Why I Built Backbeat Retreat

Some ideas don’t start with a business plan. They start with a moment — a sentence, a memory, a truth that hits you harder than you expect.

For me, it was learning about the Lou Holtz statue at Notre Dame. Three words are carved into the base, the entire legacy of a lifetime distilled into a single line:

Trust. Commitment. Love.

I’ve never been there in person, but the simplicity of that engraving stuck with me. Holtz built his whole philosophy around a few ideas that cut straight to the bone:

The Holtz philosophy centers around a few simple ideas:

• “Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.”
• “You’re either growing or you’re dying.”
• “There’s never a right time to do the wrong thing, and never a wrong time to do the right thing.”
• “Do what’s right, do everything to the best of your ability, and show people you care.”

If you run a music store, you know exactly what he meant. Most days, you’re carrying the weight alone. You don’t want to burden your staff. Your family has their own worries. Your customers only see the smile at the counter.

“Don’t tell people about your problems.
Ninety percent don’t care, and the other ten percent are glad you have them.”

But every once in a while — if you’re lucky — you find someone who will listen with empathy. Someone who understands the pressure. Someone who won’t judge you for the problems you’re wrestling with… and might even help you solve them.

That’s where the idea for Backbeat Retreat began. Not as an event. Not as a program. But as a place where store owners could finally exhale. A place where the load gets lighter because the people in the room actually understand what you’re carrying.

Holtz believed that leadership comes down to three things:

Do what’s right.
Do it to the best of your ability.
Show people you care.

I’ve come to believe the same is true for community.

Backbeat Retreat is built on that idea — that when you put the right people in the right room, something shifts. You think more clearly. You feel less alone. You remember why you started in the first place.

And sometimes, if you’re really fortunate, you meet the kind of people who stay in your life long after the retreat ends.