I’m Taking My Team to Florida! Prep for Our Company Retreat with Me!
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A well-planned team retreat is more than just a getaway—it’s an opportunity to reignite creativity, strengthen relationships, and align your team with a shared vision. In this episode, Victoria takes you behind the scenes of how BrandWell Designs has embraced retreats as a cornerstone of their culture, from the first retreat in 2021 to the much-anticipated 2025 retreat in Seaside, Florida.
As BrandWell has grown, so have the logistics, but the mission remains the same: to cultivate an environment of gratitude and connection. Whether it’s fully covering expenses for employees or offering travel stipends for contractors, Victoria is committed to making every team member feel valued.
But what if a full-scale retreat isn’t feasible? Victoria’s got you covered. From curated gift boxes to personalized stipends, she reveals creative and impactful ways to show appreciation—no travel required. Thoughtful gestures like handwritten notes and verbal recognition can go a long way in boosting morale and reinforcing a positive team culture.
Whether you're dreaming of hosting a transformational retreat or looking for simple yet powerful ways to celebrate your team, this episode will inspire you to integrate rest, gratitude, and connection into your leadership approach.
Backstory of Hosting Company Retreats
Back in 2018, Victoria started BrandWell Designs – freelancing on the side of working full time at another web design agency. In 2019, Victoria found out she was pregnant with her first daughter and decided to take BrandWell full time! With a baby on the way, she knew that this was her opportunity to build something that would be able to operate with or without her and so she started hiring contractors. Fast forward to 2020, Victoria had a few contractors under her belt and this is when she realized how beautiful it was to have a team. She recognized how much of a gift it was to be able to have girls on her team that were aligned with her vision for her company, and who were willing to treat her clients as their own. This is what inspired Victoria to host the very first BrandWell Designers Retreat in 2021. She wanted to pour back into each one of the girls on her team, spoil them a bit, and get them all under one roof since not everyone lived near each other. Early on, these retreats were completely covered by Victoria including airfare, meals, lodging, events, everything. Today, that looks a bit different and we’ll get into that later on.
2022 Retreat: Lake Oconee, Georgia
In 2022, BrandWell’s Designer Retreat took them to Victoria’s parents’ lake house near Lake Oconee in Georgia. At this point, the team grew to about six girls, plus Victoria. During the first retreat, Victoria had handled all of the logistics, all the cooking, etc., but this time, Victoria’s mom joined the retreat and she is now forever known as the mom of BrandWell. She’s an incredible host and by having her help with the retreats, it allows Victoria to be a part of it and really bond with the girls. Along with all the fun, during the first two retreats, they also held “strategy sessions” where they could brainstorm for the future of BrandWell. It was these sessions that sparked a lot of great strategies and ideas for the processes that are now used at BrandWell.
2024 Retreat: Nashville, Tennessee
Between having a newborn and launching The Branding Business School in 2023, it was a bit much to also host a retreat, but Victoria made it up to the team by taking them to Nashville in 2024! This retreat was awesome and it looked quite different from the first two retreats! The goal of this retreat was to really experience brands in real life! Rather than sitting and talking about branding and strategy, Victoria wanted to act as a customer, and experience how customers interact with brands, because BrandWell is building brands that their customers are going to be interacting with on a daily basis. Sometimes it’s better to get away from the laptop screen, get off of Pinterest, and get out in real life and think about things through the lens of the consumer. This retreat had about eight girls and they stayed at the coolest underground villa in Nashville! There were no “strategy sessions”, no dedicated work time, but there was line dancing, lunches, shopping, and game nights – it was truly an extended girls night out! As they were out and about, they would think about what strategy was used when the brands they visited were created. How did the visual identity make them feel? Were they a part of the target audience? Then when they came back home, they did a project where they each chose their favorite brand to recreate and put their own spin on. This was a fun opportunity for inspiration, creativity, and of course prizes to spoil the girls! Victoria really wanted the girls to think critically about how a brand makes the consumer feel and how every element that goes into a visual identity of a brand is going to make the person on the other end feel something.
Take a listen to the Nashville recap episode, featuring each of the designers that attended, here!
2025 Retreat: Seaside, Florida
This year, the BrandWell team is going to Florida! Victoria was really inspired from last years retreat with how there was a lot more rest involved. Of course there was discussion about branding and how they can improve their own processes, that is a natural by-product of hosting these retreats, but Victoria doesn’t want that to become the only reason why she hosts them. She always wants to remember the 2021 retreat and why she did it, and that was truly to spoil her girls and say thank you for sharing their talent with the team. Seaside, FL has been on Victoria’s bucket list for a few years – it’s a space that feels very BrandWell – so naturally, it’s a place that they needed to check out for themselves.
For this retreat, a few things have changed since the first retreat. Now that there are more designers, living all over the country, it’s challenging to get everyone’s schedules to sync up, so Victoria did choose the date this time around with the hope that everyone will be able to make it. Another difference is that when the team was smaller, Victoria was able to cover everything, from flights to rental cars to meals. This year, Victoria is still going to cover 100% of the lodging and the meals, but contractors are now going to be responsible to cover the cost to get to the retreat. To help them cover the cost, Victoria is granting all of the contractors a set stipend for travel. If it was possible to cover 100% of the trip for the whole team, Victoria would, but it hasn’t financially made sense at this time for the company.
Rested Minds, Creative Designs
With being pregnant with her third daughter and chasing the other two littles around, Victoria is tired all the time, so she’s really been prioritizing rest in her own life this year. This has really inspired her to encourage her designers to also embrace rest. Whether you’re a mom or not, it’s so easy to get hooked on the euphoric feeling that can come with being productive, but rest can be the most productive thing you do in your day. Victoria wanted to inspire her team to rest by creating an environment that’s conducive to rest, and that was part of choosing the location, Seaside.
The main things on the agenda for this retreat includes morning yoga by the pool, going for walks on the beach, having lunch and grab coffee in the 30A area and experiencing brands there. Victoria was very intentional for this retreat’s agenda and added in more time than what’s probably necessary to take away the feeling of rush, and give them the opportunity to really feel like they are on a vacation and not a company trip. Another intentional thought that Victoria has with these retreats is keeping them short. This keeps it fun, vacation-like, the time together is cherished, and then everyone leaves wanting more.
The Itinerary
Victoria and a few girls will arrive early Friday morning, have a little beach day, grab groceries and check into the Airbnb. The actual events begin Friday evening with a charcuterie by the pool, dinner, and a game night! Saturday is the only full day of the retreat, but it’ll be filled with ways to get the team to feel rested and rejuvenated – yoga in the morning, grabbing coffee, then lay out on the beach, do some shopping, and really just enjoy the 30A local brands! Saturday evening, Victoria is doing an “Olipop and Paint” night, including fun prizes of course! Sunday morning will be an early morning walk on the beach and grabbing coffee before saying farewell to everyone!
Ways to Make Your Team Feel Valued (That’s not a retreat)
No matter how small or large your team is, here’s a few ways that you can spoil your team without necessarily having to plan a trip!
A surprise and delight box: Send them a curated gift box with personalized items!
Let your employees out early on Fridays: If you have employees working 9-5, let them know around noon that they can be done for the day an hour early!
Starbucks Gift Cards: Victoria loves to send these to her team regularly!
Self-Care Stipend / Shopping Stipend: If you have girls working for you that love to get their hair or nails done, this is a great idea before a conference or retreat!
Personalized Gifts: Send them something that they love, or what their interests are!
Handwritten Note: You can never replace the power of a handwritten note!
When your team can sense that you have a vested interest in them and in their lives outside of just what they do and contribute to you and your company, that will go a long way. If your team is growing or your business is keeping you busy, it’s really easy as the CEO who’s spinning all the plates to forget to acknowledge the good work that your team is doing, even if it’s mundane, even if they are doing the exact thing you hired them to do, commend them. When all else fails, make sure that you’re giving them that verbal affirmation of the job well done and if you can, then try and incorporate some of these other things too. At the end of the day, a thriving business is not just about the product or the service that you’re delivering, it is about the team that is delivering that product or service.
Key Quotes
“When you take care of your team, you create a culture of creativity, loyalty, and excitement for the work that you guys are doing together.”
Victoria Marcouillier
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