I love retreats because they’re the perfect combination of freedom plus changing lives that was missing in my career. Now I’m doing the things that are important to me, changing lives, and loving it.
It wasn’t always that way.
Many times in my corporate sales and marketing career and then later in my own business, I wanted 1) the freedom to design how and where I worked, who I worked with, when I traveled, to be in charge of my own income and schedule, and 2) to make a difference and change lives.
Sometimes I had one or the other. Sometimes neither. I left my corporate career when I realized that I wasn’t doing things that were important to me. It seemed like I was working all the time and living at airports. I had no time for family or friends or fun.
My corporate career was in sales and marketing for Fortune 500 companies. When I left, I started a selling skill consulting business. Then social media came into its own and I worked with companies, entrepreneurs, and salespeople to get more clients with social media and LinkedIn. I was working with C-level executives, differentiating and positioning them for new business opportunities and training salesforces on social selling and LinkedIn.
Shifting to Align
One day I woke up and realized that I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. I didn’t really want to get up in the morning because I wasn’t challenged. I knew I had to make a big change. So I asked myself what the top three things were that I loved doing – things that I’d really be excited about every day. They were: 1) leading workshops, 2) niches and differentiating companies, and 3) travel. How could I combine them all? Was that even possible?
Then enter Retreats! How perfect!
What do I like best about retreats?
1) Leading groups. I love leading a group of like-minded people toward similar goals. There’s a different and exciting dynamic when it’s a group working together and adding to each other. Ideas come up that aren’t there when you’re working on your own. In a retreat, you’re not all alone working on your business and putting the pieces together by yourself. At a retreat, we get things done, have fun together and create lasting friendships.
2) It’s much easier to discover your ExpertiseDNA™ in person. Sometimes it’s hard to see our own genius, especially when we’re alone. We’re too close to ourselves to see it, and others see things we take for granted. When we’re in a group, our zone of genius comes out. It’s easier to decode your ExpertiseDNA™, package your expertise and find your niche of ideal clients when you’re with other people. When you’ve done that, it’s easy to write your website copy, sales pages and know your elevator speech for networking. I get excited to see people make breakthroughs as a result of what I’m doing – see their value and have services offer their clients. Because it’s in person, it’s rewarding and we get more done in a short time.
3) Traveling. At retreats, we’re in beautiful places away from the daily details of life — the ones that distract us and keep us from the work and life we want. And we’re away from the people who may try to hold us back.
All of these things add up to concentrated learning, growing and creating the business and life of freedom we want for ourselves and our families. It’s one thing to study online courses to get the information we need. And another thing altogether to actually implement it right there in person as we learn it – in a safe space with others who are doing the same thing.
I love retreats.
Byline:
Jan Wallen left corporate life behind to pursue her calling: To decode the ExpertiseDNA™ of women who’ve left corporate careers (or are leaving) and package the expertise they’ve gained in their career so they can pursue their calling as a coach and solo-entrepreneur faster than doing it all on their own. That way, they can be brilliant at what they do, not struggle with their marketing.
She also cures their Corporate Hangover – skills we learned in corporate to be successful and that interfere when we start our own business. Find out more and download the Top 10 Corporate Hangover Cures: www.JanWallen.com/chcblog/
© 2018 Jan B. Wallen. All rights reserved.