Doug Siebenburgen, Apple Spice

Speaker: Doug Siebenburgen, Owner, Apple Spice Junction

Doug Siebenburgen: I've been the General Manager of Apple Spice Junction for almost 15 years. And in that time, I've learned how to build the business develop our, our sales and improve service to a high degree. a few years ago, the owner of Apple Spice invited me to have equity in the business and agreed to give me 10% of the business just to give me a taste of what ownership would be like. I was still reluctant to become a full owner of the business. And so we partnered with Strategic Orientation at that time and Richard Barbercheck offered a course called Entrepreneurial Growth. And in that course, I found that I really was better suited to be in ownership than I thought I would be. The information that Richard went went over was delivered in a very professional way and in terms that I could understand and it reassured me that much of the information that I heard I'd already heard through prior education and study of my own. And today, I'm the owner of Apple Spice and I credit that course for giving me the first steps to having the confidence to be able to move forward in this role.

Doug Siebenburgen: Working with strategic orientation, I've benefited in many ways. Perhaps the most important way is the confidence that I've built through the reassurance of working with an expert in business. And through Richard's mentoring and coaching, I've learned a lot so I've definitely benefited from his knowledge. My experience with Strategic Orientation has been very good and I feel like it is a a business model that works at my pace and it gives me the ability to decide how much or how little I need the services. And I really value that, especially as busy as I am in a small business.

Doug Siebenburgen: Over the years, I've referred a number of my friends and acquaintances to work with Richard and Strategic Orientation. And when I do, I often will refer back to our early days of working with Richard when he was a a personal coach to the previous owner of Apple Spice. And what we learned quickly was that you could take Richard at his word and that's really important in the world we're in today. He'll tell you straightforward what he sees and he doesn't pass judgment. He also is very transparent in his plans for how he's going to work with you and he allows you to be in the driver's seat. I believe that those characteristics of his leadership style make him a really good partner for a growing or struggling business. So the advice would be to give him a shot, trust him and then listen and try what he's giving you as advice. It's really paid off in our case. We're doing quite well now.