When daily accountability meets strategic systems thinking, transformation happens faster than you expect.
“I felt like I was just not being productive. Things were just sort of going along week after week and the same things were happening. I wasn’t growing the business, and I felt overwhelmed with some things I was procrastinating on.”
That’s how Jolene Forrester, owner of JoRetro vintage shop in Havre de Grace, Maryland, described her business when she joined the Momentum Accountability Club.
Three months later, she had tripled her business revenue and moved into a space that seemed impossible just months before.
But here’s what makes Jolene’s story different from typical “business transformation” tales: This wasn’t about changing her goals. It was about creating a system that made achieving them inevitable.
The Real Problem: When You’re the Boss, Who Holds You Accountable?
After being laid off from her corporate job, Jolene had thrown herself into running JoRetro full-time. She had the passion, the expertise, and the drive. What she didn’t have was what she’d taken for granted in the corporate world: built-in accountability systems.
“From years of having to write goals in the corporate world, then all of a sudden you’re responsible and there’s no one to be accountable for what you’re doing. When you’re the boss, there’s no one above you saying, ‘Are you getting that done today?'”
Sound familiar? This is the hidden challenge every entrepreneur and leader faces: How do you create momentum when you’re the one responsible for creating your own momentum?
The Breakthrough: Systems Thinking Meets Daily Action
What happened next illustrates perfectly why the Sappari Group approach works: We don’t just help you set better goals. We help you build better systems for achieving them.
Jolene’s initial goal seemed straightforward: renovate her home. But when we applied systems thinking to break down the real problem, a different picture emerged:
- Surface goal: Renovate home
- Real obstacle: Too much inventory taking up home space
- Root cause: Current retail space too small for growth
- System solution: Create a business expansion plan that solves multiple problems simultaneously
“I think if you start with what’s the biggest issue in your life and then everything kind of goes backwards to get to that goal. Working with Nettie, I thought I should look for a new space.”
Why Daily Accountability Changed Everything
Here’s where the Momentum Accountability Club structure became crucial. It wasn’t enough to have a plan – Jolene needed a system that would keep her moving forward even when the path got scary.
The daily check-in system:
- Morning text: “What are you going to accomplish today?”
- Evening text: “What did you accomplish toward your goal?”
- Weekly strategy sessions to adjust course when needed
“Being in the program and every day having you reach out in text message – what are you going to accomplish today, what are your goals today? It kept me focused on that goal.”
But here’s the key insight: The accountability wasn’t about pressure. It was about perspective.
The Moment Everything Shifted
Initially, Jolene found a sensible storage space near her existing shop. It was safe, affordable, and solved her immediate problem. But during one of our check-ins, we dug deeper:
“Talking to you about how does that achieve the goal, the ultimate goal, and how does that benefit the business, I started to feel like it really was not… it was a band-aid, it wasn’t a real fix.”
This is systems thinking in action: Looking beyond the immediate solution to understand whether it serves your larger vision.
Then came Jolene’s breakthrough realization: “I think a lot of times when you do something and it’s not scary, it’s probably not enough.”
When the property manager mentioned another space – one that seemed too big, too ambitious, too risky – Jolene almost dismissed it. But the accountability system we’d built encouraged her to investigate.
“You encouraged me to take a look and just see. I mean, it does no harm to go look. And then that became more of a reality.”
The Transformation: From Comfortable to Extraordinary
The new space wasn’t just bigger – it was transformational. But even then, Jolene faced a final decision: take one space or both?
“I debated it – should I take both spaces or just one? And I mean, honestly it was like, ‘Well, I’ve already come this far. Let’s just go outside my comfort zone a little bit more and just take both.’ And it made all the difference.”
Result: JoRetro tripled its revenue in three months.
But the real transformation was deeper than financial. Jolene had built a decision-making system that served her long after our formal work together ended.
The System That Made It All Possible
What made Jolene’s transformation sustainable wasn’t willpower or motivation – it was systematic support designed for how leaders actually work:
1. Goal Architecture That Actually Works
“We did do the goal setting, and bringing that back into a short-term goal instead of a year out, and focusing on small steps that makes it so it’s not so scary.”
2. Daily Momentum Building
“You just refocus every day, and make a person accountable. Because you know you’re going to get that text or you’re going to get a phone call.”
3. Outside Perspective Without Emotional Baggage
“I think sometimes your friends aren’t maybe the best business associates. Having an outside person that can guide you without that emotional feeling that a relative or a friend might have, who thinks, ‘I’m not sure if that’s a safe thing to do.'”
4. Encouragement Most Leaders Never Get
“The encouragement on a daily basis is not something most people even get from a boss at a job.”
The ROI of Systems Thinking
When someone asks about the investment in coaching or accountability systems, Jolene’s response is telling:
“I think some people might say, ‘Well, I can’t afford to do it.’ But I honestly think that you probably can’t afford not to. If you’re stuck, if you really feel like – I’m not accomplishing things. Because all the little things that you’re not doing are costing you money.”
Think about it: How much is procrastination costing you? How much revenue are you leaving on the table because you don’t have systems that push you toward your bigger vision?
For Jolene, three months of accountability and systems thinking resulted in tripling her business. The math isn’t hard to figure out.
Why This Approach Works for Mission-Driven Leaders
Jolene’s story illustrates why the Sappari Group methodology is particularly powerful for entrepreneurs and leaders with complex brains and demanding roles:
We don’t assume you need motivation. You’re already driven. We don’t assume you need better goals. You probably have plenty of those. We assume you need better systems for translating your vision into daily action.
The Momentum Accountability Club provides exactly that: A systematic approach to momentum that works WITH how your brain actually operates, not against it.
Your Turn: What Would Change in 3 Months?
Jolene’s transformation didn’t happen because she suddenly became a different person. It happened because she built systems that made success more inevitable than failure.
“If you’re afraid to make a drastic change in your life, and you think that nobody around you is really going to support you, this is the program for you.”
The question isn’t whether you can afford to invest in systems and accountability.
The question is: What will the next three months look like if you don’t?
Ready to build your own system of success? The Momentum Accountability Club combines daily accountability with strategic systems thinking to help mission-driven leaders create sustainable momentum. Learn more about how we can help you stop procrastinating on your biggest goals and start making them inevitable.
[Join the Momentum Community] | [Book a Strategy Session] | [Learn About Momentum Accountability Club]
Jolene Forrester is the owner of JoRetro, a vintage shop specializing in useable items from the 50s through 70s, located in Havre de Grace, Maryland. The Sappari Group has been helping leaders create systems for success since 2004, combining process engineering principles with deep understanding of how different brains work best.
