What Outfitters Can Expect from Working with Zebulon
When you sign on with Zebulon, you’re not stepping into a rigid, stuffy playbook. You’re stepping into a living, breathing relationship.
Here at Zebulon, we always have a plan – but we don’t follow a script. Jump in as we share the typical meeting flow with Zebulon, be it a strategy session or Eddy meeting. This article is how, together, we’ll help your outfit navigate obstacles and keep things running smoothly.
For a video version of this article, scroll down to the bottom!
How Zebulon’s Strategic Meeting Cadence Supports Seasonal Outfitters
Like any good river route, our meeting cadence follows a predictable pattern:
- 1-3 days prior to meeting: We send you a 5- to 10-minute update video analyzing your outfit’s most up-to-date data. From sales to profits, we identify and suggest key talking points to discuss during your upcoming meeting.
- Day-of your strategy meeting: A 90-minute time block that’s devoted entirely to YOU and your outfit. We intentionally cadence this time to share updates, chat about top-of-mind issues, track progress to targets and ongoing initiatives, dive into data together, listen to personnel challenges you’re facing, provide coaching, and so much more. We recap each meeting with action items to help you through whatever obstacles lie ahead.
- After your meeting: We divide and conquer. Not only do we follow-through on our promises for support, deliverables, and more, but we’re also always available via phone, email, and Slack for continued guidance and mentorship.
As you can see, our biweekly strategy meetings aren’t just about ticking boxes or reviewing the data (though we do plenty of that, too). Our 90-minute meetings with outfitters nationwide are a place where strategy meets sanity. And, most importantly, they’re a supportive space where we can adapt to what’s really happening on the ground in your outfit.
To use longtime outfitter and co-owner of Imperial River Co. Susie Miles’ words: “There’s a plan, but there’s not a script.”
What Can We Do for You Today?
During peak busy seasons, you might show up to a meeting feeling like, “I don’t even have time for this.” Rob Miles, co-owner of Imperial with Susie, sure felt this pressure. More than once.
But as Rob shared in our Fireside Chat:
“One day I said, ‘I don’t have time to think about this, Zeb! I’ve got this problem, and this problem, and this problem [lifting stacks of notes from his desk].’
And Zeb calmly responded, ‘What’s on your desk right now that I can help you with?’
I picked up a random piece of paper, and he had an answer.
I said, ‘This is a shit pile on my desk!’ And he STILL helped.”
That’s the magic of showing up.
Infectious Enthusiasm
The Zebulon team doesn’t just bring financial chops and business acumen to the table, we bring infectious enthusiasm. And, in addition to our infectious enthusiasm, we also bring deep industry knowledge and a genuine, chronic passion for helping outfitters grow.
But it’s our enthusiasm that helps us recognize each outfit’s potential – even in the face of tough conditions.
Zebulon’s Mentor Mindset
Our leadership peer group, The Eddy, also has a bi-weekly meeting cadence year-round – through high season and off-season alike. Why?
Because personal and professional growth doesn’t stop when the season gets tough. If anything, that’s when you need accountability most.
“This works so well for outfitters because it has flow,” said Susie Miles. “It’s not a rigid checklist. And that’s how we operate—on rivers. With customers. In seasons.”
There are times when you’re flying, and your team is running on all cylinders. Those are the times you can perform well and live up to the Eddy group’s high expectations.
And there will be times when, as Rob put it, “Today is less than a crawl. I showed up, and that’s all you’re gonna get.”
That’s okay. We, the Eddy, show up with you.
That’s because we believe in and practice the “Mentor Mindset” from the book “10 to 25” – finding the sweet spot that balances high expectations with high levels of support. (For more on that book, and some of our other top business book recs, click here.)
Spend ten minutes in any Eddy meeting, and you’ll experience first-hand the true balance of high expectations and high support. Eddy members have a genuine care for one another and a true desire to help each other succeed.
Like a strong family unit, we push and support each other through all seasons. High water, low water. High stoke, low stoke. It doesn’t matter. Eddy members show up, have fun, and get it done.
Leveraging Up, Not Just Getting By
At its core, working with Zebulon isn’t just about monitoring margins and boosting profit (though we do that, too). It’s about working smarter, having fun, and making money – and we believe all three are possible.
Partnering with Zebulon is about helping you and your business leverage up so you don’t just work harder, but actually achieve something bigger. Something stable. Something freeing.
Just take it from Rob Miles: “That’s the huge thing that Zebulon and The Eddy group has done for us: we have leveraged up. And we weren’t on that trajectory at all – we were on an okay trajectory, but we weren’t leveraging up.”
A Plan, Not a Script: What You Can Expect
When a meeting with Zebulon pops up on your calendar, whether it’s a one-on-one strategy session or a group meeting with The Eddy, here’s what you can plan on:
- Clear goals and flexible support
- Strategic insights, tailored to your current situation (be it a fire or future opportunity)
- Honest advice
- Real-world outfitting experience
- Cutting-edge business chops
- Infectious enthusiasm
- High support AND high expectations
- People who genuinely want to see you succeed
- Therapy (the business kind) when you need it
- Zero scripts. Only flow.
Ready to ditch the script yourself and grow your outfitting business, whether you’re in the Rockies, the Midwest, Southeast, Southwest, Northeast, or the Pacific Northwest? Hungry to leverage up your outfit whether you’re the owner or a top manager? We’d love to hear from you.
