As some of you may know, I put on a Surf and Sales Summit a few weeks ago with my friend, Richard Harris. It was a huge success and lot of fun. Richard shared 5 takeaways from the trip with me that I want to share with you. Please check them out below.We are going to be hosting this type of event again. To learn more about what you missed and what's to come head to Surf and Sales. Hope to see you at the next one.

Last November while vacationing with a good friend and our families in Costa Rica. My friend turned around and looked at me as we walked off the beach for the last time and said, “What do you think of the idea of getting some folks together for a surf and sales kind of meet-up down here? I bet folks would love it!” Well, thanks to Scott Leese and his ambition we just finished the inaugural Surf and Sales Summit in Costa Rica. It was an amazing experience to say the least. I walked away with 5 very important lessons. Some of these lessons were personal to me. Others were learnings to putting on a great experience for others.1. Work/Life balance is a myth. If you love your job you have the balance there. If you love your life you will have the balance there. You are out of balance when you no longer love one of those two things. This doesn’t mean you will have to make sacrifices from time to time. What it really means is that you will appreciate the rewards of the sacrifices you have to make. If you are out of balance in work or life, it’s up to you to improve that.2. The Process - Just like sales, learning to surf is a process. You break it down into smaller and learnable moments. You practice each movement separately, then over time you work on them as a whole.3. Timing – Like sales, surfing is about timing. You surf when the waves are best. This meant 6;30am wake up calls most days. Which also meant most folks were in bed by 10:30.4. Content – This was not an ego-driven content experience. We did everything possible to make sure we DID NOT lead sessions. We used a special formula that let the attendees lead and participate in discussions in a completely different way than your traditional conference.5. The Experience – The human brain cannot absorb, retain, and learn from constant content bombardment. The brain can only absorb as much as the butt will tolerate. With this in mind a strategic decision was made early on to give people time. Time to walk on the beach. Time to reflect on topics we discussed. Time to just relax so they can come back refreshed and refocused. We had surf and free time in the morning and late afternoons. Evenings were reserved for continuing conversations, networking, or just hanging out. This was not a party conference, it was an immersive learning experience.