One of the many amazing things about the company I work for is that it gives us the opportunity to earn leadership retreats in beautiful countries and cities. Not only do these incentives push us to grow our business, but the retreat itself is more than just a weekend of training and learning about our company. It’s what we like to call personal development. With a paycheck. My most recent trip took me to beautiful Cancun, Mexico for three days of blue skies, white sandy beaches, and gorgeous hotel views. But beyond the beauty and relaxation, I felt like I came home from that trip refreshed. Certainly, a better businesswoman. But more than that, a better wife. A better mom. A better version of myself.  

The prep began with deciding which pre-Mexico diet would help me feel less self conscious in my killer mommy tankini, and ended with what my friend Erin likes to call the “drink yourself skinny” diet. And no, we are are not talking about liquid diets where your daily consumption of food is 3 shots of a “cleansing agent”. No way. This diet is fun. You just arrive at your destination in your current size and drink champagne until you look in the mirror and see a VS model staring back at you. For some it’s a glass or two…for me…well let’s just say Alexis, my bartender bestie, became my bestie for a reason. I’m only mildly kidding, but at some point in your life you just have to accept that spanx or no spanx, cellulite or smooth skin, you just have to rock it. Life is way too short to be lounging by the pool worrying about the perfectly bronzed bodies around you and wondering why you decided on carbs over cardio. Remember, life’s about choices okay.

In my head, I envisioned a vlog I wanted to shoot to keep as a memory of our trip. In case you live under a rock, a vlog is a video log of a trip, memory, life event…really anything you want to document and then share with an audience. Since my youtube channel has a whopping ten subscribers, my audience is pretty much made up of the friends I bribed to subscribe, two random people, and an incredible mentor of mine in this company. Shannon, you are one of my inspirations and I will forever remember the day I got the alert that you had subscribed. If you ever read this…you were the first <3. Now, I am in no way technologically advanced in video production or editing, but hey, you have to start practicing somewhere. And since this year is all about changing my own mindset for what I think I’m capable of and what I’m actually capable of with a little hard work, I knew that I would only get better if I started trying.

So with my SONY point and shoot camera in hand, I started filming different things throughout the course of our three day trip. In my head, I was Steven Spielberg. Dreaming up different shots, staging people in the pool, setting up time lapse events. In reality, I looked like a freaking creeper. My vision of a beautiful, blue ocean, clear sky video log was coming to life. But to the outside world, I probably looked like a deranged tourist setting up my tripod and then lying on the ground to make sure it was at the right angle while I secretly filmed girls in bikinis. Basically, I was the resident weirdo on the trip and I’m pretty sure some of them thought I had lost my mind every time I asked to record a group shot of clinking champagne glasses. But really, this reaction is no different than my everyday life, each time I get a ridiculous idea for how to “express my creativity”.   

Now I don’t know how you do Mexico, but my friends and I are all about the fun. We drank pretty cocktails by the pool, we danced until the early hours of the morning, we ate our way through every delicious restaurant, and we laughed, a lot. The last night may or may not have ended with a super fun, team bonding FB live video shot from the tub (yes, we had suits on…it wasn’t THAT kind of Mexico trip), some bubbles, and maybe a unicorn head. Don’t lie. You wish you had been there.

But that wasn’t the core of our trip. Each morning began with my favorite activity. Working out. No but seriously, if I could take a yoga or booty barre class on a white sandy beach while watching the sun rise, I would work out. Every. Damn. Day. After we burned some calories, we headed into our three hour training sessions. Normally, the thought of sitting anywhere for this length of time would cause me to start twitching with anxiety. Can you tell by my eclectic and random writing that I can’t sit still for very long and I need the subject to be changed every 7 minutes? As a former teacher, I used to dread “professional development days”. Endless hours filled with information that never seemed to actually be applicable in your classroom, stock sandwiches and chips for lunch, and keynote speakers who used their time to promote their political platform in education. I especially loved the activities where you were told, “Everyone stand and raise your hand and move around the room until you are partnered with someone who is wearing polka dots, has an aunt named Sara that lives in Michigan, and in their free time enjoys constructing miniature tree houses”. Ok yes, I am exaggerating, but if you’re a teacher, you get it. I’d rather run three miles than “Stand up, hand up, pair up” ever again. I am an adult and I feel fully equipped to choose an adequate partner all by myself. Even if my partner was always my work wife Katie so we could talk about Britney Spears.

Wow…that went off topic…

Anyways, these three hour training sessions in Cancun felt like they ended as quickly as they started. I think it’s because every part of it was designed with one goal in mind. To take what we learned and be able to relate to it, apply it in our life and business, and be inspired. We heard stories of success, failure, and grit from powerful and successful but completely relatable women in our company. We looked into how our mindset reveals the way we make decisions, how we view our own potential, and even how our mindset dictates the way we parent. We were able to voice struggles and concerns and were met with meaningful answers. We were free to sit where we wanted and with whom we wanted, but the atmosphere generated a desire to move around and meet and learn from as many other women as possible. It’s the kind of trip where you meet friends that you’ll have for life and inspires you to be a better person. There was never a sense of competition…who had a higher promotion, a bigger team, or the largest paycheck. Every interaction garnered something new to be learned about this business and everyone was willing to share. My sweet friend and mentor Tracy reminded me that one day, we would host these kinds of leadership retreats with our own team; the thought of that left me with an incredible drive that will continue to push me forward, regardless of any setbacks I encounter or how long it takes to get there.  

With the kind of negativity surrounding multi-level marketing, these are the kinds of trips you wish people on the outside could see. I can only speak for my company and my company alone, but with a market that’s yielding in the billions and is only expected to rise, combined with the fact that we hold the #2 spot in our category, are the fastest growing, and have the capability to launch ground floor up in a new country every year…well, what you call a pyramid scheme, I call an incredible business move. Besides, this company resembles a pyramid scheme about as much as I resemble an actual Victoria’s Secret model…

Don’t get me wrong, I worked my BUTT off to earn that trip. It wasn’t free and there were some pretty tough qualifications to be invited. But there’s something incredibly fulfilling about pushing yourself towards a specific goal, giving blood sweat and tears, achieving your goal, and then being rewarded with a gift that pushes you to continue working hard, long after the reward has come and gone. Like I said. Personal development, with a paycheck.

My vlog turned out pretty decent for a beginner. I’m lucky to have good, honest friends like Erin who reminded me that no one wants to sit through a seven minute “highlight reel” of our fabulous time, and so I created a trailer teaser that I am pretty proud of. It’s all about mindset and I am determined to make mine set towards one thing. Success despite any setbacks, always failing forward…and maybe with a few tropical trips along the way.    

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