Wow it has been a whirlwind of a week. Matt & I just returned to Pittsburgh from Destin Florida where we hosted 28 of my personally sponsored leaders on my team. Plus, I collaborated with my Elite Coaches to host a total of 5 beach houses and 120 women for a leadership retreat. It was an EPIC event that we have never ever done before. So what the heck led us to do a retreat like this?? Let me give you a little back story. I started hosting team retreats for my small team 4 years ago. The first retreat was in Deep Creek Maryland and it was for my entire downline. Anyone who was an Emerald Coach or higher and achieved Success Club for 2 consecutive months could attend. We filled a house with 30 some women for that event. It was definitely rather interesting and I learned a lot about how to host events and mesh with different personality styles. The following year we upped the requirements to Diamond and it still encompassed the entire organization. We had LeeAnne Ruff who was a Corporate trainer at that time come in for the event to do some training with the team. That event was amazing and everyone raved about how much they learned. Last year was the first year that I did a leadership retreat with my personally sponsored coaches and not the entire organization. I teamed up with just 2 other leaders and hosted a retreat. Destin is gorgeous and everyone loved the event, although my other leaders wanted to join forces as well and do a retreat together. I was torn because I wanted to get to know my own personally sponsored diamonds more but I didn’t want to leave out my Elite coaches and their teams. We try to really keep things close knit but at the same time we are getting big!!! I mean we have 8 total Elite Coaches and 2 Elite 10 coaches on the Dream Team. That makes things a little bit harder to keep that personal touch.
So I had an idea…. What if we all go to Destin and each leader rents their own beachhouse but we come together for training?? I proposed the idea to each leader and 6 out of the 7 were in! So we started renting houses within a close radius to one another and the planning started.
My house was the central hub and was the place where we could fit everyone in one house for group training.
My vision for the weekend was to bring together our teams and create a positive team culture where we could grow, learn and challenge each other to elevate our leadership and our businesses! My goal is to develop friendships and provide each coach with resources so that they can reach their goals this year and in years to come. Heck, we run a virtual business and most of the time we are just chipping away in our own homes on our computers. It is nice to know that you are not alone in the struggles of building a health and fitness business.
You know what is pretty cool? When I got all of the women into the house it was like we were surrounded by 30 of our best friends. No drama, no conflict just lots of laughs, lots of brainstorming and just a chill time at the beach building our businesses together! Matt did all the cooking and coordinating of transportation and I hosted the training and the events. So what did the weekend look like?
Thursday was the day that everyone arrived. Matt coordinated based on flights transportation from the airport to the house. We greeted everyone on the first day with a special gift, our leadership retreat team shirts and a pineapple ring and a champagne toast.
Once everyone arrived we ate dinner the first night and had some picnic food. Turkey Burgers, Black Bean Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries, fresh veggies and some cocktails. After dinner we gathered around the living room for a welcome to the event. Each coach went around the room and told a 3 minute story of who they are, how they found me and why they became a coach! It was incredible to see how many coaches had followed me for a year or so before they signed up and how many coaches watched my youtube videos before contacting me. It was also amazing to just hear that I had such a profound impact on their lives. That I helped them in some way overcome an obstacle or struggle and they are better now because of it. That moment when I heard their stories just made me realize how much more I love my job as a coach. I just love that I am truly making an impact on the lives of others.
Friday was a relaxed day where my team was able to get professional photos taken by none other than Stephanie Hines of Shines Photography. She is incredibly talented and totally rocks at her talents! Ellen Anderson was our hair and makeup artist and truly made each girl feel special and look amazing.
While the girls were getting photos taken, I was doing 1:1’s with each coach on my team. I parked myself by the pool and spent time just chatting about my teams personal goals for the end of the year and strategies to help them get to where they want to be. I love love love helping my team see their potential and just crushing it to get there.
Then, that afternoon we had Jeremy Redd who is my personal mentor from Corporate at the house to talk about how to motivate your team towards a common goal and he spent time answering questions about the company, the vision and our future.
Friday night we headed to the beach to meet up with the entire team, all 120 coaches on the beach for some Pineapple beach olympics. We split people into teams and gave each team bandanas and competed to see who would be the winners of the pineapple trophies!! We crab walked in the sand, we did a pineapple relay, 3 legged race and wheel barrow walking. The tie breaker game was tug of war. It was so much fun and seriously the competitive side of people totally came out!!
Saturday morning we kicked off an EPIC training with the entire team! I will say that I might of panicked a little at getting 120 women into 1 house but it actually worked out rather well.
We started out the morning with Jeremy Redd talking about time management and your buckets for your life. Cim Carver talked about getting new coaches started right and the importance of Elite, Premiere and getting to the New Leader Conference. He took the time to walk coaches through the requirements for each benchmark and tips for how to get there.
We broke for lunch and then came back for our afternoon sessions. We split people into 4 different groups and rotated sessions every 30 minutes. Our training topics consisted of:
- How to implement and teach your team the leadership ladder for growth and stability
- Managing your business while working full time
- Time management tips
- Facebook Like Pages and Ads
- Facebook Live and Snapchat
- iMovie tips and more
Training by Deidra Penrose, Elite Coach
Our goal was to provide the very bet training possible to help coaches move their businesses forward. It was a success!! Everyone was raving about the quality of the trainings! We headed to the beach following that afternoon session for a large team picture. We got every coach that attended the event a pineapple tank top that actually had all of our team names on it.
The Hosts of the Dream Team Leadership Event Katy Ursta, Alyssa Schomaker, Hilary Dickson, Marsha Smrcka, Candice Olin, Jen Guthrie, Deidra Penrose, Val Bozzo, Shannon Hargrave, Melanie Mitro
The Dream Team Leadership Retreat 2016
Saturday night was a great night of relaxation and we also had some time together to create our vision boards for the next 6 months and the next 1 year. Then, Matt talked a little about taxes, financial planning and smart money management with our team. Heck, as a Beachbody coach we want to make sure are truly helping our coaches create a life of freedom that they can continue on for the rest of their lives.
The last day was Sunday and we all came back together for a final training session in the morning. Deidra Penrose knocked it out of the park with a team culture session, Jen Guthrie talked about recruiting and we had a very special guest speaker Trina Gray who spoke about how to present the business opportunity to fitness centers and clubs. We wrapped up the day with the hosts talking about their vision and how to take action after this event. Then, we headed to the beach for some fun in the sun, a BBQ and a bonfire to round out the night with some s’mores of course!!!
I truly truly am so blessed by this amazing team and I can’t think of a better job to have. I love that I get to have my own business and I can work as much or as little as I would like. I love that I can determine my future but I get to do it on my own terms and I truly am passionate about seeing other people succeed. I enjoy hosting events like this because it is these moments when we come together that the real ah-ha moments happen! Life long friends are made and success becomes possible for so may! I love the Dream Team and I love coaching. Even after 5 years of building my business I am not slowing down and I’m already thinking about how I can make next year even better!!! How can I top it? How can I continue to improve the growth of my team and help them reach their fullest potential. My calling in life is to help others, to serve and to inspire.
I can’t wait to see what the future has to hold for the Dream Team coaches!!!
If you have every considered coaching or you would like to be a part of a community that is truly grounded in its mission of helping other people achieve healthy and fulfilling lives then this is for you!
Complete the application below to be considered for a spot on the Dream Team. I am hosting my next New Coach Training University on the 3rd of October and I will only be selecting a small group of go-getters to mentor and guide.
Join the Dream Team and get top coach training from Melanie Mitro
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To join the Dream Team or get more information click here: Coach Application