Business Lessons For Creating The Job You Want, with Patti Mara

Shannon Waller: Hi, Shannon Waller here, and welcome to Inside Strategic Coach with special guest Patti Mara. I am really excited to talk to you today, Patti, because you are one of our phenomenal associate coaches, been coaching The Strategic Coach Program for a very long time. And I've had the pleasure of working with you for even longer. And in this episode, what I want us to do is really dive into your story, how you became an entrepreneur, why you became an entrepreneur, so that people can get to know you a little bit better. And then also, I know you have a brand-new venture, which I am super excited to hear about. And then some of your thinking and philosophies and mindsets about entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, who we are and how we can do even more to multiply the impact out in the world. So Patti, welcome to Inside Strategic Coach Podcast. So why don't you introduce yourself? Because if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna miss all sorts of really good juicy nuggets. So how did all this happen? How did you start to be a Strategic Coach coach?
 
Patti Mara: So, oh, that of course is the story. Let me get into you say, you know, what was my origin story? I graduated from university in ‘89. And of course, that was the start of a recession that middle management were laid off for the first time. I remember a newspaper headline saying IBM laid off management for the first time in its corporate history. And so I'm going out applying for jobs and there just weren't jobs. So I ended up making up my own job, which was my launch into being an entrepreneur. I had lots of different things. That was also a big time for network marketing, so I tried some network marketing. What was interesting is very quickly I became the retail trainer for all the network marketing people at the office in Mississauga. I was really good at customer service and training people on how to engage with customers. That had been my history and that kind of led into different—so I did try to get off the ground and a customer experience training, but I just, I was really good at creating my own job. I could be really busy and build something and get to the next level, and I wasn't good at building an organization. I had no experience, I had no exposure, and I had no idea what to do to build it beyond myself, the effort I was putting in.
 
And then I came across Strategic Coach. And I can remember feeling like my brain just went, and of course, even just the first year of Strategic Coach with The Entrepreneurial Time System, how to organize your effort and who to spend your time with and Unique Ability. What should I be doing and how do I leverage with other people's Unique Ability? Unique Ability Team, how to actually leverage and support myself. And then of course, taking it to the whole other level and getting a vision of the future with 10x Mind Expander. So, you know, it's like literally Strategic Coach kind of shifted everything for me. Then when it was time to go and build my next venture, I built a consulting business. I was able to not just create content and deliver it, but also then build an organization around me. And that's kind of set me on a whole different path.
 
Shannon Waller: Isn't that fantastic? And you and I coached one of our very early programs that doesn't even exist anymore. All the how the best get better.
 
Patti Mara: Yeah, that's when we thought we needed to have a lead in program.
 
Shannon Waller: Yeah, that was really fun. So it's great because you were one of, I was one, yourself, a couple of other coaches and kicked off that program and then pretty soon that one actually had a shelf life we've determined. And since we like to start things that never have to have an end point, that transitioned back into Coach Program and then you became associate coach with Strategic Coach. So tell me about your main business. And then I know you have a very exciting launch and we'll also talk about your coaching—I hate to say the word philosophy. I love philosophy, but your thinking and Coach’s is obviously incredibly well aligned. The thing I love about our coaches, Patti, every single one of them is a client and uses the Coach concepts and thinking tools in their own businesses to grow and expand their businesses. So there's practical knowledge that you bring to it. But let's talk about your main business, because it's that customer service, it's really doing it and how you have blossomed that into an incredible offering out in the world.
 
Patti Mara: Just before I get into that, Shannon, because I love what you said about all the associate coaches. It's almost like that's the mastery level. When you're coaching, it's like you have to own all those concepts and you have to own them in a way that you've used them in your own business or there's a disconnect. So it's almost like, you know, the mastery. And I will say, one of the advantages I've experienced as an associate coach with Strategic Coach is the incredible coaching I've received to be a coach. It's like expanded everything I do because my awareness has so dramatically expanded. So I'm very grateful.
 
Shannon Waller: Very cool.
 
Patti Mara: So, you know, I launched an online program based on my consulting back in 2006, 2007. I called it the Profit Generator, turning your customer experience into profit. And what's interesting is that it's all the same content. I just deliver it in different ways. And it's evolved, obviously, but the same core is the same. I was fortunate enough that Joe Polish let me speak to, at one of his conferences, before Genius Network, when it was Prana Marketing, and somebody came up to me when I gave that speech, my launch speech, and said, you need to work with my audience. And it was Dan Benamoz with Pharmacy Development Services. And that had me speak at his next two conferences, and I created a program, Profit Generator, for pharmacy owners. And that had me spend about 15 years working with independent pharmacy owners, mostly in the States, a couple in Canada, but mostly in the States, because that's an industry that has been squeezed. I mean, I think it should be an illegal marketplace, what they're dealing with, with negative reimbursements. I mean, they're getting paid. At this point, it's like every year it gets worse with the pharmacy benefit managers, PBMs and insurance, the reimbursement for pharmacy owners in the States is less than their wholesale cost, never mind their operating costs.
 
So pharmacy owners are ahead of the curve of this commoditization pressure that if they think what they're selling is their product or service, if they think their business is dispensing medication, they're out of business. If they think what they're selling is the vehicle to create value and their business is the value they create, they're the health hub of their community, I mean, it's still a challenge, but they're thriving. And that's my principal message, that what you sell is actually the vehicle for how you create value. Your business is the value you create to the people you want to work with. So that led and then I wrote a book, UpSolutions: Turning Your Team Into Heroes and Your Customers Into Raving Fans. That was all the core content again, targeted for any brick and mortar or retailer service business. But of course, there's a core thread of pharmacy because I've spent so much time working with them. You know, I have an UpSolutions team success training program. I work with businesses to position based on value, the business stages of growth, and the team engagement training.
 
Shannon Waller: First of all, that sounds very sophisticated to me because it's the nitty gritty. It's the nitty gritty of how do you get from there at a lower level to the stages of going up and thriving in incredibly competitive commoditized marketplaces, which is not easy to do. And also having people appreciate that some of the perceived as softer elements are actually the edge. That is actually the advantage. And if they ignore that, it's to their peril.
 
Patti Mara: Can I add something? Because you just triggered something for me. The team success training is for me, and I know I'm speaking your language here, for me it's the absolute key. Because if you have a business based on creating value, your team has to deliver an aligned experience. If they think that their job is transactional, you are going to create horrible experiences not aligned with the value. And my experience is that everyone wants to feel like they're winning. You all want to feel like you're winning your team. And if they're guessing, if they spend most of their time guessing, they're guessing wrong. So the training is actually most of it is awareness and mindset. And they lean in. You have to see how much team members light up when they realize that they get to show up every day and be a hero, that they have an impact, it's a purposeful role. It doesn't matter if you're a delivery driver or you're a cashier, what you do matters. And the moment they understand that and they see their purpose in the role, the whole culture shifts.
 
Shannon Waller: Wow. That's incredible. Oh, and interesting, because I've been doing a lot of reading, talking all the things about company culture. So say more about that, because when you say the whole culture shifts, obviously from transactional into more relationship. Talk more about that.
 
Patti Mara: Okay, so I have a 12-week team success program, the UpSolutions Team Success Program. And part of it is I deliver content in a video, I have a handout because people engage and learn differently. But part of that is that each team, smaller teams, not the whole team, but each like six to eight in a team, that they have a weekly huddle. And some businesses have been really good with having a regular team communication and some businesses haven't been implementing that. But what happens, it's really interesting. At the beginning, it's mostly the manager or supervisor who's kind of driving that weekly huddle. About halfway through the 12 weeks, I have consistently seen a shift that the team starts driving it. And part of that is, again, some of it's awareness. We talk about, you know, winning mindsets, right? The customers don't even know the questions to ask to make a buying decision or make a good decision for their needs. So if they're not engaging with customers and asking questions, then, you know, it's kind of like the only way we rip customers off is to not give them the options by finding out more what they need.
 
Shannon Waller: So it's all in conversation is what I'm hearing.
 
Patti Mara: Yeah, it's really mostly conversation, but awareness. Some skill sets, like there is a difference between task and result. So team members, often we have job descriptions and they think they're doing a good job because they're clicking off the tasks. But if they're not paying attention to how they're doing them, are they creating an aligned experience? So it's being aware of not just the task, but how are you doing that? That's the result. One of my favorite, and actually it's the one that's talked about the most, is fault versus problem. There are many, many things that every, it doesn't matter if it's a restaurant or a pharmacy or a retail store, there are many things that are not the team's fault, but if it impacts their customer experience or perception of value, it is their problem. But when they understand that it's almost like, you know, no one wants to feel like they're making a mistake and they don't want to feel like they're doing something wrong or bad or, and if they can separate the fault versus the problem, all of a sudden they lean in to solve the problem and be the hero and they communicate to the customers, you know, This happened, you know, pharmacy, I'm talking to your insurance company because they haven't approved the prescription that we fill it for you. But this is what I'm doing for you. Can I call you back when it's ready for pickup? Or can we deliver it later today? Oh, right. But because it's not their fault and they're not worried about someone being upset with them, they handle it differently.
 
Shannon Waller: Oh my God, it sounds subtle what you're doing, Patti, but it's not. It's life-changing. Because if you just think about someone who is basically trying to avoid blame, who is more concerned with the task, they're going to do it and then they're going to be, okay, I did it. And you're like, yeah, but there's no result there. You haven't actually got it to the customer yet. You haven't actually solved the problem. And it's interesting because I see that. I see this passivity and you've just given so many great words around this. The term aligned experience is like burning itself into my brain. I love that. And you're coaching people on how to step up to actually provide that. One of the things I think we probably both coach is that a lot of team members would much rather ask for permission than forgiveness. And business owners are like, permission? Forget that. I'm gonna give myself permission. And they would much rather ask for forgiveness. And crossing that divide feels momentous, right? And you're giving people the tools and the mindsets and the repetition every week and not just 12 weeks to coach them up to that level of delivering experience, which gives them a much more, in our lingo, you know, a Self-Managing organization. Because otherwise, the owner or manager is like hands-on all the time, trying to play whack-a-mole, trying to deal with all the stuff.
 
Patti Mara: Another message that's threaded through for me is that whoever's doing the job today is the expert at that job. Even if the owner used to do the job, let's say a pharmacy owner used to be a technician or a pharmacist, the one doing the job today, and they're going to have the insights that no one else will see. So recognizing that, reinforcing that, so that they start to share ideas. But one of the pharmacies, the team went to the owner and said, our front of store is dated. Can we change it? And so the owner agreed. The team actually generated the change. The owner just bought what they wanted to see. And then they stayed after work on a Saturday and completely redid the front of the store. The team feel like they own it. It's their store. Do you know what I'm saying? Because it was their suggestion.
 
Shannon Waller: So good. Oh my God. My sister's like gloaming with all the success stories.
 
Patti Mara: What's really fun is watching the team come together and for people to really see the importance of their role. And a delivery driver for patients dealing with a pharmacy, a delivery driver is the full experience of the pharmacy because they probably never get into the store.
 
Shannon Waller: Good point.
 
Patti Mara: It's like a receptionist or a clerk in a retail store or a receptionist at a business. You're the front face.
 
Shannon Waller: And they don't realize that they are the quote-unquote director of first impressions. Might be the only impression. And so they are the business. And if they don't see themselves that way, and if the person leading them doesn't treat them that way, then you're going to have very much of a subpar experience. Oh my gosh, this wisdom in creating the customer experience is amazing, Patti. I love it. So we were just talking about success stories, and I know that you love to see your clients grow in your own business. You also thrive on helping other entrepreneurs in other businesses also grow. So tell me, I mean, you talked about the incredible master's level of learning Strategic Coach concepts and tools when you need to coach them. But talk about also, what do you get out of coaching? Why is it fun for you? You've been doing it for a long time now. So what, not what's in it for you, but kind of, do you know what I mean?
 
Patti Mara: Yes. Yeah. Well, there's so many layers to that Shannon, yet over 22 years at this point, since 2002.
 
Shannon Waller: Congratulations.
 
Patti Mara: Time flies. So first of all, I love coaching. I think there's a couple of layers. One is the whole experience, Unique Ability. We have the conversation around Unique Ability. Frank Sinatra didn't move pianos. For a Strategic Coach workshop, I have a team who makes sure that I'm prepared and everything's set up ahead of time. And then I walk into the room and I get to spend the day with all these vibrant entrepreneurs working through their business. And it's just, it's a joy. And I don't have to worry about any of the other things. In my own business, especially if you don't have a team in place yet, or you've got, you're growing and you haven't put that in place, there's a missing role that you need to hire for, for example. You have to figure it out and do it. And I just get to step into the day and then be fully present with the people. The content guides the conversation, but the richness in the day is what people are dealing with in their business and the aspirations and one has them excited and uncovering Unique Ability and seeing the leverage, even down as simple as doing a Positive Focus so that they're focusing on the achievements when they might have walked in the room focusing on what hadn't been done yet. You know, that happens all the time.
 
And you can actually see somebody physically change in their chair based on what they're focusing on. So it's a dynamic conversation. Listen, I get ideas all the time. People in the workshop, these are experienced, dynamic entrepreneurs committed to their business, committed to growth, committed to creating a difference, contributing to each other. I think a workshop in September—because I share what I'm working on—one of the things I obviously shared was in launching my new business, you know, we have a transactional fee to cover a number of different expenses. And we were getting pushback from the retailers. And someone in the workshop said, well, why don't you name it? Well, that's brilliant. So I did, local reach fee.
 
Shannon Waller: Nice.
 
Patti Mara: And rather than calling it a transaction fee, a local reach fee, it's completely changed the conversation. So that was coaching I received from someone in the workshop because we were having a unique naming and unique process workshop and they were like, well, why don't you do it? So really, it's such a privilege. It also keeps me on my game. Attending my workshop as a client, that's my grounding. But coaching keeps me on my game, right? Talking about aligned experience, I have to show up and have a, you know, where am I at and talking about my business because that's what we're engaged with in the room.
 
Shannon Waller: Oh my gosh, and you get to be Frank Sinatra.
 
Patti Mara: Yes, that's okay. That's okay. They don't ask me to sing, but you know. But you're still playing.
 
Shannon Waller: I absolutely am. Yes. And that's really one just to talk about that for a sec, because then I want to go into your new business. It is all about the conversation. It is about dealing with people where they're at. Yes, we have concepts and thinking tools. They're not forms, everyone be clear. If you're new to Strategic Coach, they're thinking tools to help get your thinking to that next level. And those four days away, away from your business, in a room with other people, just as you've described them, vibrant, dynamic, growth-oriented, creative, collaborative, all the things, and successful. Let's not forget that really key one. And then you're co-creating this conversation and you're just like a little bit further ahead, but for me, I get inspired all the time. So it's the opposite of a teacher. It's the opposite of some guru at the front. It's an exchange. I mean, I love how Dan Sullivan talks about it, he goes, I show up, the content that he's created is only 50%. The other 50% is the input from the room. So love that.
 
Patti Mara: And we get to tap into Dan's brilliance. I mean, I've always felt that he has an experience. He has a unique way of looking at the world. He has an experience and has an insight. But then he's able to put it in a tool, in a thinking tool, that when we go through the thinking tool, we get to tap into his insight relevant to our business. So you're right, it's the backdrop that guides the whole conversation and the richness that happens in the room that you can't get from reading a book. The reading the book, you can get the mindset shift and awareness, but the magic that happens in the room, it's the conversation, it's collaborative. It's a tap into that collaborative expansion and bring it back to your business.
 
Shannon Waller: And then the every 90 days, it's this built-in accountability structure, keeps you at the top of your game, keeps me at the top of my game, keeps our clients at the top of their game. So it's not like a one and done, you know, as much as I love the term bootcamp, it's not just that. It's like a lock system. You kind of just keep moving up. It feels slow, but then you look back and you're like, whoa, darn, look how much progress I've made. So I think that's exciting. So let's jump into this new business, which is called We Choose Local. Talk about that because it goes with another theme about we have big thoughts, but we don't always follow up with them. And then you decided to do that. So I'm curious to hear about We Choose Local and your kind of lesson that you've really drawn from that experience. Okay, good.
 
Patti Mara: Well, it really came out of, I describe myself as a passionate advocate for locally owned businesses. I've spent 15 years working with pharmacy owners. However, most of my clients have been retailer service brick and mortar businesses. And so, yes, in the marketplace positioning, the growth stages, different shifts that happen and the team engagement. And in Ontario, dealing with COVID, we had almost two full years of lockdowns. Yeah. And it was a realization as I opened my front door and got another Amazon delivery. It's like, this is a disconnect. I am a passionate advocate for locally owned businesses and yet I'm getting on Amazon. And what I realized, it was just an automatic thought. Well, why is that? I'm not willing to drive around to find out who has what anymore. If I know what a store carries, it's like I grant them a monopoly. I don't shop them around, just take care of me. And if they take care of me, then I just go there.
 
But what was happening is all the things I want to buy that I don't know where to buy it, I wasn't driving around anymore. And it was like, hmm, so I want an Amazon platform for locally owned businesses. And the next thought was, that's a good idea. That's a 10x idea. It's like, okay. And then I basically talked to anyone and everyone who would listen to me until somebody said, I'm interested. And that's how I connected with my business partner, who is a chartered accountant, certified auditor, and a tech consultant. Talk about, you know, Dan's Free Zone Frontier, you know, but all the collaborative stuff to make it a reality. And that's when we started moving forward, registered the corporation. And so we're about to launch. We're launching in Guelph, Ontario, which was chosen as demographics for many, many reasons. It's a very engaged community. They're passionate about their local. There's lots of challenges. And, you know, we did some consumer interviews in the summer. There's some great data, shop local data in Canada and the U.S., which we've been able to tap into. And we did some consumer interviews that reinforced my experience and took it to another level.
 
It's like consumers today aren't even willing to go into a store unless they know what they carry, what the price is, and what the return policy is. And if they don't know those three pieces of information, then they're not going into a store, period, even if it's across the street. Interesting, right? But you can't find local businesses online. I spoke at the Guelph Rotary Club recently, and one woman said she was trying to get baskets for a conference. Someone had tasked her at the last minute to get baskets for conference attendees. And it took really deep searching to find somebody local in Guelph, even though she was searching local Guelph, Ontario, and scrolls of pages to find there actually is a company. And this woman saved her life and made these phenomenal baskets. And she was a hero, but there's no local search engine.
 
So anyways, we're launching and we're close to launching within the next couple of weeks. And it's very exciting. We want to make it easy to find what people want to buy locally and offer the same convenience, Amazon convenience, buy anytime and have it next day delivered or go to the store because you're getting all the information. We're saying that our moonshot, we want to be in 10 communities in five years. That'll be mostly Canada, but in 50 communities in 10 years in North America. And I think when we hit that level, we will shift the purchasing power from global back to local because it was local. It's shifted to global. And we want to bring that back. One of the ways this is thriving local businesses create strong communities.
 
Shannon Waller: That gives me goosebumps, just so you know, as you talk about it. And it's interesting because I watch Peter Zion a lot on the videos and such, and globalization is changing. So I think the tide has actually turned. Like when you first started doing this, it wasn't. It was globalization was still a thing. Everyone thought that nations didn't need borders anymore. That has proven to not be true. So it's interesting because I think the tide is going kind of with your thinking and people are like, uh-huh. Like, even just now we're coming up, when we're recording this, coming up to a holiday season, and it's like, yeah, I want to buy close by. I want to buy from local people. You know, I'm in Toronto, so pretty big locale. But at the same time, that is as much of interest to me as something I can buy that's made in China.
 
Patti Mara: Absolutely. And yet you're dealing with most families are either a single family and they're really busy, or they're both parents are professionals and working, and they're shopping at 11 o'clock at night. And so we have to bridge that gap. And I think of, when you were talking, I thought of, I think it was Thomas Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree. There was always that long tail opportunity, but we have to have a way of accessing.
 
Shannon Waller: Well, this whole having a platform, you know, and getting people on it. And we know platforms are incredibly powerful, which is amazing. And I can see how they can connect. Oh, my.
 
Patti Mara: This is going to be so fun. One percent of transaction fees will go to a local charity. And every quarter we'll have a poll that the community gets to choose the charity for the next …
 
Shannon Waller: Oh, wow.
 
Patti Mara: 90 days. And we really want the community to feel like it's their platform.
 
Shannon Waller: And fantastic. Oh, I love it. So you're connecting like-minded people in a completely different way with this one, which is really fun. Well, what's exciting to me about this, Patti, is you've been an entrepreneur for a very long time. You've been a coach for 22 years, and you are still starting a new business as well, which is kind of like, means you've got a hold of your body parts, as Susan Scott would say, which I love that description, but it takes commitment and courage to do that. So you are in play, you are not settling, you are not done, you are moving on.
 
Patti Mara: It also takes being in the Strategic Coach community. You know, Lifetime Extender, I'm about to turn 59. And I gotta tell you, I remember when I turned 50 thinking, wow, I'm not even halfway, let's rock and roll. So I feel like, and I'm not gonna say pinnacle, but I feel like I'm hitting my groove. I feel like I'm hitting my groove that it's really, especially being around Strategic Coach for so long and being in the community that I'm feeling like I'm just getting to the point that I see, we were talking about 10x ideas and my opinion, I haven't done any research on this, but my opinion is that we all have 10x ideas all the time. It's that we don't have the infrastructure to lean into them, and so we kind of let them come in and go on. And where I look is where we see an issue, a problem, a gap at applying our Unique Ability, our talent, but, you know, that creates a 10x opportunity. And yet we all need to be leveraged. It's not like I couldn't solve this on my own.
 
Shannon Waller: There's a couple of thoughts about that, as you were talking about, which is why I actually wanted to bring it up in the conversation, is that Dan always talks about, you know, taking yourself seriously. And I didn't realize sometimes how hard that is. And so it means actually paying attention to your thoughts, going, oh, that might be a really good idea. And then my other insight, because I also am passionate about teams, as are you, is that I know that when I have the support around me, I can think big. Without that support, it actually holds back my thinking. So hanging on to that idea long enough and talking about it with everyone, as you did, until your partner shows up, thank you, is powerful. That's that a little bit of taking yourself seriously and knowing that you putting that out there will attract the right like-minded humans. And then that builds up the capability. But I think that's the zero to one. I think that is the hard part. And I know for me, if I just wait until the strategic people are in place, that's way too slow. I need to be committed to that idea. And then talking about it will actually attract the right Who's, as we like to say at Coach. And I think your idea that we all have 10x ideas, but we just don't pay attention to them, don't take them seriously, don't staff them up, or team them up, I should probably say—it's not that there's a danger in that, but there's a really big missed opportunity.
 
Patti Mara: Well, I have a couple that I think are on the back burner. I have a couple 10x ideas that I'm just not ready to lean into yet, but they're still there. And it was like, oh, that's good. Oh, that's good.
 
Shannon Waller: Right. I don't know if this ever happens to you. I know a lot of entrepreneurs think out loud and sometimes I'll say something like, oh, that was good.
 
Patti Mara: Yeah, my whole way of creating is out loud.
 
Shannon Waller: 100%. But I will write that down. That's how I track all my Team Success podcast ideas. Or I capture something from Dan. I'm like, oh, I want to know more about that, Dan. And I write it down on our list. So it's fun. Taking your ideas seriously, I think, can become a habit. But it does mean writing them down somewhere. It could be digital, it could be handwriting. And then deciding which ones, in fact, you want to lean into. So I love that.
 
Patti Mara: Awesome. And you also, for me, Shannon, I do think out loud, like I am creative out loud. That's also an outcome of the conversations that happen in the workshop, whether it's my workshop as a client or the, you know, conversations that happen just because they're organic, collaborative conversations in the workshop.
 
Shannon Waller: Something that I've noticed, what's really fun is like every hour, maybe two max, we shift to a different angle of a conversation. And it's interesting what happens to me at the end of my workshops, certainly most often, I'll have come up with the same idea, the same strategy, the same action through seven different conversations or exercises. And I'm like, oh, this is really important. I need to go and do this. But I'll do all that thinking and come up with the same conclusion. I'm like, oh, this must be it. So I love the concentrated thinking time that happens and that reinforcement. You almost take that idea from zero to one in that timeframe in one day, which could take a couple of years to be able to do that.
 
Patti Mara: And the opportunity to sound off and test it out with other entrepreneurs that you get to tap into their wisdom and experience.
 
Shannon Waller: Yeah, the number of people who can be a really great sounding board is incredible. I mean, I love Coach and there's everything about it that I adore, but I have to say it's the community aspect of the quality of the humans who are attracted to Strategic Coach and who stay with Strategic Coach is unparalleled. And then, of course, we keep feeding it with all of these amazing concepts and thinking tools. So, yeah, it's a unique place to be. Well, I'm excited, Patti, that when people come into the Program, they often get to work with you, which is fantastic because you coach here in Toronto. Anything else, anyone who wants to get to know a little bit more about Patti or where can they find you if they're kind of curious about you? We've got a great bio on the website for you, by the way. But anything else that people should know about Patti?
 
Patti Mara: Well, if you want to connect with me, I'm on LinkedIn. And the good news with my name is there seems to be only one Patti Mara that's easily in North America findable. You know, my website, pattimara.com or We Choose Local, if you kind of want to find out what my latest venture is, wechooselocal.com is all the information and we're putting some great content out there.
 
Shannon Waller: Fantastic. Patti, thank you. I adore hanging out with you, as always, and I'm really excited that people get to learn a little bit more about you. Thanks for being here today.
 
Patti Mara: Thank you, Shannon. A privilege and a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you.