Welcome to the World of Corporate Training!

Joe has become a traveling man! He was assigned his first business trip this past week. He set up a seminar for Verizon so he was invited to attend as part of his training. Today he is actually in charge of the Build a Bike workshop. Joe signed up about 150 people for this particular event. It was a very sweet commission which paid about double the amount of a teacher's paycheck!

He headed to Orlando early Sunday morning. He was picked up at the airport and driven to the Peabody Hotel. He entered the conference center through a gigantic inflated football helmet right into the middle of the huge Super Bowl party. A lot of the attendants were from New York but Joe said the fans were split pretty evenly. He was immediately whisked away by Trish (the gal he has spent so much time on the phone with setting this up). She introduced him to CEO's of various companies, vice-presidents, and other big-wigs. Apparently they thought that Joe was the head guy! He finally motioned toward his boss Doug Staneart (CEO of the Leaders Institute)and told them that Doug was the head man. They continued to treat Joe like a celebrity though since he is the one all the work and details had been set up by.

Monday was a huge training day for Joe and how awesome that he got to learn from the best. Of course, nobody at the convention knew that Joe was in training. Tuesday, Joe got a huge surprise. Doug had to leave early to catch a flight so he let Joe go solo!! Woohoo! Needless to say, Joe rocked! Doug was able to observe him most of the time, went up and packed his luggage, and was there for the conclusion. He was quite impressed with Joe's ability to wing it! Today, Wednesday, Joe is facilitating the Build a Bike workshop. He will have various teams work together through solving clues, earning pieces (nuts, bolts, wheels, etc), and finally assembling and racing their bikes. Then at the gala event, they will present 22 completed bikes to a local charity. The children will be there to be recipients. It is an awesome program and I can't wait to hear how it all went!

Tonight Joe will be flying to Phoenix where he will finally get to meet his supervisor/trainer Tanya. This company is so unique because there are no central offices. He talks non-stop to all these people and hasn't even met them. He will also get to meet Rick Highsmith the VP. Anyway, he will help facilitate the Phoenix event and then fly home late Friday night. Thankfully the Valentines event in Jackson was cancelled so he'll get to stay home for a whole week before he heads out again. This time he'll be flying to Chicago and then Houston.

If you're interested in seeing what Joe's new company is all about and the different events they offer just check out the website at www.leadersinstitute.com. So far he is really enjoying his new job. However, he said that first night that he didn't realize how big a hick he was until being surrounded by all these corporate people! Welcome to the world of Corporate Training Joe Montana!
love, allie