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The General session opened with an enchanting performance from spoken word artist Pacia Elaine, before ISPA chairman, Garrett Mersberger took the stage to welcome the 2000+ attendees and present the ISPA 2018 Visionary Award posthumously to Lori Hutchinson of Hutchinson Consulting who connected people and touched lives across the spa industry for decades before passing in 2016.
Shawn Achor spoke passionately about happiness as a choice. We all have a genetic predisposition to a certain level of happiness and there are ways we can maximize this. Different to pleasure, happiness is the joy we feel when moving towards our potential. You can experience happiness even when life is not pleasurable. Starting a company or running a marathon, for example, can be painful and un-pleasurable experiences, but can result in immense happiness. A brief, fun experiment proved how easy it is to influence others by smiling. Not only do smiles spread, but stress, nervousness and negativity also spread just as easily. What is interesting in terms of human connection is that with a friend next to us, the brain actually perceives challenges as easier to overcome.
Sally Hogshead, branding expert, asked us each to raise our hand if we believe we are more fascinating than the average person: yes, I raised mine! On average, only 39% of people will raise their hand to this, while 90% will claim to be more intelligent than the average person! Define what your message is to the world. If you believe your message is relevant, you can’t afford to keep quiet. How do we measure people, not by their strengths and weaknesses, but by how people are seen at their best? Unlearn how to be boring… It’s good to be better, but it’s better to be different! How can your brand and culture embrace its differences?
On day three Daymond John, of Shark Tank, spoke about the practices of successful people, how they adjust their morning to encompass what they want to focus on, not what’s in their inbox. If money is not success, so what is? Success comes from dedication to passions; family, hobbies, music, sports. Taking inventory of yourself and your business allows you to identify what you can do well and what direction you want to take your business in. His final message: focus on delivering love. To your family, friends and guests.
Sara Jones,
Editora
