A free, monthly session from Rural Transition Academy
Business Builders grow their business on purpose
In a grocer’s case, building a business is much like building the future of the community’s healthy food access.
Business Builders is a free hour, once a month, for people who want a grocery business to be more profitable. Each session explores one topic from Rural Transition Academy’s Grocery Mastermind Method, hosted live on Zoom by Carly Whorton. Grocers leave more profitable than they came in, with one small experiment to put into practice over the next four weeks. Then they come back, reflect on what they learned, and set a better course based on what they know now. Business Builders is a community of people practicing that rhythm together, one month at a time.
The goal is more resilient grocery stores. Grocers bring the expertise on their own stores and the power to grow them. The people who support grocers fine-tune their craft right alongside them, in the same room.
Who it’s for
This is an hour for people who want a grocery business to be more profitable.
- Independent grocery owners and operators who want to build their store on purpose, one month at a time. Grocers are the experts on their stores and the ones with the most power to grow them.
- People who support grocers, including the support specialists Rural Transition Academy is training and independent consultants. It’s a place to fine-tune the craft of supporting the stores they already serve, and to see what it looks like to be a grocer’s right hand.
- Anyone who wants an hour of business building each month. That’s why it’s free.
What it is
- Free. Hosted in the spirit of anyone being able to benefit from an hour of business building each month.
- Monthly, 60 minutes, one topic. Each session stands on its own. Come to one, or come to all of them and watch the results add up.
- An experiment for the month ahead. Every session ends with grocers choosing one small change to try in their store over the next four weeks.
How a session works
- Live on Zoom. Settle in with a coffee and a notepad, and let the ideas come.
- About 40 minutes on one topic. Carly lays out a buffet of ideas and options drawn from real independent grocery stores. Each grocer takes what fits their store.
- About 20 minutes of Q&A. Questions come in through the chat, including the tangled, complicated ones, and Carly works through them live as a brainstorming partner.
- Session materials. After each session, what was shared on screen is free to download in your free account.
- Recorded. Every session is recorded and saved in your free account.
The four-week experiment
“I want to be more profitable” is hard to act on. So every session ends with something specific: one idea, one small change, tried for four weeks.
Over that month, the grocer sees what happens. Maybe they lean in, maybe they adjust, and either way they learn what works best in their store. Then they come back, reflect on what worked, and set a course for the next four weeks.
Over time, building the business can become the most rewarding part of the month.
The idea behind it
Independent grocers already work as hard as they can. When effort is maxed out, growth has to come from somewhere else: the levers already in their hands.
Nobody at Business Builders tells a grocer what to do with their store. Each session offers a new way to think about one part of it, and each grocer decides what makes sense for their business.
A grocer’s profitability is their community’s healthy food access. A healthier business today is more likely to be serving that community ten years from now.
Built on the Grocery Mastermind Method
Business Builders draws from Rural Transition Academy’s Grocery Mastermind Method. It’s the same method behind the Grocery Mastermind Cohort. Business Builders is the free version, one session a month and open to anyone. The cohort is the paid version, where the Rural Transition Academy team works alongside a grocer’s store all year.
The Grocery Mastermind Method booklet explains the method in full. It’s one of the first things you’ll find in your free account.
Grocers are the experts on their stores
Nobody knows a store’s customers, team, and community the way its grocer does. Business Builders is built around that. The ideas are a starting point, and what each grocer does with them comes from their own expertise.
Hosted by Carly Whorton, Profitability & Transition Coach · Field Builder
Carly works alongside grocers as a right-hand partner: someone who knows how it all works and adds power to the owner’s vision. Business Builders brings that same role to a room full of grocers and the people who support them, once a month. Her background combines microeconomics training, years in software doing change management, and the lived experience of building and running stores.
Rural Transition Academy brings Business Builders to grocers and the people who support them. Education & Connection for the Next Chapter. Strong roots. Strong futures.
What’s coming up
Through the year, sessions explore four things every grocer cares about: profitability, labor, marketing, and the holidays. Each session looks upstream at the levers that shape those results, the ones that are the grocer’s to control.
- October: all 2027 session dates, so you can save the date for every month.
- November: January’s session title and topic, with RSVP open in your free account.
- December: February’s session title and topic, with RSVP open in your free account.
Recordings
Every Business Builders session will be recorded. The sessions are evergreen, so once the library opens, each recording will be ready to watch anytime, in any order.
Live sessions begin in January 2027. Recordings will be added to your free account as each session is held.
Questions
Does it cost anything? No. Business Builders is free.
Do I have to be on camera or talk? No. Nobody has to turn on a camera or speak. Questions go in the chat, and the Rural Transition Academy team handles the rest.
What if I miss a session? Every session is recorded and saved in your free account, along with its materials. Each session also stands on its own, so anyone can jump in any month.
What is the Healthy Bucket workbook, and do I need it for these sessions? Healthy Bucket is the Grocery Mastermind Method workbook on profitability. It walks through Rural Transition Academy’s full curriculum on that topic. It isn’t required to attend, but we recommend it. Sessions draw from a series of workbooks, starting with Healthy Bucket, and having a copy makes each session richer. The price is very minimal, because we only ask you to cover printing and shipping. Workbooks will be available to order in your free account, and new ones will be added as they become available.
How is this different from the Grocery Mastermind Cohort? Both are built on the Grocery Mastermind Method. Business Builders is free, monthly, and open to anyone. The Grocery Mastermind Cohort is a paid, year-long program that meets every week, with the Rural Transition Academy team supporting each store one on one.
When and where? Sessions are held live on Zoom. The 2027 dates are announced in October, and each session opens for RSVP in your free account once it’s announced.
How do I sign up? Set up a free account. Right away, you’ll find the Grocery Mastermind Method booklet and the Business Builders forum, and you can opt in to email updates. RSVP for live sessions opens in your account as each session is announced.
Everything happens in your free account
Available now
- Read the Grocery Mastermind Method booklet
- Join the conversation in the Business Builders forum
- Opt in to email updates as new features and Business Builders dates are announced
- Explore the Grocery Mastermind Cohort for 2027
Coming soon
- RSVP for live sessions
- Watch recordings
- Download each session’s materials
- Order workbooks
Setting up a free account takes less than two minutes.
Want a team alongside you?
Business Builders is free and open because anyone can take the Grocery Mastermind Method and make it work in their own store. If you’d like support tailoring it to your store, the Grocery Mastermind Cohort is the paid version. The Rural Transition Academy team works with you one on one all year, and we even make the materials for you.