In this inspiring episode of the Courageous Destiny: Build a Business and Life You Love Podcast, Kristin Crockett sits down with Kathy Facenda, Founder and Facilitator of Gather & Grow, to explore the incredible power of trusted relationships in business. Kathy shares how years as a business owner revealed a common challenge—entrepreneurs often have to figure everything out alone.

Together, they discuss how Gather & Grow creates intimate groups of six to eight business owners who meet regularly to solve real business challenges, exchange ideas, share resources, and become trusted referral partners. From marketing and lead generation to staffing, sales, and creating consistent revenue, these Growth Partner Collectives are designed to help entrepreneurs grow faster with the support of people who genuinely want to see each other succeed.

Kristin and Kathy also dive into why so many passionate business owners struggle with the business side of entrepreneurship, how authentic relationships produce higher-quality referrals than traditional networking alone, and why generosity—not competition—is the foundation of sustainable success. Kathy's passion for serving others, combined with her integrity and heart for helping entrepreneurs thrive, shines throughout the conversation.

If you've ever felt like you're building your business alone, this episode will encourage you to surround yourself with people who challenge you, support you, celebrate your wins, and help you create a business—and life—you truly love.

Takeaways:

• The Gather and Grow collective serves as a vital support network for small business owners, fostering trusted relationships that lead to collaborative problem-solving.
• Participants in the collective experience significant growth through shared strategies and insights, enhancing their business practices across various sectors.
• By engaging in monthly discussions, members discover innovative solutions to common challenges, such as marketing, client retention, and staffing.
• The collective emphasizes the importance of forming authentic connections, which ultimately leads to improved business referrals and increased revenue opportunities.
• Being part of a supportive group alleviates the loneliness often felt by solopreneurs, providing a sense of community and shared purpose.
• Overall, the Gather and Grow collective not only aids in professional development but also contributes to personal fulfillment by aligning members with like-minded individuals.

About Kathy Facenda:

Kathy has built a career of serving others. After 34 years in higher education, she has owned a personal training fitness studio for nearly a decade. Beyond dealing with a pandemic and a 10-week business shutdown, she has faced challenges with staffing, marketing effectiveness and finding more free time. Sound familiar? She created The Gather & Grow Collective as a trusted space for business owners and professionals to discuss the things that keep them up at night: finding additional high value clients, creating consistent income, and working more efficiently and strategically. Her mastermind groups form a community that meets monthly to share insights, offer practical solutions and support each other's success.

For the last four years, Kathy has also facilitated a networking group for professionals in the health & wellness industry. Healthy Connections members have appreciated the relevant discussion topics, learning from each other, and making new connections within the industry. Impactful collaborations have resulted including quality client referrals, presentations, workshops.

Grow your business while building trusted relationships with The Gather & Grow Collective. Kathy can be reached at [email protected] or through her website www.gatherandgrowco.com.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the courageous destiny build a business and life you love podcast.

I am your hostess, Kristen Crockett, and I am so excited to have Kathy Ficenda today.

She is the founder and facilitator of the gather and grow collective.

And this Gather and grow collective has a very, very special place into my heart.

I actually have been working with Kathy for a while.

She has been in her courageous destiny, building her courageous destiny, and she is such a huge support for small business owners and for people to truly grow in such a way that they feel good and supported.

Kathy, welcome to my show.

Thank you so much, Kristen.

It's always great to talk to you.

Well, I'm really honored to have you.

Would you like to share a few words about gather and grow and what you're growing and gathering over there?

Two big verbs.

So I have been a small business owner for nine years, and through those nine years, you know, I'm a solopreneur.

I am part of a franchise.

But even so, there are so many times where I just feel very overwhelmed.

I have so many challenges and so many things that I need to be concerned about.

You know, marketing, staffing, finding my ideal client, getting more clients, all of those things.

And I have found over the years through networking that building really trusted, solid relationships can help you really get great advice.

There's so many wonderful small business owners out there that are doing great things.

And even if some of our business owners have been out there for a while, they still love to have these same conversations of, well, what are you doing about this?

Or, hey, this has come up.

You know, there's always new things like AI and things like that on the horizon.

So I have found through my health and wellness networking group that I have that it's really beneficial to have these conversations, and people are really looking for it.

So I've created Gather and grow, which is groups of six to eight people.

Business owners, business development, business professionals.

Everyone's invited, and we meet once a month and just roll up our sleeves and talk about what those issues really are and help each other through it.

That's the basic premise.

Well, I love that.

I love that.

I want.

I want to know what makes you passionate about this, like, what makes you feel what made you want to do it?

That's a really good question.

So, you know, sometimes these things come out of needs that we feel ourself.

Right?

So I think for myself, I was feeling like this was a need that would help me tremendously.

But again, also in the conversation with other business owners, and when I look back on my career, I've always really been in service of others.

I worked in the higher education field for 34 years.

Most of my time was spent in the financial aid office where I was helping people realize their dreams of higher education by helping them finance it in the smartest way.

Right.

You know, student loans can be a lot, so I was there to help them find the best way to finance that.

And I just really loved working with the students and helping them do that.

And after that, I bought my, my personal training fitness studio.

And that was a great thing.

I'd been there as a client for three years.

I believed in the brand, I loved the people that I was working out with.

So as an owner, I love my clients and I love helping them find that dream of improving their health, improving their strength, all of their health markers, just everything.

People come into the studio all the time talking about how much better they feel.

I mean, that feeds me, so that's a great thing.

So I think as a business owner, looking at that side of it and turning inward, I really just felt like there was this need for these small groups where we really rolled, rolled up our sleeves.

I love networking, I love getting together and meeting new people.

But these are deeper conversations, right?

So these are the conversations where every month you can bring to the table what keeps you up at night.

And you're going to have this team of professionals around you that are trusted relationships, people who are getting to know your business and what you do.

And we're all there to help each other.

And so that I think was really what was driving me.

And the, the result of that is not only just helping each other through these issues, but by me understanding other people's businesses better.

I can find them quality referrals, referrals for clients that are going to stick around for a while because I understand your business really well.

And you know, we can talk about cash flow, we could talk about how that's going to improve just your day to day revenue numbers and things like that.

So I think those are all the real reasons why I wanted to do it is I just felt like helping other people would, would again be part of what I do.

I love that.

And I'm hearing warm leads, I'm hearing warm leads.

I'm hearing how you could actually help each other grow through referrals.

Like I always love the concept of if I have a network, say I have right now, I have thousands, I don't know, 7,000 followers, whatever it is, on Facebook, and you connect with me Right.

And I showcase your business for you.

You're not just showcasing your business to your own, you know, your own people.

Right.

You're growing.

You're.

You're able to help.

So if you've got a team of eight people together, all helping share each other's stuff, building each other up, inspiring each other, you know, there's a lot of opportunity to really create these powerful.

These powerful connections and get some really great referrals.

There really is.

I think sometimes we forget how many people are in our own network or our followers or the people even that we follow, that there's a vast network of people that, as a business owner or business professional, you're out there contacting and engaging with.

And, you know, LinkedIn is huge.

Everybody's just got all of these people.

Like, you know, if I meet somebody that I think is doing really, really great work, I can't wait to link up with them on LinkedIn, because then I can keep following what they do.

I can see if I can help them with that.

I can see if it has anything to do with what I'm doing in my studio.

And we could just relate to each other like that.

Right.

And to your point, we can help share successes or things that are going on so that everybody thrives.

And what I've learned in my networking in the area that I'm in, you know, in.

In Schaumburg, Illinois, is that people want to help.

People want to help each other.

People are generous, you know, and I love that.

I love interacting with business professionals who are generous and just want to help each other.

And that's what I'm finding in that.

In that area.

So it's.

It seems like a natural kind of thing to just share resources and be there for each other, build those trusted relationships even deeper.

Absolutely.

Okay.

I want to play a game.

You want to play a game?

Okay, sure.

Okay, so I think I'm ready.

You're gonna be like, kristen, what are you doing to me?

This is the Courageous Destiny podcast, right?

Okay.

All right.

I get that.

Some.

I want you to create a vision for me.

So you have your.

Your ideal client for Gather and Grow.

What is their dream result?

What are they going to get as being part of this?

Like, how do you see that unfolding?

Well, I really think that when you join a Gather and Grow collective, mastermind, for lack of a better word, I call them growth partner collectives.

But when you join that group and you get to know the other people in the room, as I said, the group's going to Be six to eight people.

It's not going to be a large group because I want people to have a voice.

But when you get to know these trusted relationships, they could be in the same industry as you.

They could be in completely different industries, but we share similar challenges.

Right.

So what they will get is they will get strategies for their business in all areas.

I mentioned some of them before.

Marketing, staffing, hiring, lead follow up, client retention, the client experience, all of those things that are so important.

You will get great feedback and tips on those things even if you don't bring to the table that month.

Oh, this is the challenge I want to talk about.

What if somebody else brings up something really great and really critical to what either you're going through now or you have in the past or maybe next month it's going to be relevant.

Right.

So these are all important conversations to help everybody grow their business.

And I really do feel like through these trusted partnerships and with everyone really getting to know each other's business, you will definitely get higher quality leads, more leads.

And you will also be able then to have more consistent revenue.

Higher revenue and maybe even learn through how to get these higher quality leads, how that affects your revenue.

Right.

When you get a higher quality lead or maybe there are other sources of revenue that you could be doing in your business that maybe, yeah, you might.

Be able to figure out how to have.

Because you hear from somebody else and what they're doing, you might be able to apply that same concept to your business and maybe get bigger sales.

Yes.

Maybe get, you know, you know, more clients or a really great way to collaborate and probably come up with like collaborative events in order for people to get clients.

I mean, I see it being incredibly fruitful for people.

And I think about, I think about common problems that I hear, you know, obviously, you know, I do a lot of group coaching in a different way for, for entrepreneurs and business owners.

And I always hear, how can I be natural and actually get more clients?

I don't want to convince people.

I hear that all the time.

And when you have warm and a way to get warm leads, you know, you can go to any networking event.

Networking events are great, but it does take you something to be able to process those leads, to be able to work those connections, to be able to.

You're meeting a lot of people, some of them are going to line up with your business, some aren't.

And if you don't want to go through that, not that you'll never go to another networking event by joining one of your Collectives.

But to me, that can save you a lot of time and money because at least, you know, you're going to get something really fruitful from that when you go.

Right, right.

Yes.

I think, I think what you're saying with getting the quality leads instead of following up on leads, that that may not be the best fit for your business, which is fine.

I mean, we all do that, right?

We all talk to people who maybe they're not the best fit.

But if you have higher quality leads that someone knows your business, really knows you, and then they can refer somebody that they're aware of that really would be a good fit.

Fit.

I mean, you're out of the gate, you're working with these people and.

And you're doing great things for them.

Right?

So that's super, super important.

And like you said, you're not going to eliminate your ne networking events.

Everybody wants to meet more people.

Everybody wants to grow their network.

So that's a wonderful, wonderful thing.

You got eight people out growing their network at different places.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes.

If you're streamlining, you're streamlining, and then.

You will gather and you will grow.

So that is the whole thing there.

So, yeah, you will grow your reach just by everybody else growing theirs, which is so wonderful.

And, you know, sometimes you think like, oh, somebody wants my contacts or somebody wants this.

That's not really what it's about.

It's about, you know, if I'm working with.

With someone across the table and I hear what they're looking for, and I know three people who may really benefit from that, it's directing those people to them.

It's not giving them my contact list.

It's not sharing everybody.

I know that's not really the organic kind of authenticity that, that I want to promote, but what I do want to help people with is just finding the right people.

And by building these trusted relationships over time, that's what you're going to get.

So when you ask the original question of what are people going to get, you're going to get strategies for improving your business through all of these different ways.

You're going to get ways to probably figure out how to add some free time to your schedule.

You know, maybe we're all spinning our wheels on something that we don't know there's a better alternative.

So you know what my favorite part of what they're going to get is?

What is that they're going to get you.

Oh, well, yeah, they're going to get you.

Okay.

I'm going to.

Because I know she won't brag about herself, but I'm going to brag about her right now.

So I've been working with you for a few years, and I'll never forget when we met because, because we were at.

In a huge circle, and they're like, go around, say the name of your company and your, Your name or what have you.

And, and I, I just said, I'm Kristen Crockett.

My company name is Courageous Destiny.

I help people build a business in life they love.

And afterward, Kathy came up and I saw her walk across the circle, and she said, I want to live my courageous destiny.

And I thought, yes.

And I just.

And ever since that moment, from the time we met out the first time, I will tell you what your superpower is.

And I, and I know I've said it before, you have such a high level of integrity.

You do what you say you're going to do.

So if you say that you're going to help people grow their business and you're going to help them get warm leads and you're going to be a stand for these people, I know you will, and I know that they're going to get every bit of value from the work that you're going to do together.

And so I want to say.

I know you're not going to say that.

Right.

But you guys, one of the biggest values that you can get in the Gather and Grow collective is having Kathy stand for you in a powerful way.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate that.

I, you know, I try to, as you said, do what I'm.

I say I'm going to do.

I.

Over the years, I've had many years, and over the years, I have just found that being authentic and being real and genuine and purposeful has really served me well.

So I do appreciate those words.

I wouldn't have said that about myself, but.

So thank you.

Well, it's something that is rare in this world, unfortunately.

Well, I shouldn't say it's rare like there are other people that have high integrity, but of course, to truly honor your word and have that be a superpower, really.

I know.

I knew whatever business you had decided that you were going to do, it would be successful because you have that really, really, really big superpower that you do what you say you're going to do, people can count on you.

You know, I'm going to say this, too.

In Women Supporting Women, a group that we're both a part of, you decided to sponsor.

And I was so.

I, I just loved seeing that Over a thousand people.

It was.

One of our most liked posts was Kathy's post about being a sponsor.

You know, you truly, you truly rose up in that and, and to have that kind of support in your business.

Like one of the things that I hear a lot is people are, are lonely too.

So if you're a solopreneur, if you're a practitioner.

And now I've coached, I've coached, I've coached many chiropractors.

I've coached many various practitioners.

And one of the things that I find is that they are really ticked off that they have to sell anything at all.

Right.

They don't want, they don't necessarily want to be a traditional business owner.

Right.

You know, business wasn't the thing that got them doing what they're doing.

True.

So they don't often know how to communicate well.

They don't like to necessarily network in a traditional way.

They're doctors.

They're doctors.

They're, you know, they still need to sell.

It's kind of like the, the, the after effect thing.

It's like, oh my gosh, I just got, I, I just got my, my license.

You know, I graduated, now I'm a chiropractor.

I've passed all the tests.

Yep.

Come to me.

People who want to be adjusted.

Yes, yes.

But they gotta do something to get that to happen.

Otherwise they gotta work for somebody else.

Yeah.

And it's not just marketing.

Marketing is a piece of it.

Absolutely right.

Yep.

But, but to be able to form those connections in their community and you are local like you do some, definitely some local in person, gather and grow collectives, as I'm sure you could also do some remotely if you wanted.

Right.

Yeah.

But it's just a huge benefit to be able to help the people who really don't necessarily want to do this by themselves.

Yeah.

Well, and I think what you're saying, and you mentioned chiropractors or other folks that are in the health and wellness arena, because those are people I've worked with very closely.

Yeah.

Because of my personal training studio.

But it's really true in any business.

I mean, a lot of business owners open their business because what they do is their passion.

Right.

And so they want to share it with others.

But it doesn't necessarily mean that they love sales.

You know, that word that, that five letter word that they love that or that they love.

You know, I don't know, bookkeeping, the side of, or other things that just are required of business owners.

Right.

Or we can, we can hire somebody to do it for us, which is great too.

And maybe you needed a referral on that too.

So, you know, there's always something when you're looking at the part of running the business.

I mean, I, I can speak for myself.

That maybe isn't the thing that I love to do.

And, you know, do I do it well?

I don't know.

You know, do I do everything well?

No, I know I don't.

And that's why I love to have friends and, and people I can get advice from and get these wonderful referrals so that if I do need an accountant or if I need a bookkeeper or if I need something else for my business, I can find somebody, you know, who does that.

I.

When I was looking for my CRM for Gather and Grow Collective, I was asking everybody I knew, what do you use?

What do you use?

What do you use?

I mean, that's what you really need other people who are doing great work.

You know, sometimes you need their advice or you just need their input or just need to be right.

And it's faster, you know, it's faster.

So we can grow our business along the pa, you know, as much as we can extend ourselves.

Right.

Or we can choose to get into a powerful group that can help us go much path faster and I'm sure more than pay for itself.

Right, Right, Absolutely.

I always ask people that, like, how fast do you want that dream result if you.

If it's someday, one day, great.

You know, if it's.

I really am going to take on that.

I have so many breaths that I want to take in this life.

And by the way, I'd also like to enjoy my family and I like to enjoy.

I'd really like some time to be able to have some healthy, you know, some healthiness to my.

Some healthy habits and all of those things.

And I want to bring my whole life along.

You want to save time in this.

You want to save time in growing your business.

You want to make it operationally sound.

You want to be able to have the people that are going to be your champions and that's what they're going to get.

Yeah.

I think when you're building those efficiencies that you're talking about that allow you to have that free time that's valuable in itself.

Right.

To be more efficient with what you're doing in each of these different functions that we have, sometimes even delegating is great.

But for me, that's always been hard.

So I might need some advice on that because it's sometimes easier for me to do it, but that's not always the most efficient way.

So we need to learn a little bit more about that.

And you also still want to be effective, right?

Those are the two big words that I always think about when I'm planning things for my business.

Is it efficient?

Is it effective?

As our workouts are in the fitness studio, so the effectiveness of it is really, really important too.

Because if you're marketing, how are your marketing efforts right now?

Are they working for you?

What's the return on your marketing?

Do you even know what the return is on your marketing?

So, you know, let's try and figure out something where you can actually evaluate that, figure it out and then make the changes that you need to make.

I don't think that it's good.

And again, I've owned my studio for nine and a half years.

I don't think it's great or good for a business owner to say, well, this isn't working right now, but I'll see how it goes, you know, and then before you know it, it's five months later and you think, oh, this marketing still isn't working.

You know, something in here needs to change.

And so I think it's just great that if every month, you know, you're going to see these people and you're going to be able to bring these topics up and then truly in between those, those sessions, you can reach out to them.

These, these are people that are going to be your circle, right?

So you're going to be able to reach out to them in between and, and really just have those, those folks that you can rely on for some good advice and, and some good support.

Sometimes it's just, yes, somebody can hear me.

Can I run this by you?

You know, could I, could I just see what you think about this?

So that's, that's a big relief.

So what I'm hearing is gather and grow helps people save time, have some really great friends and people that they can know like, and trust to help them grow their business.

They don't have to do it alone and they can get more clients naturally and easily.

Yes, that's what I'm hearing.

I would think those are all upsides, right?

Yes, those are all upsides.

Those are things we all want.

And I think you'll sleep better.

I think, you know, as a business owner, I think there are nights where I'm worried about various things.

Whether it's my, my high tech strength training equipment running well, or it's the marketing or it's hiring a new person or whatever it is.

There are nights where I don't sleep well.

And I think that, you know, having these trusted groups I think is really going to help people do that too.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

All right, well, I have two questions I ask everybody who's ever been on my podcast.

Okay, time for yours.

Okay.

What is the most courageous thing you've ever done?

Oh, my gosh.

Besides opening my business?

No, it doesn't have to be.

Besides, it might.

That might be it.

There's a lot I never thought I'd.

Be able to break for that.

I never thought I'd be a business owner.

So, you know, like I said, having worked in higher education for so very long on the administrative side, that was.

That was what I thought I would do forever.

And, you know, I've.

I guess this is.

So, you know, more than half of the sales team was.

Was laid off.

I found something right away.

Somebody came to me and offered me a job, which was awesome.

And worked there for another 12 years before COVID actually was the reason for my second one.

But by that time I already had my.

My studio.

I was working a full time job in the corporate world in sales when I bought my studio.

So maybe that was pretty courageous because I was doing that full time and I hired somebody to manage my studio and that was a little bit to juggle.

I'm not really comfortable doing, you know, both of those two things at once and kind of sharing, you know, you know, me with those things.

So the second time that the layoff I heard was coming, I kind of was hoping that it was going to be me.

We've talked about this before, Kristen.

Yeah, I kind of wanted to be laid off.

And my financial advisor said, nobody wants to be laid off, Kathy.

And I said, well, I think I do.

I think I do because I love my studio, I love my clients.

I, I really want to be there.

I want that flexibility.

I knew I would miss the benefits, but that was okay.

And so maybe that was the most courageous thing that I've ever done, is really just kind take that leap and just be a business owner.

And that was nothing that I ever had on my bingo card for my life.

And it's been wonderful.

I've met the greatest people, the greatest clients.

My team right now is fantastic.

And, you know, it's just been great.

And so now I'm able To.

To do the gather and grow collective and really get those great business owners together.

Very cool.

Very cool.

I think it's the most courageous thing I've ever done, too.

I didn't expect myself to be a business owner.

I was a cowgirl.

I was a Wild west girl.

All right, so I've got one more question for you.

Okay.

What's the most courageous thing left on your bucket list?

Oh, goodness.

Wow.

I don't know.

I don't know what it is.

I'm not sure what the future holds for that.

Boy.

You stumped me there, Kristen.

What is the most courageous thing on my bucket list?

Maybe retiring.

I don't know, because I'm kind of, you know, I'm getting towards that age.

So I don't know if I'm going to have to think about that.

I don't want to think about it right now because I'm having fun here.

But.

Maybe retiring is working, still doing something that you love that keeps you young and healed.

But I would.

I would still be busy, I think.

And I don't know, you know, I've thought a few times about maybe even relocating.

And so that may be a courageous thing that could be on my bucket list.

Where would you relocate to?

I don't know.

I want to, you know, somewhere.

Mountain speech.

I love both.

I love both.

It's.

It has to be somewhere with mostly cool, cooler weather.

I can't go to the south where it's too warm.

I stay there.

I was gonna say Hawaii because that has mountains and beach.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

They have a nice trade win.

I don't know.

That's cooler, though, right?

Right.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I haven't really researched it in depth because I'm still having fun doing what I'm doing.

But it could be something that happens later.

Well, I have had such.

This has been so much fun interviewing you today, Kathy.

Thank you for sharing yourself with us today.

Do you have any last words that you'd like to leave for our listeners?

I just think, you know, if you're a business owner who has questions, who would love to have a sounding board, would love to have a task force of your own to help you get through these things.

You know, most of us are small business owners, are solopreneurs.

We don't have CFOs, we don't have, you know, design teams.

We don't have marketing experts on our team.

So if you want a team like that and if you want to be able to build these trusted relationships that inevitably will help you grow your business and do things more efficiently and effectively.

Reach out to me.

And I think the benefits of what you will find from this group will just be so never ending.

So well, I know they'll be in the right hands for sure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So thank you, Kathy, for coming on my show.

Thank you, listeners.

If you'd like to know more about the Gather and Grow collective, all Kathy's information will be available in the show.

Notes.

Notes.

I believe you're at gathering grow co dot com.

Yes, Kathy, @gatherandgrow co dot com.

You heard it, you guys.

You want some more information, Reach out to her.

I think that you will.

I think your business will.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Kathy, for coming on my show.

And until next time, everyone live courageously.