers

17:36 Free Time Builds Bonds

20:07 Key Retreat Takeaways

24:00 LIBR’s Future Vision

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Alison speaks with Leslie Martin about her work as a holistic psychotherapist and coach, and how she uses retreats as a setting for healing, reflection, and recovery from difficult life experiences. They discuss how retreats differ from vacations, including the role of structure, safety, travel, and group connection.

They also focus on Lesley's Morocco retreat, looking at last year’s program on burnout and how participant feedback shaped this year’s route and themes. This year’s retreat travels through Marrakech, mountain villages, the Dades Valley, Todra Gorge, and the Sahara, with emphasis on stillness, presence, simplicity, and relationships with self, others, and the land.

The episode closes with practical advice for people who feel overwhelmed or stuck, including pausing, grounding, and asking what may be overcomplicated or what else could be true.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1:15 Morocco Retreat Reimagined

4:12 Why Retreats Matter

7:08 Last Year’s Desert Journey

9:11 This Year’s Deeper Focus

17:57 November Retreat Details

23:29 Bringing the Lessons Home

25:38 Simple Questions, Big Shifts

connect with Lesley

website: https://lesleymartincoaching.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lesley.p.martin.3

IG: https://www.instagram.com/LesleyMartinCoaching

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INNOVATION AVENUE: Fitness and Self-Care Revolution

In this episode, Alison talks about how her and her team prepare for an upcoming retreat and why that process includes more than logistics. She covers the self-care she prioritizes, scheduling, and daily routines she uses in the weeks before the event so she can show up rested and focused.

She also discusses the systems she uses to stay organized, including packing early, keeping running lists, batching work, and coordinating closely with her team. Finally, she closes by looking at attendee communication, vendor planning, and how advance preparation helps her and her team lead with more steadiness and presence.

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INNOVATION AVENUE: Fitness and Self-Care Revolution

The conversation focuses on Holly Porter’s background and the creation of the International Retreat Association. Porter then shares that COVID affected her severely and describes a near-death experience that led to a major shift in her life and to writing a book about surrender, hope, intuition, faith, and transformation.

Before her illness she had been developing Retreat R&R, a software concept for retreat bookings, and that her experience led her to create interviews and study the retreat industry more closely. This, she says, showed her the complexity of the field and the need for more structure and support.

The International Retreat Association is an organization for the entire retreat ecosystem, not only retreat leaders. Holly says its goals are to build collaborative trust, establish professional standards, and support a new era of professionalism.

Holly also shares that retreat leaders should not see each other only as competitors, rather the value of community, education, networking, and shared problem-solving.

She outlines the association’s current offerings, including monthly mastermind meetings, a 12-week course on universal laws, a newsletter, a toolbox of business resources, and membership tiers. She says the organization will continue to build based on member feedback and that founders receive added visibility and benefits.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1:15 Retreat Revolution Begins

6:22 Association Need Revealed

9:46 Community and Toolbox

11:08 Big Vision Ahead

15:05 Monthly Masterminds Launch

19:57 Navigating the Challenges

24:05 Membership Info

connect with Holly

website: https://internationalretreatassociation.com

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/hollyporter

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INNOVATION AVENUE: Fitness and Self-Care Revolution

Alison continues her discussion on business promise, program promise, and audience building by focusing on how to describe the specific result you help people get. She explains that a strong promise should be clear and testable, using concrete before-and-after change rather than vague claims like “more confident” or “more aligned.”

Alison also talks about how the most effective wording often comes from the phrases people use after working with us, and how collecting those words can make our messaging more authentic. Finally, she clarifies the difference between content and outreach: content is for recognition, while outreach is for proof and conversation, and both work best when we are specific, responsive, and human.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1:16 Promise and Audience Building

4:01 Spotting the Fake Promise

7:31 Finding the Real Promise

12:14 Audience Building Shifts

17:57 Content Versus Outreach

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INNOVATION AVENUE: Fitness and Self-Care Revolution