#Bethatgirl Leadership Retreat, Destin Florida Recap
If you follow me on Facebook you probably saw the posts I did between September 17-21st about my trip to Destin, Florida.
Before I get into what we did on this trip, let me first tell you how I got there. Over the past 11 months I have worked very hard in my BeachBody business. The reason behind this is because I was in a very dark place where I was very unhappy and just going through the motions of life, trying to crawl out from a hole. I decided one day that I wasn’t going to allow myself to just go through life anymore and decided to live it. And that’s what lead me to this trip.
My coach saw something in me as an emerging leader. Just being invited on this trip was an honor, and scary as hell all at the same time. I feel like I fake my way through life and that even though others see me as successful, that I am not. I felt that way when I got my National Board certification. For some reason I thought I didn’t deserve it. I felt that way when I hit diamond. Again, I felt like I was faking it. But here I was, being told by my coach that I am enough – and I matter.
So I was invited a few months ago to take this trip to Destin, Florida with 40 other women for a leadership retreat and training with the Top Coach in the company. I had just come back from Nashville, TN with 20,000 other coaches and felt like I was in an amazing place. Although the trip to Nashville was paid for, I still had to pay for my plane ticket and all my meals/expenses, so I had just spent a good amount of money. After discussing this trip to Florida with my husband I almost said no because I wasn’t ready to pay for ANOTHER flight and incur even more expenses. However, after talking about it with him, he told me I needed to do this for my business. So I did.
On September 17th my hubby and came with me to BWI and saw me off to Florida. There I met with another coach on our team and we flew together to Atlanta. In Atlanta we met up with 10 other girls and had lunch at the airport TGI Fridays. It was here that I started to have major anxiety. These girls all seemed super confident and successful, what the hell what I doing here with them? From Atlanta we all flew to Destin on the same flight. We were met by a chauffeur who drove us in a limo bus to our house for the next 5 days.
Upon entering the house we were greeted by our coaches and presents. The theme of our weekend was “Be that Girl” based off the book “I am that girl.” We also got really cute tanks along with the book as presents.
After we arrived we were given room assignments. My room was the largest one in the house with seven (count ‘em 7!!) other women. We had to have two air mattresses in the room because there wasn’t enough room for all of us. We called this room Noah’s ark, because that’s how it was shaped
After we all unpacked we headed back up to the kitchen for dinner and drinks. Then we all went into the living room where we did an ice breaker and introduced ourselves and talked about why we were coaches and what we were hoping to get out of the weekend. Listening to the stories of these women moved me. There were such powerful stories of overcoming obstacles, tragedy, and obesity. I couldn’t help but feel a little down though. All these women had powerful stories and powerful whys. I felt like a fraud. I don’t really have that powerful of a story.
When the ice breakers were over we all went to bed. It had been a really really long day.
The next morning I woke up at 6am. There was a workout planned but I couldn’t attend because I was getting glammed up for my first ever photo shoot. I spent about 2 hours getting glamified. I’ve never felt so beautiful in my entire life. Melanie flew a photographer from Pittsburgh out to do our photos and she made me feel like a super model. I cannot wait to see how the pictures came out.
After the photo shoot I put on my swimsuit and headed to the beach. There I stayed until I couldn’t take the sun anymore. Then I headed back to the house to lay in the shade by the pool. Tough life huh?
It wasn’t all fun and games though. After coming back in from the pool we had dinner A la chef Matt Mitro. He cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner for all forty of us every single day. This day was burgers on the grill. After dinner we went to the living room where we talked about the power of our why. We went into breakout sessions and chatted about our stories and why they mattered. I felt weird telling a group of strangers that my why was to lose weight and make money. I felt selfish. I felt like a fraud. But someone in the group said to me “why did you want to lose weight? Why did you want to make money?”
So I delved deeper. Why did I want to lose weight? I have suffered with body image issues my entire life. I’ve been a gym rat. I’ve starved myself. I suffered through eating disorders. I’ve used food and alcohol as comfort for as long as I could remember. I would go on depression benders where all I could do was cry, eat and drink. I started using Beachbody products because I wanted to lose weight and had already spent thousands of dollars on quick fixes in the past. Why not try one more. So I did.
After I got results with Beachbody products I decided to coach. No one pressured me to do it. It was my own decision. It started out as wanting to make some extra cash when I went back to work when my maternity leave was over. I have been a teacher my entire working career. Teaching used to be something I had such passion for and I absolutely loved it. But then something changed. I didn’t love it anymore. After having a baby, I began to hate it. I was tired and upset all the time and I felt like I wasn’t spending any quality time with my daughter. So I started working the business harder, and I set myself a goal that I would quit my job and be home with her full time so I wasn’t missing out on these important years. I set a goal and I crushed it. That’s my why. I wanted to be a happier mom but I also wanted to be more present in my daughter’s life. That meant working on myself physically, emotionally and financially.
I went to bed with a full heart that night, knowing that I really do have a story and maybe it’s one that people can actually relate to.
That night, instead of going to bed, I realized that I was never going to have the opportunity to bond with these women like this again. So instead of sleep, I chose to go into the pool with some of my roomies. We stayed up until about 1am talking and laughing. I personally have never laughed so hard in my entire life. FINALLY we went to sleep.
I woke up at 6am the next morning for a workout. I did CIZE and Tabata with some fellow coaches who are certified to teach these classes. After the workout we ate breakfast and headed to the living room for corporate training with Cim Carver. He spoke with us about training our teams, goal setting, and setting ourselves up for success in the 4th quarter. After his presentation I was able to sit down with him and look at my numbers over the past year and talked about growing trends and where my business in going. We set small goals that will hopefully pull my business in the right direction.
After lunch we reconvened. Katy Ursta, Val Bozzo and Melanie Mitro continued their training with us. We talked about overcoming obstacles, building confidence and marketing strategies. Cim than talked to us again about leadership and rank vs. volume. Then it was dinner time – Chicken Caprese a la Matt Mitro.
After dinner and a full day of training it was time for some fun. We had drinks, s’mores and a bonfire out by the pool. A bunch of us went down to the beach and watched for shooting stars. We stayed out there for about two hours before heading back and going to bed.
I woke up at 5am the next morning but decided to skip the workouts to reflect on the past two days. I sat up in my bunkbed with my phone in hand really fine tuning why I was here, why I was chosen, and what I can take from this experience. You can see what I posted on social media here. I did this in real time, and it took me about 2 hours of truly deep reflection to come up with this post.
After another fantastic breakfast we reconvened at 9am for more training. We talked about getting new coaches started right, and how to market ourselves on our like pages. Then training was finished before noon! We had lunch and the rest of the time was ours to relax and enjoy. We went to the beach, hung out in the water and just enjoyed each other’s company
After the beach we went back to the house and had Mexican and margarita night. We spent the entire night just bonding and strategizes and plain old having the best time ever. Literally. That night was one of the most fun night’s I’ve ever had. We hung out in Noah’s ark just laughing and laughing and laughing. I’ve never laughed so hard in my entire life.
We woke up at 4:30 the next morning to catch our limo back to the airport. 13 of us were on the same flight so we were able to hang out and strategize while we waited for our plane. Then I slept the entire way home while I waited for my hubby and chunky baby to meet me at BWI.
So all in all I did not feel like this retreat was “work.” I met a lot of amazing women and felt like I was on a vacation. But at the same exact time I learned so much about myself and about my BeachBody coaching business and how much I want to keep working to build this in the future. I want to go on more retreats like this and be able to travel to be with my friends and receive corporate training. I went into this trip completely anxious because I really didn’t know what to expect. I was in a sorority in college and it was totally clique-y and gossipy. I thought this was going to be the same thing. I was 150% wrong. There was zero judgment the entire trip. In fact it was the exact opposite. I was able to be unapologetically me and no one judged me for it. It helped me really delve deep into who I am and what I’m doing on the inside and out. This was an opportunity of a lifetime and I am so thankful that my coach invited me along and that I now have 40 new friends to share this journey with.
If it weren’t for the BeachBody coaching opportunity this never would have been possible. If you’re interested in what the BeachBody coaching opportunity can do for you feel free to contact me. If you are ready to jump in and be a coach on my team, fill out the application form here.
