Citizen Brand: Retreat XII

The next three days are some of my favorite days of the year. It is our company's annual retreat. We are heading to Big Cedar Lodge in southwest Missouri for our fifth straight year. It is a great venue for this meeting. It's far enough away but close enough to drive and the setting in the Ozarks is beautiful.

We have taken these retreats for 12 years now and it has become a vital part of the growth and direction of the company. Each year has added a new layer to our brand or a new initiative for us to undertake. It reinvigorates each of us as individuals and as a group. Simply put, the annual retreat is an important part of who we are.

Our focus at this year's retreat will be how to be more creative and powerful in how we present information to our clients, our prospects and each other. We are honored to have Toni Louw for a whole day to share with us his years of experience working with some of the biggest brands in the world. His company is one we highly recommend you consider. He and his colleagues can help in so many ways.

Besides the beauty of the Ozark Mountains and Table Rock Lake, we love Big Cedar because on Thursday night, we get to hear an old friend sing. Clay Self is just plain fun. He plays at the Buzzard Bar at Big Cedar Thursday through Sunday. We are there but once a year and yet he makes us feel like we are there every night. That is why he is so good at what he does. He makes you feel right at home. I can't wait to see Clay again and hear him yell my name out across the bar. By the way, he's a good singer and songwriter and a great family man.

One of my favorite songs of his is "Me And the Boys." It begins talking about how he and his band worked and played hard in his early years and ends with him singing about how his time with his sons are all that matter now. I can relate to that.