Mel and Beth return from EntreLeadership Summit 2017 with big plans

GetUWired CEO Melissa Allen and her right-hand-woman Operations Coordinator Beth Buck just returned from the 2017 EntreLeadership Summit in Orlando with big plans on how to make GetUWired, and themselves, even better.

The EntreLeadership Summit always means positive change at the Cabin

 For the past two years, Melissa and Beth have gone to the EntreLeadership Summit to learn more about being effective leaders.

Last year’s theme was “appreciation,” and the dynamic duo came home inspired to show our staff how much they mean to the company. From surprising team members with ice cream deliveries to sending thank you notes to developing more employee perks, the effects of last years’ EntreLeadership Summit were felt in a big way here at the office.

“When you go to a conference like this, you come home and want to change the world,” said Melissa. “Beth and I go to these to feed our souls.”

This year’s theme – People Matter

This year is no different. Melissa and Beth came home from the Summit emboldened with ideas on how to become better leaders, improve our client communications, and help our employees become better versions of themselves both inside and outside the office.

The theme of the 2017 EntreLeadership Summit was “People Matter.”

“It’s the idea that you’re really nothing without your tribe,” Melissa said. “And hearing it from so many different points of view and so many different people really drove it home.”

Thursday strategy session

 After the three-day Summit, Melissa and Beth stayed in Orlando to dedicate an entire day to going over what they learned and planing how to implement the ideas from the Summit at GetUWired.

Inspired seems like too soft a word to describe how Mel and Beth felt after three days of listening to leadership gurus – who are literally Melissa’s heroes. They were stoked! They were moved. More than anything, they were committed to taking action.

Speaker by amazing speaker, here are the ideas they decided to bring to life here at the cabin.

Lou Holtz – Three Questions

A former football player, coach, and analyst, (and Melissa’s favorite speaker) Lou Holtz shared his 80 years of wisdom with the EntreLeadership attendees. “It was like sitting and listening to your grandpa tell stories about when he was in the war,” she said. “I was mesmerized by all his real-life wisdom and experience.”

Lou says that three questions are asked of every leader:

Can I trust you?

Are you committed?

Do you care?

We’re going to make sure our customers understand that our answer to all three questions is a resounding YES!

“We’re going to be working with our project managers on ways to make sure our clients know how much they mean to us,” Melissa said.

Dave Ramsey – Setting Goals

Melissa is a quite possibly the biggest Dave Ramsey fan on the planet. So of course she’d come home with a task list based on Dave’s advice.

At the Summit, Dave said that every leader has a responsibility to help their employees get better not only at their jobs, but also help them improve in their lives in general.

“He stressed the importance of being a resource for people,” she said. “And as a leader, you can only teach people as much as you know, so you should never stop learning.”

Starting soon, Beth will be meeting with the developers and the Creative Team to set and track goals in seven areas of their lives: financial, spiritual, family, intellectual, physical, social, and career. She’ll be working with them to create goals for whatever they are passionate about (it won’t have to be all seven areas) and then acting as a resource to help them stay on track and achieve those goals.

Bobby will also be sitting down with developers in the first month of every quarter and looking at their “developer scorecard.” He’ll give them feedback on what they’ve been doing great and what they need to learn to get better. This meeting with Bobby will help developers move forward in their careers and keep them on track during the year, which we believe will be more helpful than only getting feedback at annual reviews.

Simon Sinek – Finding Your Why

Simon Sinek preached the importance of communicating your “why” as a business to keep everyone moving in the same direction. A “why” is different from a company vision, and it can work as a yardstick to measure every decision made.

“We have a purpose statement, and we know our ‘why’ overall, but I’m going to be working on a way to communicate that ‘why’ with our employees and the world in a simple way,” Melissa said.

Her first step will be to read Sinek’s book “Find Your Why.” Then, she’ll get together with the Leadership Team to hash out the beginning of the process before bringing together the entire company for the final decision. This is the same process we used to create our company vision, and it resulted in true employee buy-in and real passion around our group-created vision.

John Maxwell – Intentional Growth

John Maxwell spoke on the importance of intentional growth. “A lot of people assume just because you’re getting older, you’re getting better,” he said in his speech. “But a lot of old people suck.”

Maxwell said that people get stuck in the trap of thinking that growth is automatic, but it’s not.

“I’ve thought that about myself,” Melissa said. “That I’ll just get better. I was waiting for growth instead of going after it.”

But not anymore. Melissa and Beth have both committed to spending one hour a day on becoming better leaders. They will be meeting every morning to keep each other accountable and track their progress.

“For me, leadership is the number one thing I’m most interested in for professional development,” she said. “So I’m going to take an hour each day to read, reflect on my day, or somehow learn about leadership.”

Being among giants

As a “leadership junkie” who lives and breathes leadership every minute of every day, seeing these world-renowned speakers in person was like “being among giants,” Melissa said.

“These are people who have focused on being better leaders and building the people around them up,” she said. “What could be a better legacy than being a good example and trying to be a good support network? They are the best of the best. It’s humbling to be in the same room with them. Makes me think of all the things I still have to do.”

Work with us!

We’d love to help you get the powerful marketing your business deserves. Start now by giving us a call at 877-236-9094 or visiting us online at www.GetUWired.com.