“The SHIFT Framework: Building a Soul-Aligned Business” with Holly Porter

When the machines were loud and the room was cold, Holly Porter made a decision she didn’t technically get to make—she chose to come back with purpose. That return set off a chain reaction: a bestselling book with a spine of practical wisdom, a nonprofit reimagined around women leading with purpose, and the bold blueprint for an International Retreat Association the industry didn’t know it was waiting for.

We dive into Holly’s early life in a family where entrepreneurship was normal, not novel, and how real skills—not prestige—powered her career. She shares the hard-earned lessons of running multiple companies while raising eight children: the high of progress, the cost of constant stress, and the honest regret of being everywhere but not present. Her definition of success is disarmingly simple—wake up happy—and it reframes how we think about goals, growth, and what to quit.

Holly walks us through her 70-day hospitalization with COVID, the near-death experience that reshaped everything, and the SHIFT framework she built from it: surrender, hope, intuition, faith, transformation. You’ll hear how Adventure Bucket Wish pivoted from long COVID support to empowering women with purpose, and how Retreat R evolved from an ambitious tech platform into a broader ecosystem play. Most exciting, Holly unveils the International Retreat Association, designed to set professional standards, elevate safety and ethics, and unite retreat leaders, venues, travel pros, attorneys, accountants, and technologists around shared excellence.

Along the way, we explore side gigs versus “real” entrepreneurship, when to pause vs. push, and how to build enterprises that fund philanthropy without burning you out. The thread through it all is service: love people where they’re at, remove judgment, and build systems that outlast you. Subscribe, share this conversation with someone who’s on the edge of a big pivot, and leave a review with the one shift you’ll make this week—what’s your next move?

Transcript

Meet Holly Porter

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Welcome back to one on one with Mr. U. Of course. I'm your host, Mr. U. If you're watching for the very first time, listening or watching, upper right hand corner of your screen, the QR code. Grab that with your phone, and you can get all of our previous episodes of one on one with Mr. U and catch up on how we do business out here. So thanks for watching and listening. We definitely appreciate that. In studio with us now, I take a breath first because she does a lot of things. So creator of 12 startup companies. 17 times. I said 17 times best-selling author, keynote speaker, transformational leader, coach, and CEO of Retreat R and R. Holly Porter is in the studio with us today. Holly, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

I'm great. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Same here. Glad to be had and glad to have you here. All right, we got we had an awesome conversation in our pre-interview, and I want to get into some of that with the time we have available to us. So let's try to do that today. So, firstly, tell me about well, in short term about how you got from where you were as a young person to where you are right now. I know that's a long story, but try to shorten it for us, but have some follow-up questions for you. So go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

I got a lot of years behind me, so yeah, that's a whole show.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

I would know if you didn't tell me I had no idea.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Well, I grew up with um nine siblings. Well, there were nine siblings total in my family, and my parents were both entrepreneurs, so it's really in my blood. And I just I always just treasured relationships and wanted to do everything on my own and have three jobs and a family and just have it all. And and it's like be careful what you wish for because you might get it. I'm a really good manifest, and I didn't really plan on having um so many companies that wasn't in really in the plan, but as it unfolded and worked out, that's just the way it is, and I like change. And I had several companies or have had for 20 years, so it's not like I just jump ship all the time, but yeah.

Growing Up Entrepreneurial

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Congratulations, that's awesome! All right, so entrepreneurship is in your blood. I definitely were the very first few hosts. So I've I guess I only had maybe two or three that have said that their parents are entrepreneurs. What was life like in that household? Because there's always a pressure to go the traditional route. Yeah, good uh, I mean, I I lived in that pressure growing up, so I know what it's like. Yeah, how was that viewed in your household about the traditional path, education, four-year degree, school loans? I added that one, you know, and things like that 40-50 years in one job. Tell me what how it viewed in your household as a household for entrepreneurs at that point.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Yeah, that's interesting. So being educated was important, but it was never pushed on us to go to college or anything. Um, and most of us didn't. There's nine of us, and I think only a couple of my siblings have degrees. We're most all entrepreneurs have our own businesses, everyone's successful. A lot of us have kids that are entrepreneurs. It's just, I think it's just in the genes. And I I love, you know, I and respect anyone that has that degree on the wall. But for me, I even graduated from high school a year early because I just I always wanted to get out in the world and do my thing and be in charge. But I'll tell you, I have taken probably enough classes, uh coaching, everything I've done over the years, I'd have a doctorate degree easily for the hours I have spent learning. It's just I didn't want to learn what they told me to learn. I wanted what I felt like I needed to learn. And I just felt like sitting in a classroom, you know, check. I mean, my my best math class in high school was business math because it made sense to me. I use it every day. I couldn't tell you the first thing about algebra, triagram, trigger, whatever you call it.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

I mean triometry and alcohol, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

I could care less. That didn't motivate me, but business math lit me up because those were the numbers I needed for business, right? And so it's just we take what what's gonna work for us, and how many people have a degree that don't even work in their field or or hate what they're doing, and it's like to me, as long as I wake up every day and I'm happy with what I'm doing, I'm good. For me, that works.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

I'm good. You gotta, I mean, we can't just stop my dear how you gotta share the secret sauce because even though it was in your blood in your blood, and I I totally get that, yeah. Everybody that's started it and tried it are successful at it. I know a lot of entrepreneurs that are in communities that I'm a part of. I'm uh founding member of a couple of communities, and I haven't heard not one of them say, no, I started entrepreneurship way back when, and it worked exactly the way I planned it. No changes, it wasn't a one-stop shop. I had to bounce around and find find myself in entrepreneurship. How did you guys get to the place where you can say, you know what, this is successful? Is there a secret sauce with just some kind of key that you got from your parents? Tell me what take us behind the scenes a little bit if you if you can. How do they work for you guys? So uh effortlessly, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Yeah, well, some work better than others. I usually had anywhere from two to four companies at a time, which is juggling. Um, I like change. Uh, my husband, however, our construction company, he worked in the concrete industry for 41 years. He just got out of it about a year and a half ago just because it's really hard on his body. And so for him, he was stable. He had that, that was his thing. He enjoyed it. It was fine. It was me that we've been married 24 years, so it's been me that's kind of always needs something new and fresh. And we did all this while we were raising eight children together in the same house, and we have 19 grandkids now, so family's very important to us.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Let's talk about that one.

School, Skills, And Learning By Doing

SPEAKER_00 6:19

It's figuring out that I mean, those are probably more challenges than the companies were to tell you the truth. But you know, some worked out better than others, some some grew. Um, real estate I've done for 20 years now, and I'm a real estate broker here in Utah. That that's kind of been my bill payer. So while I excuse me, while I was out traveling, speaking, writing my books and things for the last 11 years, that was still my sustainable income. I had a salon in Spa for 20 years that was the biggest uh salon in town where we live and very proud of that. It grew and it was I moved four different locations as we changed, got to be the biggest, and then I was like, oh, I don't like being the biggest. So then I went to a medium size, then I went super small, and then I moved to a different town about an hour away and um still kept doing real estate, you know. So it's it's like there were always challenges, but it's like pushing them through, figuring them out. I love, I love the change of um, like in my salon, for instance, I was licensed for everything hair, skin, nails, I was an instructor, so I had students. Every day to me, a good day was change and and being able to leave for a lunch rotary uh function, you know. And I was rotary president, I was in the chamber of commerce, women in business. I mean, just I always in your bio.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

I didn't see any of that in your bio. Yeah, yeah, what we were just okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

No, at the same time, I just yesterday went to Rotary International, my old club, because they honored the past presidents of a hundred years, by the way. And there was only 10 of us there, so 10 were representing. And and I actually had to go to the library because it's been 17, 18 years since I was president and dig up like the stuff, like and and I forgot everything we had done. And I was like, wow, that that was we really did some big projects, but at the same time, I was rotary president. I was getting, I think I had just I had just got my real estate license like a year or two before that. So I was doing, I was still in the salon about three days a week. I was still doing real estate pretty much full time. I was rotary president, I was um AYSO soccer, over 1400 kids, and I had four kids playing soccer. So, like the the bottom line is not that is not bragging because it was like I showed up, I always showed up. We always have time for what we want to make time for. Okay. So when people say I just don't have time, it's because you don't want to be there. Like I there's all excuses you can make. Um for me, it was just I wasn't present. Like I was on the soccer field, I'm on the phone doing a real estate deal, I'm over everybody there, and I'm watching the games, and I have four different games going on on four different fields. What am I present for? Right? It's it's just it's like those, yeah, those are a little bit of regrets looking back. I could have done things maybe differently, but I was just living on stress and thriving on the moment of whatever was coming up now. Who was screaming the loudest is who got the attention. And you know, sometimes that was the kids, sometimes that was work. It just depends whatever's on fire at the moment is what you're focused on, and that's not really the way to live.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Absolutely. I want to ask one question about um entrepreneurship, that we're gonna go ahead and pivot. I don't know who said this, but somebody said it to me probably within the last three months. I don't know if it's a famous quote or not, but somebody said that if you have like a regular job, you're not an entrepreneur. What's your thoughts on that?

Juggling Companies And Family

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Oh no, because so many people have have their side gigs, you know. It's okay. If you you people for me, it's like I would take leaps that were probably not thought as well out, you know. So yeah, and and a lot of times, like my husband and I were both entrepreneurs, that's not always been the wisest thing because now we're getting into retirement age, and it's like, oh boy, it would have been nice if he would have gone into the military and we had that little bit of a backing, or he worked for a company or was a school teacher, or whatever that is, that didn't work out for us that way. But no, I think if you have that stability and can build something else you love, and when that job you know goes aside, or what you love that you're building became be able is able to support what your job income is, then you pivot, then you change, then you make that happen. It just depends what kind of sacrifices you really want to make to get what you want.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Absolutely. I'm gonna uh I want to get into some of your work, but I want to ask you a tough question first.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

I'm gonna ask a few tough questions on this show, so I prepped you for that in advance because you you already knew that I'm gonna have it. All right, transformational leader, keynote speaker, 17-time best-selling author, and the CEO of retreat R. Which title are you most proud of out of those four?

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Oh, you didn't put mom in there. I want to say mom.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

I guess that's always gonna win. That's why I didn't, that's why I didn't include it.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Mom and Dem are gonna win every time.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Um I almost want to say, yeah, mom would win first, but like transformational leader, I think matters to me because not just transformation for me, but what I can create for other people. Like I'm an early adapter and I love getting into something, taking a risk. Um, and you probably didn't, I the 12th company is my international retreat association. I just incorporated that in December. Brand new. It's a two to three million retreat leader, estimated retreat leaders in the world, and they don't have an association to belong to. There's no defined professional standards and ethics and values. So I'm creating it, and like that to me is part of my legacy. That's that's a big why that's going to create the philanthropy that I can do in the future that I know I'm supposed to do. So, like that, that probably would be it for me. That's not a hard question.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Okay, well, I wasn't sure. Sometimes nobody can answer it directly. Probably one of the first. All right, so I want to come back to your retreat R and R work that you're doing as CEO, but I want to ask you a question about that legacy comment you just made. Do you now you got eight adult children and 19 grandchildren? Do you feel any level of obligation or pressure at all? Because I know you grew up as the entrepreneur, you know, see entrepreneurship played out throughout your childhood, but do you feel like you know what? I have some pressure on me to uh kind of show them how to make it in the world that's ever ever changing, ever evolving. Do you feel like you have obligation to your to your to your uh children and grandchildren, like I say, or any kind of pressure at all to kind of show them how to survive and make it, or give them some tools to be able to figure it out themselves? Do you feel that as a grandmother? Do you and your husband feel that?

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Yeah, I do, I I do feel that. And you know, there's always ways that we feel like we're failing. And I'm a young grandma, I had kids young, so I'm a young grandma, and so I'm not that grandma that can be your babysitter for you while you go to work, like I have to work still. Um, it's just there, there's things that I like to be differently, but each of us have a purpose and a why and a calling. And I feel like for me, I never knew what my purpose was till I almost died about four years ago. And it was like to realize that my legacy is bigger, and and yeah, my family is uh in my heart and my soul, but I feel like what I'm creating is so much bigger than that. And so for others listening, I feel like you you just have to define what's what matters to you, what's important to you. Because, like I said before, we can find time for what's important to us. And if my family calls and they invite us somewhere, we drop everything. Like if we can, we will be there for them. We will support them. Now, when we're not invited or we don't know, I mean, then then we can't show up, right? But we're lucky to have so many. I think I have a dozen grandkids that live right here around me. So, you know, it's it's nice to have them around, but do I see them not even once a week sometimes? I mean, it's just everybody's got busy lives, a lot of them are teenagers now, and and um it's just yeah, there's chaos going on. But to the example I want to set is that they can do anything and and put in, roll up your sleeves, do the hard work. I mean, we it doesn't have to be hard, but there's gonna be challenges, especially if you're a leader, if you're an entrepreneur, if you have that special calling that you know is where you need to be, then that looks like some work. I mean, you have to put in the time, things don't come easy always, and they can, but you're gonna get challenges, especially with uh with what's going on in the world today. You gotta be able to shift and pivot.

Presence, Stress, And Regrets

SPEAKER_01 15:29

You definitely gotta be aware of what's going on too. Some people are not. I want to come back to what you're doing with your uh your your framework and what you're doing with retreat on and all. So I like won't forget that. I'm gonna come back to both of those, but okay. About your health victory because I thought the story was really profound. And I also in your sharing, I'd love for you to also tack on a part B that kind of just share how you changed as a person or even as an entrepreneur because of your health victory. Go ahead and share that, Holly.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah, so just um a quick recap. I had a 70-day hospital stay with COVID during COVID, obviously. Uh fall of 2021, I was in there 70 days. Um, I was intubated twice, had a trachea, sepsis, infections. There is no reason why I should have walked out of there. And I have very blessed and lucky that I did. But I had a near-death experience while I was in there and I was told a couple things to do. Um, I wasn't given the option to come back. I just got sent back, which I wasn't real happy about, by the way. So people that have lost people that we haven't seen again, you know what? They probably they're in a better place. Just know that. And so I came back with purpose and I didn't feel like I had purpose before. I mean, my family was my why, sure, but an actual calling of something bigger that you know. I feel like I was handed this life Bible with the end of the story written, and I had to just go fill in the pages in between. And so figuring all that out was was part of this journey, and um there it's been it's been a spiritual journey for me for sure. And my book that I just launched on 1111 called Near Death Shift. The I knew it had to have two parts it's a personal development book in the end, and then it's my story, so it's a spiritual book and a personal development mix, and yeah, it's definitely the book I'm proud of for sure.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

No, I love it. I love this. Okay, so let's talk about it. Sounds as though you turned that story into the mission for what you now know as shift framework, right? Right explaining to our listeners and viewers what shift stands for and how that framework kind of came about.

Side Gigs And The Meaning Of Entrepreneur

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Yeah, so it's kind of an interesting story. So shift stands for surrender, hope, intuition, faith, and transformation. And the bookends of the S and the T are surrender and transformation, which fits so perfectly because I feel like you can't have one without the other. And as far as surrender goes, surrender to me, nobody does it alone. I don't if you ask any person that's successful and they say they did it alone, that's ego-based because nobody gets there alone. Everybody has help. And at some point, you have to just surrender and ask for it. You have to be willing to accept. And so for me, those just came about. My book title was different for two years while I was writing it. And then this name came up Near Death Shift, and I knew that was right. I didn't even have the SHIFT acronym at the time. That was kind of part of the spiritual journey as I was writing it. That came about the last eight chapters, it came about from another program that I was creating five years ago before COVID hit, and used them at an event, but I never created the program around it. So while I'm writing it and I'm like, okay, how many, how much of this chapters am I going to dedicate to personal development? And then those eight things came up, and I was like, those are my eight chapters, and the shift is built into that, and it's just it evolved. Like I would get edits back from my editor and I would read them like I was reading them for the first time, like God had his hands in that book so much that it was new to me. I mean, it was just so much gratitude for what was happening. So definitely a game changer, and I hope that people other people can have their shift and see. My biggest message is you don't have to almost die to truly live and make the shift. You can make a shift without almost dying.

Legacy And Responsibility To Family

SPEAKER_01 19:33

I totally get that. Congratulations on the new book, Near Death Shift. I'm sure you can find it where where books are sold, I'm sure. Uh, you know, one of the things that I noticed about this, and I'm gonna I'm gonna pivot it here, but I've had uh some near death experiences also, and I share them on almost every podcast that I go on. Uh and what I what I personally have noticed is not for anybody else, this is just me talking. What I personally notice is that a lot of people who've had experiences like that, surprisingly, I don't really know how it's possible, but they come back, so to speak, with a mission that isn't really about other people as much as it's about them. About them uh remaking themselves, maybe perhaps uh uh refashioning themselves. And they talk about other folks and it being a mission, but it feels like it's less about the greater good or the or other people and their interest and more about them being able to say you know that I'm I'm new, I'm I'm this and I'm that. And so I love what you're talking about because you you've been you've been to that, you've been to the death's door, and you came back trying to build something that topics other people, it's not all about you. And honestly, that's so that's that's the natural reaction I would think, but apparently people are not exhibiting that. So I love what you're doing. I want to get into what you have done with uh the retreat RR, but I I can't get past the adventure bucket wish foundation. Are you still doing are you still doing that?

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Because yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Let's talk about that a little bit because I love to hear about women being empowered. I know I'm not a woman, but I know I got a wife and I got three adult daughters, and I got two granddaughters, so I care about women, right? But talk to me about the adventure uh bucket wish foundation because that's that's probably one of two foundations you already started. So talk to me about that. How'd that get started? Why was it so uh important for you to do it?

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Yeah, so in my near death, um, that was one of my things I was told to do was start this nonprofit. I was given the name Adventure Bucket Wish, but I wasn't given a mission. And so the story behind it, um, fast forward here back, but go back quickly.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Um I'm taking you back in time, huh?

SPEAKER_00 21:54

I'm sorry I I got long COVID after COVID and I was very sick for a very long time. Year and a half, I was a mess, and um and so I was living that so I that became our mission was to help long COVID. It was an underserved community, there were a hundred million people suffering from it. Well, about two and a half years into the mission, we had done a fun a couple fundraisers and done some things. I had a podcast for it, and it was like pulling teeth to get get yes on my podcast. You have a hundred million suffering, but it was just like I knew something was off, and so it's that listening to your intuition and being present with things, and I wasn't getting answers, so I kept doing my podcast, took off all the not all the fundraisers off the calendar that year, and one day I was doing the podcast, and all of a sudden I get this huge well, well, the girl, first of all, is telling her long COVID story, and I start reliving mine. I can't breathe, I feel like I have an elephant on my chest. I'm like, what is happening? It was it was a scary feeling. And all of a sudden, I get this download that says, This is not your mission anymore, and this is your last podcast. And I was like, Oh, and I was I was actually really happy because I was ready for an answer and it wasn't coming. So to get that, like, this is your answer, I canceled everything. I was like, but then I kind of went into this like mourning because I thought, why would God tell me to start this nonprofit and then take it away? So I called one of my board members and she said, if I remember right, you got you got the name, but you did not get the mission. You created that mission because that's what you were living at the time. And so she said, So we're our third year into your nonprofit, which is a big deal, by the way, for a 501c3. She said, let's let's keep the name and let's change the mission. And so that's what we did. There was that shift again, and um, and I had to surrender again, and so we changed it to she said, What'll light you up? What'll make you excited? And it was lead women leading with purpose because purpose is what I came out of all of this through my journey, and so we haven't done a ton with that since we shifted the name. We actually meet in April and we're gonna map out um a whole new journey for the women leading with purpose. So I'm super excited about it.

The 70-Day Hospital Stay

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Yeah, oh no, it's it's it sounds very exciting. I love it, love it. Okay, so you do so many different things, and I feel like in entrepreneurship, I say we I'm I'm adding myself to this group uh without permission. But we have we have uh we have such high, lofty goals and dreams, and we almost get a chance to touch on things that we always wanted to do, and we uh it feels like we're closer to it than people who are working in uh traditional situations. It feels that way, maybe it's not true, but just a perception. But tell me this, you know, hello access. Let me change my mic on accent. Okay, so for you, if nothing changes right now, everything stays exactly the same, what would that cost you personally, professionally, and spiritually? What would that cost you if you don't change anything you're doing right now, if everything stays exactly the same? No upward progress, no momentum, everything is just exactly the same. What's can you can you can identify what the cost is for you personally, spiritually, professionally, or all three?

SPEAKER_00 25:27

The easiest way to answer that would be what's my definition of success? Because that would be not progressing, would be taking that away. My definition of success is happy, it's that simple. It's not based, it's not based with a dollar amount or or how many friends I have or how many clients I have. It's am I waking up every day happy? And I think if if everything stopped, I wouldn't be able to wake up every day happy. I mean, I'm happy now, but I'm more happy when things are progressing and moving along and moving forward because that's how I think. And so, yeah, that that's an easy answer for me.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Okay, you got easy answers to my hard questions. I like I like it.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

You're not making it very hard.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

I'm I'm good, I'm good with it. You know, when I ask this question to all of our guests that come through, and I think there's a uh understanding, hopefully, that we can't control part of this. But if somebody Googled Holly Porter today, I what would they learn about you? What would they discover about you? Match that because uh a lot of times we think we control that narrative, but yeah, people see sometimes people see what they're looking for. Yeah, not what you put out there. I I talk to people all the time who want to be up against on our show, and they show me everything in the profile, but that's not what I'm looking for, right? I didn't share that in our preview. I'm I'm looking for something else that I believe is the is the goal in the gym, and it may not be in your work history, it may be what you've overcome, it may be in the mindset shift that you had. Somebody googled you today. What do you think they're gonna discover about you?

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Well, uh, what I would hope, and maybe what they see are different, because with my near-death experience, when you Google me, there's things coming up now about that. That you know, that's still part of my life. That's not my entrepreneurial entrepreneurial journey or anything. Um, in the past, it would have been more of the service-oriented things I did. I the, you know, yeah, the accomplishments, the awards, they're great. Like that's nice. It's nice to be recognized. But to me, I I'm more about changing things, about big change and the service we give and the relationships we build. And it's to me, that is my motivator, is the people. And so I would hope some of that's still coming up. I mean, I've ran for political office, that was ugly. I hope none of that comes up. It was ugly. I don't want to be in that world. I to those were the those were the best. I mean, I lost. I ran for a political for a city council and a mayor spot. And this was, I don't know, 15 years ago or so. And I'll tell you what, to know that wasn't my journey, that was losing was the best win I ever had in that journey because that wasn't where I needed to spend my time. Those weren't the people I needed to serve. It wasn't gonna move the needle forward for me. My heart, um, I have one, number one. I they actually labeled me the heart candidate, which I thought was pretty cool because I actually have a heart. A lot of politicians don't have a heart, but it just wasn't the place. And so, yeah, as people look now, I would hope that they just see um this is a good person. She wants to do good in the world, she wants to make change in a very impactful way with as many people as I can, without um harming people, um, building it around love. My my motto that I got back from my near death was love them where they're at, which changed a lot of that energy around. If you love people where they're at, takes that judgment away from what we think. And absolutely, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

I love that. What's your B hag? Your big, your big, hairy, audacious goal.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Oh, to okay, to build um, you know, it was retreat RR, it was really to build that out. That was the end game. And then while I was writing my book and got the idea for the International Retreat Association, right now that's my complete focus is to get that built because it's such a bigger thing that'll happen a lot faster. Because it's the faster path to cash right now, even though money's not ever been my motivator. It is a little bit more now because I know all of this philanthropy work that I need to do. I want to be a check writer. Like, I don't want to be in the ditches and see the crap of it all. I want to just say, here's the team, they can handle it. How much money do you need? And be able to just hand that over. Like that, that to me would feel be so fulfilling. Um, and so obviously, what I'm building has to be successful to make that happen. And I know the relationships I'm gonna build all over the world with this and already have been, are I'm gonna have so much more support and help. And you know, we all have goals, we all have dreams, and but I just yeah, it's it's more impact and money makes more impact.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Absolutely. So let's talk about retreat RR and the foundation that I would assume is separate from that. Talk to us about how it got started and what's it like today?

Mission Over Ego

Adventure Bucket Wish: Pivoting The Nonprofit

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Yeah, so retreat R was the second thing I was given advice on on my near-death um journey. And I had pitched the day I found out I had COVID, sicker than a dog. Um, I pitched to nine people online, sweat pouring down me as I'm trying to do my little show. And uh I wanted to partner with them. I I hadn't incorporated retreat RR yet. And these guys had a billionaire backer. So I was super excited to like have this partnership. And while I had my near-death experience, I was told not to partner with them, that that wasn't the best and best thing to do, but I needed to do mine and move it forward. So I within the first three, four months out of the hospital, I know I had God's hand in it because I was super sick. How I did it, I can't even tell you because I was really sick still. I got both of them incorporated, applied for the 501c3 for the nonprofit, um, incorporated retreat RR and started down that journey. And it's been a long journey of learning because I hadn't had a tech company. So retreat R the original idea of it was a booking and hosting site for retreats and to support that industry, uh, like an Airbnb, but it would focus on retreats. Still so needed, but realized after sinking a couple hundred thousand dollars into the company, it needed about another million dollars to really make it right. So I needed to go fundraise and do all that. Meanwhile, I I got the idea that phase two of my company was I'm a real estate broker now in Utah, and I buying and selling luxury retreat properties was another division. Concierge service was another division. So we had all these little arms to retreat RR, but phase two is the real estate, and I thought I should have started there because it would have been so much more cost effective, and nobody's really, you know, doing that. And um, and so I started working on that, and then last year I knew I had to get my book done. Like I was really being intuitive and listening, and it was like 1111 was the day that needed to come out. So then I got out of the hospital. One, one, one, one's very significant into my story. And so I everything kind of stopped and paused for that, got the book done while I was writing the book, got the idea for the association. And so I think my whole lesson in this journey is that I'm I'm not flighty and I don't just drop anything. It's like I continue it, but it's like this is on pause. Okay, this is on pause. Now I'm open, I'm hearing this message to start this association now. I I put one post on about three days ago, and I have had over a hundred conversations of people like, I mean, they're like drooling about it. I mean, you know that you've got something powerful, and they're coming from all over the world on my messages. And I'm building leadership council right now. I only want eight to 12, and I need to be very selective of who they are because they're helping, you know, create professional standards. And so we haven't even opened up membership. I don't have a wait list yet. Um, I know now it's like it's like to not feel like you have that imposter syndrome going on. I've had that probably in anything I've ever done. And I the path is so clear to me that this needs to be happening right now that it's like it lets everything else just say, pause. It doesn't need to stop, it just needs to pause right now. This is the path I need to be on. And usually I'm like all over, you know, a lot of a lot of things, as you can hear, going on. And I'm so focused on this right now. It feels good to say, hey, I actually can focus on one thing, which I've always been told to do, and I have never done. I mean, I had I'll tell you real quick, I had a real my real estate broker when I first got in real estate. He said to me, I was running my salon full time too, and I was, you know, rotary president and soccer kid president, and I had lots of stuff going on. And he said, You know, you'd be my number one agent if you would just focus on real estate, you know, and he had the number four agent in the nation working for him. So I would be like above her. And I looked at him right in the eyes and I said, I know, but I wouldn't wake up every day happy. I was dead serious. And about 10 years later, he got dementia so bad that he didn't even recognize people. I run into him and and he looked at me, he didn't recognize anyone. He said to me, Are you still doing a hundred things? Like he remembered that. He can't even remember who people are, but I thought, okay, that was that was impact, you know. Not that that need to be the impact I needed to leave on him, but the point is, what do you want people to remember you by? Like, what is it you want to create? What legacy do you want to leave? It doesn't have to be big. You're if your listeners are listening, your legacy could be just taking care of your sick parents, you know, uh your children, your it could be anything that is simple, but it's powerful and it's and it's leaving behind a mark, it's leaving something. And so just it's you got to figure it out for yourself. Nobody's gonna be able to they can help you, but nobody can figure out your purpose but you.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Absolutely. So I want to make sure I understand what you're doing with retreat R because there's a time coming in the near future where I may need this service if it's what I think it is. So tell me who your ideal customer is and what you do for them. I know that's gonna be a long answer, but if you can make it for me, that'd be great. Your ideal customer for this and what you do for them.

Defining Success As Happiness

SPEAKER_00 36:03

So in retreat R, the ideal customer really is the retreat leader themselves. The venues, they're they're the suppliers, right? They have so um if we're talking about the tech part of it, it's a booking and hosting site. There's a lot of challenges to solve, which is why it's gonna be a pricey uh to me. If you can't do it right, don't do it at all. And so it's like, oh, okay, it took me you know four years to figure out wow, there's a lot more to this. This is a learning curve. I feel like why didn't God give me the answer to do the association first? Why did the other come first? It's like the chicken before the egg, you know? And it's okay because there was so much learning I needed to have in those four years that I'm probably still figuring out that answer, but it's okay because this is where we are now. I'm not saying that's that's gonna not happen. It's just gonna pause right now. With the association, it's gonna bring all that competition. Everybody that I know, I mean, I love competition. It makes everybody step up and be better. So now all the other software people that are out in this field, nobody's built what I'm building. Nobody, it does not exist. But all the other people that are similar, I want in this association. It's like the association's like sits at the top of the triangle, it's over the whole ecosystem. And so, as we build, anyone that has anything to do with retreats, anyone, uh, an attorney that does trademarks or contracts, a travel agency, um, an accountant that teaches track strategy, like those are the key people I want on the leadership council. But all of that I know is going to help that software get developed later. Whether it be me that does it, I hope it is. I mean, I hope that's me that does it because I it's my baby and I worked a lot of years and time on it, and I've got a system profile built for it, but I'm not actively out looking for the million-dollar investor right now. You know, if they came to me, then I could probably buck up and hire a team and you know get something happening. But right now, my focus is really on the association.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Got it, got it. All right, this is my final question for you. They want to give you about 120 seconds to speak to the people and then anything you want to share. So here's my final question for you today, Holly. And first of all, you've been a fantastic guest. Thank you for your time and for being so forthcoming and transparent. It's been a it's been uh a blessing to us. So thank you for doing that. Uh in regards to I guess being an entrepreneur, there's a uh idea that I hear often that we'll never retire, that we're always doing something. So here's what I want to ask you, and I'll try to do it as less clunky as possible here.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

Do you do you see down the line, you know the number that you and your husband maybe have talked about as far as your ages? Is there is there a place in time where you guys would no longer be on the front lines of entrepreneurship anymore? And if so, describe what that looks like for us today.

What Google Might Miss

SPEAKER_00 39:12

Yeah. You know, when you face death, I never thought I'd live to be very old my whole life. And so when I'm laying there dying, literally, um, I'm thinking lots of things like did I was I enough? Am I enough? Did I serve enough? What kind of a legacy am I leaving? And so knowing that I was saved, I was sent back, I have a mission to accomplish. I don't know what in years of time that looks like. I just know I don't want to waste any time because life is precious. I I I'm lucky to be here. I'm grateful to be here, and I'm gonna do everything I can to accomplish what I need, what I got sent back to do. I don't know if I see um, I don't know if I'll ever retire necessarily. I feel like um, as to me, as I build wealth with what I'm building, like I said, it's for the philanthropy work I want to do. So I feel like I'll always have a hand in that somehow, even if it is just the check writer as the big audacious goal. Um, yeah, I you know, I I have a grandma that lived to be almost 107. My great-grandmother, my grandmother lived to be 96, and my dad's almost 88. So we have longevity in our family, but I've never wanted to live to be that old. I mean, I just am like I people say I want to be 103 and climbing trees. And it's like, why? I don't know. That's just it. I saw the other side, so I'm not so attached to age. I don't like the way I'm aging right now. It's like I ate 10 years having COVID, so it's like, no, um, when when I'm done, I'm done. And I'm I'm so willing to do that. S surrender. And at that point, I'm willing to do that.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

So I love it. Take these last 120 seconds to share what you like and let folks know how they can find your work and what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

Yeah. I think I want to leave the message for people to remember what I got told. Love them where they're at. It really will change the way you feel about somebody. Um, when you're feeling down, think of who you can serve. Because I think when you bring service into your life, you'll feel so much better. Um, probably someone you don't want to serve is probably who you should serve. And so I'm not telling anyone what to do, I'm just making suggestions. But remember the words love and where they're at. It will shift the energy, it will take the judgment out of things. Um, I have a link, a Linktree link, if you could put that in the show notes. That'll get you to my website, my social media, um, my books, anything you want to see, my nonprofits on there, all in one place. And you can just go have fun on there. And I I love hearing from people, I get emails all the time when people listen to podcasts, and and and I love hearing that it's you heard something that resonated or shifted you makes me happy. So thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Thank you for being here. So, all of our listeners and viewers that are watching, we have all of Holly's information in the show notes. You can follow her on social or via her link tree, transmissional leader, keynote speaker, 17 time best-selling author, and CEO of Retreat R R, Holly Porter. Thank you for your time and thank you for being here today.

SPEAKER_00 42:27

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

My pleasure. Happy going, everybody.