Dappled Light

We finally got over 100 reviews in the last week! ? ? ? ? ? Check out our latest... https://g.co/kgs/fUKp8Jw

The Rookery? What the heck is that?? It’s a HUGE clubhouse, outfitted specifically for our retreat guests, coming next summer ??????

So grateful for this ownership team! Massive progress in the last couple weeks and I can’t wait to tell you all about. Stay tuned for more updates coming very soon! In the meantime please link up with us at Dappled Light.

I got interviewed by one of my heros, John Jantsch. I know that word "hero" can sound a bit over the top but let me explain. Coming out of Bible College I had NO idea (like ZERO!) on how to do marketing. But I found myself running our small, family business and I needed to make payroll. Out of desperation, and through an internet search I found John. I immediately bought one of his courses called Referral Flood which later ended up as a book called The Referral Engine. That book along with Duct Tape Marketing became my constant companions as I continued to grow my sales in those early days. So we grew our little family enterprise 40x over 18 years. John, mostly unknown to him, was my teacher, mentor and coach in all things marketing that entire time. The vast majority of our growth has a direct link back to his ideas and inspiration. Thank you John! The interview is primarily about the first business I pivoted into post-BS (body shop). It's a project my son Izaac and I co-founded called Dappled Light Adventures & Retreats. Check it out below. (Interview is linked in comments)

One step closer to our dream at Dappled Light ....This week the footers for our new Clubhouse (we're calling it the Rookery) are going in and if all goes well next week some of the walls will be going up !! We're very excited about this progress and it keeps us on track for our goal of January 2025 completion. As we are evolving our way toward becoming a full on retreat center (current we're a mix of short term rental with a few retreats here and there) we could use your help. If you've ever stayed at or even visited our property we'd deeply appreciate your honest feedback and a review on how we can make this an incredible destination for you in the future. Review us here: https://lnkd.in/gAB_Tmw6

We're so honored to have been one of the pit crew sponsors for the ChangingGears Grand Prix! Together, over $140,000 was raised to help get cars to folks experiencing poverty. It was so fun and we can't wait for next year! Should we sponsor a team for next year's race?

My first EOS client was our family enterprise, Dappled Light Retreats. Not my first paying client and not my best work. I was a beginner. But I had to start somewhere. So I subjected these guinea pigs aka?my kids to my trial run. It didn’t go great. The first quarter retreat my son, Izaac Rains set 7 really big Rocks, aka priorities for the next 90 days. . Guess how many he got done? One. We had not done a good job predicting what we could accomplish that quarter! So when we set new Rocks for the upcoming quarter my son said, “Well, with my track record I guess i should only set one!” He was feeling defeated rather than focused and energized by his Rocks. We eventually landed on 3 really good Rocks for the upcoming quarter and he knocked all of them out of the park. But this highlighted for me one of the core things that good leaders and teams do: Predict. We predict what we can get done and then we get after it. Early on, we tend to either over-predict or under-predict. But with reps comes accuracy and as accuracy grows so does confidence. We can stretch, yes, but we need to be honest about our abilities. We also need to take into account the season or the business cycle we're in by looking forward. So stretching is good. Over stretching, not so much. If you’ve ever pulled a muscle you know exactly what I’m talking about. Rocks are a focus tool. They remind us where to apply our limited time, money and energy each quarter.? EOS Worldwide Dappled Light Mark O'Donnell https://lnkd.in/g-_a24j6

I rarely write about Dappled Light on LI but I'm super excited about where we're headed with our retreat center this Spring. We're kicking off some new builds. The architects drawings a absolutely blew our minds! I can't wait to share those with you once we select a contractor. For now, jump in if you're interested in a doing a retreat this year. We'd love to talk more about how we can help! https://lnkd.in/g6ai-X2Y (and ht to Perspective Media House for their work on the video)

Did you know nature heals us? Literally, being outside makes us healthier. I think we all know and believe this in our gut but the science and some recent research is very compelling. In the book the Nature Fix we learn that?leisurely walks in the woods, compared to more urban environment walks deliver... ?? a 12% decrease in cortisol levels. From this same study ?? a 7% decrease in sympathetic nerve activity ?? a 1.4% decrease in blood pressure (as someone on BP meds this matters greatly!). ?? a 6% decrease in heart rate. ?? AND better moods and lower anxiety were also verified via this research. Pretty dang compelling, right? So, hopefully you're reading this while sitting outside preparing for a nice, long leisurely walk in the woods... if not, what are you waiting for? ?? And if Dappled Light can ever help you get outside, please reach out. We're all about getting people outside and in the woods COMFORTABLY and safely. A

tl;dr Today's lesson: researching how to lower anxiety may not lower anxiety. But a simple walk in the woods does. It's a misty Saturday morning in northern Kentucky. I got up and did my normal morning routine which eventually lands me at my computer. On my better days I call this part of my morning "researching." Often it can devolve into a more aimless "scrolling." So, I started "researching" how being in nature is an antidote to mild depression, anxiety and the proverbial blues. I was really getting into this idea: looking up academic articles, statistics and the books to dig deeper. All of the sudden I had an epiphany. What if i just got up, put on my hikers and surrounded myself by nature during a short walk around my neighborhood and the adjacent woods? (Where are those hiking boots? Ah, yes... let's go!) Turns out I feel much better! So from my 25 minutes of actual experience I can now confidently say that being in nature has on at least one occasion lifted my mood and lowered my anxiety. I'll likely try this again soon and see if today was just a fluke ?? * For a deeper soaking in nature check out Dappled Light. This is literally my happy place for the past 20 years...