Brian Jewell (00:01) All right, everybody, my guest today is a former tourism entrepreneur who built a small tour company in Cambodia into a thriving travel network across Southeast Asia. After years focusing on her organization's philanthropy and local impact, she successfully sold the tour company and moved on to new endeavors. Today, she's a business advisor and travel partnership ambassador for Cultivate Advisors, where she draws on her experience to help other tourism entrepreneurs bring clarity to their visions solidify their finances and achieve their goals. Andrea Ross, welcome to the podcast. Andrea Ross (00:37) Thank you so much, Brian. I'm so excited to be here. Brian Jewell (00:40) I am really excited to have you here. I love your story, particularly because it's kind of a full life cycle story. You know, we interview a lot of people here who have started businesses and are running them and growing them and, have success stories to tell, but you've been through that whole cycle. And so I'm really eager to have you share so much of that experience with our listeners. Let's start by how you found yourself in Cambodia, cause that's a fascinating story in itself. Andrea Ross (01:07) Yes, well originally I found myself in Cambodia in the back of a pickup truck, so it was Brian Jewell (01:12) Ha ha ha! Andrea Ross (01:13) not, it was literally a bumpy road to get there, but I had graduated college, I had wanted to do an around the world trip, prices were really expensive, so I worked for a year and then literally saw an ad on a billboard for cheap flights to Southeast Asia and I thought, well, that'll work. So flew to Southeast Asia, spent three months backpacking around Southeast Asia, did not have Cambodia on the itinerary, added it at the last minute, because we had just heard great things about it, as you do while you backpack around and meet people, and literally took a pickup truck to get there, broke every rule that Lonely Planet told us in the first hour of our journey. We went off road. We were driving at night. We had no security. We broke all the rules and then we got there and just fell in love with it and really Brian Jewell (02:02) Yeah. Andrea Ross (02:03) realized that it was this amazing place that was on a lot of people's bucket list. And it was really set. This was just after the Civil War, early 2000s. And it was just set to boom. But with a lot, with a lack of infrastructure, a lack of knowledge, a lack of a tourism community. And we thought, well, if we come here, we can create jobs versus take jobs. And so. That is literally how we found ourselves in Cambodia, running originally a B &B. Brian Jewell (02:36) Yeah. And, and give us the quick uh overview of how you went from B and B to full tour operator to all of sudden you've got offices in different countries and you're taking people Andrea Ross (02:45) Right. Brian Jewell (02:45) all throughout the region. Andrea Ross (02:47) Yeah, I mean, I give my clients a lot of credit for that. Right? A lot of it was requested. And so you got that security of knowing, okay, people want this. People are saying they need this. Right? So we had a B &B and then people would say, we're coming to stay with you. Can you set up a tour for us? well, we should start a tour company. So we did that. And then they say, well, we loved our tour with you in Cambodia, but man, Thailand just wasn't the same. And so we're like, We should start an office there. So a lot of it was just what our clients were asking for and we were learning as we built. And so we slowly started opening offices in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and then obviously Myanmar at the end once it opened up a little bit more. And then obviously we did some philanthropic work because we were just part of those communities. were intrinsically, we were living there, our teams were living there, we were intrinsically. involved and we saw the need and so that was really how we started to kind of build out the company as a whole. Brian Jewell (03:51) Yeah. Can you give us sort of the timeline from uh when you started the BNB through sort of the whole life cycle to when you decided it's time to be acquired and move on? Andrea Ross (04:02) Yeah, I'm giggling because it's a blur. I mean, I know it all happened. I Brian Jewell (04:05) Right. Andrea Ross (04:07) had some kids in there too, right? Like it's it is a bit of a blur. But I think it was really over about a 12 year period where we moved to Cambodia, started the BNB, took about six months to get it up and running and open. And then, you know, we got very lucky with some media coverage and we were fully booked for the first year. And that allowed us to then expand the B &B to a hotel. So by the end, we had a 12 bungalow property that we were renting out. And then obviously we use local properties as well. And then I would go and live in the other countries three to six months as we built our operations there. So yeah, think all in all, it was about a 12 year. period where I was living in Cambodia, growing the business, building out the hotel. uh My ex-husband ran the hotel, so he was great at keeping that running while I was kind of all over the place, building out our offices. And then at the end of that, I moved here to the States. And then I worked here for another three or so years, building out our sales and marketing office and really building out that back end that our clients needed by then. Again, it was a client demand, right? wanted to be able to get me on the phone or get our team on the phone. They wanted to be able to get quick responses to emails when we were purely based in Southeast Asia, that wasn't happening because we just couldn't be as responsive because of the time difference. So again, a lot of the evolution was client demand based. Brian Jewell (05:40) Yeah, that makes sense. It's easy to look back and say, yeah, 12 years and this happened and that happened. And, uh, you Andrea Ross (05:45) I know. Brian Jewell (05:46) know, it's, it's like hindsight is, is much rosier than I'm sure what it felt like. Andrea Ross (05:50) Yeah, there were a lot of tears. Yeah, I want to be clear, like a lot of tears in those 12 years, a lot of sweat, a lot of hard work, but also just working with some of the best people. um Just people who were so excited to be doing this, especially in countries like Cambodia, Laos, where we were helping develop the tourism industry. We were described as pioneers in philanthropic travel by Condé Nast Traveler, right? So we just, we felt like we got to be leading this charge and that was such an energizing experience. And it was just a very exciting time to be in the region. Brian Jewell (06:29) Yeah. Andrea Ross (06:31) Yeah, so yeah, I mean, yes, hindsight, like that was magical in real life. It was a heck of a lot of work and it was a daily grind. Brian Jewell (06:40) Yeah. Talk to me about some of the pain points in, let's say the early phase. Obviously, I'm sure there was, you know, working in a different culture, being in a different country, Andrea Ross (06:50) you Brian Jewell (06:50) language, but from a business perspective, what were some of those pain Andrea Ross (06:54) Yeah. Brian Jewell (06:54) points that you encountered that may be common for other tourism entrepreneurs? Andrea Ross (07:00) Yeah, I mean, I think to your point, we had some unique ones. I remember one day, Brandon, my ex-husband and I like sat down at the end of the day and he's like, what'd you get done today? And I'm like, I think I got pillowcases made, but not entirely sure. And I was like, how about you? He's like, I think I ordered some rose bushes. Right? Like there was so much with the language barrier and the cultural barriers. And so a lot of it was just trying to figure out whether you actually ordered pillow cushions or you were going to get a skirt tomorrow. And then, but when it comes to the business, the business, you what I've learned being a business advisor, think is that business is business is business. Like I do advising for tourism businesses, but I also do advising for engineering businesses, accounting businesses, right? I work across the spectrum. And the truth is the challenges are the same, whether you're in Cambodia, in the U S running an engineering company or running a tourism company, the challenges are the same, which is how do I duplicate myself? Right? Like I'm Brian Jewell (07:53) Hmm. Andrea Ross (07:53) working. 80 hours a week or whatever it is, I'm exhausted. How do I duplicate myself so that I can step back a little? How do I force myself to work on my business so I can grow some of the processes and the procedures and build out training when really I'm just holding a fire extinguisher, trying to put out fires? And so I think, you know, we had those same challenges of like, we need to hire somebody. We don't have the budget to hire somebody because we're still growing. And so Just being in that middle ground where you're trying to grow, but you need a budget to grow and you're constantly trying to balance that out. I think that was probably the biggest challenge and I think that's most of my clients biggest challenge. Brian Jewell (08:35) Yeah. I love that language about duplicating yourself. think every uh small business owner instinctually feels that uh issue in their bones. How do you go through, you know, advising somebody and coaching them through that situation where they are the primary creative or the primary, you know, people person, the primary sales agent? How do you solve that problem? Andrea Ross (08:58) Yeah, I think it's such a good question. And I had such a revelation around it. I had moved back to the US. I was just so stressed. And a friend of mine turned to me and said, you know, you're just not as important as you think you are. And like at first I was like, well, that's rude. And then I really sat with that for a minute and I was like, no, he's right. I'm just not as important as I think I am. And I had hired this amazing operations manager and I was kind of cutting her off at the knees, right? I was still trying to do a lot of it. I was delegating her tasks, but not responsibilities. And I really had to step back and be like, no, I don't need to duplicate myself. I need to find people who are better at the things I'm not great at and then train people on the things I am good at. And that was a big... That was a big growth opportunity for me and for the business. Right. And I think I talked to my clients about that a lot, which is we're not trying to clone ourselves. Can you imagine that many, like many type A entrepreneurs running around? Like that sounds not fun. What we're trying to do is find the people who are going to help us grow our business and who actually bring us up and bring the business up. And, and we're just not as important as we think. Like the truth is Brian Jewell (10:16) Yeah. Andrea Ross (10:16) when you step back and you let somebody else step in and you empower them and you give them the knowledge and the experience, right? So you're setting them up for success. Often they can far outreach what I could have done. My operations manager was worlds better at running operations than I was. And as soon as I let that go, my business had so much more opportunity for growth because I could then focus on the high level idea generation that I was good at and that really energized me. Brian Jewell (10:43) Yeah. Why do we tend to hold onto those things longer than we should? Is it, we're just in a rhythm? We were solopreneurs when we started and we had to do everything. Uh, is there some pride? Is it, uh, I Andrea Ross (10:56) Yeah. Brian Jewell (10:57) don't trust people. mean, what's, what's going on under the surface? Andrea Ross (11:02) think it's all of those things. mean, obviously sometimes ego plays into it. I thought it for me, it was part of that. just didn't believe somebody could do it as well as I did it. oh So I think there's that. think there's a trust factor. You know, even as I say it as an advisor, I get a little bit of anxiety of like, what if the person they're empowering doesn't deliver? Right. And so yeah, of course, like there's the trust factor, but then there's also knowing how to set that person up for success. And I think a lot of us that go into being an entrepreneur in whatever industry we're in, we're not always that confident in our management of people. We're usually pretty confident that we know our business. We know what we want to achieve. We probably know how to do it because we did it, right? We started it. We wore all the hats, but I'm not sure we have that innate confidence of like, I know how to run a team. and for that team to be successful. And I think that's what I work with the most with my entrepreneurs is like, how do we step up as leaders and like really intentionally lead our team to success? Because once we do that, I think it becomes a lot easier to let go because we've given them the tools they need to be successful. And now we get to lead instead of do, right? You don't need to step away from all the doing and do more of the leading. Brian Jewell (12:22) Yeah, yeah, for sure. So, uh, as you get past those initial growing pains, you're in that, middle ground, you've got some staff, you've got some revenues, maybe you've got some profits and that's a great feeling for the first time. There, Andrea Ross (12:36) It is. Brian Jewell (12:37) there are new problems that come with each of those Andrea Ross (12:39) Yeah. Brian Jewell (12:40) benefits. What, what were some of those middle ground problems that you experienced? and how did you navigate them? Andrea Ross (12:47) Yeah, I I think for us, I was opening offices in other countries. So I was kind of dealing with the remote work situation before we all were, right? Like Brian Jewell (12:56) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Andrea Ross (12:57) during COVID when we were all suddenly remote and everybody's like, how do we do this and Zoom and Skype and all the things? And I was like, good, I've been doing that. That Brian Jewell (13:06) Yeah. Andrea Ross (13:06) was not new for me. But I think at the time that we started building those offices, that remote work environment of not. being next to somebody all the time and being able to dialogue with them and communicate with them and having to kind of almost inorganically create that scenario, right? How do we do that? Do we hop on a Skype call? Do we try to get together as a team? Like, what does that need to look like? I think for us, that was a big growing pain. And I see it now again with my clients as remote work, hybrid work is really becoming the norm. They're having to adjust to that. They're used to being able to go to the water cooler, chat with everybody that's in the office that day, take people out to lunch, like really create that culture very organically. And I think that is changing. And for us, it changed long before it changed for the rest of the world. But I think that was still a challenge that we faced and that today's businesses face is how to lead in a remote environment. Brian Jewell (14:06) Yeah. Okay. So I got to see a glimpse of one or two pages from that playbook because this is a debate that is still raging in many places inside and outside of tourism. Uh, Andrea Ross (14:16) Yes. Brian Jewell (14:16) do you believe it's possible? You must believe it's possible for remote teams to succeed. So how do you coach them to do it specifically if they're used to that in-person water cooler experience? Andrea Ross (14:28) Yeah, I do think it's possible. I think it takes even more, again, I'm gonna use this word, this is my 2025 word, it takes more intentionality. You have to intentionally show up as a leader and you have to kind of, again, force your team a little bit to embrace that culture. And I've seen companies that have let that go and their employees kind of become these little islands, right? And I'm Brian Jewell (14:51) Mm-hmm. Andrea Ross (14:52) always like, hey, they can stay islands, like they're doing a good job, but like, how do we bring it together as an archipelago? Like we've got to create some communication chains here. We've got to create some intentional togetherness. And I think you have to set about doing that. There are different ways to do it. One of the biggest things that I preach in my advising and I utilized in my company was regular meetings that are high impact, right? So I know we all get Zoom fatigue. We all get Zoom fatigue. uh I understand that. So how do we make sure that the meetings we are having are as high impact as they can be? Whether that's an annual planning meeting, whether that's a quarterly recap, whether that's a monthly all team meeting, whether that's one-on-one meetings. do just at NTA, I talked a lot about how to make those one-on-one meetings really impactful for you and for the employee. and for your whole team, because we also as leaders tend to try to lead our entire team instead of creating leaders who then lead the team. Brian Jewell (16:01) Mm. Andrea Ross (16:02) And I think that that's that middle ground you're talking about of like, okay, cool, it's not just me anymore. Now I have these people working for me. How do I make them into leaders so they have people working for them? That's really how you scale a business. Like I genuinely believe the scaling of a business starts with the team. Brian Jewell (16:20) Yeah. Yeah. I love that. That's wonderful. Now, um, let's get towards the end of that life cycle. Um, how did you know it was time to Andrea Ross (16:30) Hahaha Brian Jewell (16:31) exit and, what were the signs that made you say, okay, this is something I can sell. Cause I think there are a lot of people in tourism right now who are at the end of their careers or they're, just ready for something else and they have no idea. How do I exit? Can I sell? Do I just, you know, try to find somebody to give this to, can I sell it for Andrea Ross (16:48) Yeah. Brian Jewell (16:49) $100,000 gonna sell it for $1 million like I don't know what to do. So tell us your story. Andrea Ross (16:54) Yeah. Yeah, so I mean, I'm going to start by saying I didn't know what to do either. And I think you're absolutely right that I see that all the time. I see people wanting to step back and just not knowing what that could look like. And so I've really embraced that because I think I was in the same place. And I'll tell you, it's a fun story. I was at Disney World with my kids. I was a single mom. I had my kids with me. My dad and mom had organized for us and the grandkids to all go to Disney World. and we were sitting watching the fireworks from our hotel, because they splurged, they spoiled us. And Brian Jewell (17:29) Nice. Andrea Ross (17:30) I was checking email and it was just buzzing and you know, it's travel, we all know it, it's intense, it's a lot. I had a great leadership team, I had a great team, even with that, I was the owner, like it was me, I was the entrepreneur. And I remember sitting there just thinking, it's time for a change. I can't keep doing this. My kids are getting older. They need more attention and I need more attention. I felt like I needed to just pick my head up and like come up for Brian Jewell (18:00) Right. Andrea Ross (18:00) air a little bit. And that was my moment. I remember I turned to my sister and I said, you know, I think I got to figure out an exit. And she's like, what? Like in the middle of these fireworks. And... uh And then I did, and I really did it grassroots because I didn't know what I was doing, quite honestly. So, you know, I thought, who do I know that might be interested in this business? And I put out feelers and found a colleague of mine who we had kind of traded staff. Like Brian Jewell (18:31) Mmm. Andrea Ross (18:31) he had a woman who would work for him. She came to work for me. He and I would see each other at all the conferences, right? So like we had a relationship. I really admired his business, his philanthropic. Purpose Well Frontiers is an amazing company. And I thought this fits, these cultures fit, and that was very important to me. And so reached out to him. So very grassroots, very organic, just trying to figure it out. And we really worked it out internally in-house. I think now, after the additional schooling I've gone through and then just the additional experience with my clients, there is a more formalized approach to that, that I think. Brian Jewell (19:09) Yeah. Andrea Ross (19:10) We ended up getting to a really good spot and I have no regrets. It was a great choice and I think Journeys Within was in great hands with Wild Frontiers and I had a great five years staying on and working with Wild Frontiers. So it was all incredibly positive. But I think looking back there was now there's a formality that I think can allow you to really understand what your enterprise value is as a company. We have a health and value assessment with Cultivate Advisors that we've set up. that just gives people a really impactful way of seeing where their business is. And, you know, often we forget, we're always thinking, okay, our business is worth our revenue and our profit, right? That's all that matters. I got to get the revenue up. I got to get the profit up. And actually, when it comes down to it, what businesses are worth, and I was lucky because I had a good enterprise value. I didn't know the word for it back then, but the idea Brian Jewell (20:05) Mm. Andrea Ross (20:05) being, you're always going to have a revenue and a profit number. But what changes is what your multiplier is, right? You take Brian Jewell (20:14) Hmm. Andrea Ross (20:14) that revenue, you take that profit, you multiply it by a certain number, and that gives you the value of your company. There's a range in what that multiplier could be. If your company Brian Jewell (20:25) Hmm. Andrea Ross (20:26) runs really well and you have certain things in place, you have a high health score, you a high enterprise value, your number is going to potentially be as high as six. If you Brian Jewell (20:37) Wow. Andrea Ross (20:38) don't have clean financials, you have an owner that's working way too much in the business, you don't have those SOPs and processes built out, your number's gonna be a two. That's a huge difference if you think about it, right? You're taking, let's say you have a million dollars profit, you're deciding by the health of your business whether that number is the multiplier, is it two or a six? It's a big difference Brian Jewell (21:01) Yeah. Andrea Ross (21:01) in what you end up walking away with. So when I work with companies, we're not just working on that top line revenue, bottom line profit. We're working on the full enterprise value of the Brian Jewell (21:12) Hmm. Andrea Ross (21:12) organization because when it comes down to it, that's what most buyers are looking for. Yeah, sure. They want a profitable business. They want high revenue. But what they really want to see is that they can walk in, take over that business and run it successfully, even if the owner steps back completely. Brian Jewell (21:30) So if I think maybe about five years from an exit as an owner, Andrea Ross (21:34) Yes. Brian Jewell (21:35) obviously I've got revenue and profit on my mind. What are some things that I need to start implementing over the next five years to go from a 2X multiplier toward that 6X Andrea Ross (21:44) Yeah, Brian Jewell (21:45) multiplier? Andrea Ross (21:46) yeah, you've got to think about your financials. Are they clean and clear? Are you keeping them updated? Can anybody go in and understand them? You've got to think about your growth opportunities, right? So that sales, do you have a sales team in place? Are they well-trained? Do they have clear processes, scripts, follow-up emails, right? Is it all really dialed in and is it successful? Are you tracking conversion rates? Are you tracking... you know, knowing where you are and where the opportunities lie. Marketing, no more just throwing spaghetti on the wall, right? Like, what does the data tell us? What's working? What's our ROI on the different initiatives that we're planning through marketing? And do we have that clearly mapped out? Then you have the kind of sustainability side of like, how do we sustain the growth that we'd like to see? That's our team. Do we have a solid team in place that if I as the owner step away completely, they can really run the business and somebody stepping into this business just has to lead them. They're not having to run the business themselves. um then recruiting, do I have a clean, clear process around recruiting? And then around the whole thing is productivity. How am I using technology? Do I have a clear CRM? Do I have software that's helping me run my business? Have I automated a lot of my business? So if you take all of those things and pull them together, that's really how you're getting that enterprise value. That's how you're shifting from that two times multiplier to that six times multiplier. Brian Jewell (23:19) Yeah, it sounds like those are the things that business owners need to be doing anyway, even if they're not trying to sell. And it sounds like that's Andrea Ross (23:24) Yes. Well, yeah. Brian Jewell (23:27) what working on your business means, right? Andrea Ross (23:30) It is, and we joke about it, right? My analogy is always you go to sell your house, right? And the realtor comes in and they're like, you need to remodel your kitchen. And these tiles are hideous and you've to clean out that closet, right? And you go nuts and you get it all done. And then you walk into your house and you're like, hi, wish I lived here. Right? Like Brian Jewell (23:49) Right. Andrea Ross (23:49) we've all done that where we've renovated our homes for sale, got the curb appeal up and then driven in and thought, why am I leaving? And I see Brian Jewell (23:57) Yeah. Andrea Ross (23:57) that a lot with businesses. The truth is, if you create a high enterprise value, if you're doing all those things that I was just talking about, truthfully, you might show up and be like, hold on, why am I exiting this? This is giving me a good return. I enjoy the hours I'm spending on it. And you may decide, forget it, I'm not putting it on the market. I can grow this thing and ride it out because it's not taking all of me to do that. I have seen that happen. It's really rewarding when that happens, when an entrepreneur kind of turns around and is like, hey, turns out I built the house I want to live in. Brian Jewell (24:34) Yeah, that's beautiful. I love that. Now you've told me before, uh, that you think anyone who lived through the pandemic and tourism has some PTSD. Uh, I, I, I lit up when you said that because I've had that thought for, well, for five years now, uh, tell us what you mean by that. And maybe some things that you found have helped tourism business owners address that and get over it in a healthy way. Andrea Ross (24:59) Yeah, I I hear it over and over again, right? Where we're talking about, okay, well, let's talk about the last 10 years of your business. What worked, what didn't work? How did we get to where we are today? And people are like, well, 2019 was this great year, and then I had this much in revenue booked for 2020 and then COVID. And they like immediately shut down. Like Brian Jewell (25:19) Hmm. Andrea Ross (25:19) it's almost a visceral reaction that we have. and then they they skip right and they're like and then in 2022 and that's Brian Jewell (25:24) Yeah. Right. Andrea Ross (25:27) true like I understand that because we all shut down in those two years but I Brian Jewell (25:30) Yeah. Andrea Ross (25:31) think what we don't take into account is that quite honestly we didn't shut down we were on phone calls negotiating with people whether they would take credit instead of a refund getting yelled at dealing with people who were potentially stuck in other I mean we had people stuck, not stuck, but like we had to get them home in a different way than we thought we were going to. So we were dealing with some pretty intense issues while we were also very scared for ourselves, our family, our friends, and potentially our partners and community overseas. And I think we are all that sits with us. And I had a client the other day with some of the chaos that's happening now with tariffs. You know, she just said, I can't do it again. I can't rebuild again. That was my rebuild, right? I came back from COVID and I rebuilt and that was it. I don't have another rebuild in me. And I Brian Jewell (26:25) Hmm. Andrea Ross (26:25) think we all feel that. think COVID was incredibly heavy. I think there were some very hard calls. We were letting go of our staff, who most of us loved. were trying to balance it and there was that, like it just kept going, right? Like I remember in March being like, I'm going to take a sabbatical and save us that money. we'll all be back in July. And I mean, it was just so naive at the time. Now looking back, Brian Jewell (26:49) Right, right. Andrea Ross (26:50) you can be like, that was so naive. But then in the truth, we realized pretty quickly that wasn't going to cut it. And we really were going to have to lay off the whole team. Most of my clients, they went through some level of layoffs. They went through a lot of phone calls with clients. They had to bring back a lot of clients. had a lot, you know, and, the clients were stressed, whether they were stuck somewhere or whether they had a trip they were supposed to be leaving for and we were trying to decide, do you go, do you stay, what's gonna open, what's gonna close? It was heavy, it was a very heavy time. I think what I tell my clients now is we have come back from that and we need Brian Jewell (27:26) Hmm. Andrea Ross (27:27) to not just try to ignore it, but like, what did we learn from it? Because we did get through it. The clients that are still around. We got through it, how did we get through it and how does that help define our culture going forward? Because most of the people that got through it, they got through it because they had strong financials going into it. They got through it because they had a strong team who understood the hard decisions we had to make. And we got through it because we had clients who appreciated us and were willing to make it work with us. Brian Jewell (27:59) Hmm. Andrea Ross (27:59) Those are lessons that we can carry on with us. and that we wanna perpetuate. for as long as we can because it lends itself to the success of our business. So I think trying to turn it into a little bit more of a how do we focus on the positive from it, right? Like have the Mr. Rogers approach to it. But I also think it's feeling it too and understanding that was traumatic and it was okay that it was traumatic and there were hard lessons learned as well. And we have to take away from that and be better, do better. And that's how we move forward. Brian Jewell (28:37) Yeah. And hopefully with those lessons learned, we can be a little bit less fearful about whatever is next. Be it a health scare, be it climate concerns, be it tariffs, geopolitics. And I even feel like I saw that when the war in Ukraine started. you know, 20 years ago, Americans would have stopped going to Europe when there was war in Ukraine. And now they're like, giddy up, boy, let's go. I'm not missing my vacation. Andrea Ross (28:57) Yeah, agreed. Yeah, yeah. No, think we have, yeah, we have, I don't know if hardens the right word, but we have toughened up a little bit and we've realized we can do hard things, right? As companies, we can do hard things. We can weather those storms. And sometimes I joke, you know, I had a client the other day who was like, oh man, these tariffs. I was like, yeah, but this isn't COVID, right? Like Brian Jewell (29:24) Right. Andrea Ross (29:25) you got through that. You can get through. this, like this is a baby compared to that. So, you know, I think to some extent, hopefully we've gone through the toughest challenge of our generation in terms of tourism and the world shutting down on us. And now we can just go, we can get through some of the smaller challenges that we face. Brian Jewell (29:45) Yeah, uh I love that. So what is the best way if somebody is listening to you and thinking I need some of Andrea in my business, in my life, Andrea Ross (29:54) Yeah. Brian Jewell (29:54) what's the best way for people to connect with you or maybe even start the discussion about working with you? Andrea Ross (30:01) Yeah, they can email me, andrea at CultivateAdvisors.com. And I think the first step that I recommend for any business is to do the health and value assessment. And I can send a link to them, but go and take that health and value assessment because that's really gonna show you, where are you? Where is your enterprise value? Not just what's the value of your company, but what could the value of your company be, right? If we go from that Brian Jewell (30:24) Hmm. Andrea Ross (30:25) two times multiplier to that six times multiplier, because we really work on the business. What could that look like? And I think that's often really eye-opening. um I do that with clients and there's often like a surprise factor there of like, oh, okay, this feels doable suddenly where it felt, it feels very big and almost ethereal at times trying to value a business. And I think when you take that HVAC assessment and then I'm always happy, I offer any listener a two hour free advising session where we will get on and look at the results of their HVAC. and not HVAC, HVA, look at their results of their health and value assessment. I don't know anything about HVAC systems, so if that's the problem, they should not reach out to me. uh But we can review their HVA and really talk through, like, what could they be doing? What should their roadmap be for the next year, 18 months, two years, to get them to a position where, like you said, they might not wanna sell. Maybe they do wanna exit still, or maybe they wanna live in their fancy house. they fixed up. I think that's really the first step is to take the HBA and then sit down with me in that deep dive session to really map out like what are the priorities and then really it's up to them. Does it make sense to work with me to help get that done or is that something they can then walk away with and go and execute themselves? Like that's really the goal is to get them in a place. either with me or without me to go and execute some of those big picture working on the business items to bring that enterprise value. Brian Jewell (32:00) Yeah, I love that. It's so generous, uh, with, with your time and your, your insight. I know our listener community will benefit from that. Uh, I could keep you all day talking about this stuff. It's fascinating. And I love your story. Uh, I want to let you move on to other stuff. I know you have going on, but before Andrea Ross (32:15) Okay. Brian Jewell (32:15) I do, we have some questions we ask everybody that are just for fun. So, uh, you can answer these off the top of your head. Uh, no sweat. When you book travel, are you booking window seats or aisle seats? Yeah. Andrea Ross (32:26) always window. I don't pee on planes. I refuse. I don't. I have a very big Brian Jewell (32:30) So. Andrea Ross (32:31) bladder and I sit in the window and I do not move and it feels like a vacation. Brian Jewell (32:35) So even like uh overseas flight, you're just staying put. Andrea Ross (32:39) I am pretty strong. There are some, if I'm going to Cambodia, I probably have to get up. But yeah, for the most part, I tuck into my little window seat, I put my little headphones on and I am on vacation. I'm happy. Yeah. Brian Jewell (32:51) Wow, wow, I'm envious of that talent for sure. uh What is one thing in your carry-on that you wouldn't travel without? Andrea Ross (33:03) Noise canceling headphones. Yeah. Brian Jewell (33:05) Mm, essential. Andrea Ross (33:06) Yeah. Yep. Because it does not feel like a vacation on a plane if you don't have them. Brian Jewell (33:12) Yeah, your ears have just been assaulted for hours if you're sitting near the engine, especially. Andrea Ross (33:16) Yeah, exactly. Or a child or yes, your fellow humans, right? Like, no, Brian Jewell (33:21) Yes. m Andrea Ross (33:22) noise cancelling headphones are key. Brian Jewell (33:24) For sure, yeah. If you had a free airline pass and a week with nothing else to do, where would you be headed next? Andrea Ross (33:31) well, I will say I'm, it wasn't free, but I'm taking, my son is graduating this year, so we're doing a graduation trip up to Juneau, Alaska for a week. Brian Jewell (33:40) Nice. Andrea Ross (33:40) I have a client up there, Above and Beyond Alaska, whom I love, and I'm gonna go visit them and take some of their experiences, and I cannot wait. I'm so excited, like bears and whales and all the things. So I'm gonna Brian Jewell (33:52) Yes. Andrea Ross (33:53) choose that. I'm lucky, because I already get to do it, but yeah, that's coming up. Brian Jewell (33:57) That's amazing. Alaska is one of my favorite places and you, uh, Andrea Ross (34:00) I've never been, so I'm so excited. Brian Jewell (34:03) you're in for a thrill for sure. For sure. Uh, so last question is what is one thing you have seen or done on the road that you wish you could go back and experience again with somebody you love? Andrea Ross (34:15) Okay, well, we don't have 10 days. I mean, I am Brian Jewell (34:18) Ha Andrea Ross (34:18) the quintessential like, my gosh, this was amazing. I want everybody to come with me. uh I will say my big, I think, you know what I think it is? It's diving in the Raja Ampat. I went Brian Jewell (34:30) Mm. Andrea Ross (34:31) on the Sila Lona, which is this beautiful boat in the Raja Ampat and we went diving and I was younger then, my kids were babies. So I went by myself. If I could take my kids, with me on that trip, it would just, yeah, that would be magical. Brian Jewell (34:49) Yeah. Well, hey, maybe one day it'll work out. Andrea Ross (34:52) Yeah, yeah, still alone a crew if you're listening. Let's go, I'm ready. Yeah, yeah, she will make it work. uh Brian Jewell (34:56) There you go. There you go. Let's do it. Andrea is available. She will make time for you. Absolutely. Well, this has been wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us today. Andrea Ross (35:08) No, thanks, Brian. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me.