Female emPOWERED: Winning in Business & Life
Female emPOWERED: Winning in Business & Life
Episode 302: Get Out of the Day-to-Day With a DIY Business Retreat with Latasha Doyle
Do you ever feel like you’re running in circles in your business — putting out fires, answering team questions, juggling clients — and never getting ahead?
In this episode of Female emPOWERED, I’m joined again by my go-to content strategist and business bestie Latasha Doyle, founder of Uncanny Content
. Together, we dive into the real-life benefits of stepping away from the day-to-day and giving yourself a CEO Day, VIP Day, or DIY business retreat.
This isn’t about working harder — it’s about clearing the clutter in your business, creating space to think, and walking away with a focused action plan.
We cover:
- Why CEOs must step out of the weeds to see the big picture
- How to structure your own DIY retreat or VIP day (even on a budget!)
- The “messy kitchen” analogy — why you need to clean up as you grow
- The 3D Framework: Delete, Defer, and Delegate to lighten your load
- How to use VIP days to clarify priorities, streamline systems, and build a stronger team
✨ And here’s the best part: at the CEO Summit this November in Miami, we’re creating this exact experience in a room with fewer than 30 women. You’ll walk away with clarity, a strategic plan, and real implementation steps for 2026 — plus insights from marketing, financial, and acquisition experts.
👉 Spots are almost gone! Save yours here: www.christagurka.com/ceosummit
Because the truth is: CEOs don’t do everything — they create the vision, set the plan, and lead. This episode (and the Summit!) will show you how to step fully into that role.
Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Female Empowered Podcast. I'm your host, Christa Gurka, and we have, I think, our most returning guest on the podcast ever. I'm super happy to have Latasha Doyle with me, founder of Uncanny Content, and my literal. Ride or die human being on this planet that has helped me grow the Christa Gurka brand and Fitbit strategies to where it is today. And so Latasha, welcome back to the podcast.
Uncanny Content:Thank you for having me. I don't know if like in SNL when they have a five, five time
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:you get the jacket.
Uncanny Content:smoke jacket. I want that. Yeah.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:have sent you one. I should have sent you a jacket that just said. off or something of five years. It just, I, that would've been classic Next time. See, you have all the great ideas. That's why I love having you on my team. The best ideas. And isn't it crazy, we just, the episode that just aired this week, at the time of this recording was our 300th episode. How crazy is that?
Uncanny Content:Confusing, and I've been with you since the beginning.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Since then, because I, I literally remember the conversation. That started when they were like, you should do a podcast. I was like, absolutely not.
Uncanny Content:Yeah.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Abso. I was like, I cannot, I'm, barely keeping it together right now. Like, I can't do one more thing. And everyone's like, just all you have to do is talk. And
Uncanny Content:Well, you were already doing the female Fridays too, so you were already setting up a lot of interviews.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah. And that's why I think, I don't remember who said, they're like, just use the first year can be all your, all the stuff you've already had. And then I was
Uncanny Content:Okay.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:And I'm so glad people convinced me because I love podcasting now. I love it. It's
Uncanny Content:Alright, cool.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:So today what we're actually gonna talk about is the benefit and actually like the how to of stepping out really of the like the day to day to do a kind of like DIY or a VIP day or a business retreat kind of thing. You and I got together recently in Denver. I flew out. I mean, I was using as an excuse to fly to go travel, but I was like, I'm gonna come to Denver'cause I need help. Me personally, I'm the type of person, like I'm a very. Visual person we work together on zoom all the time. It's great. But sometimes my, the way my brain works, like to be able to sit down in person and hash out some things is just helpful for me. So it was a really helpful day and we're gonna talk about that today. So from a content. Expert strategy. I mean, you're really great with the strategy and putting all the pieces together. From that aspect, what do you see as benefits to doing these type of things?
Uncanny Content:So I think the biggest thing that I've seen is that anytime a business owner who is. In a growth stage or a transition stage, you are busting your ass. Every day you are answering team slacks. You are at the studio, or you are building funnels and writing emails and paying the bills and doing all the things because you are trying to keep up with where things are headed. And that is. The nature of being a CEO, right? Is that like our, you're wearing a lot of hats all the time, but one thing that happens a lot is that you get so caught up in the momentum of all of that, that you don't take a step back and you don't say, okay, we've all been cooking in the kitchen and now it's time to like clean up some dishes and put stuff away.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Oh, that's such a good
Uncanny Content:you have flour everywhere and there's a bowl that's been soaking in the sink for way too long, and it's just things are getting messy. And the doing like a DIY retreat or like A-DIY VIP day to really walk through everything that you need to do and everything that needs to be cleaned up without expectation that you're doing it that day. It's like doing, when you're really overwhelmed and you're just like, I just need to write it down. It's like doing that brain dump. And actually making a plan to make the changes that have been spiraling in your head. It just like, it takes such a mental load off of us. And when you treat it as like a, I am creating the plan for the next three months, or the next six months or the next year, you are able to see so much clearer who can. Be delegated to'cause you see things and you're like, okay, actually I don't have to be the one doing that. Whereas if you keep waiting for it to be a fire or one day you're just like, oh, well I have time today so I'm gonna do it myself. Everything falls back on you. Always all the time already. So getting it out of your head, thinking about what you really wanna do, what you wanna accomplish in this, like DIY retreat, DIY VIP day, it just really helps you clarify what you need to do and actually who else can help you do it.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah. I totally agree. I love the analogy of the kitchen, the messy kitchen.'cause you're so right. So many of us, when we're starting our business, especially those of us that are like the technicians in our business, like we're the doers, we're the service providers, right? We're kind of. Duct taping a lot of stuff together and we're just kind of trying to get shit out there and get it done and so, which is fine. I agree that that's the best thing. Like just put some stuff into action. Do it. It doesn't have to be perfect. So I'm, agreeing with that, and especially what happened with that, this strategies was I was launching that while I was growing Pilates in the Grove, and so we literally just duct taped a lot of stuff together. I was like, okay, this works. Okay. I guess I, I was learning how to use Kajabi. I was learning what, I didn't even know what beta meant. People, I was in coaching programs and they were like, I, I know,
Uncanny Content:Oh.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:they, they were like, what is, it's a beta, like you're gonna do a beta run. Like, and I was like, what the fuck is that? Like, I don't, they were like a test launch. I was like, I don't know what that means. So was, and we just like layered on top of, layered on top of layered on top of layered. So. When I first started doing these with Pilates in the Grove, I would call them like CEO days, and I would just take a day. I would try to go away like local, but I would get outta my house because it's distracting and I would do like an Airbnb or something. I would just go for a day and literally that whole day I would plan like the next quarter of what has to happen, what are the my biggest priorities. What can I delegate? What can I delete? What can I defer? and that was really instrumental. And people I know might listen but might be listening and being like, I don't have time to do that. And when am I gonna have time to do that? You have to make time, we have to make time for what we prioritize. a day ended up becoming like two days. Two days became three days, then became like a week from time to time. So your perspective. When business owners like myself who are like more visionaries and have a really hard time sometime honing things in being like, this seems like a big thing. So what would you suggest in terms of where should people start? What's the first thing they should do if they want to do one of these things?
Uncanny Content:Number one, put it in your calendar, block it off. Nobody can take that time. There's not gonna be like, oh, I could probably pop into the studio and check that out that morning. Or, oh, I could probably squeeze that client in. I don't care. Block it off. It doesn't exist. Nobody can talk to you.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yep.
Uncanny Content:And while you're at it, do it again next quarter or in the next six months so that like, that time is blocked off. I have a client, her name is Anna. She calls him Anna days. And every quarter she has a day where she does her like big picture thinking and then she goes to like get lunch and like go to a massage or a facial or something afterwards. And. Every time she does that, she comes back with more clarity on what is happening in her business. And she just got a day off to like, not deal with all the fires and not deal with all the communication. And she's not checking, everything. number one. Look at your calendar right now. We'll wait
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah,
Uncanny Content:and block it off.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:so good. Look at your calendar for the next, like sometime between September and November and just do it. One of the things that helped me, that was what I did, like I looked at my calendar and I blocked it. One of the things that did help me was to book. A hotel room or a conference room or a coworking space or an Airbnb because if I had something booked that I couldn't cancel, it was gonna cost me money to cancel. I was much less likely to be like, oh, forget it. I'll just push it on my calendar. So that was helpful to me. And I don't wanna tell people like spend money that you don't have, but as a business owner, think of it as an investment to keeping you from canceling.
Uncanny Content:It is a business expense, and if you're like in a really tight season. Call your library up and book one of their conference rooms, their study rooms. I, I have never done better work in my life than when I've locked myself in a study room in a library. but there's a lot of options there. And then I think the next thing would be taking some time to brain dump, brain dumping literally all of the things that have been like, oh, I gotta do that. Oh, I gotta do that. Oh, I gotta look into that. Oh, I have to do that. Oh, like just the never ending. Noise that goes on in our heads as CEOs, right? Write it down. Just have a, have a sheet of paper or like two sheets of paper, whatever, for the next, maybe week or so, maybe two weeks, where you're writing down everything that's just like, oh, I gotta do that. All right. all these little things so that you have a laundry list that you can then later sort into categories, but do the brain dump. Write down the things that are like. Oh crap, I gotta fix that funnel. Or, oh, I need to look into that trigger for our packages. Or I need to see if that teacher is actually gonna be available starting in November when she's supposed to come back from, her disability leave or whatever. write it down, keep writing it down. That list is gonna get fairly long'cause you're a busy person, but just keep adding to the list and then within, a couple of weeks once you feel like, okay, a lot of the same things are coming up or they're coming up in themes, where it's like, okay, this is mostly about, inventory for the studio, or this is mostly about equipment updates, or this is mostly about backend marketing, or this is mostly about like. Team management and systems, start bucketing those things out so that you can then make a plan to look at everything on your VIP day, CEO day, retreat day, whatever you wanna call it. Do not expect to overhaul everything on this day. This is a day for you to actually look at things, make plans, delegate, or delete and differ.'cause there's gonna be things that come up that even when Kristen and I did this earlier in August, there were a couple of things where she was like, just get, I don't, I, we, I'm not gonna do that. Just get rid of it. And you don't have to do that right now. You're brain dumping and then you're putting those, Dumped items into different buckets, and you can keep adding to those buckets however you wanna do it. and I can talk through a few of the buckets that we touched on, for you and that I think listeners might need. But that is first steps brain dump. And then when you have a long enough list, you can start bucketing those things out into quote unquote categories.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah. I also think some, one of the things that is helpful and so. used to call this like an issues list. Like we would just be like, here's an issues list. What are all the issues in the business? And we would do this every quarter. sometimes when you look at the issues list, it's, you can also then start to dig a little deeper and figure out like what's the real issue behind the issue. So an example, I. We hear this all the time, people on my, oh, the people on my team are not responsible for what they're supposed to do. Okay. That could be the top issue. Like Jane isn't doing what she's supposed to do, but what's the, could there be another issue? Does Jane not have the she needs to do what she's supposed to do? Number one, you not holding Jane accountable for what she's supposed to do? Number two. And does Jane even know what she's supposed to do? So is it the onboarding process? And so sometimes being able to figure out. What is the real issue behind the issue Solves the basic problem versus just like band-aiding like right over the solution.
Uncanny Content:Yeah, and once you get those categories right of like, God, I just have a lot of personnel issues, right? You start to see the themes, so like. For Christa Gurka specifically, when I was doing the outline, I was like, honestly, her biggest issue right now is that her website is, a product of the last seven years and it's that kitchen, right? Where it's like all of our, all of the things that we started are out and half of them are baked and half of them are not. so we need to really look at that. And for some of you it may be, I really need to get my offers on lock because I feel like I've added 18 different offers. And really my people only want, this one package that we do. Uh, I have a massage therapist who I hope doesn't listen to this, no offense, but she adds different packages weekly. She's added, oh, well now I have a sauna in my, studio and I have this foot bath and I have, a reformer now. Like she's adding all these things all the time and everybody has said, I only want massage. That's where she makes her money. So she would have to, if she were to ever do a VIP day, really look at, okay, am I overwhelming my people with all these offers? Am I overwhelming myself with all these offers? Am I overwhelming my team? But that would be like her big bucket, is that for some reason my offers feel chaotic as hell.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yep.
Uncanny Content:for some of you, it might be team, for some of you it might be like backend marketing or operations where you're like, I feel like we need a project management tool. I feel like we need a different, marketing system or scheduling system. Like there just may be those things where you're just like. Everything there is annoying the crap out of me all the time. This is where those VIP days can be really, really helpful because you can, like you said, sit down and say, okay, why do I wanna cry every time somebody new schedules an appointment? Okay, big picture. Let's actually ask ourselves, is it the system? Is it the team? Is it that you're at capacity and you've absolutely run yourself into the ground and you need to hire things like that? But during your VIP day, right before your VIP day, what I want you to do is like actually write it down in a notebook. Or if you have a whiteboard like Christa Gurka has, or if you have a, an easel like I have back here. You wanna write down your top three to five issues within those categories. Not, not like the brain dump task lists, right? The categories. What's your biggest category? What's your second biggest category? What's your third biggest category? I'll tell you right now by category three, you're gonna be. Pretty tired, so don't expect to get 10 things, you know, 10 categories addressed. I would really focus no more than three to five categories a day, and I'm talking like, uh, my biggest pain point right now is marketing systems. My second biggest pain point right now is team onboarding system. My third biggest pain point is. Offboarding clients to my team. My fourth biggest one is like, I need to have a new bookkeeping tool. Then fifth biggest is, you know, I don't pay myself enough or something like that. But they can't be massive things where it's like, okay, first thing I'm gonna do is I'm going to rewrite my whole website on this VIP. That's not what you're doing.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:No.
Uncanny Content:literally looking at, the theme, the category, and you're saying, these are all the things that need to happen to make this feel better. These are all the things that need to change here. Then category two, what's happening here? What are all the things they need to change? What are all the things they need to do or what the team needs to do? Category three, what's actually happening here? What needs to change? What action items are there? And when I say action items, if you're the only person on your team, if you're listening to this and you are the sole owner and operator, you have no team whatsoever. Be honest with your capacity here. If you have a team though, you need to be really honest about who can help you and who can't. And if you're looking at that list and you're saying nobody can help me, I think you need to put hiring as your number one category.'cause that sucks. But so you write your brain dump, you write down your categories as you get like a better idea of, what kind of themes are coming up in your, mental CEO noise. And then you get to the week of your VIP day. I want you to write down your plan. I'm gonna address these three to five topics, these categories, and then I want you to go to your VIP day armed with enough paper and pencil or dry erase marker or Sharpie or whatever you like to write in. And if you're a a laptop girly, fine, use your laptop. But there is something to be said about paper and pen when it comes to these things because. When Christa and I did it there ended up being a doodle involved that she's like, now I wanna have that illustrated for the website.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yep.
Uncanny Content:I could refer back to it really easily because it's a visual, like it's literally right here and I can stare at it when I need to. so something to be said about pen and paper, right? But then when you go into your VIP day, this is. I think people think this is a working day. I want this to be, like I told you, I have that client, the Anna Day, she starts the day off with breakfast at her favorite breakfast place. She goes to wherever she's having her Anna Day, which is, sometimes like a quiet room at a really quiet coffee shop. But a lot of times she gets like a hotel or like a conference room. I want you to go into that room fully fed, fully caffeinated, or whatever you need. you've peed, you're comfortable, all notifications are off. Okay? I don't want you being like, oh shit, somebody slacked me. Because you will find ways to distract yourself.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:of course.
Uncanny Content:And then I want you to get everything that you need out, and I want you to start on category one. And the question is, what is the biggest pain points here? What's not going well? If you wanna write down what's going well, great, do that. But it really does help to see, let's say your biggest category is. Scheduling and marketing systems. biggest issue is scheduler works half the time. Biggest issue is marketing funnels aren't set up. Okay. That's information that you need. So, and you have that brain dump of tasks where it's like, need to research other marketing tools, marketing and scheduling tools. Need to research how to set up marketing funnel in this tool. Need to do all these things, right? You've looked at category one and you've thought very honestly about what the problem is. So when Christa Gurka and I did this, the first thing that we talked about was this. This is maybe different for some of you, but one of the biggest things that Christa Gurka has come up against is for Christa specifically, not for the studios, is that the brand has changed from what it was originally, and that has been the biggest friction point for us is does. What we're doing now reflect the audience that we're serving. And so the first thing that I asked her is, has your mission and vision changed? And she immediately said no. And I was like, okay, great. Cool. Let's move on to this, which is our biggest pain point, which is the website. And we need to look at all of these different pages to say, what's not working for our current audience? What's not working for our backend tech? Right? But for some of you, it's going to be. A lot more tactical than mission, vision, values. Some of you're like, yeah, I know my mission, vision, values. That's not an issue. Some of you're gonna be like, actually, the thing that is really tripping me up is that I started out as a solo PT practitioner and now I have a studio and we do pT and Pilates and dry needling and all these things. So you're gonna have to take a step back and look at all of that. Does our brand reflect all that we do? Does our audience know that we do all these things? That we do? Things like that. So it can be really tactical or it can be pretty big picture, but that's why it's a VIP day, right? Is that like you can actually think about these things and have the space to do so. so you're gonna have your pen and paper and you're gonna start with that category one. You're gonna ask yourself like, what's the friction here? What's not working? And then you can start writing out action items. Need to research new marketing tool. Or if you're in a season of brand transition, it can be need to talk to new brand designers. or for Christa Gurka it was, I need to call my web designer'cause it's time. Then you can kind of list those out. But if it's easier for you to go category by category and list out what's not working or what needs to change, do a quick pass on everything if you can, or deep dive into something if that's your like learning style. I personally like to do a. A little bit of category one, a little bit of category two, a little bit of category three. Okay, let's go back to category one. Is there anything after we've thought about these other categories that's coming up, what about category two, category three? Okay. Now we're good on those things.'cause we had three things to talk about for Christa. For you it might be five. Go through all five. And then when you're done writing down, this is what's not working, this is what I want it to feel like. This is what I want it to be like. This is what I need it to do. Start making those action items. So step number one, we need to create a new site map for the website because it doesn't reflect all of our services. Step number two, I need to call my web designer, make sure that she's available.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yep.
Uncanny Content:Step number three is, I need to get the doodle that we put on our piece of paper illustrated, things like that. for some of you it might be. I'm gonna have to fire this person on my team. I'm having a lot of issues with my team. I want it to feel like they're actually showing up to work with the skills that I need them to show up with and with the excitement that, this brand requires, and let's say Janet is not fit in the vibe. I now need to research how to fire an employee, and then I need to schedule a termination date, and then I need to schedule a call with her to discuss her termination date, or it could be I'm drowning. I cannot do all this by myself. I need to look into hiring. I need to look into how much that's gonna cost. I need to look into onboarding materials. I need to think about my onboarding process, and then I can start writing a job description, and then I can start interviewing, and then I can hire somebody. And then obviously onboarding plan after that. But the idea is that you sit down with those three to five categories. And you really take a hard look at what needs to be done, and then you create action steps. So website needs done. Delegated to a web designer and a copywriter, backend marketing needs fixed. Maybe somebody on your team is willing to do the research on like a marketing and scheduling tool. Maybe somebody on your team has said that they'd love to help with the marketing and they can help with those funnels that you've been avoiding for six months. maybe you need to get a new scheduler set up, and that sounds like a nightmare to you. Maybe your teenage son loves technology and wants to buy a scooter.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah.
Uncanny Content:When you are listing out the things that need to happen, be very honest with yourself and say, do I have to do this? Or is it just that I don't feel comfortable delegating this? And you'll be surprised at how much stuff you actually don't have to do yourself. If you have a team or a support system, obviously I know some of you're like, it's me, myself, and I, and I get that I've been there, and you're gonna have to really look at your calendar and say, what can I do here? So then the next step to all of this is scheduling. If you, if you're the one doing a lot of this stuff, you have to take an honest look at your calendar. You have to set deadlines for other people if they're involved. and you go from there. I've talked a lot, so I'll wait.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:No, I think it's, I think it's helpful to like help people see the importance of these days. I do think sometimes, business is hard. There's no bullshitting around that, but sometimes we make it harder than it has to be because I. We haven't taken a step back to say like you, the massage therapist example is your clients are telling you one thing and you are not listening. So by adding all these services, you're just making it harder than it needs to be. And sometimes as business owners, I think we're afraid to say no to things. We're like, oh, shiny object. Oh, do this. businesses are like, Hey, I, I just did a workshop with a PT and I think I'm. Gonna rent her a room and do that. And I'm like, that's taking you away from your goal right now. Yes. Is that a good idea? Could it be a good idea? Yeah, it could be. I don't know that that's the thing you need to be focusing on right at this very moment when you have all these other things that you could do. And then that's how business owners that we're always like, oh my God, I have so much to do and I can't figure out what to do because we're just making our business harder.
Uncanny Content:Yeah.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:I also agree with your statement about finding help. When we did our day and we were looking at there's a lot of programs on there that were like pre COVID. I was like, we don't, why, why do we have these? It's like when you clean out your house. When we just recently moved, my husband and I still found, sippy cups in our cupboard. boys are 22 and 19. I don't know why we had sippy cups still, but sometimes you just gotta like. you still have stuff that is just not needed. or the jackets with shoulder pads that are still in my closet that I don't know why I am keeping them.
Uncanny Content:They might make a.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:They will, they're gonna be my Halloween costume one day. I don't know. But anyways, yeah, so I think sometimes it's good to get rid of services or things that are no longer profitable. An example is, I tell business owners a lot, especially studio owners, like, that 40 class package that you have that you think is great because it costs like$3,000. It's really terrible for your cash flow. Not that many people are buying it. Just take it off your, just take it off your. Surface. Right? Take it off. And then what can you, I like the 3D. So what can you delete that doesn't need to be part of the process anymore. What can you defer to later? Like, yeah, this is a great idea, but it doesn't have to be my top priority now. And then what can you delegate, So what can you delegate to someone else? And when I say delegate, I really mean giving. That person, the power to take that entire task, right? Not you micromanaging them, you giving them that task. And if you need to hire someone, you need to hire somebody. I ended up hiring, when we were talking about it. I was like that. All that Kajabi stuff seems very daunting to me. So I'm gonna look for a Kajabi expert. And I did, I hired a company that's, they're experts in Kajabi, which is my website. So they will do like the sun setting of the projects and then the re we're redoing our, the Fit Biz Foundation's course, like we're redoing the videos. They'll do all that. I was like, I don't, could I do it? Yes. Should I do it? No. Hiring somebody to do that. And so it doesn't have to be a full-time person.
Uncanny Content:It could be project. Mm-hmm.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah, project based is like super helpful. And when you're paying an expert to do it, might be like, oh that's like$2,000. They're gonna charge me. But how long would it take you? So the way that I tell people, so if you're a PT that charges$200 an hour for a session, if it takes you longer than 10 hours to do, which it probably will'cause you're not a website expert. You are already underwater and like what that is. Right. So just pay the expert to do it
Uncanny Content:Yeah.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:your time.
Uncanny Content:There's also the, so let's say you need to overhaul your systems because your scheduling and marketing tool is just like not working. people are not getting notified that they booked an appointment or they're not getting reminders. So they're not showing up to appointments. There's so much lost money in these systems. that. Yes, investing in things always sucks. And I'm not saying go into debt to do so, I'm not saying that at all. But as you do this VIP day and you look at your categories and you look at what needs to be done, there might, you might feel better'cause you're like getting it outta your head and onto paper. Right. But there's also gonna be this like, oh shit, now I have a lot of work to do. CEOs don't do all of the work.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:They don't, not successful CEOs.
Uncanny Content:No.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Not, six figure CEOs with five figure mindsets. That's like, that's like the problem, right? So it's important to delegate good leaders, create other leaders.
Uncanny Content:they do. And it's, I'm not ruling out that that's, it's not easy to do.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:it's not easy. If it were easy, we would all, we would all be fabulous and we wouldn't be burnt out, and we wouldn't be worried about having difficult conversations with our team. But if,
Uncanny Content:Yeah.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:not easy.
Uncanny Content:Yeah. the other thing I will say, speaking of team, is that sometimes it helps to do this. With either like a business partner that you are you really, really trust, or with another business owner. So like if you have, you're a PT and you know an acupuncturist who has their own practice that like they're doing really well and you guys have met up for coffee a few times, like it can be really good to bounce these issues off of another person because they can see holes that you can't. So when Christa and I did this, I came with questions and then she would tell me things that. I know Christa Gurka really well, but let's say she said something that I was like, oh, I didn't realize that, or I didn't think about it that way. And then that changed what we decided to do. So like even for the website where we were going through and realizing like, actually this is gonna need a redesign because we are changing so much. And quite honestly, Christa Gurka was doing that by herself. I think she would've been like, no, it's fine. We'll just delete those pages and like. Hide them kind of thing. Whereas, looking at it deeper with one person really helped see everything that needed to change. there were also a couple of things that, as she was going through, I would ask questions and it like, it honed in on what she saw that. I didn't see it, but it honed in on what she needed to do next. So if you have that relationship with somebody, or you have like a biz bestie, things like that, make it make it a weekend if you want to. but if it has to be a single day, that's fine. the other thing that I wanna mention is that like, bring snacks. Plan for breaks. This is not, again, you are not a workhorse on this day. You are the CEO. You have ideas and you are having your ideas. You are organizing your ideas. You are not doing the work,
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah.
Uncanny Content:not this day. You are taking a step out and then you're going to Applebee's for lunch,
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:And drinks and cocktails.
Uncanny Content:which is.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:cocktails. a couple people in our inner circle and in our Fit Biz membership, they have actually created like these accountability groups and they will do it together with themselves. Like, they'll go, they'll, a group of women from the Fit Biz that I know they got together to talk all about business. I know a couple women in the inner circle got together to talk about, business and, and same thing, like they can. ideas off someone and ask questions the right way. And, and sometimes a good one will like push back a little bit and say, I don't, I don't know. Like if that's actually true. Is that true? Right. we did it with our team quarterly.
Uncanny Content:Mm-hmm.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:I started just myself. Then I started having my team, members come with me, and it was a day. so, yeah, and I thought it was really helpful for you to be, to do it with me because I, one of the biggest things with me since I sold Pilates in the Grove was, okay, I get to die of full-time into the mentorship and coaching and consulting, which I love and which
Uncanny Content:Yeah.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:I've grown like gangbusters in the last like three months,
Uncanny Content:Yeah.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:but I also. Having learned from growing a business that if I don't fix some of these things now, it's just gonna be harder in the future. So I was like, I need to fix some of the tech. This is no longer like a side hustle. I need to fix some of the backend because I want the user experience to be really good on the front end for customers and, and having you. Ask me the right kind of questions'cause my brain, is just like a little bit all over the place, is helpful to push back, but to also get a little bit of clarity. we were able to discuss our real like customer avatar. In terms of where are they when we meet them and where do we want them to be? And that's where we did our little like visual drawing that I thought was really cute, that we're working on for our website. so anyways, that was super helpful. So I, I agree with you, like having someone, another business owner that you can do it with
Uncanny Content:Mm-hmm.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:also keeps you focused, right? Or having someone from your own team
Uncanny Content:Mm-hmm.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:do it.
Uncanny Content:Yeah, your team will bring a lot of perspective to you. you do have to be willing to hear it, so
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:just about to say that. Yeah, I was just
Uncanny Content:might be.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:that.
Uncanny Content:not critical, but they might have feedback on some things that you're married to or emotionally tied to. But I do think that level of challenge when you're stepping back to say, who am I serving? How am I serving them? How am I growing my team? What do we need to do that? Well, it really helps to have somebody who is on your team, who you feel is invested. Don't bring somebody you just hired two days ago. Don't bring somebody that you don't trust with your clients.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah, also that really thinks strategically like an owner, right? So they have to be able to see and understand the big picture.
Uncanny Content:Mm-hmm.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:really does help sometimes some of your team members realize like, how much goes into making
Uncanny Content:Yeah,
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:successful?
Uncanny Content:yeah,
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:know, when they realize, oh, there is thought process behind what we
Uncanny Content:yeah.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:why we do, and how
Uncanny Content:She didn't just increase those prices for no reason, just to make more relief.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:So I think that it's not, I, again, I wouldn't invite I, when I did it with my team, it was like myself and two other people. It was my director of operations and then our studio manager. So like she was always the liaison between the leadership team and the staff.
Uncanny Content:Mm-hmm.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:she brought a good perspective of like, I like that. How can we best roll it out?
Uncanny Content:Mm-hmm.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:the
Uncanny Content:Mm-hmm.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:So that was like, good. And she saw both sides.
Uncanny Content:Yeah.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:I thought that that was always powerful
Uncanny Content:Yeah. And if you're not there yet with team, it's just something to keep in mind that like, this may be a solo VIP day or like biz bestie, VIP day, but as you grow your team, grow it thinking, do I want this person in the room with me when I do this?
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:they come with good ideas? Are they good sounding boards? I mean, you and I work really well together, so it was perfect. and I also got to see you in person. And you're right. So we planned out like our entire, like what we were gonna get rid of, what we were gonna lean into, how can we streamline it? And then, then we had action steps. So then we were like, okay, this is what you're gonna do, meaning you, Latasha is gonna take care of this. Christa Gurka had her own action steps. We had like an idea of, we were like, okay, can we get on Jess's schedule for the website design? I was like, okay. So she's open to redo it in November. Great. It's not an emergency. We don't need it. Read, launch tomorrow. So now Latasha and I had, know, three months for the most part. To then build out the website, right. Work on sunsetting certain programs, work on the copy. I wanna get new pictures. I realized I don't even have Duncan on my website. Like how is that even possible without my dog on my website? How is that
Uncanny Content:Yep.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Um, because back when I started my website, I wasn't a dog person and so there's no dog on my website. um, yeah, so now we have enough time to really. Move in a very strategic, intentional manner where we're not overwhelmed
Uncanny Content:Yeah,
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:and we have a plan. So
Uncanny Content:and a lot of what's gonna come out of, the listeners' VIP day is you're gonna see all the things and you might feel overwhelmed at all the things you're going to be asking for help. And these things are not going to be done overnight. These are things that are going to be done over the next like three to six months. There are some things where you're like, I got that. Yeah.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:12 months.
Uncanny Content:But it's not, it's not going to usually be, I gotta fix that overnight. Obviously if your website crashed and you can't get it back up, you're gonna need to get help and you're gonna need to get that back up as P. But there are things that yes, might need to be like, I gotta get this done in the next two weeks. I gotta get this done in the next month. There are also gonna be a lot of things where it's like, this is gonna be a 70 step process and it's gonna take me three months.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah.
Uncanny Content:Take me six months, it's gonna take me nine months. That is okay because your business will still be here in 3, 6, 9, 12 months. Like in the kitchen analogy. If you're in a Michelin star kitchen, they are cleaning up as they are cooking, they are mixing stuff, and that bowl is clean. They are putting stuff in the oven and then everything that that touched is cleaned. Like you are in this new space where your business is growing, you're transitioning, and you're able to create space for you to clean the dishes as you make the mess. You're cooking something while you're doing it, but you're keeping, your workspace clean. And that's more what I want you to think about with these VIP days. Not that you're like getting everything done on these VIP days. It's that you are mixing things, you're putting them in the oven to bake. They're not gonna be ready for another two hours, but you're cleaning your space. You're making sure that your mental space
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah.
Uncanny Content:is tidy because you are going to have to do this. This is a long haul, right? Like your business is not, a, a sprint to the finish line.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:No.
Uncanny Content:You are going to be doing this for years. You wanna make sure that your mental space is tidy, that you have a plan for where you're going, that you're touching base with how things are going more frequently than just, it's a crisis and I'm crying and it's 1130 at night on a Saturday. And I have to think about this right now.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Right.
Uncanny Content:clean your space as you cook.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah. that's kind of what we're gonna do at the summit in November. So the women in wellness. business Summit is for women in wellness, so women who own boutique fitness and wellness businesses, physical therapy, Pilate Studios, yoga studios, combinations of all of the above. And so the what makes our summit different? Is it's actionable, which was very important to me. Like I don't need a bunch of vision boards and like cute cutouts. I need people to walk away with, like get shit done attitude. And so November 6th, which is the first day of the summit, we're actually gonna be doing this exact thing in a room. Of less than 30 women. So you can bring your team. Some people are bringing their team members, but we will be there. So basically the first half of the day is year in review and we have very strategic, what's the word I'm gonna thinking of plans like. Break breakouts of like how you can decide, like look at your 20, 25 year, what worked well, what didn't work well, what needs to change? So we're gonna help you create those buckets.
Uncanny Content:Mm-hmm.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:then the second half of the day on that first day is, is how are we now planning for 2026? How are we getting you to your revenue goal or your systems goal, or your profit goal, or to have the schedule you want goal, like where you're not the one providing the, the services 24 7. so that is literally, we're doing this kind of VIP day in a room with experts, you, myself, we'll have financial experts and then. Friday. The day Friday will be, a panel discussion with a lot of business owners that do this on the regular. So we'll have a marketing panel that's gonna talk about builds, SEO, brand development and things like that. We'll have a financial panel that's gonna talk about. How to look at your books, how to structure your books, how to invest in your business, how to invest in retirement. And then we're actually gonna have a, sale and acquisition panel that talks about a. Whether you're interested in acquiring a business, which by the way, last year we talked about exiting, but this year we're gonna talk about both how to set your business up for an acquisition, meaning you're in exiting, and how to decide if you wanna grow, how you can grow. Through acquisition, through buying other businesses. And so it's a very different summit than most conferences because you're not in a room with a hundred people, you're in a room of 30 people. We feed you good food and it's in Miami. And so I think I had two. Three registrations yesterday, so I think we're literally down to the last three available spots. I know, it's crazy. So, I'm gonna link that in the show notes, like, but if you're interested in getting room in, a scene in this room, it is a really, really powerful stuff. And I'm not just saying that because it's mine. Well, maybe I am, but I built it based on what I wished I had. At the time, and so Latasha's been a part of it since the beginning, since the first one. Right. So, how do you think, what do you think about the summit? How, what's your takeaway from
Uncanny Content:I don't go to any other client events. Christa's
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:having
Uncanny Content:the only, Christa's events are the only ones that I go to. One, she, and I'm not saying this'cause I really like Christa Gurka, I'm saying this because it's truly, impactful. Is that. Everything is taken care of for you. Like once you pay to get there and stay there, like Christa Gurka's got everything else figured out. the, the agenda is very well done. and we've also worked on it for the last few years to where we know exactly like pacing and we know, okay, we, we know that we threw too much information in this section, so next year we're like, you're getting the culmination of like every year it gets better and better and better. it's also in Miami, so like, it's gorgeous, but the thing that I'm most excited for this year is the panels, because it's going to be really important for people to get perspectives. this isn't just Christa Gurka getting up on a podium and talking to you for. Eight hours. This is, she's sourced really great experts, and the women who are in this room are always fantastic. They're so supportive, they're asking great questions. They're excited to be away from their studios and their kids and whatever else. and they're just so happy to be in the room and it's such a fun event. So if you're hearing this and it's sold out, I'm so sorry.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:I know at the time, hopefully we have, we're down to three, which is really exciting for me. but it's grown. and I agree with you. I think the women in the room, I think they ask really good questions. I also like bring in other experts that are business owners so that you can see the real life of, like,
Uncanny Content:Yeah.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:like you, you run your own business. So you, besides understanding content and strategy, you are a business owner.
Uncanny Content:Mm-hmm.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:And so you understand what all the women are going through and it's, I think it's good to see, other women doing things maybe in a way you didn't think about or to show like what is available,
Uncanny Content:Mm-hmm.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:what is available to us. It was huge for me to be in the room with women that were talking about selling businesses.'cause at one point, even though Pilates in The Grove was doing great. I never thought that was.
Uncanny Content:Enough.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:available to me. And it's been great and it's fun. And we do, I do. I'm like an overdeliver, so I'm just like, I want you to come, I want you to eat, I want you to have good food. I want you to have good people. so it is November 6th and 7th, 2025. Uh, depending on when you're listening to this, we will link in the show notes. Under this episode, the link also of where you can go and reserve your spot. We are also hosting a VIP room. Which is Friday afternoon, so Friday, November 7th, it's supposed to end at 12, but we're opening a VIP room that's gonna be limited to only eight women. we're gonna do a VIP like laser coaching. Come ask me anything. Session from 1:00 to 4:00 PM So that's an add-on if you're interested in that. And I'm excited to have Latasha there. we'll have Kari Saitowitz, who actually was. Is the podcast next week you'll hear her. She's a marketing expert. She was a founder and CEO of fitting room that was acquired by New York Sports Club. So now she's this Chief Marketing officer of New York Sports Club. She's gonna talk about branding and marketing. Her podcast episode is next week. We're also going to have Danielle Hayden, who is the founder and CEO of Kickstart Accounting Inc. Which is our like money team in the group, our bookkeeping and accounting, as well as Kristen Abel, who is. The money person in the financial expert in boutique fitness broker, which are the brokers that helped me sell my business. So she's gonna come and she's gonna talk about all things, finances when it comes to acquiring or selling your business, which is. exciting and I just tell people like, yeah, you might not wanna sell your business, but what a great opportunity if you set it up like you did want to, and then you were able to exit when you wanted to. At least for something like you, you just didn't have to like close up shop and be done
Uncanny Content:also we all retire.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:huh?
Uncanny Content:We all retire.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:all retire. It's great.
Uncanny Content:Or have a retiring event,
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:have a That's true. Yeah. And I actually, I grew my business through like acquisition a little bit and so there was, acquiring another business rather than opening from scratch is also an opportunity, to grow.
Uncanny Content:Yep.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:So. Any last words my dear?
Uncanny Content:if you can't make it to the summit in November, we've given you the tools to host your own.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah.
Uncanny Content:But I also think this is something you should do quarterly anyways, at the very least, every six months. treat yourself a little bit. You deserve it. You work hard. Your business deserves you stepping back and looking at it from a new angle, and you got this.
Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies:Yeah, that's great. I'm so excited to see you in person again in November. And like I said, if you're interested, grab the link in the show notes so you can go and see if we have spots still available. And until next time, my friends, bye for now.