After the Great Leadership Summit, Southwestern Advantage sales organizations across the U.S. gathered for the much-anticipated Tune Up meetings. Tune Up meetings serve as a cornerstone for refining skills and fortifying team bonds. The essence of Tune Up, like with a band or orchestra, is to create a prepared team working in harmony. It is here that the future leaders develop and become their best so they can finish their team-building season stronger, wiser, and united.
Core Discussions: Unleashing Potential for Southwestern Advantage Interns
Participants were not just attendees but active contributors, sharing insights and breakthroughs from their collective journey. The meeting topics were rich and varied, touching on advanced sales strategies, interviewing college students, building parent relations, and the sharing product updates. The gatherings were more than learning opportunities—they were growth opportunities, where student leaders were equipped with the tools to effectively mentor first year participants. Cole Weeber, a student leader, shared, “Tune Up was a great opportunity to take a weekend to focus of adding value to ourselves as well as surround myself with others with similar goals!”
Inspirational Voices: Learning from Southwestern Alumni
The Tune Up meetings were enriched by the voices of those who have participated in the summer program before. Alumni speakers, like Brian Bakken and Willie Andrade, spoke on their experiences as past Southwestern Advantage participants. Bakken, who built a business with the company for 12 years, shared three key lessons that he learned in the program that have transformed the way he lives: having a growth mindset, grit, and networking. A powerful concept he shared was, “success is not going to be reached by staying in your comfort zone.”
These principles are not just theoretical concepts but practical tools for navigating the challenges and opportunities ahead. Full-time recruiter, Deborah Martinez, summarized her Tune Up meeting as a blast and said, “We had some amazing alumni also come and share their experience with us and how this has impacted them not only in their careers but in their personal lives as well… I left encourage and inspired and ready to keep working.”
Tune Up Meetings are a Journey of Continuous Growth
The Tune Up meetings are not an endpoint but a milestone in a larger journey of personal and professional development. It is a moment to reflect, recalibrate, and recommit to the path of excellence. The weekend meetings end with a group social activity to help bring the organizations closer together. For instance, in Texas, students had fun together practicing yoga! As our students and leaders go back to their campuses and recruiting activities and as they begin to prep for the summer ahead, they carry with them not just the knowledge shared but a renewed sense of purpose and the determination to achieve their fullest potential.
