A great time was had by all! 
Our weekend at the Hyatt in Cambridge, MD started off with golf and spa
treatments.  The course offered beautiful
views, challenging holes, and plenty of opportunities to talk trash!  The spa offered hot stone massages, Swedish
massages, facials, and sauna/steam showers. 
It was an appropriate way to get everyone in the right frame of mind to
take their business to the next level. 

The theme of this year’s business planning was Around the
World.  We started off in our RE/MAX Hot
Air Balloons in Middleburg, VA where we visualized our trip (our
businesses).  We had to determine our
course of action for our trip going forward by first reviewing where we had
come from in 2009.  We analyzed what our
key performance indicators are for 2010 and how we will measure success.  Additionally, we set short term and long
range goals to set our course for success.

Our next stop was a crash landing in Greenland where we were
kidnapped and had to participate in a dog sled race to get our balloon
back.  In Greenland, we had to determine
how to problem solve our way out of the mess we were in (short sales,
unprofessional agents, foreclosures, etc), think strategically on how we were
going to get ourselves out of these situations and continue to set our course
for success by reviewing our “why” of being in business.

Luckily, we were able to get our balloon back and get back
in the air to look at our business from a higher altitude!  But, guess what?  We got blown off course and crashed landed in
a boat in Luxor, Egypt where we had to navigate the Nile 350 miles to get our
balloon repaired.  We were on our way to
accomplishing this by looking for new opportunities available to us and how to
build upon them and grow them and ask ourselves if we have currently taken
advantage of them in today’s market when we were arrested!  We had to analyze our negotiating skills and
how to improve upon them based upon challenges we faced as well as realize we
need to have contingency plans in place to handle each situation we encounter
in our market.  As we handled these
challenges, we were able to move on!

Believing we were going to sail smoothly home – we once
again experienced a challenge – another crash as our balloon got a tear from
high altitudes and we landed on the Great Wall of China.  While in China, we had to improve our
communication skills – listening, being the first order of business in
developing better communication skills. 
Then we moved on to looking at non verbal communication, tonality and
other forms of communication others use to communicate.  We considered the options available to
redefine our business and reinvent ourselves in the process.  As markets change so must we.  Our balloon is repaired and we are back in
flight and on our way to success again!

I think you know what happens, we have an emergency
landing.  This time in Pago Pago!  It is an extremely poor island where it was
time to reflect on what is important to us – our value system.  We reviewed what is important to us today and
what values are going to carry us to where we want to be in the future.  Self analysis is a strategy to help us grow
both personally and professionally!  This
also incorporated accepting change in ourselves, our business, and why this is a
critical piece to success in any endeavor we undertake.

On the last leg of our trip home, we realized at our high
altitude that flying high isn’t the only key to success.  We must have the right attitude to get us
there.  It is important to manage our thoughts
and actions to develop the right habits to lead us to a successful career! 

Finally, we were home with a our travel log that included
short term goals, long term goals and an action plan to get us to success.  We set a meeting to discuss our trip and
review our progress in 90 days.  Our
travel logs were shared and we are going to hold others accountable to their
success in our next meeting! 

We discussed the importance of getting away, putting things
in writing, and being held accountable to our objectives we can attain much
greater success.  We hope that you will
join us on our next journey because by failing to plan, you are planning to
fail.  Get it?  Got it? 
Good!

Now, go sell something!