Blog #3 - DRIVEN360 – Baller/Retreat

So, this is how we start tying it together. Blog #2 was all about the LA Auto Show and the TV work that I do. Blog #3 takes us back a week to our DRIVEN360 retreat that was hosted in Nashville, TN. We flew in all our team members from the country for our annual meetings, but frankly this go around is was 50% meetings and 50% celebrating.

The team meetings were just that, strategy meetings and working to insure/make sure that we are on the right track with the business. As always, that part was successful. We also introduced a handful of news members and laid out what we are goals and forecasting are for the future. We do have a focus now on growth in Nashville and Atlanta, which is where our two main hubs and team members will be. Atlanta will be in Blog #4 and why there.

The celebration part of our team retreat was perhaps the most important part of the trip. It’s the reason we pulled it all together. What makes DRIVEN360 amazing are its people. As the owner of DRIVEN I can hire anyone with a PR background, anyone with marketing skills, anyone with social media skills, but you have to fit the mold. You seriously just have to be super fucking cool and down to earth. If you are that, then we are pretty confident you’ll be kick-ass at your job. We have a guy on our senior leadership team, Andrew de Lara, who always says you “have to fit our corporate culture.”

So, the celebration was about people. We laughed, played games, had a few adult beverages and truly spent the time together as a team. There are a handful of moments worth sharing because they were pivotal for me.

The first is with our incredible Accounting Manager Maggie Underwood. She’s been with DRIVEN360 the longest and by my side the whole way. She’s amazing. Well, in the years she’s been with us, she doesn’t get to really participate in PR/Marketing off sites like this because she’s the backend with the books. But, for this trip we made sure she had an invite and boy are we glad!!! Turns out Maggie like to really have a good time and most importantly loves to dance. Every honky tonk bar we all went to Maggie was out there dancing away. Who knew…right.

The second was on our second night together. We have two new members of our team. And BTW, DRIVEN360 is now 50+ women and let me tell you…they are super kick-ass young women. The absolutely give me hope for the future…they work hard, want to excel and show up. That will lead to great things for them. (Don’t worry Harrison, I still love you buddy☺). I digress, on this second night, we were on a rooftop bar. Everyone was talking and hanging out and our three new/newer (Kelsey) team members were huddled at the table all on their phones scrolling through some form of social media. It was just a pivotal moment where I could see how the next generation operates…later they all did the do-see-do. I may have joined!