For Love of Team™ | Winston Faircloth

In this week’s episode, we're continuing our series on how values drive success in business. We are chatting with industry experts to gain their insight on developing Core Values that create a winning team.

We're bringing back one of our favorite guests Victoria Mininger, Founder of Bear Creek Outdoor Living. Victoria strives to see each one of her team members thrive, learn, and grow. She shares her journey on how this core value became such a centerpiece of her business.

We (my husband and I) once had employers that saw us for who we were, and not just what we brought to the table, they cared for us greatly. That left a definitive mark on our life.

When we started this company, I said to myself, I want to treat people the way that I was treated during my career. We have learned over the years that when we care for people, the rest takes care of itself. And when we do that, we serve our clients even better.

It's wanting to have a greater mission and reason for existing other than just getting to the next great project or bringing in revenue. All of those are great, but what I want to leave behind is the impact I've had on people, because other people have impacted me in such a great way
”. -- Victoria Mininger

Our episode with Victoria does a deep dive into how when we care for our teams we empower them to find greatness in themselves, and how this leads to a business that can gain success beyond the bottom line.


Connect with Victoria

Website - https://www.victoriamininger.com/
Business Website - https://bearcreek.co/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/victoriamininger
Episode 60 - https://www.forloveofteam.com/blog/060-building-your-people-victoria-mininger
Episode 59 - https://www.forloveofteam.com/blog/059-ba-daring-to-fight-with-victoria-mininger

Connect with Winston

LinkedIn     https://www.linkedin.com/in/winstonfaircloth/
Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/forloveofteam
Instagram   https://www.instagram.com/forloveofteam/
Twitter        https://twitter.com/forloveofteam
Text us feedback on this episode 
#TeamLOVE Book. Join the bold book writing journey as we write and share our first draft chapters from our upcoming book - Team Love: 28 Ways to Demonstrate Caring at Work here in season 3 of the For Love of Team podcast.

Be notified each week about a new episode and follow our journey at TeamLoveBook.com

What is For Love of Team™ | Winston Faircloth?

For Love of Team™ is THE podcast where Leaders Simplify Teamwork, helping you: SURROUND yourself with others doing work they LOVE. Business mentor and strategist, Winston Faircloth believes that it is your love of TEAM, and not just your love of products and customers that sets you apart in the marketplace. 

Victoria Mininger:

Most excellent self to the day. And if somebody is having a bad day, kind of leads into the next one. Encouragement, build people. Your teammate's gonna come in and have a bad day, get up on the wrong side of bed or whatever, or maybe something in life is very hard for them right now. Maybe we all go through valleys and mountain top experiences.

Victoria Mininger:

And so we want to be there and available to our people to encourage them when they're really going through some hard things.

Winston Faircloth:

Hey there, it's Winston Faircloth, and this is for Love of Team, The podcast dedicated to helping you grow a team that you love, multiplying your impact, income, and freedom in business by unlocking two essential leadership decisions required to attract and keep top talent. First, a compelling why coupled with to a clearly stated what success looks like. This why and what together leaves the how to gifted committed collaborators, bringing your vision to life. And in today's episode, another special treat. This is a third time guest, our first third time guest to the podcast, Mininger.

Winston Faircloth:

She was with us in episodes sixty and sixty one earlier this year. And in 60, she was bringing us her brand new book. And in 61, we delved into her company that is just doing amazing work. You're going to hear some really cool, exciting news about her company in this episode. But I asked Victoria back because her growth is really rooted in foundational honoring and commitment to her team members.

Winston Faircloth:

And it's just such a wonderful story. So this is our series on core values and how they drive business success. I know you're going to love catching up again with Victoria. And if you haven't listened to sixty and sixty one, I highly recommend those podcasts back to you. So here comes Victoria.

Winston Faircloth:

I know you're gonna enjoy this conversation. So Victoria Mininger, welcome back. Begin Again podcast is when you're on episode 59, and then you helped us transition on episode 60 for Love of Team. So welcome back three time guest Victoria.

Victoria Mininger:

Thank you, Winston. It's great to be here again. Absolutely.

Winston Faircloth:

Well, it's a great honor to have you here and you know for those of you who don't remember Victoria's journey with us, first she was sharing her recent book Daring to Fight, that's episode 59. And then in episode 60, Victoria shared her business, growth at Bear Creek Outdoor Living and Building Your People episode 60. But why don't we start with your background? Tell us a little bit about who you are and the work that you do.

Victoria Mininger:

Yeah, sure. Well, a little bit about me. So other than being a business owner, first and foremost, I'm a wife to my husband, Brian. We're getting ready to celebrate twenty five years of marriage. So that's exciting, great milestone.

Victoria Mininger:

And we have four daughters and we are in the midst of an amazing just year of celebration because our youngest just graduated high school in May, a daughter got married two weeks later, and in six weeks, our oldest is getting married too. So we're in a flurry of celebrations and activity besides all the business stuff happening and going on right now and stuff. And so that part of my life, of course, is just full and busy and brings me a lot of joy. Of course, besides that, I'm also a business owner of like you mentioned, a residential construction company called Bear Creek Outdoor Living that I run with my husband and we have about, I guess there's 36 of us on staff now. So we have a nice sized team.

Victoria Mininger:

And really, we have niched down into the residential market where we build a lot of outdoor stuff, patios, decks, pergolas, that sort of thing. It's not exactly where I thought this company was going, but we're about five we just hit our five year mark. So we just celebrated five years.

Winston Faircloth:

Congratulations.

Victoria Mininger:

Thank you. It is the place that we find ourselves in. It's just we are loving the growth that we're seeing and the people that are coming on board with us. And every day is a new challenge and something always interesting is happening.

Winston Faircloth:

And just before we hit record, talked about your exciting new facility that's coming online. Why don't you share a little bit about that announcement?

Victoria Mininger:

Yeah, sure. So we have been for the last, I guess, four and a half years working out of just rented buildings that as we grew, we kind of, I think this is probably going to be our fourth move and we're planning on our final move, but we've just as we've needed more space moved into, you know, places where we were renting in this last place that we've been in has worked pretty well for us for the last two years or so. But our shop was in one spot, our offices were separated out of that. And then as we continue to grow, we just literally are running out of space, there's not space for the materials, there's not space for the vehicles or our staff. And so we about probably six, eight months ago began to look for a building.

Victoria Mininger:

And for us, the miracle of it all is that we live in a small town and we knew exactly kind of where we would love to be placed. But there didn't seem like there was anything available. And so we just kept looking and looking. Then the building that we are just getting ready to move into that we announced about yesterday publicly, was came on the market. And so anyway, it was a long story, but we finally were able to secure that facility right in Downtown Waynesboro, which is in the heart of our community, which we're so excited about because for us, you know, a lot of what we do is because of people and because of our community.

Victoria Mininger:

And so we're getting ready to move here probably the next couple of weeks over the next month or so. We need to do a little bit of things for the building that help us to fit in that space best. And then we're getting ready to move. And so yeah, last or yesterday, I guess the announcement came out on the news. And it's been a whole lot of excitement going on of just people really celebrating with us as we get ready to move to that space, which will again allow us to really continue to expand our business, serve more clients, but even employ more people, which we're super excited about.

Winston Faircloth:

And this is, you know, why I wanted you back on the podcast because you have really focused a lot of your energy as a leader on your team, building a team first culture. Can you share a little bit about that journey in terms of, how this became such a centerpiece of your business?

Victoria Mininger:

Yeah, I think really has always been something that has been important to Brian and I. And I really truly believe it's because when we were younger and we worked for other people, we had employers ourselves, we had those employers that saw us for who we were and not just what we brought to the table. They cared for us greatly. They cared for our family, not just us personally. And that really left a definitive mark, I think on our life.

Victoria Mininger:

And I know that I remember when I went to start this company, I said to myself, I want to be able to treat people the way that I was treated and cared for that my family was cared for. And if I can do that, man, that's going to feel like a great day to go to work and to accomplish that. And we have just learned over the years that when we care for people well, that kind of the rest takes care of itself, you know, and when we can do that well, we can serve our clients even better because when we don't serve our clients, when we don't serve our team well and care for them well, we will always serve our our clients at a deficit. And so that's just held true for us. And so I guess it's just, you know, again, wanting to have a greater mission and reason for existing other than just getting up the next great project or bringing in, you know, revenue or whatever.

Victoria Mininger:

All those are awesome. Great. But man, what I want to leave behind is the impact I've had on people because other people have impacted me in such a great way as well.

Winston Faircloth:

And I love that from our earlier conversation in terms of how you are really building into people. And you know, if once they are grown, you know, they have other aspirations, much you were supporting them.

Victoria Mininger:

Yeah, you know, the thing is, is that when you're working with people, and they know that you care about the things that matter to them the most, there there is something that happens in the relationship that's really cool. You know, there's a loyalty that comes. There is a they bring their best to your team for the time that they're there. It's just a lot of and we don't do it for those reasons, but people I mean, wouldn't you want to be treated that way when you if you were working for somebody that you knew that they cared about you and what mattered to you? And so that's how we want to be able to treat people and to let them know that they matter for who they are, not just what they do and bring to the table.

Victoria Mininger:

And that we also understand that just like my husband and I, we have dreams and hopes and things like that that are important to us. Our people do too. And And that may be beyond our company, because long gone are the days I think where, you know, somebody stays fifteen or twenty years, the reality is they're going to move on. And I much rather invest in them now and train them now and have them on staff and have them untrained and all myself. There's that aspect too as well but championing them just I don't know it changes people when they know they're champion for their dreams and the things that they want to do they come out alive in a way that I don't think they do when they feel like they have to hide that piece of them.

Winston Faircloth:

Absolutely. And I think anymore, I mean, what we're seeing coming out of the pandemic now is that we've all had this pause, where we really look at what's important.

Victoria Mininger:

Yeah, we've

Winston Faircloth:

had to see that and I think that's actually going to play out in our vocational lives as I

Victoria Mininger:

think so too. I mean, if anything, it slowed us down, which we all need, right? We can all get just too busy with the to do list getting super long and all of that. And we can miss the things that really are important in this life. And so I think it did.

Victoria Mininger:

It just slowed people down. It slowed us down again to just reflect and all of that. And so I think people are rethinking priorities and what's really important and, and all of that. And I think as employers, we have to be ready, ready to meet that.

Winston Faircloth:

So when you think about your your team and the culture that you're building, what would you how does the core values kind of fit into that, in terms of either attracting, retaining or growing your team?

Victoria Mininger:

Well, I think I was telling you this earlier, you know, we actually decided to put it straight on our website. So we have it on our team page. So if somebody's interested in working for us, the very first place we send them is to our team page, you know, a work with us page. And right there, we list our vision, our core values, because that really truly is the heartbeat of who we want our people to be. And so if they look at that list, and they can say, Yeah, okay, I'm willing to be challenged by that.

Victoria Mininger:

And I'm still willing to put an application in, then at least we're starting off on the right foot, right? You know, we have high expectations for our people for a reason, because I believe truly that if they wanna be here, that they can meet them. Are they perfect? No. Do they get it wrong sometimes?

Victoria Mininger:

Yes, I do. And yet when we set a high expectation of people, I think it's I think it it benefits our companies in even greater ways and how we serve one another and how it serves our clients as well.

Winston Faircloth:

Well, let's look at it, we'll put the link in the show notes for folks to see the page because it has a really clear set of vision statements and then a number of core values that are listed plus some, you know, testimonies from your current team. That's really cool too. So as you think about the vision, when you were crafting this, let's talk about the process that you went about doing it. And then, you know what resonates most with you as the founder leader from the vision that you wrote Help Craft?

Victoria Mininger:

So I mean part of crafting that was actually sitting down with a team of people of our leadership with Brian and a few other key folks. And we had a general idea where we wanted to go. But you know, you have to have buy in from your team, from your leaders about even your own vision and your core values because I could sit in a room and write them all up and say, here we go, this is what we're doing. And you're not going to get buy in from anybody and stuff. And so, you know, it's been tested over time.

Victoria Mininger:

We always come back to it and say, okay, do we need to refine that whatever. But really, was a vision that we wanted to be people centered. We wanted it to be people focused first and foremost. So in there, while we talk about the amazing things that we do to serve our community, it's for us, it's more about the effect we wanted to have on our team and on our community, not so much about revenue dollars and all of that. And so I think that's part of it.

Victoria Mininger:

Part of our vision is these, our craftsmen serve our community by creating these amazing backyard structures that strengthen relationships with family and friends. So let's talk about the pandemic a minute. When everybody was at home, our phones went ballistic, because people are like, okay, we have to be at home. And we want to make this space nice. But really, what they were wanting to do is create unique spaces to draw their family into.

Victoria Mininger:

And so we want them to know that we care about that. And that it's important. Another part of our vision is our team, they have to work together every single day. And so we want them to grow together in that. And so it's kind of where our core values came in.

Victoria Mininger:

All of those core values, we want them to grow them personally, but also as a team culture, as well in there and have a positive effect on their community, whatever that looks like for them, on their own families to leave a legacy for their kids. I mean, it all ties together again, about relationships, about affecting their families for the long term, as well as the community as a whole. And then we wanna start with excellence. That does not mean perfection. We tell our people when they come in, when it first with us, we're like, we talk about excellence a lot.

Victoria Mininger:

That does not mean you won't fail. Failure is not fatal, right? And stuff, but we wanna bring our most best self that we can to the day, to the project, to our team or whatever. And so we do, we strive for excellence. And so I think those are some of the key things, at least from our vision and to our core values that resonate with me as a leader.

Winston Faircloth:

Yeah, they're beautiful. And I love how you used the word craftsman. I thought that was a beautiful word. Growth is sprinkled throughout your vision statement. And I love the other one about life transforming.

Winston Faircloth:

I mean, I think that's both for your clients and for your team, right?

Victoria Mininger:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and we wanna be a place So we have taken a real training model when it comes to our construction company, because part of it is we know the industry is not dying out, it's aging out, sorry, it's aging out. So craftsmen are retiring, leaving the industry and we're not necessarily training young people behind them. And we need to be doing that because at some point, we need people to build our houses and to do those things that only craftsmen can do. And so we're choosing to do that kind of training model with our people going forward.

Victoria Mininger:

And so we wanna be able to help them grow in that way as well. And so by training people coming in, men and women, we have two women on our field staff right now, I'd love to see more come into the industry. I think it just positions us in a place to, again, really champion the craftsmanship that really does go into these kinds of things that we do.

Winston Faircloth:

Yeah, it's beautiful. And now let's transition to your values, because I think it's probably a dozen statements here in terms of different things and they're all different characteristics of what your vision embodies. So again, similar process with your leadership team and then the buy in through training and engagement with your folks. Why don't you cover a few of these that really just resonate the most with your team? It probably varies by person, but just

Victoria Mininger:

Yeah, it probably does. And like you said, we have a dozen of them, but it's kind of gone through a couple of revisions of those. What we try to one, keep them simple. We wanted them to be super clear. Sometimes, as you know, when we're building our businesses, we can like have all these lofty visions and like core values that mean nothing to our people.

Victoria Mininger:

They don't make sense. They don't really resonate with your culture, whatever. And so we've been at least working to try to do that for ours. You know, the first one there that we have listed is integrity. Do what's right, not what's easy.

Victoria Mininger:

Today in this world, we we can always try to go the easy route, but sometimes we just we need to do what's right. So maybe it's going the extra mile for our team member or our you know or for our client whatever but we do it out of a sense of integrity because it's the right thing to do. It may not be easy but it's the right thing to do. Another big one for us is family you know cherish loved ones. So I think as a as an employer, or let me back up, guess when I was an employee, I had a I had a employer that they really loved the work that I did in their office, but they seemed to forget that I was also a wife and a mom.

Victoria Mininger:

And there were times where my kids were at home sick, and I had to call somebody else in because I wasn't allowed to leave. And that was hard because believe me, my heart was no longer in that business. It was over in my house where my kids were sick and stuff. And so I remember when I started running this company, I said, I want to make sure that they know that if they are needed by their family in an emergency situation, somebody that calls from school and said, your kid is sick, you know, whatever you need to go, right? That's where you need to be.

Victoria Mininger:

And work will take care of itself. We'll get it covered, whatever. But at the end of the day, where you need to be is with your family. And so we want them to know that family matters. And so we try to not only say that, but show that, you know, we have to walk out the things that we put down on paper and stuff.

Victoria Mininger:

And so we try to do things throughout the year that bring our families into us. We're getting ready in about a couple of weeks to do what we call a company day out, and it's a day. We take the whole day. It's a paid day. We don't ask them to take a weekend off or anything like that.

Victoria Mininger:

And we we invite all their families in and we have a blast. We grill hot dogs. We throw cornhole. We just have a great time getting to know one another, getting to know one another's families Because it matters. We want them to know that it's important to cherish their loved ones.

Victoria Mininger:

Again, I touched on excellence. Again, it's not about perfection. We're not perfect, we're going to get it wrong. But we want to truly build great things and just bring our most excellent self to the day. And if somebody is having a bad day, kind of leads into the next one.

Victoria Mininger:

Encouragement. Build people. You know, your teammates gonna come in and have a bad day. Get up on the wrong side of bed or whatever, or maybe something in life is very hard for them right now. Maybe we all go through valleys and mountain top experiences and stuff.

Victoria Mininger:

And so we want to be there and available to our people to encourage them when they're really going through some hard things. And I think one of the other ones I'll pick up is passion, leave it all on the field. That's what Brian and I try to do. We're super passionate about the work that we do. And so we want people to be passionate about the work that they do.

Victoria Mininger:

And for some reason, if they lose that passion, it kind of goes back to, okay, so what is it that you enjoy doing? Maybe it's not in construction for the rest of your life. And, and so we we want them to have open conversation about what they really maybe are interested in. So we've had a couple of guys that have left us because they've taken internships in electrical, or we had one guy leave to do Mason work and that sort of thing. So, I mean, again, we don't do that kind of work here.

Victoria Mininger:

So they identified where they really wanted to be after being with us for a while. And we're able to move into that and found a greater passion for those things.

Winston Faircloth:

Yeah, I think these values are so important in terms of not only a roadmap in terms of how they can grow within the business, but a great screening thing. Am I aligned with this as an individual? And do I really believe this and is this the place I want to be?

Victoria Mininger:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and that's, that's the thing. It's like not everybody kind of makes it through that process, they might get here with us for a little while, they just find that, you know, it just isn't a fit for them culture wise or whatever. And that's okay, you know, it's our culture is not for everybody. And most certainly, if they want to be here, we're going to push them to want to be here.

Victoria Mininger:

Know, you were actually had asked a little bit about life transformation. I mean, of our some of our folks coming in, you know, they just need a place to start over again. And so, but we expect the same thing out of them, you know, when they're getting back up on their feet. And we have found that some of those are just choose truly thriving because they have a framework for for life. They have a framework for that what they know is expected.

Victoria Mininger:

And when you start expecting greatness out of your people, and they know that they will rise to that. And we have found that and there's just some some of the stories that we have among our staff, which, you know, it's for them to share. But I know those stories personally, and I just it makes me so excited and it helps me come back every day to do the work that we do.

Winston Faircloth:

Yeah, it's beautiful. So how do these values live out in day to day experiences? Are there any stories that you can share in terms of how you've seen a value show up in one of your team members that has really kind of been remarkable and you feel comfortable to share?

Victoria Mininger:

Yeah, so I'm just looking at that. I think about like, one of the values is teamwork. So it's teamwork, but choose to grow to make space for others. And what we mean by that is that when you choose to grow in your skill and your development and you move up and maybe to a new position, it opens up the door for somebody else. And we talk about that with our teams a fair amount and because we want them to move up, but we also make it very clear that once you move up now you're in a position to mentor somebody and stuff and so we've had that happen to where we've we actually just happened where a young man was an intern with us through a local community agency, and he was interning with us to finish up his program.

Victoria Mininger:

He was with us for ten months. And during that time, one of our foreman just worked very closely with him, just day in and day out teaching him all those kind of things. And after his internship was finished, finished his schooling and all that and he left and went home. Well, just a couple of weeks ago, he reached out and said, I'm coming back to the area, wondering if you might have a position open. We said, absolutely, we'd love to have you back.

Victoria Mininger:

And so when he came back, one the things he told us is that that foreman was one of the reasons he was coming back is because he had felt so poured into and so valued and seen that he knew it's where he wanted to be. That's the kind of effect we want to have on the people that come to our teams, that they want to be here. And even if they leave for a season or whatever, there's enough value and reason to come back. It's not just a paycheck or whatever, or great benefit, but it's that interaction of people as well. And I've seen our folks too, like in the core value of giving, share the abundance that's in your life and stuff and I know there are times we get back on our phone calls every Monday morning meeting.

Victoria Mininger:

Monday morning we have a team phone call that everybody is on. We talk about the upcoming week. We share shout outs and wins and learning experiences and often they will share, hey, I want to say thanks to so and so because they came to my house this weekend and they helped me get this project done. And that happens, you know, a lot. So when you start seeing your team interact like that, you know that it's making a difference.

Winston Faircloth:

That's beautiful. So you've been in this now for five years, five year anniversary is coming up. Think about back in the beginning days, when is the right time to begin putting these values and visions together for your business? What was your what was your progression in terms of a first putting these together and then how they rolled out in your culture?

Victoria Mininger:

Yeah. So I would love to say, oh, from the day one, we had these in mind. No, we didn't. I had no five year plan, Winston. You know that.

Victoria Mininger:

Right?

Winston Faircloth:

Yes.

Victoria Mininger:

You know, because when I started this, it was not a it was not residential construction. We were doing something almost completely different. It's still in the construction space, and I didn't have a team. It was just me, you know, and then it was Brian. It was me and Brian.

Victoria Mininger:

And so I think it was probably was a year, year and a half in when we started really gathering a team. We're like, okay, we probably should sit down and think about this a little bit. Like, what do we this is growing. This is becoming something. But what do we want to what do we want it, to govern our direction and our path and our footsteps?

Victoria Mininger:

Because what we did know is that the people coming on board, we wanted to impact. But in order to do that, you kind of have to have plan. You have to know what direction you're going, because then you can be all over the place, right? And so for us, the progression was just like, okay, we need to sit down and start working on this. And so one of the key things is that we actually, hired a good friend of yours and I, Jeff McManus, And he helped us to kinda really focus on on how to build out some of this for our for our team and make it work for us.

Victoria Mininger:

And so that was a huge step forward, which is bringing somebody from the outside into the process a little bit that we knew, that we trusted. And he helped to just guide us in the beginnings of this. And then since then, we've kind of flushed it out and flushed it out a little bit more for ourselves. But that's kind of where we started with that whole thing.

Winston Faircloth:

And that also played out, his engagement with you also played out in building the university that you have inside the company.

Victoria Mininger:

Yeah, so he, as part of what he did, he was helping us figure out what we call Bear Creek U, Bear Creek University. You know, he works with Old Miss University and he has put in an amazing program there and that sort of thing. And so he sort of where he's also worked with small businesses and so we when we brought him in we're like okay Jeff tell us how you did this. How can we structure something for ourselves because part of part of it is we wanted to train people which is great and all But just because you want to train people doesn't mean you know how or if you don't have a solid program around you, and we still don't have it perfected. Believe me, we still have so much work to do, but it gave us a train, you know, a track to run on, which which was great.

Victoria Mininger:

And so, yeah, he helped us kind of framework that and what that could look like. And of course, we have taken it and kind of made it our own and added some pieces that he hadn't actually introduced us to, but but started us down that path.

Winston Faircloth:

Yes. So as you think ahead, maybe one or two years, do you see these values changing?

Victoria Mininger:

I think maybe refining, I don't think changing. I think they're pretty solidified for us. Again, like I said before, we always have to come back and revisit our vision and our core values. Are these still true about who we are? Are they working?

Victoria Mininger:

Because like I said, sometimes you can just put random values out there that sound great on paper, but they don't actually play out or work very well in your culture. And so we always go through and look, but we've refined it pretty well. Part of our vision too continues to grow and expand, but I think the heart of our vision will stay the same. I think we have distilled it down to what is important. And so I think we'll grow around that piece that that will stay the same.

Winston Faircloth:

So what are you most excited about over the next let's pick the next calendar year? What is the thing you're most excited about in your business? And then we'll ask how people could get in touch with you.

Victoria Mininger:

Sure. So I think it's just moving into this new space that we talked about earlier. Part of it is that it has so much potential. It's bigger than what we need at the moment, and so it just allows for some probably some some greater growth, which I know, and bringing in more team members, but also, you know, just how it might be beneficial to our community as well. And so looking forward to just seeing what happens in that space to finally have a place that we can put down our roots and really grow deep, you know, and so that's important to us.

Victoria Mininger:

And so who knows what we'll kind of expand into. We do try to keep a somewhat lean model, so I don't know that we're going to be expanding in all sorts of markets or anything like that. We'll continue to kind of keep where we've been. But we just just, you know, how can we help serve our community better and in a greater way? You know, part of our town is to be, you know, revitalizing the downtown.

Victoria Mininger:

We have new things coming into town that we wanna be a part of as well. So I think that's important is community impact, and team impact as well. Of course, I have a little bit of a side project. We talked about it, I think, before we hopped on, but one of the other loves that I have is is gardening and as well as, you know, regenerative farming, that sort of thing. And so part of that big space that we're taking over, about a quarter of an acre of it is going get turned into urban gardens, which is partly to benefit our team.

Victoria Mininger:

So I'm super excited about that because, then being able to provide fresh food as a benefit, you know, based on like a CSA for our team members, they would get fresh produce if they if they decide that they want to, you know, get into that benefit. But also being able to be a teaching space because part of what the pandemic did a little bit, I think, is made people stop also and go, I wonder about gardening and growing my own food that has become a big interest again. And so I ran a little bit of a spring time gardening classes in my own small space at home, and that was a huge success. And so I just can't wait to open that garden space up and teach more people about, again, feeding their families, about community engagement, how do we serve our communities through those real practical hands on type of things.

Winston Faircloth:

Well, you wear so many hats, Victoria. You are a mother, wife, business leader, CEO, author, speaker, I mean all these different hats. What would be the best ways for folks to connect with you?

Victoria Mininger:

Well of course they can find our business website at bearcreek.co.co. So no M on that. So that as far as finding out more about a business they can find us there. We're on Facebook as well. You can if you are super interested in outdoor spaces, you can go there and find all the projects that we're into as well.

Victoria Mininger:

And then I have my own personal website, victoriamininger.com, where you can get in touch with me personally.

Winston Faircloth:

Well, you for being our third our first third time podcast guest. We so appreciate your time. And more importantly, appreciate the way that you care and love for your team and love your community. So thank you for being a guest again.

Victoria Mininger:

You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me, Winston.

Winston Faircloth:

Wow, What a great update in terms of her business. And this new facility is just going dramatically expand her team's capability. And that growth she's had is just phenomenal. So make sure to catch the show notes here for all the ways to connect with Victoria. And it just goes to show that it is absolutely possible to have a business you love supported by a team you love.

Winston Faircloth:

What could be better than this? Remember, your client experience never exceeds the love you show to your team and that for love of team is a leading indicator of your future success, multiplying your impact, income, and freedom in business. Be blessed, friends, and I'll catch you on the next episode.