Franchise Owners’ Retreat

One way that we care well for our Franchise owners is by hosting an annual Office Pride retreat—one of the largest projects our HQ team works on annually. This four-day, on-site retreat creates space for the Office Pride family to refill and rejuvenate so we can be fully equipped to impact our communities through superior service.

Attendees get to hear from reputable keynote speakers, engage in team-building exercises, and spend quality time in community with like-minded professionals. Our hope is for every Office Pride franchise owner to attend, along with members of their leadership teams—if desired.

Franchise Owners Retreat

Past Retreats

Awards

We hold an award ceremony each year to honor franchise owners who go above and beyond what’s asked of them to serve their employees and their communities.

Manager of the Year

This recognizes a manager for the Office Pride brand who exemplifies the core values set forth by Office Pride. This employee consistently performs well beyond what the job description requires.

Recipient

Dan Ford and Erika Duncan

Rookie of the Year

This is our Standards of Excellence Award applied to one outstanding new owner that has been in operation since July of 2021 or later. They have shown great excellence and leadership as well as meeting the rigorous criteria for Standards of Excellence.

Recipient

Stephanie and Andrew Farnsworth

Salt & Light Award

This award is given to franchise units who participated in Community Service events. This is a huge recognition as it shows franchisees reflecting the love of Christ through their actions in support of their communities. There are three winners this year. This is in no particular order.

Recipients

Office Pride of Pensacola-Downtown
Office Pride of Huntsville
Office Pride of Richmond-Sandston

Beverly McQueen Brand Ambassador Award

This award honors an individual company-wide who positively and enthusiastically represents Office Pride. They embody Office Pride in demeanor, enthusiasm, leadership, and recruiting. They are our biggest cheerleader.

Recipient

Damaris Coles

Core Value Award

This award is presented to an individual within the Office Pride brand who showed great tenacity in living out one or more of Office Pride’s core values during the last year. This person lives this out not only in his work, but in his everyday personal life as he reflects Christ in all he does.

Recipient

Bobby Halbrook

Richard Ollek Training Award

 This prestigious award honors individuals who demonstrate unparalleled excellence in training. The deserving recipient of this award embodies exceptional training with commitment and development opportunities in mind.

Recipient

Olon Hyde

Franchisee of the Year Award

This award is given each year to one of the top Standards of Excellence winners. They will have demonstrated the best overall performance in sales and continued growth, customer and revenue retention, contribution to Office Pride’s corporate brand development and reflection of Office Pride’s Core Values and Mission Statement. The owner of this Award operates his business with the Office Pride’s highest level of core values in mind. They truly care about the Office Pride brand and is highly interested in the success of the other franchise owners across the system. They are constantly lending others a hand, which has made this person highly respected among the other owners.

Recipient

Kris and Mitch Lareau

Keynote Speakers

We invite world-renowned speakers and musicians to help encourage and equip our franchise owners for good works. Check out our most recent special guests.

Speakers

Elizabeth Dixon and Preston Poore

Worship

Jaye King

Elizabeth Dixon is an engaging business leader and serial entrepreneur integrating strategy, innovation, leadership, and personal development. Blessed to work for extraordinary brands and mentored by renowned leaders, she brings almost 20 years of experience as a leader. She has founded, operated, and sold several small businesses while coaching emerging entrepreneurs toward success. In her leisure time, Elizabeth enjoys cooking with her daughter, backyard soccer with her son, and is an adventure enthusiast with her family.

https://www.elizabethdixonspeaks.com/

Through his roles at Coca-Cola and Hershey, Preston Poore has learned
how to be a powerful leader while staying true to his values, purpose,
and goals. He now uses his experience to help others achieve at their
highest levels. He is a Certified Maxwell Leadership Team Keynote
Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer, and Executive Coach to help people
become the best version of themselves. He holds an MBA from Samford
University and a BS in management from Colorado State University. He
and his family reside in the Metro Atlanta Area.

https://prestonpoore.com

Awards

Tony Gray, Office Pride Franchise Owner

Employee of the Year

Recipient

Tony Gray

Nick Morris, Office Pride Franchise Owners

Rookie of the Year

Recipient

Nick Morris 

Salt & Light Award Winners

Salt & Light Award

Recipients

Office Pride of Pensacola-Downtown
Office Pride of Huntsville
Office Pride of Ft. Myers-Cape Coral

Brenda Davis, Office Pride Franchise Owner

Beverly McQueen Brand Ambassador Award

Recipient

Brenda Davis

Jassen Martin, Office Pride Franchise Owner

Core Value Award

Recipient

Jassen Martin

Greg Carr, Office Pride Franchise Owner

Richard Ollek Training Award

Recipient

Greg Carr

Mike & Beth Straszheim, Office Pride Franchise Owners

Franchisee of the Year Award

Recipient

Mike and Beth Straszheim

Keynote Speakers

Speakers

Verne Harnish, Alex Goldfayn, and Doc Rock

Worship

Brandon Heath

Verne Harnish
Verne Harnish is a world-leading expert, speaker, author, and entrepreneur in the field of business growth. As part of his personal mission to support entrepreneurs, he co-founded Growth Institute, a premier online training company.  He also founded the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and chaired for 15 years EO’s premier CEO program, the “Birthing of Giants”, held at MIT. Known as the “Growth Guy” syndicated columnist, Verne is also a regular columnist for Fortune magazine. He’s the author of Scaling Up, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and, along with the editors of Fortune, authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time. https://scalingup.com/verne-harnish/
Alex Goldfayn CEO of Revenue Growth Consultancy
Alex Goldfayn is the CEO of The Revenue Growth Consultancy. He is a three-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author. His three most recent books are all WSJ bestsellers. Alex’s speaking work is represented by The Washington Speaker’s Bureau, and he is one of the highest-rated and most sought-after sales speakers in the world. He motivates sales teams, managers, executives and owners to take simple action which will grow their sales.  https://goldfayn.com/
Dr. Karockas Watkins “Doc Rock”, President and CEO of Ability Plus Inc.
Dr. Karockas Watkins “Doc Rock” is President and CEO of Ability Plus Inc. He is a Keynote & motivational speaker focused on executive leadership and life coaching for individual leaders, corporations, and nonprofits. He holds a doctorate of Philosophy and Theology as well as a Masters in Theology from the North Carolina College of Theology. He has served in Leadership Positions with General Motors and IBM for over 10 years. Dr. Watkins has served in the executive leadership capacity with International Covenant Ministry & Emmanuel Church for over 20 years.  https://www.docrockleadership.com/

Awards

Mike Straszheim, Office Pride Franchise Owner

Integrity Award

Recipient

Mike Straszheim

Melissa Weeks, Office Pride Franchise Owner

Beverly McQueen Brand Ambassador Award

Recipient

Melissa Weeks

Melissa Weeks, Office Pride Franchise Owner
Mike Straszheim, Office Pride Franchise Owner

Salt & Light Award

Recipients

Melissa Weeks & Mike Straszheim

Kevin G. Scott, Office Pride Franchise Owner

Core Values Award

Recipient

Kevin G. Scott

Todd Sanders, Office Pride Franchise Owner

Rookie of the Year Award

Recipient

Todd Sanders

Chris and Kim Middleton, Office Pride Franchise Owners

Franchisee of the Year Award

Recipient

Chris and Kim Middleton

Keynote Speakers

Speakers

Rory Vaden and Dee Ann Turner

Worship

Josh Baldwin

Rory Vaden is the New York Times bestselling author of Take the Stairs, which has been translated into 11 languages. He is considered one of the world’s top leadership thinkers and is a leading expert in the psychology of overcoming procrastination, increasing productivity and teaching people how to create a results-driven reputation. His insights have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNN, Entrepreneur, Inc, on Fox
News national television and in several other major media outlets. As a world-renowned speaker, His TEDx talk has been viewed over three million times. He is a 2-time World Champion of Public Speaking Finalist and he was recently named as one of the top 100 leadership speakers in the world by Inc Magazine. He is also the co-founder of Brand Builders Group where he teaches people to build and monetize a rock solid reputation.

https://roryvaden.com

Dee Ann Turner is a 33-year veteran of Chick-fil-A, Inc. Prior to retirement in 2018, she was Vice President, Talent and Vice President, Sustainability for Chick-fil-A, Inc. Selected as the company’s first female officer in 2001, she was instrumental in building and growing Chick-fil-A’s well-known culture and talent systems. During her long career, she worked closely with Chick-fil-A’s founder, S. Truett Cathy, and other key leaders as an architect of their organizational culture. Today, she leads her own organization, Dee Ann Turner & Associates, LLC, writing books, speaking to over 50 audiences per year and consulting and coaching leaders globally. She is the author of the best sellers, It’s My Pleasure: The Impact of Extraordinary Talent and a Compelling Culture and Bet on Talent: How to Create a Remarkable Culture and Win the Hearts of Customers. Her most recent book, Crush Your Career: Ace the Interview, Land the Job and Launch Your Future released in March 2021 topping the Amazon best seller lists.

https://www.deeannturner.com/

Image Gallery

Take a look at pictures from previous Office Pride retreats.

Learn More About Our Faith-Based Values