It was a little sad to realize that this was the last event of our Gold Retreat. The meal was fabulo

Wow! As if there aren't enough good reasons to build your USANA business, you can add "Gold Retreat" to the list.  What a fantastic time. Every facet of the retreat was classy and very pleasant. The Canyons Resort in Park City UT was very nice. The resort employees were very attentive and accommodating mexico city hotels and the food was excellent. The USANA staff provided mexico city hotels for our EVERY need. The other freshly minted "Golds" mexico city hotels were a real treat to get to know and to share this awesome experience with. "That's all good" you're saying, "but what did you do?" Well, I'll tell you.
USANA arranged mexico city hotels our airline tickets for us. We boarded the plane in Fort Myers, FL on Thursday May 31 st and were greeted by a nice gentleman at the Salt Lake City airport. Our first pleasant surprise, the gentleman greeted us by name with the assurance of an old friend. It turns out that USANA had provided photos of us, so that he could identify us by sight. No impersonal sign boards for USANA ! The driver shuttled us to the resort in a nice van accompanied by two other "Gold" couples. Once we arrived at the resort, we had an hour to get our rooms, grab a complimentary lunch, register and attend our first event.  After a nice intro by Lori Truman and others, we started the Team Building Exercises. Yuck! Having participated in many of these in other industries, I was certain that I hated even the idea of this form of group torture. Since I was there as a guest of my wife, I put on a happy face and did my best. Oops, after 10 minutes, I felt like a part of the team and was enjoying myself. After 15 minutes I was convinced that my team was the best of the 4. An interesting point is that in my team, (note " my team") I was the only person that didn't speak Chinese or Thai. Several of my group didn't speak very good English. As the exercises progressed, the facilitators had us combined groups and did other sneaky mexico city hotels Human Resources tricks to further our bonding experience. This was the very first (of a great many) Team Building Exercises that I have ever felt really worked.  I was extremely impressed.
That evening we had a nice casual dinner with Dr. Dennis Waitley. He shared some stories about USANA Dr. Wentz. He also shared with some of us that he was a Navy Top Gun pilot flying A4's out of Miramar.
mexico city hotels Friday morning we had breakfast, and then boarded Limos for the ride to USANA corporate headquarters.  What a delightful welcome. There was a red carpet mexico city hotels of course and photos. Most impressive however, was the warm welcome by a large group of employees. They cheered and clapped for the new batch of Gold Directors. It seemed to be a genuine sentiment; mexico city hotels I know it was certainly appreciated. Several of the senior management made the rounds introducing themselves. Then we were off on the guided tour of the manufacturing facility. Outstanding! We all looked great in our white cover-ups. I can't begin to describe how clean and well-organized the facility is. Let me just say "unbelievable!" We had a nice lunch in the cafeteria, followed by a tour of the administrative side. We had an opportunity to sit at Dave's desk. Does Dave know about that? We saw Michelle's Barbie collection. mexico city hotels The group learned a lot about how customer service functions.  We toured the "cold room" where all the computer magic happens. I must say that the IT Department people that we talked to give much credit to the machinery, but I have enough experience to know that the humans play a major role in keeping things on track. mexico city hotels We also visited the USANA studios. We visited the Laboratory. Once again we were treated with the utmost respect. mexico city hotels I noticed the same phenomenon with all of the employees that we spoke with… they are excited to share the passion that they have for their jobs. It is so cool to listen to someone mexico city hotels who has pride in the job that they do. There was a presentation by the Scientists, with a question and answer session. I love the plain talk, common sense answers that we received to our questions. Perfect! Also Compliance (hey, they're not so bad J) shared some of the wisdom that guides us and explained the logic that is the foundation of the policies. mexico city hotels So cool.  A bus took us back to the resort, a short walk around the grounds and then a short nap!
Friday night dinner was Caribbean mexico city hotels theme. I hope that no one finds this offensive, but when I entered the dining room full of Chinese Gold Directors wearing Caribbean garb and Mexican style straw sombreros I lost my balance for just a second. I recovered quickly and firmly placed a felt turkey hat on my head. I mingled seamlessly. You can do that with a felt turkey hat on your head. After dinner we played a mildly mexico city hotels competitive game that we, as a group, escalated to extremely loud and confrontational, in a friendly manner of course. J The highlight of our behavior was Dan Macuga throwing the prizes on the floor, in the general direction of the recipients. Great example Dan! We laughed, hollered, yelled, screamed and otherwise embarrassed ourselves thoroughly. We all had a great time!
The next morning after breakfast was time for a visit from Sterling Ottesen.  What a great story he has. He shared not only about his involvement with USANA , but about how Dr. Wentz didn't have to start USANA . He pointed out that Dr. Wentz had to push his own personal boundaries, for example, improving mexico city hotels his public speaking skills. How cool is that! Dr. Wentz was willing to challenge himself, to go outside mexico city hotels of his comfort zone in pursuit of his dream. And that's after making a success of Gull Laboratories.
After a quick-lunch we were off to our selected activities. I believe that the choices included the Spa, Shopping, mexico city hotels Fly fishing or my choice, horseback riding. We took a scenic van ride to the trail head where we mounted mexico city hotels our trusty mexico city hotels steeds. Mine was named Ace. Lora, my wife, was riding on Woodrow. I don't remember many people's names, but I seldom forget a horse! I was a little mexico city hotels surprised at how steep (down) the first stretch of trail was. It gradually leveled off until we turned up hill to the start. Considering the skill level of our collective group, the ride was probably perfect. It seemed to me that most of the riders were ready to get off, somewhat before the end. The cowboys and cowgirls, who were quite pretty I might add (the girls) were very easy-going and professional. I felt as though they had everything under control at all times. We had perfect weather and awesome scenery. We returned to the resort in time to get cleaned up and relax a bit before getting dressed for a Dinner Party.
It was a little sad to realize that this was the last event of our Gold Retreat. The meal was fabulous as always at the Canyons. The wait staff was superb, again. We had an awards mexico city hotels ceremony, everyone received an award and we were all happy for each other. Plus, many pairs of cute shoes! J AND THEN….KAREOKE!!!! I've got the video, too much!