Business Building in the Mile-High City
One of the most important parts of being an entrepreneur is taking time to build your business. As our coaches say, “Take the time to work on your business and not always in your business.”
We place a high value on our Client Experience so we expect the best performance of ourselves on behalf of them. That requires us as a business and as business owners to constantly strive to improve. So with Amy at the helm back at the office, Travis, our CEO, and Kelly, our COO, flew to Denver to attend a business building forum sponsored by one of our affiliates.
Dave Needham, a great friend of ours from college, picked us up at the airport. He is a Leadership Consultant and a former wilderness survival instructor.
Dave wanted us to stretch our legs right after we landed, so after lunch, we went for a hike at the Red Rocks Ampitheatre.
The ampitheatre steps are a workout and we knew that we’d be out of breath pretty quickly. Dave was very gracious, though an avid climber himself. We were surrounded by people running the steps, some doing calisthenics up the bleachers. Many appeared to be preparing for triathlons.
Dave even climbed up a tree to pick fresh-grown wild apples. 🙂
We climbed up a few thousand feet up where we rested, enjoyed the scenery and listened to some incredible stories of wilderness trails and fast-approaching storms.
Being enveloped inside of the massive boulders, resting in the fresh air, and reconnecting as friends, was a wonderful experience. Food for the soul.
As we headed back, surrounded by beautiful scenery, we looked forward to a great evening, including the honor of meeting Dave’s lovely wife, two incredible kids and their yellow lab.
We stayed for the next few days for our business conference at a beautiful resort in Denver, Colorado called the Omni Interlocken Resort.
Once we got to the resort, it was all business for the next few days. We reconnected with our “brothers/sisters in business” and enjoyed some fantastic meals.
The portions there were enormous. This is only half of a blue cheese crumble wedge salad! It was so good that we ordered it two days in a row.
The flatbread with mushrooms, artichokes, goat cheese and arugula was a huge hit. At one lunch meeting, we had two orders circulating the table, everyone talking with their mouths full.
Our colleagues are an incredible resource of support, knowledge and camaraderie. It was fantastic breaking bread with them.
In addition to our Investment Answers team attending the conference, Becka Bates, the principal of our marketing agency, flew out to spend some time working with us on business development.
Business building and problem solving are not always fun or easy. That’s why our goal is to remain proactive and well-organized. Our early prep work comes in handy when there are bumps in the road.
Having Becka with us on this trip was an incredible opportunity to take feedback that we get from our clients and turn it into realities in our 2013 planning. Her team supports us as we ensure our vendors meet the level of service we expect of them.
Our vendors come through for us because we try to surround ourselves with the highest caliber of teams. Then we take the extra step to nurture those relationships. We want our vendors to understand what our goals are. There’s no better way to ensure success than to work with amazing teams.
The Omni Interlocken Resort is beautiful and filled with very healthy-minded, active people. We overheard that Denver is the 5th happiest city in the US.
Travis was certainly happy at how much work was getting done on the golf course!
It was a wonderful experience reconnecting with others in our field that we love and trust—discussing our challenges, goals and the many opportunities that are available.
