Beachbody Coach Summit 2016 Recap!

“It was about no longer being the kind of person who takes what she can get, and finally becoming the kind of person who creates exactly what she wants.”

— Jen Sincero

Well, Ben is back to school this week so it's officially time for me to get back to work and update the bloggyblog. Consider this my "What I Did With My Summer" report, starting with my Coach Summit recap!

In July we took an EPIC trip to Nashville, TN for the annual Beachbody Coach Summit, which is kind of like a conference, girls trip, family reunion, personal development retreat, business and leadership training event, the Academy Awards, and the Olympics all rolled into one.

I'm not exaggerating.

This was my second Summit and I was super excited to be able to share it with Ben! He's such a good sport, and was obviously equally excited to spend a long weekend in a house with 10 other women just like me.

Last year I arrived in Nashville with wide eyes, and open heart, and absolutely no idea what to expect. It was a whirlwind and I felt like my heart and soul were blown wide open with the energy, emotion, knowledge, and sheer joy of spending time with some of my favorite people, immersed in learning and sharing and living what we're most passionate about - growing and learning and helping other people. You can read my gushy 2015 new coach recap here!

This year was a completely different yet equally amazing experience. I'm another year older, wider, and more experienced, and HOLY CRAP it's pretty amazing how much we can change and grow in just one year.

I was a lot calmer and able to relax and enjoy being in my element and soaking everything in.

Last year I shared Summit with 6 of the coaches on my team Inspire Joy, and we crammed into rooms at a cheap motel on the side of the highway. We woke up at 5:30am to workout with Shaun T and Autumn Calabrese, stayed up past midnight at the celebration events, partied a little too hard, survived on Shakeology and adrenaline, and left feeling on fire and overwhelmed in the best possible way.

This year I brought 10 coaches on my team, and we decided to rent a house in the suburbs so we could have a kitchen, more space, and a little more peace and calm to retreat from the high energy of the event. BEST DECISION EVER.

Yup, we had 10 women plus Ben in one house. Ben survived... and I'm proud to say we made it everywhere on time and had zero girl drama. Your vibe attracts your tribe, and we don't accept drama over in this club! Chill is the word.

Our first night we made dinner together and spent the night drinking wine, Snapchatting, and soaking it all in. It was the first time a lot of us had met each other in "real life" after spending hours and hours together online in our team webinars and groups.

The craziest part is that I met every single one of these women through social media, Instagram, and the internet, but together it felt like reuniting with long lost soul sisters. 

The modern world is CRAZY AWESOME, making it so easy to connect with women literally just like you.

Psst - this is your sign...if you've been stalking my blog and thinking "omg we could be friends"...reach out and let's make that happen!

Thursday was the first official day of Summit, so I headed downtown to the Music City Center to check-in, and then had to report to the big football stadium for rehearsals for the night's big opening recognition ceremony!

This year I was recognized as a One Star Diamond Coach, which means that I have at least one Diamond ranked coach on my team. To be a Diamond you have to lead an organization of at least 12 coaches, and it's the first major milestone if you're serious about creating a part-time or full-time income through Beachbody coaching. (My goal next year is to have at least 8 diamonds on my team!)

I also was honored for being a Success Club Legend, which means I helped at least 3 new clients every single month get started on their health and fitness journeys for 24 consecutive months!

Beachbody is ridiculously great at recognizing coaches for their hard work. 

For the recognition rehearsal, I was herded into a tunnel beneath the football field with all the other new One Star Diamond coaches, and felt like Beyonce walking out into an NFL stadium. There were on and off thunderstorms and downpours, but Beachbody simply handed out ponchos and we got it done. They're seriously impressive at event organization.

Here are a couple pictures of the empty stadium during rehearsal, and then Ben and I at the opening Celebration!!

Last year I sat with my coaches in the nosebleed seats in the stands, and made it my goal to make it down to the floor seats by this year ... and I actually pulled it off!

It's SO important to create goals and a vision for your life so you can constantly work towards something bigger that matters to you. Put it out into the universe and everything will fall into place, even if it turns out a little different than what you originally expected.

Knowing that my girls were in the stands cheering me on was the best feeing ever and was so proud to represent our team!

Thursday night's opening celebration was full of recognizing all the top coaches and leaders in the network and hearing about the exciting new products and programs that will be launching throughout the rest of the year.

Friday and Saturday were full of seminars, workshops, and learning!

There were 25,000 coaches in Nashville for Summit, so all our events were held in the Music City Center, Bridgestone Arena, and Nissan Stadium ... aka all the huge convention centers and sports arenas.

We heard from keynote speakers, social media experts, and online business experts like Gary Vaynerchuk, Chalene Johnson, Shaun T, our CEO Carl Daikeler, and other top coaches in the organization including my own mentor Chelsea!

I was so proud to see her up on stage in front of 3,000 coaches!

One of the best parts about Beachbody is that it's a culture of duplication and service, which means everyone wants to help everyone else succeed. Top coaches don't keep secrets and corporate provides us with a ridiculously high level of business training, tools, and resources.

That's honestly why I was brave enough to quit my old job and partner with Beachbody as a full time coach two years ago -- the business is a system and you're provided with literally EVERYTHING you need to create a six figure business, you just have to put in the work and effort. There's pretty much zero risk involved, as long as you're consistent and show up for yourself and your business every single day.

And those were my main takeaways from all the workshops: hard work and patience will pay off. Not everyone is willing to stick it out and trust in the bigger picture, so they give up on themselves too early, but if you're willing to commit even just 3-4 years of your life to work on creating something really great, you literally CAN'T fail. Good things take time, and that's ok!

If you're a fellow coach or entrepreneur and want to see what we learned, you can find my full notes from the business workshops and seminars here!

And of course between all the workshops and learning there was plenty of going out and celebrating too!

Nashville is such a fun city. Our favorite spot to hangout was ACME, a four story bar and restaurant with a rooftop overlooking Broadway, the river, and the stadium!

What I love most about my team is that we're just regular down to earth, fun loving women who share big dreams.

We value authenticity, creativity, community, service, leadership, and personal development...but also love to be silly and let loose with a few glasses of wine or grapefruit sodas. Because that's what life is all about. Work hard, play hard!

Surround yourself with positive, growth-minded people who share your vision and values.

Commit to learning, growing, and constantly evolving into your best self.

It's up to YOU to create the life, job, and opportunities you want, so be ready to do the work, have infinite patience, and trust the process even if you don't see immediate results. It takes time and effort to create something built to last, and that's ok. We'll encourage, empower each other, and have as much fun as possible along the way!

If you're curious about joining our team or learning more about my new coach mentorships, reach out and shoot me an email! I love talking about what I do and I'm always looking to partner up with women who are independent, driven, ambitious, big-hearted, and want to serve others and be part of something bigger.

We were all born to fly :)

xo Anna

How to stop giving up on yourself when things get hard

How do you react when things get hard? Do you lean in and push through, or do you back off and give up on yourself? 

Lately I've been talking with some of the coaches on my team about comfort zones. They're learning that it's OK to be challenged and stretched, and when things feel hard it's not a sign of failure and most definitely NOT a time to back off or give up.

Usually we hold ourselves back from going after what we really want in life because we want to feel safe and secure and are too afraid to rock the boat. It's really freaking scary to put yourself out there and try something new, even if it's something that's not even a big deal in the grand scheme of things, like committing to a fitness program or personal routine. When it IS a big deal, like launching a business, the emotional stakes are even higher.

For the first few days after we decide to take the plunge we're high on the excitement of trying something new, but when the initial rush of adrenaline and the shiny glow wears off and reality sinks back in, we start to second guess our decisions and are left at a crossroads.

How bad do we really want this new thing? Are we willing to do the unsexy behind the scenes work when we're not seeing progress or results as fast as we think we should be?

We're faced with the extremely seductive temptation to throw in the towel and give up, telling ourselves that we just aren't good enough or meant for this after all.

Growing up as a straight-A overachiever and oldest child, and I set the bar ridiculously high for myself because school was relatively easy for me. I conditioned myself to believe that EVERYTHING should be easy, and I should be instantly successful at everything I tried.

Obviously, this isn't a realistic mindset to take into the "real world," and when I WASN'T immediately successful at life after school, I went through a quarter life crisis of feeling like a worthless failure when I couldn't find a full time job that aligned with my goals and vision.

Ultimately, I realized that I had to create my own version of success, and have been building my coaching business ever since. But let me tell you, being an entrepreneur is the hardest thing ever. You're serving yourself up a big slab of Humble Pie every single day, and there's no rulebook to tell you if you're doing the right or wrong thing. You have to make your own rules, and you're the only one holding yourself accountable.

It's super fun and exciting, but it's also super HARD!

My first impulse is to shy away and back off when things get challenging and hard, because I don't want to fail.

When I'm running and start to feel uncomfortable, I start to walk. When I have a big day in my business and do a lot of scary things like phone calls, the next day all I want to do is sit on the couch in my PJ's and numb my brain with Bachelor in Paradise.

I'm trying to overcome the habit of backing off or giving up when things get hard by PRACTICE, combined with a hefty dose of epic self compassion.

I practice going out of my mental and physical comfort zone every day with hard workouts, breathing into my runs when I'm tempted to take a walk break, trying new things in my business, writing blog posts like this!

Baby steps each and every single day.

Whenever we mix up our routine, we're putting ourselves out of our comfort zone.

And going out of our comfort zone brings up feelings of doubt, insecurity, and most of all FEAR. Fear that we won't measure up. Fear that we will fail. Fear that if we give this our best shot, we'll fall short and disappoint ourselves.

I want to remind you that it's ok to feel challenged.

It's ok when things are hard.

It's not a sign that you're weak or a failure or not good enough, but rather a sign that you've found your edge, and that's where the magic happens--growth and transformation and rising into your potential.

Going out of your comfort zone is like taking the GRE. The better you do, the harder the questions get and it's a total mind-fuck because you feel like you're failing but really you're doing great!

Yes, it sucks to feel wobbly and new and inexperienced, and to see a huge gap between where you are right now and where you want to be. It's easy to get discouraged and not even try to take the first step across that gap.

But you can do hard things.

By challenging yourself, you're strengthening your mind, body, and spirit every single day. 

By taking baby step after baby step out of your comfort zone, you're forging iron in fire.

Keep surfing that edge. It's exactly where you need to be. Breathe deep and lean in, because now is not the time to back off. Re-program your brain to see challenges as fun and exciting. Get curious, dive in, explore your limits and evolve forward.

Most of all, force yourself to take action even when it's scary, because action creates confidence, while inaction breeds fear.

So try something new today. Put yourself out there. If it feels uncomfortable, celebrate, because you're just growing...and that's freaking awesome.

Take a deep breath, lean in, and rise up, gorgeous girl.

Your dreams are coming true.

xo Anna

p.s. Need more motivation on digging in and rising up? Read this from my fave Danielle LaPorte.

Epic Baked Oatmeal

Oh my goodness, summer is slipping away way too fast! This is Ben’s last week of break before he goes back to school (WHAT!) so we’re trying to cram in the last of our summer bucket list activities, plus watching about 5 hours/day of Olympics, of course. 

Last week we took an incredible trip to Tennessee and North Carolina for my second annual Beachbody Coach Summit in Nashville, and then to visit Ben's mom. We visited Asheville (ADORABLE), hiked the Appalachian Trail, ate tons of delicious food, and had a wonderful trip.

I love traveling but it always throws me out of my routine, so this week has been a little busy getting back to work! I have so many projects and ideas I want to put into place this summer and fall now that I've officially graduated from my life coaching course!

Last Saturday I hosted a brunch and vision board workshop for the Chicago area coaches on my team Inspire Joy, and I made a delicious baked oatmeal casserole to share. It was so good, I decided to make another one to eat this week.

This recipe is PERFECT for those weeks you're super busy and want to have a yummy healthy breakfast all ready to go in the morning. It would be great to pack up and take to work too, with way less mess than cooking traditional oatmeal!

It makes around six servings and stores well in the fridge for a few days. You can either re-heat it in the microwave or eat it cold, it's great both ways. You'll feel like you're eating cake for breakfast!

Epic Baked Oatmeal

Inspired by Cookie and Kate
Serves 6
21 Day Fix containers: 1 yellow, ½ purple per serving

Dry Ingredients

• 2 c old fashioned oats
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg

Wet Ingredients

• 1 ¾ c milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 T pure maple syrup (optional -- add more or less depending on your sweetness preference!)

Fruit

• 1 apple, chopped
• 2 c frozen or fresh berries (I used blueberries and strawberries, no need to defrost)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375* F. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.

Coat a small baking dish with cooking spray. I used a 9-in round Pyrex, you could also use an 8x8 in glass or ceramic dish.

Place a layer of mixed fruit (about half the fruit, or 1.5 cups) in the bottom of the dish. Layer the dry ingredients over the fruit, and pour the wet ingredients on top. Gently press the top of the dry ingredients with the back of a spoon and tilt the dish back and forth to make sure everything is saturated with the egg and milk mixture.

Layer the remaining fruit on top, pop it in the oven, and bake for 45-55 degrees, until the edges look brown and everything is solid!

Serve warm or cool, great with a dollop of Greek yogurt on top. This will keep well in the refrigerator for a few days!

You can have fun and mix it up with any fruit that's in season, or add chopped nuts!

Some possible suggestions:

+ Banana Walnut
+ Pear Almond
+ Strawberry Rhubarb (add extra maple syrup for sweetness)

I'm already thinking about a pumpkin spice version this fall ...

Let me know if you try this recipe, I'd love to hear what you think! 

xo Anna