“Hold your breath. Make a wish. Count to three…”
What do you get when you take about 40 book-obsessed dreamers with an array of skills and talents and shut them away together at LitJoy Summit for 3 days?
Chaos…
Fun…
Laughs…
And IDEAS! (So many flippin’ ideas!!)
So, basically, magic.
Because here at LitJoy, we are the dreamers of dreams. We are the makers of bookish magic. And we’re letting you in on three magical days spent dreaming about what we can do next in the bookish world.
And with this many dreamers, it turns out there’s very little we CAN’T do!
“Come with me and you’ll be, in a world of pure imagination…”
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The logistics of bringing this many people together was anything but simple. Which is fine…we don’t really do simple here at LitJoy! Our Operations Team went to work coordinating travel, planning, and pulling graphics in to set a theme.
They settled on all things Wonka, and set about to make our accommodations into a world of pure imagination!
We spent three glorious days surrounded by swirls of bright colors and mounds of candy, eye-catching whimsical decor, and the excitement and joy for books that can only be found in a team like LitJoy’s.
We rely so much on each other to create bookish magic, and most of us do it all remotely, so ample time was spent cementing our bonds while we had the chance to be together. Between looking back at the goals we’ve accomplished, learning what’s to come, and dreaming up what we can do in the future, a whole lot of fun was planned to bring our team together! Connections were made, dreams were shared, and hilarity ensued!
“We’ll begin with a spin, traveling in the world of my creation. What we’ll see will defy explanation…”
LitJoy has a culture of learning and growth, and that was reflected in our Summit agenda! Here are some of the highlights of how we devoted ourselves to growth during our three days together, both as a company and as individuals.
LITJOY BOOK CLUB
When talking about dreamers and creators, it should be no surprise that our Summit Book Club pick was Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace. So much of the basis of our Summit was built around this Book Club pick—the lessons from the book rippling out to touch so many aspects of our time together.
Ed Catmull is one of the co-founders of Pixar, and this book delves into the realities of what it is to create a company that cultivates creativity in both business and leadership. It’s a fascinating look into the start of a business that brought so many movies we all love to life, and the real-life characters (ahem…Steve Jobs) behind the magic. Our Summit Book Club discussions were free-spirited and fast-paced, echoing the ideals inside the book itself. We talked about fostering imagination and creativity, boosting candor, and ways to implement growth while retaining the magic that is LitJoy. We can already see how the things we’ve learned have created change in our own company culture. We highly recommend!
DIVING INTO CREATIVE TYPES
At LitJoy, we’re not only obsessed with creating teams that model collaboration and synergy but also with getting to the root of HOW teams work. And that means we start at the individual level! We’ve shared our Enneagrams. We’ve discussed Core Values. And, this year, we took a look at our Creative Types!
We took this quiz, made by Adobe Create, to learn our individual Creative Types (because whether you know it or not, you're creative too!) and learned that we have a team made up of all eight different types! Here's our Creative Type breakdown…what do you think you are?:
8 Dreamers Creative Strength: Connection to emotions and imagination, empathy and sensitivity | 8 Visionaries Creative Strength: Full of big ideas, ability to see potential and possibility everywhere |
7 Thinkers Creative Strength: Intellectual curiosity, ability to find and create meaning | 4 Innovators Creative Strength: Ability to generate new ideas and innovative solutions |
3 Producers Creative Strength: Strong leadership skills, ability to make things happen | 3 Adventurers Creative Strength: High levels of creative energy, spirit of curiosity and play |
3 Makers Creative Strength: Focus and dedication, ability to achieve mastery | 1 Artist Creative Strength: Ability to bring ideas and concepts to life |
After discussing the different types, we broke into groups with an even-ish spread of each Creative Type, and were asked to complete this task:
The Task: Complete the Story
The story beginning was the same for each group (a magical book store)
Each team was given two random book characters and an object
That was it…no further direction.
The results? From recited stories to play-acting, from bad wigs to book boyfriend appearances…let’s just say that the results were memorable!!
The activity was fun, but the takeaways of working together, keeping each other’s Creative Types in mind, were priceless.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE TOGETHER
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Every year we take on a service project during LitJoy Summit—something to give back in our own special way.
This year, the LitJoy team worked together like a band of oompa loompas (minus all the singing) to put together 200 school kits for Lifting Hands. We included scissors, writing implements, notebooks, crayons, erasers—all things students need, and that so many of us take for granted having access to.
Watching the bags come together…the feeling truly defies explanation. It was a very visual representation of how “many hands make light work,” and that magic can be created through the smallest of steps taken together.
“If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it. Anything you want to, do it. Want to change the world? There’s nothing to it…”
Learning and growth are huge at the Summit, but team building, camaraderie, laughter, and fun are equally prized! Here’s a peek into some of the fun we had…
After a day of traveling, ice breakers, and our first few sessions, we closed out the “work”day with a video recap created by our Social Media Specialist Haley Farris, who utilized staff interviews and photos from last year's summit, leaving us all with chills (and some tears). So clearly we were primed for a Cocktail/Mocktail Night!
COCKTAIL/MOCKTAIL NIGHT
Our very own Copy Manager Erin Vehige pulled from her bartending past and designed Wonka-themed mocktails and cocktails that were both delicious and delightful! The Golden Ticket was pure treat for the eyes, the Oompa Loompa a creamsicle dream, and the Fizzy Lifting Drink a whimsical wonder! These dreamy concoctions were the gathering point of a night of relaxing and spending time together, decompressing and sharing a bit more of ourselves.
LITJOY AMAZING RACE
After a morning spent in all things Creativity, Inc., a team from Leadership came together to get us all up and running with a LitJoy version of Amazing Race! Like everything at Summit, there was purpose hidden beneath the fun: this time to show the many steps it takes to get from idea, to art, to product, to customer, and the many departments and people who make that happen. We ran, we shot darts at Violet Beauregarde (aka a wall of blue balloons), we attempted (and mostly failed) to make paper airplanes, we raced to complete brain busters and dice challenges, and we even pulled on our social media and graphic skills to make videos!
Will we share them? Absolutely not! But we sure had fun voting for the winner in the comments on Slack, and talking some good-natured smack in the process. (#Team1Forever!)
CAKE DECORATING COMPETITION
That evening, fresh off an exhilarating afternoon spent battling each other for paper airplane supremacy, hearing all the magic coming for the future of LitJoy, and completing our Service Project, we settled down for a nice “calming” (lol) baking competition.
I jest. This is no Great British anything—we’re more Wonka than prim and proper, after all!
Each of four groups were given a memorable scene to create from the land of all things Wonka with the tools and decorations provided (and whatever else we could scrounge up from our candy-coated dreamhouse). Chaos commenced.
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The egg room and the nut room cakes were both amazing, and the chocolate room downright dreamy…but the tunnel of terror reigned supreme! Turns out you just can’t beat a nerds rope boat, a licorice wheel centipede, or a headless peep with swedish fish blood (yep…we went there).
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SOUND BOWL MEDITATION
After a day filled with competitive fun, we started our third and final day together with the relaxing experience we all needed—a sound bowl meditation. Eyes closed and minds open to this sensory meditation, we found that there was a certain magic in experiencing it all together. And more so in working for a company that chose to bring this sort of healing experience in for their team to take part in as a group.
If you’re in the Lehi, Utah area we highly recommend Becka Hayes! You can find her on instagram @therosemoon .
LITJOY FEUD
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What is there left to do after a morning of emotional resonance and relaxation? Why, another game, of course! This time we had a rousing round of LitJoy Feud, quizzing our team on all the aspects of our own company. In the end, it came down to picking two people from the highest scoring teams to face each other…so of course it was to be none other than the incomparable founders of LitJoy—Alix and Kelly themselves! We won’t announce who won (they’re both the best in our book), because, in true LitJoy nature, they shared the spotlight together.
“There is no life I know, to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free, if you truly wish to be…”
Between all the sessions and games, the bonding and growth, LitJoy Leadership took the time to celebrate us in so many ways, big and small. Two of our sessions bookended the Summit, starting and ending the three-day event by making each of us feel seen and appreciated. We began with the LitJoy Vision Awards on day one, with time spent on looking back at what we accomplished the year before. Team members were recognized for the part they play in the many facets of our company, and also for exemplifying our Core Values: synergy, creative thinking, focus, communication, generosity, extreme ownership, and heart.
Over the course of Summit we were told to write each other’s names on little “golden tickets” and tuck them into a box whenever we saw someone exemplifying one of our core values. This was a really special touch, to be able able to recognize each other for all the joy we brought to one another over those three days together! During the very last session of the weekend, those golden tickets were used for a really amazing raffle. But the most beautiful part? Seeing how full that box was of little tickets gifted from among the team to each other.
“Take a look and you’ll see, into your imagination…”
Our Summit wasn’t just about what we accomplished last year, or even mostly. It was about harnessing the magic of the past and mixing it with all we’ve learned, and about all the dreams we dreamers can dream, to make an even more magical future!
THE CREATIVE WALL
One of the coolest things at Summit was the Creative Wall. This was an idea pulled from Creativity, Inc.—altered a bit to fit our culture. In our case, it was a blank wall, stacks of brightly colored sticky notes, and an invitation: to fill it with ideas, big or small, for what we want to add, change, and grow, here at LitJoy. It was an open-hearted request from Leadership for input—a welcome to be a bigger part of dreaming dreams and making magic.
By the time we left, that empty wall was full.
EXPERIENCE THE (LIT)JOY TO COME
We also had a big session on what’s coming up here at LitJoy, and let me just tell you…we’re bringing the magic. Keep an eye out on social media and the website for clues—a little birdy told me we could start dropping some (and we may have already started)! If you’re not on our mailing list, this is your BIG hint to hop on down that particular rabbit hole. There are so many dreams about to become reality, and you won’t want to miss a single one!
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I’ve given only a highlight reel of the amazing, immersive, creative experience that is the LitJoy Summit…but it’s truly something that is indescribable. The synergy in those two houses over three days…the creative buzz and the connections made…
It was a journey through pure imagination.
We are proud to work at LitJoy—to get to do the work we do, to make our bookish dreams reality, and to do it on a team of people who care so much about each other and the joy we get to bring to you, our readers.
How lucky are we, to be the dreamers of dreams?
