Palm Desert Sales Team Retreat
Around 2 pm on Friday we left for our Sales Team retreat in Palm Desert. We said our goodbyes to the office, snagged a quick team pic, split into two cars and hit the road. The drive was long, but well worth the wait! Upon arrival we were greeted with refreshing cocktails that Sarah Rose and Hannah made and the cutest Cinco de Mayo decor. There was a DIY popcorn bar, fiesta balloons, sombreros hanging from chandeliers, cactus piñatas, succulents, and beautiful floral arrangements all around us. Once both cars made it to the house, we got a tour and were shown our rooms. Each bed had a custom-made t-shirt that said, “down to fiesta,” a pretty flower, and an itinerary for the weekend with a note from Hannah. As you could imagine after a 3-hour car drive, we were all pretty hungry. Pizza was served along with a salad and everyone sat together and talked about their car ride there. After dinner, we all changed into pjs for our first activity where we scooped a handful of M&Ms into a cup and counted each color. Whatever color you had the most of became the question you had to answer, so there was a question for each color M&M. Some of the questions were: What was your worst pet, most embarrassing story, and list your bucket list items. We went around the room and answered the questions and some of the girls had multiple answers and stories. After the game, Hannah and Sarah Rose handed out goodie bags filled with personalized cups, candles and mini pool floats that can hold your drink – so cute! We oohed and aahed over our new gifts then put on Legally Blonde and talked about work-related items and shared more fun stories while painting our nails, doing facial masks and indulging in the popcorn bar. After all the laughs and snacks, we went to bed.
Saturday morning, we woke up to a beautiful breakfast spread. We were treated with lox bagels, fruit salad, and a mimosa bar that had guava, peach and passion fruit juice options. We grabbed our plates and sat outside in the beautiful sunshine while we sipped on our drinks and ate breakfast. While we were finishing up our delicious bagels and mimosas, Hannah explained our next activity: A photo scavenger hunt! We were to split up into two teams and ride around the neighborhood in golf carts to find and take a picture of the following items: The entrance gate, another golf cart, a house with green shutters, an agave plant, brightly dressed golfers, a fluffy dog, multi colored flowers, someone putting, someone in a bunker, an open house, a personalized license plate, and for 5 extra bonus points, a bighorn sheep. We were told we had 30 minutes to find the items, and then we were off! The golf cart I was in darted straight for the mountains towards the back of the neighborhood to find the bighorn sheep. We drove by and found nothing. On our way back through a neighborhood we were stopped by someone who told us that there was a wild animal on the lose and to our surprise he pointed us directly in the direction of the bighorn sheep that was munching on some leaves in a neighboring yard! We sped up and got our picture. While we were on the hunt for our other scavenger hunt items, we actually ran into 5 more bighorn sheep and got pictures of them all. Both golf carts met back at the house at 11:11 am to tally up who won. The other golf cart didn’t find any bighorn sheep, so they ended up losing only because of that, otherwise there would have been a tie. Next up was our training activity. We talked about current work challenges and how to resolve them and our future goals within the company which led up to lunchtime. A taco and margarita bar were set up and decorated perfectly for the holiday. We filled our plates with chips and guac, al pastor, elote corn salad and more, then hit the margarita bar for a refreshing beverage we could sip on by the pool. No one waited 30 minutes after eating lunch to get into the pool. It was a beautiful day and the pool was calling our names. We hopped onto pool floats and relaxed until it was time for dinner. At 6pm sharp we walked out to the biggest surprise of the weekend: A hummer limo! Everyone screamed with excitement as we walked over to take a picture. The limo ride was close to 45 minutes before we made it to our dinner destination: Moxie in Palm Springs. We ordered lots of small plates to share and everyone ordered a cocktail. We spent a good two hours at dinner eating, laughing and sharing more stories before heading back home. The evening was mellow. Some of the girls went straight to bed because it was pretty late, but some stayed up and hung out outside by the fireplace relaxing before calling it a night.
Sunday morning we all woke up on our own time and ate leftover bagels because carbs are life. No one wanted to hit traffic on the way home, so right after breakfast we finished packing up, said our goodbyes, and headed back home from our amazing sales retreat.
Huge thank you to Hannah and Sarah Rose for putting together this amazing weekend and team bonding experience. Everything was thoroughly thought out and executed to perfection. You were both the best hosts and we all thank you!
