From Hospitality to Heart-Centered Retreats with Leni Cavazos

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets our guest is Leni Cavazos a globally experienced retreat strategist, event planner, and marketing expert who for nearly 20 years has helped coaches, wellness leaders, and purpose-driven entrepreneurs design and sell out high-impact retreats. We dive into her journey from hospitality roles to founding The Retreat Planner, her proven frameworks for aligning purpose with profit, and actionable strategies for crafting irresistible retreat offers, launching with impact, and scaling sustainably. Learn how to transform retreat dreams into thriving businesses, reach premium clients, and create powerful, purpose-driven experiences.

You can find her on:
https://www.instagram.com/theretreatplanner/
https://theretreatplanner.com/challenge
https://www.linkedin.com/in/leni-cavazos/

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:00

Not and I met a lot of other coaches out there that were absolutely amazing, but they were making no money, especially on retreats.

SPEAKER_01: 0:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 0:09

Like they were breaking even. And I was like, how is this possible? Right? And I realized that coaches do not run their businesses like a business in general. Especially when you're starting up. You're just trying to survive.

Davis Nguyen : 0:24

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Wynne, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to$100,000 years,$100,000 months, and even$100,000 weeks. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight figure career coaching businesses myself and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over$100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or building your practice for the first time, go discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Kevin Yee: 0:55

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcasts. I'm Kevin, and today we are joined by Lenny Cavasos. She's been a coach, depending on if you ask her, she's been a coach for 5.5 years or 11 plus years. I'll have her talk about that on the podcast. She is the founder of uh of Wii Summit. Welcome, Lenny.

SPEAKER_03: 1:18

Thank you, Kevin. I'm so excited to be here.

Kevin Yee: 1:23

Yeah, me too. I I mean, we're talking about pre-podcasts, about what you do. You're talking about like speaking, we're talking about retreats, we're talking about your coaching history. You know, one of the things that I'm always curious about is your origins because you're saying, hey, you know, I've been coaching for 11 years, like kind of 5.5 years. I would love to hear the origin story, right? Like you could have been a sushi chef, you could have been a professional bowler, but you chose coaching. So how did you get into this business?

SPEAKER_03: 1:53

Oh my gosh, how did I get into this business? Um, well, it's it's actually a very interesting story, right? So I started doing events since I'm 15 years old, yeah. So I've loved events since forever. I probably I started even before that when I used to bake cakes and invite my friends over. But I was doing events, right? Like, yes, like it's been part of my uh my life when I was in like in college. I already had a business, I had a catering business. And then once I finished college, I really wanted to go and explore the world, right? I was like, oh my gosh, where can I go and just experience everything? And I studied restaurant management by then, right? So I said, where is the best, the biggest, the best of everything in the world for hospitality? And I was like, Well, Dubai seems to be it. So I packed my bags and I moved myself to Dubai. So hello, Middle East. There, this comes this last Mexican. Right? Arriving to the Middle East, and I was working at um at the Red Sculpton first, and I started actually training people there, right? So six months into the role, I became the trainer for the rest for some of the restaurants. So I started coaching people there, and then I moved to food and beverage marketing inside of the Red Sculpton as well. And funnily enough, right? So I'm bringing in here how like I've been coaching for so long, but really not officially coaching as a bit like as a my own business, right? It was part of my role. And um, I was training all the hostesses and coaching them so they could get promotions, so they could get better, they could get uh salary increases. So it was part of a personal choice to do this. It was this was not actually part of my role because what I wanted to do is I wanted to create opportunities for more women to grow and expand and uh build their businesses and their lives. Long story short, after that, I was like, where is my next step? And I always wanted to work for Marriott's corporate office. It was one of the things that I said when I started college of like, well, I would really like to work for Marriott's corporate office. So I applied for a job and I got it. So I went there and I was part of the team that launched Marriott Bon Boy, the loyalty program for Middle East Africa. Yes, you have have you heard of Marriott Bomboy?

Kevin Yee: 4:18

I'm a titanium member. I stayed at a hotel like for 30 days in a row this uh last summer. And just a comment on the Rich Carlton training, I know it's pretty intense because I was chopping it up with the staff there all the time, and they're always talking about that. So it goes to your accolades. Yes, I do know about Mary Baumboy to answer your question.

SPEAKER_03: 4:36

So, hello, now you know someone who was part of the team that did all the events in Middle East to launch the program.

Kevin Yee: 4:42

That's so cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 4:45

Since you're a titanium member, right? Oh, like I know you know that you can go with points to different experiences and whatnot, um, right? Like Formula One races and private dinners and all this amazing different things that you can do with your points besides free nights, right? Like there's this whole uh campaign behind it. And I was part of the team that actually did events for titanium and ambassador members in different parts of the world. So actually, I did a dinner in front of the Giza Pyramids, that was so much fun. Um yeah, and we did a uh a dinner in the summer palace of the king of Saudi Arabia. Wow, you know, like our top members from Saudi Arabia. We did an immersive seminar in Alice of Alice in Wonderland in Qatar, like a couple of years before the uh the World Cup. So anyway, I was living the life, don't get me wrong, right? Like meet and greets with Craig David, I was running multi-million dollar marketing campaigns, like massive. Yeah. And then of course the pandemic hit, and then everyone got into this space of having time to reflect, right? Like, what do I want from this life? And I realized that I was making a lot of money for other people. But you know, as long as much as I loved the benefits of being a merit employee, because honestly, the benefits like the room rates for hotels were the best, it was no longer enough for me. So I moved myself back to Mexico, right? After seven years living in the Middle East. And I went into this journey of figuring out what I wanted to do. So I started attending retreats. Yeah.

Kevin Yee: 6:29

And I still have to Can I ask you a quick question?

SPEAKER_03: 6:31

Yeah, go for it.

Kevin Yee: 6:32

Oh. Sorry to interrupt you, but you said it was no longer enough for me. What was missing? What do you feel like was missing at that time?

SPEAKER_03: 6:41

Well, I think for me it was this uh I came to this realization, right? Okay, so we all have limited beliefs in our lives and we have to go work through them, right? So when I grew up, there was sometimes a lot of money, sometimes there was no money, right? It was very much like a roller coaster. So I wanted safety. And for me, a nine to five job meant safety, right? That's if I thought about it, that was what like the equal of safety meant. Now, when the pandemic happened, it opened up my eyes to really realize that there is nothing really safe, right? Like your nine to five job, like just because you get a regular paycheck, is not that safe anyway. So it really opened up my eyes into this space of like, well, I need to be the owner of my actions, I need to be the owner of what happens in my life, I need to be responsible for myself in a sense.

Kevin Yee: 7:38

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Because also the con I'm guessing the context here too is like hospitality was really hit during COVID. Um, there was no business correctly, right?

SPEAKER_03: 7:51

Nothing, and also my the job, like they reformatted the job descriptions and whatnot because of the you know, everything that was happening and all the fun stuff was taking out of the budget. So I was like, Well, do I really want to be just doing the boring stuff? I was like, no.

SPEAKER_04: 8:05

I see.

SPEAKER_03: 8:05

I can't, it's not part of uh you know of who I am and what I want to build for my life, but really it was no longer enough for me to just uh rely on someone else for my success, for my income. I knew I had big dreams, right? I was doing all this amazing, great big events, launching brands, right? Increasing revenue for companies, and I was like, well, if I could just take a cut of that for myself, would that be possible? And I do like I come from a family of entrepreneurs, okay? I was a the rare one that had a job, you know, you know, most of the usually it's the other way around. Okay, so no, for me, like everyone in my family has been in a prototype for like since forever, and most of them, not everyone, right, have been very, very successful. So I had like the example of people in my family showing me that I could do it if I wanted to. Um, then I came back to Mexico and I started attending retreats as personal healing development and whatnot, and I met a lot of other coaches out there that were absolutely amazing, but they were making no money, especially on retreats. Yeah, like they were breaking even. And I was like, how is this possible? Right? And I realized that coaches do not run their businesses like a business in general, especially when you're starting up, you're just trying to survive. And I knew I could help people, I just knew it. Like deep inside of me, I knew I just didn't need to do money for make money for myself. I could help others do that for themselves too. And I really found my calling in that space.

Kevin Yee: 10:01

You know, it's really interesting because you're imagining, like, you know, I've seen so many events and being in the marketing space and stuff, like I hear so many people that they either break uh break even uh with their events or they lose money on their events and they try and monetize on the back end. What's something that you feel like people kind of I don't want to say get wrong, but kind of like the biggest uh mistakes people make when hosting events?

SPEAKER_03: 10:30

Well, the first of all very, very uh well, there I usually see three main mistakes when it comes to events. First of all, your concept is not enticing enough, right? Like your messaging is not enticing enough, and people get confused. So if I invite you to like, hey Kevin, you want to come have tea with me so you feel more enlightened? Are you gonna come?

Kevin Yee: 10:57

Personally, I would because I'm into like that self-actualization, but yes, I I get the whole yeah, but yes, right.

SPEAKER_03: 11:04

But if I tell you, hey Kevin, let's just drink some tea so we can figure out exactly what are the steps you need in order to be in to get enlightened. It's the same thing, right? We're it's the same goal, it's the same purpose, but it's it has a clear path, a clear progression. Yeah, so what most people get wrong is not having a clear messaging, right? Like not solving one problem. They have 3,000 tools, right? They take all the trainings, they sign up for all the coaching group coaching programs. Don't get me wrong, they're necessary, but not all of them, right? They sign up for everything. So they have a tool, you know, like I call it, you know, it's like the tool belt. Like if you were a carpenter and you have your tool belt and then you have it's overwhelmed, and there's so many things going on, but we forget that the tools are meant for a result, right? People don't uh hire the carpenter because of the tools that they're gonna use, they hire them because they want that new chair, they want a new desk.

Kevin Yee: 12:07

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_03: 12:08

So if you're selling, you're going like, hey, I'm a carpenter and I have this and I have this tool and this tool and this tool and this tool, do people really care?

SPEAKER_04: 12:17

Yeah, that is true.

SPEAKER_03: 12:20

Can you fix my problem? Yes or no? It's simple, right? Like, I I love to simplify things in like in both of my businesses because we like to overcomplicate ourselves. Yeah, so that's the number one. The second mistake I see, and my favorite, is pricing. They they price it all wrong, they do not run the numbers, they do not know how much the event is gonna cost them, they do not have a tiered pricing. So there is, you know, the closer to the date people buy, the more they have to pay. They just think, oh, I'm gonna promote it for six months, and people are just gonna buy in the beginning, at the middle, at the end, at the same price point. I do not need to make any pressure. They have no follow-up game, right? And this moves us to mistake three that is not having a sales strategy. Forget about a marketing strategy, a sales strategy. How are you gonna sell that event? And I mean, I love the back-end sales, it's so important. So, Chris, the co-founder of We Summits with me, we attended this event. It was called the Million Dollar Room in Laguna Beach. Beautiful event in the sense of the dinners, right? The details, absolutely everything. And we spoke on stage because this is what we do, right? We speak on stages and we create stages for people for coaches who want to sell their products and we bring them ready to buy audience, but we also leverage other people, audio other people's audiences, right? So we went to this event and the people in the audience, absolutely amazing, great, great people. But then the event, the cost of the event, I don't even know how much it cost, but it was it was high-end, right? Like they really went all out, and then they had their upsell behind the scenes. That if I can be honest, I am pretty sure that was what was like you know, the main purpose of like you know, creating their revenue from that upsell, but then there was no urgency, there was no scarcity, there was no nothing that actually made people move and actually buy. So that's not a proper sales strategy, right? So you need to make money on the front end and make money on the back end.

Kevin Yee: 14:48

You cannot just relax either. Uh so rather than being an or, like, oh yeah, like I think most business owners they would probably ask, hey uh Lenny, like what do I do? Do I make money on the front end or back end? It's uh probably an and and not an or then from what sounds like. Is that right?

SPEAKER_03: 15:08

Yes, because you need to protect your business, you need to protect your business, like there is no other way around it. Uh, from the sense of what if something happens and you don't have any like safety net because you did everything exactly to the you know to the cost because you're then relying on people actually converting. And don't get me wrong, a lot of people convert in in-person events, it is something that can really happen very, very well. It's a great strategy, though. Like I personally I love it. But what I would say in this space is that um when we're thinking about it, right? And we're really considering our business like a business. I have these exercises that I I love to teach in some of my master classes and with my clients. Is I tell them, like, you know, my let's drop into a corporate office just for a second. So if you had your project, right, you have your spreadsheet and you have your cost and you have your everything. And I want them to, you know, to I ask them to imagine, and anyone who's listening to this, you can just do this for yourself as you know, kind of like play with it a little bit. It's just a great simple exercise. And then you, if you ever had a job in an office or someone, just imagine that in front of you is sitting, you know, the worst boss that you ever had, the one that was really the hardest boss on you, the one that questioned your decisions, and then present your imaginary project or your actual project to that person. And what would that person say to you? Would they tell you go ahead, or would they tell you go back to the drawing board? That is your compass. If someone in if an office, a business, would not approve this project, neither should you. I thought that's important.

Kevin Yee: 17:15

I'm just writing it down. Yeah, that makes sense. Ah, I love that. Um I'm so good that I'm actually writing that down.

SPEAKER_02: 17:26

Yay! Okay. I'm so glad.

Kevin Yee: 17:30

Yeah. And so one of the things I'm very curious, okay, so clearly, you know, there's a gap in the market with uh with like hosting events and stuff like that. But how do people tend fast forward to today? How do people kind of find you these days? Like, what does your marketing look like or your top funnel marketing kind of like? Are you doing mostly content marketing? Kind of curious about that.

SPEAKER_03: 17:54

Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. Yes, great. So I am a fan of speaking on stages and borrowing people's audiences, and I create my own audiences as well. I kind of believe like ebooks and you know, lead magnets are great to have, but they're kind of dead. Like if anyone like you know the PDF. Yes, if you really think about it. The last time you got a lead magnet, and I do get a lot of lead magnets on my own, just to like I'm always running market research. Like, my I have a marketing background, like I cannot help myself. I need to see what's out there, right? Like the book that I have uh on my desk is this is marketing, right? This is exactly like what I have.

Kevin Yee: 18:39

Like next to I have that book over there.

SPEAKER_03: 18:45

I mean, if you're running marketing, you need to like hear this man, right? Here, like anyway. So what we do in this, uh, in the in this space is yes, ebooks. Think about it. Last time you picked one up, did you actually really read it or you just can through it? Your audience is probably doing the same unless they're highly, highly interested. So, as much as I do believe that you still need to have it, it's necessary for your business, is not everything anymore. You cannot just rely on your funnel, free low-ticket, mid-ticket, high ticket, because there is what we call uh trust crisis happening right now. People have been burnt because there's a lot of coaches out there promising things that they cannot deliver, like over-promising and over under delivering, it's a big thing in the market right now. And people feel cheated. So, how do we surpass the problem of trust? We need to create content where people can actually get to connect with you, right? So, live experiences where you can listen to people and Life can be online, yeah, is the perfect way. So, for example, for me, I go and I speak in other people's summits. I do choose which ones I do and I don't based on the audience, based on the topic that I want to cover. But I do that, and then from there, I take people into a masterclass, like straight to a masterclass with me that happens usually a couple of days after this uh appearance that I had on a summit, right? It's not two months in, it's just one week or maximum two weeks later. Why? Because then we get to have more lifetime with me. So they signed up for the master class and they they hang out with me for four hours. If you hang out with me for four hours, you will trust me because I'm gonna give you so much, there's no other way. You can't, and if it's not enough for you at the moment and whatnot, then you know you don't book another call, another hour of uh time with me, right? FaceTime with Laney. We call let's call it that. Not enough, then I have my podcast, right? You're in my email list once a week. I drop a podcast episode. Sometimes I have guest speakers, sometimes I it's me talking to myself, right? That's fun. And people come and you just listen to me, and then you get more hours of content with me. But this is all about creating deeper connections. This is really my goal. It's about creating connections because that's what we're meant, we're lacking. Someone who tells you, hey, I see you. You're not just another number. I see you. And it's a huge difference. A huge, huge difference.

Kevin Yee: 21:58

I do want to ask you something. Um so it sounds like you're doing virtual summits, you're speaking, you invite people to this masterclass, right? Four hours is quite a while, right? It's a quite a bit of a commitment with someone.

SPEAKER_03: 22:12

So I have an 80% retention rate.

Kevin Yee: 22:17

80% rejection rate?

SPEAKER_03: 22:19

Yeah.

Kevin Yee: 22:21

Oh what's your messaging in terms of like getting what what is your messaging in terms of like the uh in terms of the masterclass, I guess, for four hours? What's like I know that you're talking about outcome, right?

SPEAKER_03: 22:35

Yeah, yes. So let's talk about I'll give you the example of like the one for my business for retreats, right? So it's called sold out and profitable retreats because you do need uh you want everyone wants sold-out retreats, but honestly, you need them to be profitable. Sold out, it's kind of irrelevant. And in that masterclass, you come and I teach this system. I actually don't have a copy of my book right here with me. I should, but uh, I have a book that is about the six-figure retreat system uh business, right? So it's a system. So I teach this a system inside of it, and you go through the process and we run your numbers. Like, I take almost like a lot of like I'll take at least four or five people, they'll give me their numbers and I'll show them how they can actually have that business. And usually people tell me, I want to make a half a million dollars per year, I want to make a million dollars per year with this business, and I'll show them how it is possible with what they want, with how many retreats they want to do, what is their price point that they need to do it. We look at, you know, they also tell me what they do, what they not don't. If I tell, like if it's not very specific enough for the price point that they need to do, I'll tell them. You need to become more specific, you need to become an expert on your on one field, solve one problem. So it's a very hands-on masterclass where people get to see what is possible for them. And usually after that masterclass, half of the people who are still like you know, half of the people who ended up all the way to the end, they all book a call with me to to then hire me for my uh like my services.

Kevin Yee: 24:17

Let's talk about that for a second. So people are raising their hands, uh, they're probably like, Lenny, what does a coaching engagement look like? How do I work with you? Right, and so I'm kind of curious like, what are your different offerings and stuff? I know people have 101s, they have group trainings, but what have you gravitated to?

SPEAKER_03: 24:36

Well, I gravitate towards um group coaching and mastermind. I do do 101. Um, my 101 starts at 15,000. Um and it goes up higher depending on what they need. And the moments when I offer 101 is when I see that they have something so specific that we need to create a very, very unique business model. Or those who are like Lainey, I just can't wait. I don't want to do it on my own, right? Like, I know this is what I want to do, they're extremely certain, they have everything that it it takes, and they're like, I just let's just do it, right? And then that's when the one-on-one comes, but it's basically it's usually my last offer. Before that, is my group coaching programs where like it starts at it starts at 10,000 all the way to 20. And that one, like the one with 20, includes a behind the scene of of me like running a retreat so they get to see how you plan it and whatnot. So it's kind of like um like um a reality TV show. I don't know. I always dreamt of like having someone following me through life with a camera and just you know, recording everything, so I just without needing to you know get a um a TV, you know, a TV channel to produce it or anything, but basically, you know, they get to hang out with me behind the scenes and like in the process of uh putting together a retreat, so it's so much it's a lot of fun. And the last one that I have is my VIP days, and this one they come to Mexico and they hang out with me for three days. Um, that also starts at around$10,000. And uh for that one is that's when someone is like, Lainey, I want this yesterday. All right, so everything is every like the choice on where in which area, right? Where do they fall inside of my business? Is it really has to do with their business goals. It doesn't have to do with me. See the difference? Like it's not about me, it's about them. About how fast do they need to make the shifts, how fast do they need to make the changes, and the the reality of how much time does it take to implement. Someone who comes for my VIP days, they're already they have a very successful business on their own and they're just adding retreats. It's an addition to their already successful business. So we can do it in two days and be like, okay, this is concept, this is this, this is this, this is business model, this is how you add it into your ecosystem. Off you go. Someone who's starting needs to learn a lot more about business. So they need more time, and that's usually where the group coaching programs is like the best place to start.

Kevin Yee: 27:36

Yeah, something I noticed. Um, we're talking about this pre-podcast, so I'm not surprised. You're very comfortable about talking about numbers, and something that um I see a lot of coaches struggle with is something like pricing, right? Because you know, they think about like, oh my god, what do I charge? How do I package this, right? And so how do you think about how did your pricing come to fruition, right? You clearly have these set prices that you kind of uh mentioned, right? But I'm sure it wasn't your day one prices. How did that evolve over time?

SPEAKER_03: 28:11

Oh yeah, so well, first of all, I'll tell you um the story. It's very, it's a it's a kind of funny, not funny story. But um so when I started my business, right? When I decided I was gonna do this, right? Like for real, when I was like, yes, this is what I want, right? Like I'm stepping on in, I'll like invest in the coaches, invest in the systems and everything that I need. Um I I just I did my I ran my numbers, okay? So I ran my numbers based on my capacity uh to have clients, like one-on-one clients. I started, um, I wanted to like I actually had like one month of one-on-one clients, and then after that, I launched group coaching because I was like, no, I need group coaching in my life, it's just so much more fun. You know, people tell you you have to do it this way. I'm like, no, right? I had one uh one-on-one client that just showed up in my life and said, like, hey, can I have you? I was like, okay. Um, but when I I ran my numbers, um, I just sat down and I thought about my capacity. I thought about my business goals, my financial goals, and I was like, how can I reach that if I were just to do just one-on-one coaching? And I did the same with group coaching, like a separate thing. So if I just wanted to do one-on-one coaching and that was the only thing that it focused my energy on, how much money would I need to charge per hour in order to get those results based on how many clients I could take, um, the lifestyle that I wanted to live, the holidays that I wanted to take. And the number, my initial number for one-on-one uh consultations, um, it was$300 an hour. And that was in packages. But that's my that was my starting point, right? And I see a lot of coaches out there that start at$75. And I'm like, how? Like, how? Like, right? For me,$300 was slow. When I ran my numbers, I'm like, well, this feels a little bit low, but I was also going through the process, like, are is there someone who's gonna pay for this? Uh so anyway, I was like, okay, fine. And I spoke to my like I spoke to my mom, my brother, and you know, they're entrepreneurs entrepreneurs. Well, they're business people, actually, not even entrepreneurs anymore. And they have successful business, and then they asked me, like, Lainey, who's gonna pay for that? And I sat there for a second, right? It was like it was a hard question, right? Like, who's gonna pay for that? And I was like, Well, I don't know, but someone will. And since then, I've never dropped my prices, like never. And every year they get increased, right? Like I mentioned, my prices right now. We're in 2025, 2026. Anyone who comes talk to me, the prices will be higher. Life is more expensive. I need to charge more. There's this, it's just logical. It's it's not like it's not about anything, it's just there's inflate inflation, right? Like rises of cost of living, everything. So your business needs to represent that. So nowadays, you will not get a hang of me for less than a thousand dollars an hour. And honestly, I really rarely, rarely do that. I rarely like because one hour with me, it will be amazing, but it's I mean, I mean, one hour with me for some of my clients represents additional$24,000 in the bike account. So, you know what I mean? Like the return of investment is amazing. Yes, you do want to have one hour with me, but you're better off spending a couple of months with me because you're not gonna make twenty-four thousand dollars. We're gonna build up you a business that is gonna make you multiple six figures throughout the years. I don't know. Did that answer your question?

Kevin Yee: 32:16

Oh my god. There you go. Okay, cool. Now it's back. Perfect. Yes. Um, yeah, it's it's interesting because what you're doing, it's it's not just like I don't think uh outcome like a financial gain from your services and stuff if you're teaching people how to be more profitable with their events. That totally makes sense. Um one of the things I am very, very curious about too. Um sounds like what you do is quite a bit of work. Do you do you currently have a team helping you behind the scenes or are you kind of solo right now?

SPEAKER_03: 32:52

Oh no, I have a team for sure. I do like to be the front uh face of my business for many, many things. So, like if you like when you emailed me for to be here, I replied myself. Now, my team goes through my emails and then they right and they will tell me, hey Lainey, this one looks worth it. And then they have like they have filters, so the ones are you know, like I get invitations to be in a lot of podcasts, and sometimes uh or I'll I get people who want to be on my podcast and they'll come and they'll be like, Hey, I have this carpenter who would be an amazing podcast guest. That one is immediately discarded, right? And my team already knows what to reply. They ask them, do they have experience hosting retreats or events or something? And then if they don't reply back, right, or they say no, well, then this is not so there's the processes, but I do like to be the forward uh face of my business, even though I do have a team, um, just because I mean I since it's part of my loyalty marketing background, right? It's all about creating connections and building uh systems. So I have a person who is in charge of what like the CRM, I have someone who's in charge of my uh my podcast, right? And the emails that go out there. I'm always um we're we're right now we're interviewing new people for content management because um it's a thing, and I have we have not found someone we like love, love, love, right? So what we are in that space, I have an ads person, right? So I I do run ads for my business. I have a person who's in charge of my ads because guess what? I've run multi-million dollar ads campaigns. I do not want to become the expert on ads and have to keep track of everything that is changing every single day. Yeah, it is not my time, yeah.

Kevin Yee: 34:55

Huh. Yeah, that makes sense. And I I love to hear, like, you know, the behind the scenes that you're not alone because you know the level of work that you provide is seems quite intimate. And so I was very, very curious about the team size and stuff, and it's kind of cool to see what you're currently hiring for, like a content um content person and all that. Which leads me to my next question, too. I'm very curious about uh about Laney. I'm really curious about your future goals. Like, so where do you kind of want this coaching business to take you in the next few years? Do you have like desires to scale? Do you want to hire more? Do you have secret dreams no one knows about? We'll love to kind of hear that.

SPEAKER_03: 35:34

Oh my god, yes. I have so many, like, there's so many, many goals. Some of them have been coming to fruition uh in 2025 and are coming already in 2026. So that's amazing. So basically, in the retreat, like in the retreat space, and it's everything is connected, like both my businesses are connected, right? So I have my retreat coaching business, and then we have the We Summit company that is selling from stage where we create stages for people to come and sell their services. But now in 2026, we're having one that is for people to come and sell from stage, but the topic is all about retreats, and we're actually running it in Mexico, so that's gonna be absolutely amazing. We have goals of tripling the the size of the audience that we had last this year. We had it in October, it was in San Diego. Um amazing people coming into the room and into this space. So we are so excited about that one. We are gonna do uh a couple more events about like women who sell, because a big part of our promises for our business is to get more women selling because and coaches in general, right? Everyone needs to learn how to sell. Because if you don't know how to sell, um, you might be the most amazing coach. You're not gonna change the world. You need to be able to sell, right? So that is one of the things. Then um, definitely I would say for bigger goals, I'm not thinking about actually I prefer small but mighty teams and a working with agencies, so definitely PR agencies and marketing agencies are on the like bigger goals, but not direct teams, uh team members, like a large team of you know what I mean. Um I've been in those roles, and it's a lot of uh management of people, and I mean I love people, but I'd rather be doing what I love and have other people manage people. I mean, I've had that makes sense. But it makes it sense, right? Like uh I think you can have a very successful business without having a team of a hundred people.

Kevin Yee: 37:52

Yeah. And plus what I find too is like people that there's people like so people like you and me. I I'm not in love with managing people. That's not like my zone of genius, right? But then, you know, as I've been hiring, I've been finding people who love that, like they love like the whole management and all that, and I love hiring those people, I love sustaining those people's livings and stuff too. At least at least on my end there.

SPEAKER_03: 38:18

Yeah, that's so interesting. Yeah, I think um one of my goals before was also publishing a book. I did that this year. So many things are like you know, um, I really think that after your five-year mark in your business, a lot of your goals come to fruition, and it's time to set new goals. And I'm in the process of setting all these new goals, but definitely large in-person experiences, and um just really my big, big goal is to elevate the the industry, the coaching industry. So there's bigger standards, people pay what it's supposed to be paid. I also believe that there's undercharging and then there's overcharging for services. So I know we've been talking a lot about pricing, and I mean, I told you I can speak about pricing for hours and hours, but another thing that I see is people inflating their prices when what they're offering is not worth it, and people underpricing when what they're doing's so much worth it, and it's worth so much more than what they're pricing for, right? So, like pricing in your coaching business is not just like a map, like you know, it's not throwing competing the wind and being like, oh, because everyone else is charging this, so will I. No, you need to back it up into your in your results. Like I told you in one hour with me, you can be making 24,000 additional dollars easy, right? Like, that's the latest result that I had from one of my clients. One hour in one week, additional$24,000, right? Someone could make a hundred. Like what I teach can make you a much a lot a lot of money behind the scenes. So when we really think about this in this space, is you need to charge based on the results that you provide. And then you will have a successful business. And then higher the people.

Kevin Yee: 40:26

Yeah. You bring up a really good point too because some people just like get the price based off of just because I feel like it.

SPEAKER_03: 40:34

Yeah, they call it the angel numbers technique.

Kevin Yee: 40:38

An angel numbers technique. You just uh oh yeah, I feel like uh 333. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 40:46

People will buy because of it. No, they won't.

Kevin Yee: 40:50

I know. Yeah. It's kind of manipulative too, but it's it's really interesting. I do want to ask you too, because I know we're coming out of time soon. You know, we kind of have these highlight reels and stuff too. And if you're comfortable sharing, I guess like in this current season um in your business right now, what are some growing pains that you're kind of noticing? Is there anything unexpected? Because I think sometimes we get we see these highlight reels of a business, but what are some of the unglamorous stuff that you notice?

SPEAKER_03: 41:22

Oh my gosh. Well, like I'll I'm I'm being very honest about my business, okay? So I have two businesses and one is doing great, the other one is doing great, but like we, you know, we have like six-figure weeks and whatnot, but the expenses of running that business because it's a beginning is so much, much higher. So then I had different credit cards to pay for the business. And I was like, well, which one do I pay first? This and that. And I mean, it sounds silly, right? Like um, creating, you know, having to like have a plan on like when do you pay one thing, or you know, if you wait for one thing or the other, and like really creating a strategy for your business. And it just got me so worked out that for three days I really couldn't sleep. Yeah. So like I was like sleeping three, four hours a day. One day I went to bed at like 7 a.m. or 6 a.m. or something crazy. Um, yeah, because I would just like my brain was so overwhelmed with thoughts. Another thing that has happened is like I am a very creative person, and that's why I love having clients because I can pour my creativity and give them ideas. Because if I I have too many ideas, if I want to like do all of them, I won't, right? I won't do anything really like in excellence or it to become extraordinary because I'm trying to do too much, right? And making those assessions, right? And saying I call it the freezer, right? Like, what do I send to the freezer? It's always hard. Yeah, because there's there's there's like I have this one project, okay, and I'll tell you a little bit about it. It's it's for retreat centers because behind the scenes I also do consulting for retreat centers, but I don't really promote it, it's basically worth of mouth, and it's not one of the things that I just talk very much out there, and I have this project that is gonna change the way retreat centers do business. And I had to put it in on the freezer for a year, and it was hard, right? It's a project that I know is gonna like really elevate the industry, it's gonna change how they sell. It's just so it's powerful, it's great, but I had to make a business decision of like I don't I did not have the capacity, the time, or the team to really pull it off properly. And that was very hard because I'm so passionate about it, right? But I had to like hold my passion so I can actually serve people well, so I can do my like what the job that I'm doing, I do it properly.

Kevin Yee: 44:08

Yeah, so it was so interesting because I feel like oh yeah, I want to start a business to do our whatever I want. And it's not necessarily like that all the time where you kind of built this huge that you've kind of built this business, and you kind of have to prioritize like which one do I which one is the bigger priority? And I think that's the hard part sometimes too. And I'm so glad that you mentioned that.

SPEAKER_03: 44:33

Yeah thank you. Yeah, my um, yeah, I'm happy to uh I'm happy to share that. I mean, I could talk for a lot longer of the things right that uh don't work out, or when you you know, we hired a a production, a podcast production company, we paid, we spent months doing work, they were not doing what we wanted. We spent so many hours putting back into the project, and then it just didn't work, and they just dropped us. They were like, Well, you know, too complicated to work with, and I'm like, We're just asking for clear stuff and branding. That was uh, you know, um, it is a lesson about you know, um something I I've learned in the process, and in this case, because I have a business partner, you know, decisions sometimes take longer, but I am a person who like fires fast. I've I had to learn about I had to learn it in like at the beginning uh stages of my business. I had two team members and they were barely doing their what they were supposed to do. At some point, someone was in charge of like Facebook and sending messages and whatnot, and their answer at one time I was like, You have not done this for two weeks, and they're like, Well, you know, I'm not feeling very connected to Facebook, and I'm like, What do you mean you're not being connected to Facebook? I'm finding resistance to doing the work, and I'm like, Well, I'm not putting my resistance, right? And I had to, I had to like gently let them go. And but I gave them extra time to, you know, I gave them coaching, I spoke to them, I did everything, and I was like, No, you know what? When you know it's not right, you need to fire fast. And that's one of the biggest lessons I I've learned as well, because you can spend so much time trying to fix something that won't be fixed. And I'm not saying, you know, don't look at everything and just try new people all the time because that also takes investment in training and money and whatnot. But really, like see it from this space of I am wasting company resources if I just keep people for the sake of being nice and being accepted and being loved.

Kevin Yee: 47:04

That's a great reminder, you know, because whether you believe it or not, we're always in the people business, and sometimes like sometimes our inner wounds, and this is probably getting a little like because we're we could probably go on another hour about this, yeah, but it bleeds into the business. I've noticed that with even myself too, like sometimes, you know, like keeping people longer than they should. Man, this is such a great episode. I would love to go longer, but I know we're almost at time.

SPEAKER_02: 47:36

So I want to we can do another one another day for sure.

Kevin Yee: 47:41

Yeah, I'll ask my podcast manager if we can. Um, how do people find you and connect with you, Lenny?

SPEAKER_03: 47:49

Well, I would say the easiest way is to find me on Instagram at the retreat planner. That is the fastest way to connect with me. Or if you want to join my masterclass, just theretreatplanner.com slash channel challenge. And then you can come hang out with me for four hours. Wouldn't that be amazing?

Kevin Yee: 48:13

Plenty of value in those four hours. I love that. You know, uh, because I'm looking back at my I'm not sure if you know, I used to be a drug dealer. I still have really bad handwriting. I used to be a pharmacist. Um, so one of the things I just noticed is like I love how you didn't talk about this explicitly, but I loved how your kind of corporate career back in the day kind of led to this business model. And um just that self-realization of a nine to five meant safety to you, but then the whole COVID thing happened, led to this beautiful business model. And I can tell like all your knowledge that you learned through you know your previous marketing career and all that and events career leads to this like huge events like this huge business model, um, that where you're really impacting other coaches and all that as well. Anyways, and one last thing, I just love your transparency on your pricing and money and all that. And it just goes to show like thank you so much uh for just sharing your knowledge on this uh podcast. Thank you for um the work that you do, your work matters, and that's my long way of saying hey, I appreciate you, Lenny, for coming on the podcast. So thank you.

SPEAKER_03: 49:32

Thank you for having me, Kevin. This was absolutely amazing.

Kevin Yee: 49:37

Yeah, it was my pleasure.

Davis Nguyen : 49:39

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe to YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This conversation was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to seven and eight figures without burning out. To learn more about Purple Circle, our community, and how we can help you grow your business, visit joinpurplecircle.com.