Every year since 2009 the TP team has “retreated” for a weekend. Each year we have been asked “What do you all do at your retreats?” So, this year we thought we would share a little bit of our retreat with you. Of course, we can’t tell you everything. After all we have a sacred rule: “what happens at TP retreats, stays at TP retreats!”
Our retreats have been a time to work together as a group to identify our individual and corporate goals, hone our training skills, refine our client programming and develop our annual marketing plan. We planned on doing all of those things but I also thought we needed to address another BIG question as well. This year has been a BIG year for us. Celebrating 20 years is something for any small business but in the fitness field it’s a rare phenomenon. I have had many feelings over the past 10 months – gratitude, immense joy, happiness, caution, to name a few; but most of all I have found myself asking “so – what comes next?” Help with this question came in the form of a book “Pivot – The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One.” It is written by Jenny Blake who was the co-creator of Google’s Career Guru Program.
I was attracted to this book because it was written for people asking what’s next and because it uses a basketball metaphor to get the point across of what a pivot is. (OK, basketball is a sweet spot for me but so is change). In basketball when a person stops dribbling they have to plant both feet when stopping. One foot stays planted and the other is free to rotate or pivot but you have to keep one foot planted. In other words, while you are planted you can also move and decide what to do next. It’s the same in business. You can’t just scan the landscape and say what’s out there? You have to be planted in your foundation; rooted with your mission, vision, guiding principles and secure in your program delivery before making your next move.
I wanted our training team to focus on this question this year because most of us are at an age or a point in our careers where we are thinking about the future and what that holds for us. This book certainly didn’t have all the answers or provide things I haven’t read before – but it did ask questions in a way that made us sit down and reflect on our answers. We came to the retreat with our “homework” done and then we reviewed and shared them. We put our pivot points, both personal and professional, up on a time line and then identified TP’s pivot points as well – it was messy creation but extremely revealing. The final addition was our financial time line – it was very fun and interesting to see how each of our pivots had coincided with TP’s pivots and its financial growth.
We wrote individual vision statements for the upcoming year, determined some marketing projects, TP’s marketing plan, our community projects and trainer in-services. So, as you can see from some of our pictures we worked and got a lot done but we also had a lot of fun. Judy had some team building activities for us and we all shared our “tiny talents” but Kelly’s tiny talent is truly something to behold. I’m going to have to put that video in our December newsletter. We even got our Walktober steps in as well.
It’s rare thing to have a group that shares the same beliefs, vision and genuinely likes each other and enjoys working together. I and we, as a group are fortunate indeed to not only have each of you to work with but to have each other as teammates.
A HUGE THANK YOU to Judy Futch, who has been our consultant and leader for the past 11 years. It’s a big job dealing with a group of trainers who have very short attention spans and can’t sit still for longer than 4 minutes. Thank you Judith – you have played an important role in our success and growth!
To view some of our retreat photos click here – https://www.dropbox.com/sc/mj05ao13o3dc77z/AABf6A8S4soT77gQ6sErABksa