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Nick and I just returned from our annual ice cream mastermind—a four-day, high-level learning experience where other multi-unit ice cream shop owners from across the country convene to teach each other a variety of things based on skillsets they have mastered in their businesses. We had the fortune of learning from people who had built their own ice cream production facilities, and we learned from others how they built their leadership teams. This is our second year attending. After last year’s attendance, we implemented changes that generated more revenue for the business—changes we otherwise would not have considered had we not attended the mastermind.
Image: Nick and I on the plane heading to the mastermind
At the beginning of 2025, I met with a friend who also owns a couple of restaurants in the city. I was looking for some mentorship on how to improve our Instagram account. She has built a very successful account—currently it sits at a little under 500K—which leads to her restaurants having wait times of 30+ minutes every day. It’s very hard to get a reservation at her place, and this is all because of how she approached creating content for her account. After meeting with her, I put her recommendations into practice, and both our account and sales in 2025 outpaced the previous year.
Image: a peak inside one of our colleague’s freezers while we were at the mastermind
I have always valued my network and the information they have to offer from their lived experience over the knowledge gleaned from formal education. Don’t get me wrong—I value formal education, too. I have a bachelor’s and master’s degree. But the knowledge I have gleaned from my colleagues and friends over the last nine years has proven to be more valuable and applicable to my work than what I learned from those two degrees.
A few years ago, I was in a peer coaching group of small business owners working in completely different industries than mine. I remember there was this effort to contort our schedules so we could bring speakers in who could “teach” us something, and I kept encouraging us to honor the knowledge in the room first. Eventually, we did—and discovered we didn’t need all those outside experts at all. From our time together, we shared lots of information, the most significant being how to shift our mindsets for personal and professional growth.
Image: Tasting lots of different ice cream at the mastermind
I have seen firsthand the power of a peer group. From my experience in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program to attending industry-focused conferences with like-minded peers who have achieved things I haven’t, my life and professional work have been made better by being in community with other small business owners.
I’m sharing all of this because so often we value people and information that is out of reach. We think something that is not accessible to us is better or more sophisticated. And very often, lessons from the peers we’re sitting next to can improve our work and lives with less effort and resources, and a full appreciation and high regard for where our feet are planted.
Petrushka
Your Local Ice Cream Lady & Life/Business Coach