Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Cut the Tie podcast. Hello, I'm your host, Thomas Helfrich, and I am on a mission to help you cut a tie to whatever it is holding you back from success, from becoming the best version of yourself. And today we are joined by Susan Anderson. Susan, how are you.

Speaker 2: 0:13

I'm doing fantastic Better now that I'm talking with you.

Speaker 1: 0:16

Right, come on. Not everyone has like a periwinkle and magenta-ish, pinkish background like I do. If you're listening, I did my homework, man, right. Well, susan, take a moment, introduce yourself and what your business does absolutely so.

Speaker 2: 0:30

I'm susan anderson. I'm the founder of idle wild woods retreat center here in northeast tennessee, and also triumph communications, which is a copywriting firm I've been running since 20 oh sorry, 2005, 20 years.

Speaker 1: 0:46

What was the name, again, of your business? The first one. The first one is Idlewild Woods.

Speaker 2: 0:53

It smells like nobody can ever smell it.

Speaker 1: 0:56

I was going to ask that question, but is it a wealth center or a health center?

Speaker 2: 1:01

It is a retreat center, so this is where entrepreneurs can come. Unplug from everything, get off the screens, go sit under a tree, think great thoughts, come up with their next brilliant idea and meet real humans face-to-face, Share a campfire.

Speaker 1: 1:16

What if it's raining? If it's raining, do I have a place to stay?

Speaker 2: 1:18

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're building it very nice Off-grid but luxurious.

Speaker 1: 1:24

I like the idea of that. When is it going to be available?

Speaker 2: 1:27

Our very first geodesic dome is two-thirds of the way built, so we're thinking about another month, month and a half, before it's fully outfitted, and then it'll be ready.

Speaker 1: 1:36

So that would be in June, june, okay, that might be an interesting place to do one of the retreats. It's like, hey, we're going to go check out this entrepreneurial dome. I may go check it out first and make sure I don't go up there and be like we could die. Yeah, I'm not saying we wouldn't. Just on the way up, don't stop at this gas station. That guy may have murdered people.

Speaker 2: 1:52

I do hear bad shows. Keep driving.

Speaker 1: 1:58

Tell me why, though, people should come to you for this retreat, to you for this retreat, like what makes you unique? Like why did they pick your retreat spot?

Speaker 2: 2:10

This place is. It's gorgeous. First of all, we've got a Creek running the whole 35 acres length of this property, which is amazing. But really I mean I don't care if they come here, they go somewhere else. I just really want to get entrepreneurs outdoors off the screens, get the stuff out of their ears. No pod, no anything, anything. Just go take a walk. I feel like hustle culture kind of it can bite. You know it's not good and we fall for it. I spent the first 17 years of building my 20-year business. I didn't go outside like I gotta work if we're not working. What gary b said work your face off, you can sleep when you're dead. Turns out that's not great advice.

Speaker 1: 2:47

No, it's not great advice. You're spot on. By the way, it's starting to get nice outside here. It's now April in 2025. Every time I walk outside, they're like just go to Garbage Can or get mail. I'm like why did I pick a studio, as opposed to just say I'm going to do my phone wherever I want to be? Anyway, I'm with you on that. In your own journey, though, you have another business. Your own journey is full, I'm sure, of just challenges and triumphs. What's, though, been the hardest challenge, the hardest tie, you've had to cut?

Speaker 2: 3:17

Oh man, it's definitely this, the hustle mentality, like I literally like I didn't go out. It's like you can take a rest when. Take a rest, go play when you're done with that was never finished sentence. It was like finish everything and then you can go play. It was stupid, it's. It's costly to you personally, it's detrimental to your business. Yeah, you're not going to get the same creative ideas kind of important as a copywriter to have creative ideas or as an entrepreneur of any kind really, and just walking around outside, do that first, not as a treat after my gosh, what a difference, just crazy your tie was I have to cut this mindset that I have to be always on working on things.

Speaker 1: 4:03

Do you have any regrets along? Well, well, we'll get back. I'm going to. I'm going to pause that one because that's going to be something that'll probably be answered in another question. So so, in your journey, you, you the biggest tie was a mindset shift from getting I have to always be on, I have to be working. I can't take the time the whole day to go through things to now. I. Can you release this? Do you remember the moment though?

Speaker 2: 4:26

when you knew it, that was the tie you were going to cut. Yeah, it was crazy. I was. I had done at Frank Kern right. So he has this video on YouTube called perfect average day. I watched that. Two weeks prior I read this book by Trevor Blake. Trevor G Blake called three simple steps. Dude has built numerous nine figure businesses, starting when he was 50. And he spent. He's like oh, I spend about four hours a day working and three of those hours I'm out walking in the woods. So this is all percolating.

Speaker 2: 4:54

I took the long drive from Bristol, tennessee, down to Huntsville, going through Chattanooga, of course, lovely. And all of a sudden it was like crazy, hey, you should totally build a retreat center for entrepreneurs up in Smokies. Like, excuse me what, hold over, I'm taking mad notes. I still got a long drive. So I'm like all right, I'm driving and writing, I'm not watching, I'm watching the road, I'm just driving, driving and writing. And then you can imagine the conversation I get home hey, honey, hear me out. How about we sell everything, we go, move to the Smokies and we build a retreat center for entrepreneurs? God love him, I'll be. Went with it. Here we are. It's crazy, it was memorable.

Speaker 1: 5:39

That's amazing and and the fact that you said that right, that you have this retreat center, I listen. I mean, I just here in Georgia my wife and I were thinking about business ideas that we possibly could do together and I said, hey, let's just go buy any kind of normal looking house in the Blue Ridge and strip it down, make it nice, put the whole basement to be steam rooms and stuff and maybe not a pool but like a cold plunge and a hot tub outside and say here's a safe, put all your phones in here for the weekend yes and be like obviously you can come take them, but the idea is put them in here and check out, like there's no tvs on the wall, there's not even wi-fi in there.

Speaker 1: 6:17

You know, it's maybe, it's internal maybe, but like the point is you go there, then it's a detox house, to go there and do steam and do saunas and just like read a book and listen to music, and I was like I think people would be like hell, yeah, I'm taking that place for a week and I'm going up there and you know, and here's a writing place. I love what you've done with that Sell everything. That's 10 X is easier than two X mentality. So I like, I like that idea. All right, so you have the moment since doing it though you know, actually I'm going to give an intermediary question how did you take that moment and cut that tie? Like you said, you sold everything, but there's more to that. Like you had to find a property. You know you could have gone up there and like, oh, you can't do that up here. How did you take those steps to make that a real thing?

Speaker 2: 7:02

Yeah, I started talking about my vision, this crazy vision that I had, like anybody who'd hold still long enough, I would talk to them about it. I went on podcasts. I was at the time working for a company called capitalismcom, got on that podcast because work there and I was able to attract two angel investors to help us start buying the property. Talk to a realtor I'm like it's going to be years, I'm sure. But no, of course. This was one of the first properties we saw and I was like it became the litmus test for all other properties. I'm like, no, this is the one, this is the one, very nuts.

Speaker 2: 7:36

So a little bit of money got going on this thing. We came here. It's raw land, so it's been a lot. I've never done this before. My in-laws used to own campgrounds. They developed and owned campgrounds. They developed and owned campgrounds. I'm like, hey, then I need some advice. Sometimes hubby had been in construction for a long time, years and years ago, before opening a Volkswagen restoration company which we grew and it was world, world renowned, which was really cool, but this was a big change.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Yeah, that's a huge change and and and you had to have vision and you had to you do have to to find money. That's something that to do this, you have to be independent, wealthy, or you got to bring someone who just says I understand that, I believe in it and I see the potential for it, and it's one of those businesses that they know is not, like a 10X exit, scalable. I'm not even sure how you exit that business and repeat the model because you need land. So, different conversation, maybe another podcast, another day. What advice would you give to the listeners?

Speaker 2: 8:35

Go outside, for Pete's sake, take a hike. I'm going to be writing a book because people keep saying you ought to write a book. You ought to write a book. This will be my next book. It's going to be called Take a Hike and it's about hustle.

Speaker 2: 8:45

Culture can go take a hike, but also we ought to go take a hike. It doesn't take that much time 10, 15 minutes. Get out in the woods, just forward motion with your feet, with nothing, that you're, no screens or anything like this, and it literally will do wonders. It took me a while. I didn't want to go outside. I was like buggy, hot, boring, what the heck? I lived in Alabama. What was I going to do? It wasn't going to be hot. You don't want to go outside, but the more you do, it wasn't going to be. You don't want to go outside, but the more you do it, the more it grows on you and before long you're going to be like a fifth grader, like jonesing for recess time and trying to sneak outside more and more. And there's a reason for that. We're not meant to be under, under the lights and in front of screens all the time we've started this thing called camping.

Speaker 1: 9:27

Apparently you spend a lot of time and effort putting up a structure so you can be uncomfortable all night. Yeah, I've done that. That's awesome, yeah, but I usually I really do like it. So we've done it and we did in florida last week and I will say that I I told my wife it's only 150 bucks for a week to have a campsite. I'm sure that's a lot for camping, but it's like right on the beach, right, and I'm like I actually enjoy it because I have. I might shower, I may not, you know it's. I take a, we ride a bike to the beach, we go fishing, we have there's a little ice cream place there. It would. I love it because, like on a now in the middle of summer, probably not going to love that, that's gonna be way too hot, nowhere to escape. But right now in the fall or spring, yeah rapid fire.

Speaker 1: 10:09

Who gives you inspiration?

Speaker 2: 10:12

Really the entrepreneurs. I've worked with them for 20 years and I kind of realized, like wait, they take ownership of a problem they never caused. They devote themselves to coming up with a solution to serve people with it. That's pretty freaking cool. We can't do a whole lot to impact the world, but that really impacts our little corner of it. That's pretty freaking cool. So I keep thinking of them anytime when it's cold, muddy, buggy, wet, well, any of that kind of stuff. I'm like who am I doing this for?

Speaker 1: 10:40

And right, I mean, that's a great one to be inspired by. It's like you get a new stream and your business serves them, and so that's a nice fuel cycle. What's some of the best business advice you've ever received.

Speaker 2: 11:06

I met a guy who said he says no to everything, like any new person. He's like it's no for the first year, so we really get to know each other. I was like that's so slow. Amazing, I like it.

Speaker 1: 11:15

Some would call him a dick. I hope that makes the cut floor. I have no show. It's my show, but I don't understand it.

Speaker 2: 11:24

Who knows.

Speaker 1: 11:28

See, I've lost my train of thought with that. If you could go back to any point in your life, when would you go back and what would you do differently?

Speaker 2: 11:38

Oh man, I would like to bounce around. I don't know if that would be fair, but there are a lot of moments there that I would like, like when I was a little kid and I liked writing and everybody else was like, oh, it's creative writing time. I would have gone you should do this, you're great at it, it's fine, you're going to be wonderful. Math class, it's okay. You're failing it, it's fine, you'll be fine. And then, as a young business person, I would have said, all right, there's going to be this thing called hustle culture soon. Hustle bros here's a strict list Like do not let these people in your ears or in your heart, in your mind, nothing like steer clear, and I think you're going to be a lot happier and charge more always that balance.

Speaker 1: 12:26

I tell people to charge more. You do a few very inexpensive to figure it out and then throw a turd on the table and see who cleans it up, Like I mean, let's say you're a hundred bucks for your class, go charge 5,000 on the next one and see what happens. The worst you could do is discount it to 2,000 people Like, wow, what a deal.

Speaker 2: 12:40

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: 12:41

Anyway, I mean it's true and it's a great advice. You know, say no to more things, do all that. I mean that's fantastic. What's your must-read book?

Speaker 2: 12:51

I got to go with Three Simple Steps because it just dramatically, I didn't see it coming. You know, like you read books, you're like, yeah, whatever, and then all of a sudden you're like, oh my gosh, this whole thing just changed my entire life. Those three simple steps.

Speaker 1: 13:03

That one I've never heard of there's. I hear a lot of the repeats on there, but that's something new there. G Blake Steps. All right, I'm going to read that one. I like that. Simple is good. Yeah, um, I mean, simple is definitely better than complicated. Can we just keep that in mind? Yeah, and you're like, and probably you're building your dome and stuff, you're like you got to keep facing that Like, do we need that? Do we need that? Is that too much? And I'm sure you're like no, we don't need that.

Speaker 2: 13:28

That's not the point Exactly.

Speaker 1: 13:30

Running water generally airlock things, so bugs don't get on me, I'm going to throw that out there. That's a must. Yeah, sorry, it's fun, right, this is all good. If there was a question I should ask today and I didn't ask you, what would that question have been and how would you have answered it?

Speaker 2: 13:51

I think it would be. What would success really look like to you? Because that's changed for me a lot and I've been thinking about it a lot Like now. Before it would have been like oh, I'm feeding my family, this is wonderful. I have extra, I can give, this is great. I can invest a little bit, this is nice. Now, yeah, I want all that, of course, but I also want to be able to just go sit in a hammock and write or think or create that kind of stuff. So time spent down by the creek with my feet in the creek that's a day where I get to do that and I get the great ideas and I capture them.

Speaker 1: 14:31

That's a successful day. I like that. I mean, the definition of success is something that I tell lots of people you need to define yourself and then, when other people start defining it for you, you won't ever find it.

Speaker 2: 14:39

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:39

And I struggled. I struggled with this one too, because I'm still, I'm still, yeah, I'm stuck between the monetary and the free time and other things. So I, I, I battle with that one, I think almost hourly. It's not even daily. Yeah, it's like it's a thing. Yesterday, though, I did spend the entire most of the day just like pretty much loading the dumpster because we're doing a basement rehab, and I was like you know what I can do that.

Speaker 2: 15:02

Oddly satisfying, isn't it? I didn't really enjoy it. No, I didn't say enjoyable, I said satisfying when you're done right.

Speaker 1: 15:10

Yes, when you're done, and I was like I am so glad to be done with this. The backdrop is I have a hurt foot and I always feel like my Achilles is about to blow off at any point. So I was kind of like is this the moment? Is this the moment it has to be? It does as soon as it does. It's one year of rehab and I'm like it's going to suck. Don't do that. Not going to make the cut for him. Anyway, all right, thank you, by the way, susan. Thank you so much for coming on today. Who should get a hold of you and how do they do that?

Speaker 2: 15:42

Yeah. So people who are kind of tired of having to shout into the void and they're like why is nobody bothering to even listen to what I'm doing? I can help you with that, with your writing. But more than that, if you're looking to host or go on a retreat this summer or any time of the year, I would love to have you. We're talking off grid, so it's special. It's not going to be all the bells and whistles of a Hilton, but no beige carpet, no beige walls. You'd be outside.

Speaker 1: 16:14

Some beige grass depends on the time of year, Just to be fair. There might be some beige grass where people are upset, but I don't like beige. Susan, thanks for joining us today. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 16:24

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. You for having me.

Speaker 1: 16:26

I appreciate it and those who are still listening watching. Thank you for being here and I hope you get out there. Go cut a tie to something holding you back at least the best version of yourself, and thank you for listening.