Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Jennings.
Hi Lisa, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
When I was trying to decide what I should major in at college, I stumbled across getting a degree in Leisure Services and Studies, a fancy name for Recreation. My parents were horrified – would I be weaving baskets for a living? I was delighted – I could get paid for playing for a living? Sign me up! Fast forward 35 years later and I’m one of the few people I know who actually still work in what they got their degree in!
I worked in a number of positions after graduation – working in resort recreation, being an activities concierge for 5 apartment communities, leading events for a retirement community, running special events for a high-end members-only health club. But when I landed at a company that conducted team building events for corporate groups, I knew I found my calling. I always wanted to own my own company, so I eventually opened Wildly Different with a good friend of mine who had worked with me in the past. We have never looked back and opened a second company together called Masters of the Hunt! We have operated thousands of events for every type of corporation under the sun and have loved every minute of it!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Fortunately, it has been a smooth road. I truly believe that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life and you find your groove on your chosen path. The pandemic was scary at first blush, seeing as we operate events for a living and the world was closing up. But we were very blessed that we had remote-led activities in place already for those who worked remotely, so we were able to hit the ground running with these being delivered virtually. We are proud that we never had to lay off a single employee during this time and we flourished.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Wildly Different & Masters of the Hunt?
My business partner and I own two different companies. Wildly Different creates and implements unique team building activities for corporate groups. While we offer some of the standard offerings that most team building companies do, our name comes from the fact that we offer customized programs for our clients’ unique needs. For instance, a pharmaceutical company hired us to create an all-day Amazing Chase at sea for a cruise ship they bought out for a 2,500-person employee meeting. We wove parts of the ship and their training information into the experience. For instance, in the Karaoke lounge, they had to rewrite and perform the lyrics of a popular song to extol the virtues of one of their drugs and in the yoga studio, they had to perform the move that related to the correct answer to a question – would it be a downward dog, or a tree pose that was correct?
Our sister company, Masters of the Hunt, specializes in scavenger hunts and escape experiences. These are not your “typical” hunts, but are experiences that work well for training programs, high-end promotions, campus tours, press launches, or experiences that those in the hospitality industry can offer their guests on an ongoing basis and more. For instance, if you’ve participated in an on-board tabletop escape experience on a cruise ship, or enjoyed a hunt woven into of one of the themed 5K or 13K runs offered locally, chances are good it was produced by us! We pride ourselves in interesting clues that can’t be solved by simply looking up answers online.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Many believe that opening your own company can be a risk and don’t get me wrong…it is. But having a “safe” job is never a guarantee either. For instance, our first employee didn’t want to leave her Fortune 500 company to come and work for us, as she thought it may be too risky to come and work for a small company. One year later, that company let both her AND her husband go in the same week. We were happy to scoop her right up! I believe you should believe in yourself and take that risk if you are passionate about what you want to do. If that dream included working for yourself, you’ll work harder than you ever did for anyone else, but the risk will all be worth it when it pays off and you can look back at the life you’ve fashioned for yourself!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wildlydifferent.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildly_different/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WildlyDifferentTeamBuilding?fref=ts&ref=br_tf
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wildly-different-i-corporate-team-building-and-networking
- Twitter: https://x.com/wildlydifferent
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/WildlyDifferentUSA/
- Other: https://mastersofthehunt.com
