Yeah. But, yeah, tents blew over. Like, even though this is event planning stuff, but it it did become kind of a thing that everybody rallied around and, you know, we, like, got through it together. So yeah. So then we you know, people kept asking, like, how do we make this more of a thing rather than two days in July? And so we just launched our Arcadia constellation, the first of September, and that is an online community, where all we do is continue these conversations throughout the year. And we focus on a theme every month, And then we have, so we have a guest speaker come in and kinda kick us off with a theme. Last month, we did the power of thought. And then our members have small cohorts. We have larger roundtables just to kind of keep these themes and trends top of mind so people can actually grow and progress throughout the year. And because the other thing we like to say a lot is Arcadia is a mindset. Greatness is a mindset. And it's something you have to choose every day when you wake up. It's small, consistent steps. It's not large, grandiose motions. And our our retreat in July is a large, grandiose motion. People walk away, and they feel so inspired and amazing. And that's awesome, and we wanna keep doing that, but real change happens on a daily basis. Mhmm. And so that's why the Constellation exists. And we have in our first month, we have about thirty two people, and we're gonna cap it at two hundred. So we're growing, and it's all a journey.

That's so great. The work you guys are doing is just so important. There are a lot of parallels. It's you know, I think there's some some differences, but a lot of parallels. Mhmm. And I think it's like we, you know, we kind of position it as, like, living intentionally, but it's completely that's that's what you guys are doing Yeah. Too. You know? It's like being intentional with the work that you're doing and the connections you're building and, the messages you're putting out into the world. So that's very cool.

Hey there. Quick pause, and we'll get right back to the show. In January, we launched a program called unblock yourself, and it was for people who wanted to build or create something in the world but hadn't done it yet. Since then, we've run three groups, and unblockers have launched businesses, changed careers, and started community initiatives. If I'm honest, we wanted it to be good, but it's been even more powerful than we imagined it could be. Our final group of the year kicks off on October second and is gonna help another group of people get into action and bring their ideas to life. If anything I've said in this scares or excites you, it might be just what you've been looking for. Learn more at Vienna Wheats dot com slash unblock yourself or email us at unblock yourself at Vienna dash Wheats dot com. Alright. Let's get back to the show.

I'm curious because we yes. We just ran our first retreat last week, actually. So

Congratulations.

We're still thank you. It was great. We did had nineteen people there, and I think we're still coming down off of that high. I actually don't know when we will.

I mean, it'll be nice probably. By the

sounds of it. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say, like, oh my gosh. How do you, like, recover from that? But, yeah, do you have any was there any surprises or, like, moments? You know, something maybe went was unexpected, but in the best way, like, any big takeaways or or moments that you had?

Yeah. I mean, I think there's a ton. So let me do two, if that's okay. That is okay. One, this was kind of I literally stood out on the stage. We don't have a stage. I stood in front of the people at the first year, and I kinda got teary. And I was like, you guys, I just want you all to know that this, this being Arcadia, started as an idea. And it was an insane idea. Like, literally insane. And that moment of standing in front of all those people and seeing them there was so kinda transformational for me. That word, I feel like, has gotten really buzzy, but it was true in that moment of, like, wow. Anybody can have an idea, and all they have to do is go do it. And, like, of course, in the go do it, there's so many complications and whatnot. But I feel like we all get in our head so often of, like, who's gonna come glamping in Montana? There's bears. You know? Like, all the reasons that we shouldn't do that. But if you just push that aside and, like, you have an idea that you have conviction about and you just take the next step and then you take the next step and you just keep going, you're the only thing that's in your way. And that was, like, such an awesome moment for me. I keep coming back to that often, honestly, because, you know, we walk up against hurdles all the time. And, again, like, is everything gonna work out? Are we gonna be successful in everything we do? Probably not. But we're gonna learn a ton. And, you know, at least you can say you tried. And so that was a huge moment for me of, like, wow. We really are capable of so much more than we think we are. And, you know, I put on a conference for God's sake. It's not like I went to the moon, but it was a big undertaking.

It is. Yeah.

I think that it's it was a really good first step to be like,

we can do we can do this.

And then secondly, the other thing that I thought was really noteworthy, and this is an obvious statement, but we're all human. And I think that we under index on that often. This year for our retreat, we did, like, fifty percent content on go to market, fifty percent on leadership development, and self development. And I was really nervous about this, you guys. I was like, I'm the one who wants this self development, leader development kinda thing. I don't really know if anybody else is gonna be into this. And, you know, we had one woman who called us afterwards and was like, I don't think you understand what a big deal with that was. You gave my kids their mom back. And, like Wow. I was like, okay. My life's work is done. Like, you know, we didn't set out to do that. We set out to create a space for leaders to safely and bravely invest in themselves. And the ripple effects of that are enormous. And so I think, especially in the tech world, we all put on these masks of I am a chief growth officer, and this is what I do. But giving people a space to say, I'm also a mom, and this is hard. And, you know, I am struggling traveling so much for work or whatever it is that we're dealing with. Like, people need and crave those spaces, and they need space to just feel human. And that was a big takeaway this year that I was really grateful for, and I feel honored to be able to even just, like, host a venue for that.

We can relate to this in such a big way ourselves, and something that Whitney might kill me for saying this, but we we sept away from from Waypoint retreat, and we're reflecting on the experience. And I was looking at how people reacted in such a big way to to Whitney. And I I was I was like, I I'm getting great feedback, and I I love what we're doing. I'm not getting as many people saying great job, Greg, or whatever. And I was okay with that.

Are you though?

Reach out to Greg. Yeah.

Yeah. Greg needs your

love. Yeah. Yeah.

But it was it was so great, I think, because I believe when I see Whitney doing things that she's incredible at it, and I don't know that she believes it as much herself. Whole other topic. I know. Whole other podcast conversation. But the where I'm going with this is Whitney turned to me, and she's like, you're just not as authentic as I am.

Well, not you're you're learning to be more authentic,

I would say.

But And so there's something to be said for for us, very similar, that we wanted to create this space, and we wanted to we we set a goal, and we just did it. And everything that you just shared resonated with us, and we we had a similar reflection and moment.

Mhmm.

And even in doing that, I'm fifteen years in the tech sector as a leader leading one of these things, and I still can't get rid of the mask that I'm trying to be in charge. And this is this is the talk. This is Totally. These are the three points to remember from every session. I always had three points. Three freaking points. But I think there's something really to be said for how hard it is to get authentic and real. And you said it to me and say, I'm going into it. You're like, Greg, just remember two things. You said be present and be authentic, and then everything else will be fine.

One thing I've been doing a lot of, like, study on, and this is gonna get woo woo for a second, but is energy and the energy we put out into the world is what's reciprocated. And I fully believe that. So, you know, I think what I told you is, like, the details are gonna work themselves out. Your toilet may blow over. But if you show up with the right energy, people are gonna see that and receive that from you. And that's that's not something that you can just be like, okay. The right energy. Like, you have to do the work and, like, be in the right space. And that's constant, you know, conversations and reminders with yourself too. This I don't know where you guys wanna take this, but one thing I wanna point out really quickly is, obviously, Jason's in Vegas right now. Otherwise, he would make a cameo. But

Yeah. We wanted we wanted a Jason cameo. It's all good. We'll save it for next time.

I can

hold it like a little cutout. He so we obviously have a a married relationship as well, much like you guys. And I think what you guys just talked about there was really cool to witness because we have those same conversations too. And Jason and I are were and are, but we're both leaders in our own right, in our own companies that we did our own thing at. And now we're together, and I think there's a little bit of ego at play there, and we're very open about talking about this with each other. But, like, it's very obvious to me that Jason is the people person, which is shocking because I am as people person as they get. But between the two of us, Jason is the witness. People flock to him. They confide in him. Like, people meet Jason at the airport, and then twenty minutes later, he knows their whole life story. Like, that is just the type of human that he is. I am much less empathetic and much more like, what's our plan? Let's get

it

done. And knowing that is such a good thing because we just can stay in our lanes. And it's not to say that I don't reach out to our members and talk to them and facilitate and build great relationships. I do. But we also know that I'm the one that's kinda like, here's our plan. This is our schedule. Like, I am the day of coordinator for the events. I am the person running all the logistics on the community, and it works really well because we've had to learn where our strengths and weaknesses are as a couple

Mhmm.

So that we can be good business partners.

Yeah. It's huge. And what's so cool too is being able to see each other in that light. If you were working at different companies, you don't necessarily, you know, get to see your your partner presenting or, you know, like, kicking ass that whatever they're doing. So I think it's really that's what's cool for us too. I mean, we actually have worked together at a company in the past. But, yeah, it is neat, and we, yeah, we work well together. Sounds like you guys do too.

Yeah. There's something really sexy about seeing your partner at work. It's it's where they're at their best, and it like, my work Greg is way sexier than dad Greg. Dad Greg's awesome, but work Greg is sexier.

Well, I don't know. I think I think dad Jason is, like, the tops.

I love that.

Oh, well, that's that's great for you. I don't know that Whitney has the same feelings, but that is that is great. Great for you, Jason.

Now we're going into the friends with benefits

territory. Yeah. I know. Okay. Perfect transition.

If it is a perfect transition. One of the things that I did when I had that oh, shit moment of seeing that there's a version of what we would love to create out in the world, doing a great job at it. I I thought, okay. I'm gonna listen to their podcast, and I really hope it sucks because then that'll give me the confidence to that we can go and build. But you guys have a great podcast Thank you. Called Friends of Benefits podcast. Personal couple of favorite, episodes from me, and I think I've shared this to you before. But you had Sam Jacobs, who's the CEO of Pavilion on really early on in your podcast journey and just the story of building Pavilion and a community is so aligned to to what you build. Ned Eric is a more recent, and that was a great episode. And then Mara Gleason Olsen, which I know, she's near and dear to your heart. Those are three of my favorite episodes. You do, unfortunately, to that gremlin, Greg, you have a great podcast. But it's a it's a great thing. And so curious how does the podcast fit with Arcadia? I want Arcadia is about or is it something separate and just another way for you and Jason to be creative and tell stories in a different way?

Well, first of all, thank you for those kind words. I'd like to say that when we launched Arcadia, we had this, like, perfect plan, and that's not the case. We've very much been like, let's throw stuff against the wall and see what fits. So I honestly can't remember. I think the podcast has been around a little bit longer than Arcadia, but we launched the podcast. You guys literally I wish we would have taken a picture because it was one of those moments. But here, Sam, being the one that's like, let's get this done. I was like, if we're gonna launch a podcast, we're gonna launch a podcast. Let's, like, do it. And so it was like that moment was, like, eight thirty. The kids were in bed. I had just taken a shower. So I'm literally upstairs in my bathrobe with Jason on his Riverside, and we're humming the intro, which we made up on the spot.

I love your intro.

It's so good. And it was like, okay. Well, now we have an intro. So now we have a podcast. And it was just like, here we go. And so Jason is a highly creative human as well. He came up with the title friends with benefits, which has a few meanings, friends with benefits. In a partnership world, we make friends with our other companies, and they have benefits for the company. Obviously, we're married, so you can do the math there. But it just kinda became this funny thing where, like, let's see how it goes. And much like Arcadia has taken a winding path, this started as very much of a partnership podcast, go to market podcast. It's still going to be that, but we're gonna start to sprinkle in kind of more of these leadership developments. Honestly, Greg, most of the episodes you called out lean that direction anyways. And so we're relaunching in October. Yeah. I saw that.

That's awesome.

We're really excited. We have a few episodes that we've already recorded and yeah. So it's just another great way to talk to awesome leaders who are doing great work. Like, we started the show. I'm a firm believer that all ships rise, and so the more we can highlight people that are doing awesome things and creating good ripples in the world, the better.

I love that, and I love that you just kinda hummed the your intro. Because I think so many people can get stuck, right, and spend be like, oh, it needs to be perfect and, you know, get, like, swallowed up by this perfectionism, again that's showing up as resistance. And you're just like, nope. Let's just do it. It's good enough. Great. You've pumped it. Let's go. So it's just like action. Right? Like, keep moving. So you guys are doing it, and that's awesome. You're like, you're doing the things. Curious. A lot of people that listen to the podcast are feeling a bit stuck or not sure what their next move is or feeling a bit blocked in some way. So curious what advice you'd give somebody that might be feeling the way both you and I were feeling back then before you kinda take those bold moves.

I mean, I feel like this advice can vary from person to person. I think this the most simple form of this, and this sounds so, like, trite because it is so simple, is you just gotta do, like, the first step. And I find myself in this trap too, but, like, I want to know because I'm a planner. I want to know the end result, and I wanna know, like, what that means in detail and how we're gonna get there in every step along the way. And I've done this a lot in my life where I've either not started or stopped things because I didn't know those answers. And what I'm learning is you will never know those answers. And so I think even if you did know those answers, once you start to take the first few steps, you're probably gonna pivot. And the road map that you created from the very beginning is gonna be useless to you because you're changing directions based on what you're learning throughout the journey. And so take the first step. That's really it. I mean, like, you know, we hummed our intro to our podcast. The risk tolerance for that is very low. Okay. We have podcast that failed, whatever. We put on a retreat. Like Yeah. The retreat was not low risk. Like, we didn't have a business to pay for this. Like, we got sponsors, but the rest of it was like, this is out of pocket. And it turned out, you know, and did I have everything buttoned up? Absolutely not. But I think that there's a beauty in that too because we've lived in a world that's so perfect and buttoned up and brands are, you know, whatever. They're bulletproof, and that's getting exhausting for people. So letting people see along the way of, like I'm very open and honest with people, like, in the community. I'm like, listen, guys. I am not pretending like I have all the answers because I don't. Please tell me what you want. Let's build this together. So I think letting go of the perfectionism and just trying things. You don't have to, like, have a finished product before you launch because if you do, it might fail, and then you've put everything into it. Whereas if you just take the first step, at least you can learn and try and

change. Where we started in our journey with this was imagining that what Vienna waits would be would would just be some content and some inspirational. And then we would figure out a way to maybe maybe there's a business here, maybe not, but it wasn't designed from the start with a master plan of being Yeah. An exit strategy from one life and a step into the other. It started as well, how how can we offer direction or thoughtfully guide people to be more intentional on how they are living life? And

Basically, I really liked inspirational quotes.

Like a good ticket starting point to go from

I love it.

But it's not yeah. It's not that is the makings of a business plan. Between Arcadia and Vanna Waites, there's like a there's a collaborative partnership to take on the post secondary institutions of the world. Maybe. Maybe. Mhmm. But but it's but it evolved to maybe there's a structured way to facilitate somebody putting one step in front of the other through a program that we call unblock yourself that was really just about some structured programming that said, here's how to organize an idea into a set of steps, a connection with a group of other people that are trying to do the same thing, and then the accountability to stay in lockstep over a three month period to actually build a habit out of action.

Mhmm.

And we've seen people be incredibly successful with that. The person who spoke at our retreat started in our program in January, and not to credit ourselves with his success, but he did it. Right? In January, he said, I wanna start a speaking business. And then in September, he was speaking at the retreat, and it was awesome. And I think that notion of one step after the other is such great advice. But even for people who have been in our program, some of them just get stuck in the, I'm just trying to get this part perfect and the website per and so it's hard. It's so hard, and it doesn't need to be. So I think we just wanna remind that just great advice over and over and over again.

And it's gonna change a million times. Like, you guys, I've rewrote my website copy maybe

sixty nine times. Yeah.

It's very specific. Yeah.

But we've already launched, so it's out there. Like, you know?

It's so funny. Right? We came across StoryBrand.

I don't know if you

heard that. Story yeah. And then we're like, okay. Well, we have to throw out everything we've done and completely redo all of our messaging to match the StoryBrand framework. So Yeah. And then

you're gonna read a new framework, and you're gonna have to throw it all out again and start over again. So Yeah. Yeah. One step at a time.

Yeah. Totally.

Love that. I think that's great advice. And as a closing question that we we like to ask everybody, Sam, what is one book or podcast that you would recommend as something that's been inspirational or helpful to you or maybe just something you enjoy? This doesn't have to be too heavy. Whichever. Whichever direction you want to take it.

Well, right now, I am in the middle of inner excellence. Have you guys read this?

No. Tell me more.

Okay. You don't need to read it. Jim hold on. I should know this because

I'm gonna tell him Jim Murphy.

Yes. Thank you. It's phenomenal. It's very, very good. And Jim has a story kinda like this of, like, just getting started. And this book is written in the guise of being helpful for professional athletes, but it's really helpful for just leaders. And the way that we approach our mind and control that resistance, like, whatever language you wanna use about it, but kind of how you pursue your purpose and the way that you get over hurdles. It's an excellent book. So I think he has a podcast too that I have not yet dug into. But, yeah, I'm I'm a self development junkie. So if anybody wants to jam on that, you just let me know. And I got I got dates, podcasts, books, the whole deal. So I will say I have to read fiction at night before bed, and then I am a huge, like, audiobook podcast person. Because if I read something like that before bed, then I'm like, I have a business idea. I can't fall asleep.

Yeah. Yeah. I write it down. Yeah. So good. Sam, this has been so great. I Greg, have you met Jason?

Yeah.

You met Jason one time. Right? Okay. Well, I'm really looking forward to meeting Jason. So maybe, we can do this again with the two of you at some point.

We'd love that. Yeah. And I'm rooting for you guys. I think you guys are doing great work. So congratulations on your retreat. Here's to many, many more.

Thank you. Right back at you.

Thank you for listening to the Unblock Yourself podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to follow and rate the podcast. Your ratings and feedback mean the world to us. We'd love to stay connected with you via our biweekly newsletter called the VNF five, where we share ideas and advice that we found helpful on our own journey to live with more intention. You can also find us on LinkedIn and Instagram. For those Gen Z listeners out there, no, we're not on TikTok. But if enough of you ask for it, we'll just have to do it at some point. The links to find us on social are in the show notes. The Unblock Yourself podcast is edited and produced by Bespoke Productions Hub. Thank you for being here.