Strength & Strategy Lab
Build it right. From the start.
Know your strengths. Build your structure. Launch with a community that holds you accountable.
You have a real idea — maybe even a running start — but no clear structure under it yet.
You keep second-guessing yourself because you're not sure if you're building on the right foundation.
You've taken courses and consumed content — but none of it has translated into actual movement.
You want community, not just curriculum — people building alongside you who hold you accountable.
" I built SSL because the hardest part of starting isn't the idea — it's doing it without a foundation you trust, and without people who see what you're building.
Strength & Strategy Lab is a cohort-based program for aspiring entrepreneurs who are pre-launch or in their first year. It’s built on a simple conviction: the most sustainable businesses aren’t built on hustle — they’re built on knowing who you are, what you’re building, and how to structure it from day one.
We start with CliftonStrengths — a research-backed assessment that helps you understand your natural talents and how to lead with them. From there, we move into business structure, your first 90-day plan, and a peer cohort that keeps you accountable between sessions. You don’t just learn alongside us. You build alongside each other.
Hear it from the lab
"
The Strength & Strategy Lab isn’t a workshop you sit through — it’s a lab you build in. By the time you leave, you don’t just know your strengths. You know exactly how to use them.
Octavia "Tav" Treadway
Founder, You’re Carrying Something Great
What the Strength & Strategy Lab is Built On
Three things that make this different.
CliftonStrengths Foundation
You don't build a business on someone else's blueprint. We start with a research-backed strengths assessment so you know exactly what you're building from — and stop trying to operate in ways that drain you.
Real Business Structure
Ideas need architecture. We help you build the roles, systems, and 90-day plan that turn your vision into an actual operating business — not just a brand with good intentions.
Cohort Accountability
You're not doing this alone. Your cohort is a peer group of founders at the same stage — people who hold you accountable, challenge your thinking, and celebrate your wins because they're in it too.
Report Stronger
Self-Awareness
Launch Within
90 Days of Program
The Strength & Strategy Lab (SSL) is a transformational business development experience that combines CliftonStrengths assessment with entrepreneurship training. It focuses on three core areas: leadership development, business development, and a rotating technical development component — helping entrepreneurs build businesses that are grounded in who they are, not just what they want to do.
SSL is not a lecture series or a generic seminar. It’s an intensive, interactive experience that begins with self-discovery through the CliftonStrengths assessment and builds toward a personalized strategic business plan. Our approach integrates leadership development with real business analysis — so you leave with something built, not just something learned.
The CliftonStrengths assessment, developed by Gallup, identifies an individual’s top talent themes from 34 possible strengths. In the SSL, participants complete this assessment before attending and use their results as the foundation for both leadership development and business strategy.
Day One focuses on Strength & Financials — participants explore their CliftonStrengths results, engage in leadership development exercises, and build financial awareness. Day Two shifts to Business Analysis & Strategy, where participants work through market positioning, operations, and build out their personalized Dream Plan.
Every participant leaves with their CliftonStrengths assessment results, a completed Dream Plan, a clearer understanding of their leadership style, practical business development tools, and a network of fellow entrepreneurs.
You don't need a perfect plan before you start. You need to know what you're building on — and a community that builds with you.
You're building on instinct — moving fast but not sure the foundation will hold what you're trying to grow
You've consumed a lot of content — courses, podcasts, free resources — but nothing has translated into real movement
You second-guess yourself often — not from lack of talent, but from lack of a clear framework to trust
You're doing it alone — and the isolation makes every obstacle feel bigger than it probably is
The idea is real. The talent is real. What's missing is the structure — and the people building alongside you.
You know your strengths and you're building with them — your business design fits who you actually are
You have a real structure under your idea — roles, systems, and a 90-day plan you're actually executing
Decisions feel clearer — because you have a framework that's grounded in your values and your strengths
You have a cohort behind you — people who know your work, hold you accountable, and keep you moving
You're still in the early stages — but now you're building on solid ground, with people beside you.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
What a Strength & Strategy Lab
cohort session actually looks like.
Not a lecture hall. Not a solo workbook. Here’s what happens inside a real SSL cohort session — from the moment you arrive to what you carry back into your week.
Opening 15 Min
Cohort Check-In
Everyone shares one win and one real challenge from the week. No performance required — the cohort sees the real picture, not the highlight reel. This alone shifts how isolated building can feel.
Core 45 Min
Strengths in Action
We take a business-building concept — pricing, structure, marketing, team — and work it through the lens of your CliftonStrengths. You don't just learn the framework, you learn how your specific strengths apply to it.
Working 20 Min
Build in the Room
You apply what you just learned to your actual business — in real time, with the cohort around you. Tav circulates. Cohort members give feedback. You leave with something built, not just something understood.
Close 10 Min
Accountability Commitments
Each person states one specific move they're committing to before the next session. The cohort hears it. That's the accountability — not a reminder email, real humans who will ask you about it next week.
The cohort is the program. The curriculum gives you the tools — but the people in the room give you the momentum. SSL cohorts are kept small intentionally so everyone is seen, challenged, and held to what they said they'd do.
Who Strength & Strategy Lab is for?
This program was built for
the founder at the beginning.
The Strength & Strategy Lab is for people who are pre-launch or in their first year — who have something real to build but haven’t found the right structure, community, or self-knowledge to build it on. You don’t need to have it figured out. You need the right foundation to figure it out from.
You're pre-launch or within your first year — you have the idea, you need the structure
You've consumed a lot of content but none of it has translated into real forward movement
You want to understand your natural strengths so you stop operating against your own grain
You want accountability from people who are building alongside you — not just a coach above you
You're willing to show up honestly — to the cohort and to yourself — not just put on a good face
You believe the foundation matters and you're not willing to build something real on a shaky one
What’s Inside
Six things you'll build
inside the Strength & Strategy Lab.
CliftonStrengths Assessment
You complete the full Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment and receive a personalized debrief. You leave knowing your top talent themes and how to lead your business from them — not against them.
Strengths-Based Business Design
We translate your strengths into business decisions — your offer design, your marketing approach, your team structure. A business that fits who you are is one you can actually sustain.
Business Structure Foundations
Roles, systems, and basic operating structure — built for where you are right now, not where you hope to be in five years. Simple enough to actually use, solid enough to grow from.
Your First 90-Day Plan
A concrete, calendar-tied 90-day plan that gets your business moving — not a vision board, an actual operating plan with specific moves, owners, and deadlines you can hold yourself to.
Cohort Workshops
Live working sessions with your cohort where you build, get feedback, and apply in real time. Every workshop produces something you take back into your business that week — not just notes.
Peer Accountability Structure
A built-in accountability system with your cohort peers so the momentum doesn't die between sessions. The people in your cohort become your first real business community.
WHAT Strength & Strategy Lab GRADUATES SAY
From the lab, in their own words.
Molly
"This was an amazing, eye opening experience that I hope to carry forward to allow my existing leadership skills to flourish"
Moi
"Every business owner needs to be in this room to understand your business better. I have never attended anything like this!"
Shantel
"The Lab set a new standard for me. I won't go anywhere to learn that doesn't allow me to bring my kids."
RESERVE YOUR SPOT
Upcoming
Strength & Strategy Labs.
Each lab is a two-day, hands-on experience — small by design, intensive by intention. You’ll complete your CliftonStrengths assessment before you arrive and leave with a completed Dream Plan and a community of entrepreneurs who know what you’re building.
Your Facilitators
Octavia "Tav" Treadway & Tommy McNeal
Co-Facilitators — Strength & Strategy Lab
Two practitioners who've built from the ground up — bringing real strategy, real accountability, and a room you'll want to come back to.
- ●CliftonStrengths assessment results & personalized debrief
- ●A completed Dream Plan — your personalized strategic business roadmap
- ●Clarity on your leadership style and how to build from it
- ●Practical business development tools you can use immediately
- ●A network of fellow entrepreneurs from the same cohort
SELECT A DATE TO REGISTER
Strength & Strategy Lab
Strength & Strategy Lab (October 17 & 24 – Two-Day Strategy Session)
Don’t see a date that works? Get on the waitlist and we’ll reach out when the next lab is announced.
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Ready to build it
right from the start?
You don’t need a finished plan to take the first step. You need a conversation about what you’re building, where you are, and whether the Lab is the right place to build it from.