On Thursday January 22nd we landed in Miami, Florida and headed off to the Hyatt Regency in Downtown Miami. As soon as we arrived I began looking for Michael Mo. I walked over to the dining room and saw Johnny Ly, in his suit, doing a one on one; no wonder Johnny is one of the top producers in the Company. It’s something that I would have been doing in my quest for financial freedom. But, you see, I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and that’s what has given me the ability to pass the torch to people like him.
Next to him was Cynthia Banh conducting a meeting with some contacts that have been working the business here in Miami. I also couldn’t help but notice that in the center of the lobby was a group of people waiting for their turn to speak with Johnny. Right when I got to Johnny he had just finished his one on one and started greeting his new guest.
For someone like me, seeing this brought about a wonderful feeling that I can not describe. There was a time in my life when I had nothing, not a penny to my name, and I spent 20 years working very hard, never having time for vacation, to get me to where I am today. Now I am able to afford to take the top 30 or so distributors on a cruise. And I see their appreciation for this opportunity by working to the last minute, before we sail off to the crystal blue, warm waters of the Bahamas.
That night we all gathered together to have dinner at an Italian restaurant. It was a great reception, all of us at dinner were able to mingle and joke around with each other; it was good to laugh a little bit. After dinner we decided to go watch Underworld: Rise of the Lycans at the theater which was just down the street on Lincoln Road in South Beach. Once we got to our seats people were looking at us rather funny, because we took up the entire balcony. There were so many of us together that we definitely drew attention.
We had some time to take care of things on Friday because we didn’t have to leave for the pier until about 3 pm. A few people went to buy some Dramamine and other necessities. I, on the other hand, knew that I was going to get fat because there’s nothing but food on the boat and decided to do some jogging. Telicia informed me that Adriana wanted to go for a jog as well, so I sent her a text inviting her to join me. She replied, “Sure,” and met me in the hotel lobby 30 minutes later. I asked Adriana how long we should run for. She said, “We can do a short jog. How’s 30 minutes?”
I should have known what “short” meant.
Telicia found us a route where we would run towards downtown Miami, over a bridge, toward an island which was about 2 miles around. From moment we left the hotel, before I even had a chance to warm up, she was already running at full stride. I said, “Hey, this is jogging not running!”
To which she replied, “I am jogging.”
Before I got to the bridge I was already winded. Adriana hadn’t even broken a sweat yet.
I tried to keep up with her as we went around the island, but I can tell she was just holding back for me. By time we finished the first lap around the island, I was completely exhausted, but I knew she wanted to keep running. I told her to go ahead and do another lap around the island while I headed back to the hotel. I was so tired I had to walk and before I was done walking back toward the bridge (less than 2 blocks away), Adriana already caught up to me. I was expecting her to be worn out by the time we headed back to the hotel but of course, she was in full stride.
I’m so amazed at what she has accomplished. Adriana told me that she can easily jog 6 miles a day. When I first met her, she was fat and sloppy; we called her “Tortilla girl”. Now she looks so hot and she kicked my butt. I guess I now understand the saying “be careful what you wish for”. But in this case, it was a good thing.
When we first got on the boat, we all got together to grab a bite to eat. I heard a lot of people from the east coast were excited about the cruise because it was 17 degrees back home and where we were it was about 80 degrees; everybody was in shorts and bathing suits. I was happy to see that everybody was thrilled to be here because everybody deserved a little rest.
After going through the mandatory safety and abandon ship drills, Sheel, Josh, Eddie and I got together at the back of the ship and played a little basketball and ping pong. It was fun to have that interaction with them although I don’t usually play basketball. The rest of the group all over the ship taking part in many of the other activates that the ship had to offer.
The cruise was really nice. Beautiful thing about it the Majesty of the Seas was that it was incredibly clean, modern, and filled with amenities; it was like a floating hotel. When it came to dining, it was first class. They had a full menu with 4-5 course meals including steaks and all the seafood that you can think of. The best part was that they had room for all 37 of us to sit together so that everybody can laugh, joke around with each other, basically have a good time as intended.
8:00 pm came and we were scheduled to have our leadership meeting. We met in a beautiful conference room with glass panels over looking the sea. What a beautiful scene this was, cruising in waters of the Bahamas, with my best friends, talking about the future. The first night I asked the new comers their purpose of being here. Everybody did a great job of articulating their interest and purpose with the company. I do this because it’s a good way to know what they are looking for. The wonderful thing was that every one particularly looking for the same thing: success and happiness. Of course, I knew this already and I know exactly what to do; that’s the reason why we have these gatherings. This was more of an exercise in their ability to express themselves. But, before we got a chance to finish up with the last person, it was already midnight. Here we were all the top producers of company understanding each others interests, and though it was late in the evening, you can see and feel everybody’s excitement for coming together. As much as we all wanted to continue our conversations, we all decided to go to our cabins to get some rest; we all had an early morning and a full day of fun ahead of us.
By the time morning came, we had arrived at the private island of CocoCay. There were so many activities to choose from such as snorkeling, jet-skiing, and parasailing. We all chose to play some volleyball first. I have not played volleyball since I was in high school. I felt like a fish out of water. In the meantime, Allen Ngo was taking pictures of everybody playing volleyball together. I was sitting there watching everybody warm up, trying to digest how to play a game that I haven’t played in ages. After 4 or 5 games, some of the group decided to go snorkeling, I joined the rest that stayed back to play some more volleyball.
When the ball first came to me I jumped up, swung my arm and landed on my ass. I felt so humiliated because all my life I have been a natural athlete and yes, I was on one of the winnings teams in Jr. High School. That was many moons ago. I may look young, but the fact is I am 46 years old, and I have forgotten how to move my body to play this game.
I was determined not to let the Distributors show me up. We ended up losing the first game, but I was definitely determined to win. We played another 6 games and we won every single one, I was getting back in the groove. It was so much fun interacting with everybody. They all did great, especially Pablo Salas, who is such a small guy. Though he may be a little out of shape, he fought for that ball every single time. I’m so proud of him.
Then there’s Michael Mo. You would never think he was volleyball player, after all he is not the tallest guys around, but he sure knew how to play that game. His technique was sharp, you could tell he was very good at it. His serve was penetrating; it was fierce and everybody was afraid of it. All in all we had a great time interacting.
Throughout the entire day, people were offering us alcohol (Bahama Mamas to be exact), asking if we wanted to get drunk or plastered. There was a group that came up to me while we were playing volleyball. They asked me what we did and I asked one of the guys why they would ask that. They said that we looked a little different because while everybody else on the island was partying and drinking, we were having good clean fun playing volleyball and what not. This made them curious.
It was nice to know that other people noticed us. I understood their curiosity. After all, we are a very dynamic group of people. We are comprised of all different nationalities, very polite, well mannered, and most importantly you can see it in our face.
In order to get back to our ship we had to jump on a small boat that would take us from the island to the ship. The last of these boats leaves at 4 pm and if we missed it then we would get stuck on the island. Needless to say, we made it back in time. Sitting in the very front of the boat was a rowdy group of people that had been drinking all day long. It was a big group of them and they were being really loud and obnoxious. Then, shortly after leaving shore for our ship, one guy threw up all over everybody, causing people to shift from the right side of the boat to the left. We found out it was one of the drunk guys from earlier that day and we all shared a laugh at his expense. It was disgusting.
Usually our cruise is intended for an older group, so it’s normally very quite, but it just so happened to be that time there was a younger crowd. This ended up being a party ship; in fact, P. Diddy’s crew was there with his film an episode of Making the Band 4.
It was getting close to dinner time at 6 so we got cleaned up and met back in the dining room. We shared more memorable laughs and before we knew it, it was 8:30 pm again. We all got back together in the same conference room that we were in last night. Josh mentioned how he is so appreciative of being here tonight and how he had no interest at all in being anywhere else with any other people. He told us about how he used to envy people such as those “partying” on the island and always wanted to fit in. But, he is so happy to be in this room with something that is so meaningful, a real bond with the YOR Health family.
We then began reading all the newcomers personology profiles, which we got from The Secret Language of Birthdays by Gary Goldschneider. Everybody was intrigued as we were reading everybody’s profiles and birthdays. People couldn’t help but laugh too because everything was just so true. We continued reading about each person’s birthday everybody was learning from and enjoying it. Then, the next thing you know it was midnight.
Throughout the night people kept banging on the conference room door. They were completely drunk and out of their minds. Here were all 37 of us, studying each other; what a contrast that was compared to the outside world. Everybody was there to have a good time and here we were, behind a door with no alcohol, just some water, books, and our positive attitudes. I wonder who is truly having a good time, those who wake up with a hangover or those that wake up with brighter futures.
It was getting late and again, we had to get up early the next day, this time to go the Atlantis Resort. In the morning we gathered at the library before leaving the ship. We were all in our swimwear just hanging out - Johnny and Michael were playing chess while Azya, Cus, Paco, and Gonzalo were playing cards.
As soon as we got to the beach we all wanted to play more volleyball. We found a court and ball on beach and we were at it for a few more hours. For lunch we split up and ate at the Atlantis resort. They have the largest fish tank in the world but I didn’t pay that much attention to the environment, I was really enjoying the company. It wasn’t so much the things we talked about either; it was just the general social interaction that I appreciated so much. What was important was that we were very comfortable with each other on a social level, since we work so hard and know each other mainly on a business level.
Again, we had to catch a small boat to take us back to the ship. We had our dinner, did our leadership meeting, and continued where we left off the night before on the reading of the birthdays. It was very good for me because as we read I realized that it’s not just about these guys being the top 30 producers. There was something about each of them that adds value to our company. I believe that they also realized each other’s values.
What else could I ask for? We were strengthening our team while in the middle of the Bahamas, with my family, my best friends, the people who will take YOR Health to great heights. We were able to spend some quality time together, on a luxurious ship with incredible food, plentiful amenities and great company. Without a doubt we all appreciate each other more and appreciate what YOR Health is about.
I would like to thank all the FC Members that attended for their efforts in helping their team members qualify for the Diamond Cruise:
The ability of your team members to qualify for these events is very crucial part of growing and helping to make their respective teams stronger. The more people each Leader brings can be seen as a correlation to how much that team has grown and developed, as was apparent with Cus & Azya, and Robbie’s tremendous increase in numbers
Now, off to the next goal: to go to Utah, home of some of the best snow in the world.
