What Happens In Paradise….. A Recap Of The First Ever Pet Sitter Retreat
This is what happened August 17-19th in Paradise Arizona when 10 pet sitters got together…
We represented:
$5,100,000.00 in revenue.
168 employees.
Almost 20 office managers from the USA and Canada.
I was sitting in Chris Ducker’s workshop at Social Media Marketing World and he was talking about how consultants build their business. There was just one element that I was completely missing, and that was a live event.
I immediately was filled with negative thoughts… “no one would come to this” and “I would have to charge a LOT of money if I really wanted this to be a legit and high-class experience… ” so I put my feelers out there.
Wouldn’t you know I got greeted with EXCITEMENT and a “sign me up” before I even had a landing page created? That checked my thoughts real quick and I set out to make this thought a reality. I even recorded this video to share my excitement…
I was excited to say the least.
So I got to thinking about how I could make this an incredible experience where hearts would change.
Hearts would change. That was important to me as I know that face to face can be magical. I wanted people to come together, not just know, but FEEL that they weren’t alone in this world, and form bonds that would supersede this weekend.
And it happened.
When we left each other this weekend, I was holding back tears each time one of the gal’s Uber would pull up.
And I wasn’t the only one.
Each one who left, it was like a new BFF was leaving me. Nicole, from Miami Pet Concierge, was the “worst.” She gave this heartfelt speech and singled out what she admired about so many fellow roommates that we all teared up.
“Jump into Paradise allowed me to spend quality time with like-minded, brilliant, and inspiring business women which is hard to come by. I left this weekend feeling supported, challenged, and most importantly understood. I learned valuable information from our keynote speakers and from our group sessions that I will now incorporate into my own business. From sectioning my service areas into territories, HR tools, and tactics, and simple things about communication amongst my staff; this was a very valuable weekend for me both professionally and personally.”
Nicole Brown Packin, CEO of Miami Pet Concierge
The Speakers:
I arranged for some pretty powerful women to come into the house and chat with us. First, we started with getting our vision aligned and understanding if we were operating from the zone of genius or excellence.
Carey Conley put us through an exercise that had a few of us emotional and really thinking of what we learned throughout the rest of the weekend.
It really helped bring some serious perspective to why we are doing what we wanted from our life and business. Who doesn’t need a little reminder every now and again?
We also had Brandy Lawson come in and talk to us all about how to use messaging to solve the biggest problems in our business. Guess what they came down to? Getting more clients and getting more staff.
It was unique the way she was able to break it down for us in such a way that showed us all how we can easily solve them everywhere we are online.
She even took the time to go through every single person’s front page of the website and give actionable pointers of how to make it better going forward.
Brandy was a wealth of knowledge so much that one of our members requested a 1:1 meeting with her before they left on their plane ride home.
We also invited Niki Ramirez to the Retreat and she spent four hours going over coaching, termination, and role-playing scenarios with us. She was so gracious with her time spending longer than originally planned and no question unanswered.
The most powerful part of this session was when I could see light bulbs going off over their heads. Niki actually brought 7 case studies of actual pet sitters scenarios she has helped with that we worked through. We were collectively problem-solving situations that would normally be emotional and overwhelming and creating plans of execution for when it happens.
Termination is inevitable if you don’t want to be “a slave to your business” as Niki says.
Our speakers were just incredible!
“It was an incredible experience to learn more to help the business I work for to Excell and get to meet other powerful and just as incredible ladies as well. To hear their stories and ideas. An opportunity of a life that I’m glad I didn’t miss.”
Erin Lord, Sitter for your Critter
The Mastermind Sessions
One of the best assets in the house we were in was this really long table. We could fit all of us around it and had the best discussions. We went around and shared a bunch of objections and learned how everyone handled the rebuttals.
We talked about the different ways people were running their local community Facebook groups. We talked about the different internal structures of management and it was so exciting to see all of the contrasts.
Sure, it is something we occasionally talk about in the Mastermind but to have everyone face to face learning and interacting was powerful! It was casual and not stuffy or highly structured that if someone needed to be on the phone, or go to the bathroom, or grab more food or drink, we could get up and go. It was so much nicer than being trapped in a conference room!
I have never learned so much in one weekend and stayed in my PJs. So many amazing women, and so many surprises. People are not always what you think. Again learned again you cannot always judge a book by its cover. If you have 0 or a 100 employees or did not matter. So much love and support.
Laura Wright, PawWright Pet Services
Rest assured these sessions didn’t only happen during the day inside the house. The beautiful negative edge pool also lent a great atmosphere for us to circle up. We talked about everything and were so passionate, we even passed around the blow-up cactus as our “talking stick” *smile*
The Experience of Jump Into Paradise
There is a lot of magic that gets to happen when you are all together in a house. First, the talented Katie Westerfield etched us all these INCREDIBLE glasses that had our name and the Paradise logo on them. Everyone was shocked, and can I say – no one lost their cup 🙂 As Betheny Green said, “we all have our adult sippy cups!”
Everyone had their own surprise on their bed with tripods, battery chargers commemorative Tshirts and more…
We had our own private chef come on Saturday and Sunday morning who made us all our own omelets and some of the best potatoes and bacon we all ever ate. She also brought us fruit and pastries and it was just… yummy!
We also had Jenny Rojas come and we did Yoga on Saturday morning… in the Master bedroom because all 12 of us and our yoga mats could fit in there. It was incredible! It was a neat experience as we had some yoga professionals and novices in the room but she seemed to appeal to all of us. A great feat for sure!
At night time, our “driver” my incredible husband who played along drove the van we rented so we could all enjoy the ride together to and from some great places in Scottsdale. We enjoyed great meals…. and probably had so much food from the catered lunches left over in the house that we didn’t really need to actually GO out to eat – but it was all about the experience. 🙂
The Connections Were Made…and Will Happen Again:
The entire experience was something that none of us will ever forget. I think Maureen Dunn McCarthy from Love and Kisses Pet Sitting said it best:
” I enjoyed my weekend with other likeminded pet business owners. We shared in larger groups together and also grouped into smaller intimate groups to share our business structures and ideas. It was such a great feeling to know that you are not in this business alone. I went to this event to get a better connection with these ladies that I now call my friends and I left with more than a business connection I left with my heart full of love knowing that we are all in this together and can reach out to one another whenever needed.”
Before it even started members were asking to do it again and as we all said a teary eyed goodbye, we vowed to do it again. So… July 26th to 28th 2019 we WILL be doing it again. It will be in an Estate or Mansion again (no hotel) and there will be limited beds.
