Why Staff Retreats ROCK!

After a very busy and productive 2014, the Unique team went on a much-needed three day staff retreat to Palm Springs! Even though our team is small, six people including full-time and part-time staff, we are mighty and accomplish a lot across three different brands: the Unique USA shopping events, The Unique Space and our creative conference CAMP.  What that means is that, like most small businesses, we all wear many hats and work on different projects. So our founder Sonja Rasula thought it was time we left our normal environment to concentrate on 2015 planning, biz dev and strategy, and to spend time together, bonding away from the workplace... WHAT AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE IT WAS!

Basically what it boils down to is that we invested the time into 'taking time out', which seems like a simple concept yet few small businesses do it. After the experience Sonja is now making it an annual retreat and we accomplished so much in just a few days, both work and play! We brainstormed website redesign, thought of new revenue streams, figured out the new company vision and mission statements; but we also had a great time deepening friendships, doing arts and crafts projects to foster our creative sides, and we had a blast cooking and drinking wine! One night we had planned to go out on the town but every single person opted to stay in to simply play Pictionary, which really shows how much fun we had simply hanging-out and getting to know one another! Whether you're a small business or a big one we think a retreat is crucial, the outcome of our retreat did wonders for us. Here's some of our photos we shared on Instagram using #UniqueStaffRetreat. 

Heather, our Marketing Specialist, is packed and ready to go!

We stopped on the way to Palm Springs to snap this shot of a T. Rex. This shot is from Jennier Teo, our Senior Graphic Designer.

In-N-out always delicious. We stopped here for lunch!

Here's the house we rented in Palm Springs with the cool yellow door! Four of our staff took the same photo of this door without realizing it - great minds think alike?!  

Beautiful morning in Palm Springs, taken by our marketing guru Heather McCallum, who snapped this during her morning training run. She's training for a marathon in March!

CEO and Founder Sonja Rasula gave each staff member a customized, leather notepad cover from one of her favorite brands - Shinola!

Sipping on wine and enjoying the sunset.

We started Day 2 with a private group yoga session. Here's CEO Sonja Rasula and Senior Event Producer Kellie Cockrell working together to hold this pose.

After yoga, we went for a hike to see the beautiful view of Palm Springs and take a water color lesson from Chris Heynen, our Director of Operations.

A view and painting, doesn't get much calmer than this! 

Here we are trying out different water color techniques.

Here's Sonja holding up Kellie's water color painting.

We spent the evening planning, making goals and brainstorming for the future of Unique.

The pool at the house glowed a bright turquoise. This photo was snapped by Director of Operations Chris Heynen.

On Day 3, we drove out to the Integratron sound bath and stopped by the many windmills on the way. 

Integratron Sound Bath! None of us had ever been before...we were excited to experience this together!

Beam me up. Sonja's ready to join an alien colony.