Powerhouse Planning Celebrates 10th Anniversary

If you have followed Powerhouse Planning for any length of time, chances are you know two things about us: We are a totally remote team solution, meeting our clients at their point of need, and we love to celebrate our clients’ successes, big and small. So, naturally, we wanted to celebrate our own 10-year anniversary—and in a spectacularly atypical way for us. For the first time ever, we met in person!

Yes, you read that right. Over our anniversary weekend, we met in Tampa, Florida for a whirlwind of in-person activities and fun, from our kickoff on Friday evening with a Zoom-attire-themed cocktail hour and a team photo in support of R.E.D. Shirt Friday, a movement designed to serve as a reminder and spread the message of how important it is that we keep our deployed troops in our thoughts. With 68% of our workforce being veterans or military spouses, it is a cause near and dear to our hearts.

We continued the fun on Saturday with a Share the Goodness (our charitable giving program) planning meeting, followed by an opportunity to update professional headshots with talented photographer Beth Soto. Saturday evening brought an all-out anniversary celebration, complete with amazing food and some good-natured Powerhouse spouses. We ended the night with prayer time on the beach for those who wished to participate and finished Sunday morning with opportunities for one last team breakfast and small group shenanigans. The weekend was, by any account, a rousing success.

Even if our intended location gave us more rain than sun, we reveled in a weekend designed to celebrate our 10 years of success and enthusiastically point us in the right direction for the next 10 years. We loved celebrating Powerhouse founder and President Jessica Bertsch and the amazing business she has built from nebulous idea to resounding success. During a surprise-to-her anniversary video, clients and Powerhouse team members alike shared why Powerhouse is, well, a powerhouse. Over and over clients expressed what a “fantastic team of people all over the country” Jessica has developed and how Powerhouse has become an “integral part of the team.” They cited what a “great impact” Powerhouse brings and how necessary a part of day-to-day operations Powerhouse has become. With such a wide range of freelancers serving a diverse client population, the video highlighted how successful Jessica has been at building Powerhouse into a total team solution.

You might not know that Jessica really, really hates surprises. So naturally, we took it upon ourselves to ensure that this special milestone was not without surprises, from the above-mentioned video to surprises based on long-term goals Jessica has had (such as finally taking an unplugged vacation). In addition, because Jessica is a superfan of the Olympics, we presented her with a well-deserved gold medal for leadership.

All kidding and fun aside, Powerhouse does not exist without our clients; for our 10th anniversary, we decided to share the love by creating a Powerful Partnership Award for those clients we have worked alongside for more than three years. One of the best highlights of the night was hearing those clients speak about the impact Powerhouse has had for them.

The main takeaway from the weekend was the renewed realization that we love what we get to do every day. Jessica has created a remote team culture that functions very much like an in-person, close-knit office does. Despite this being our first in-person gathering, there were zero awkward moments the whole weekend because we feel like we have been working side by side for years. In the case of Jen McKee, Powerhouse’s “oldest” employee, that’s almost literally from the very beginning! We are definitely not going to let another 10 years elapse before we’re back together in person again.

In between face-to-face events, we will continue to do what we have done the last 10 years: work passionately toward providing our clients with everything they need to be the most successful they can be. With a mission like that—and a team like Powerhouse’s—who wouldn’t look forward to “commuting” to work every day?

Award Recipients

Powerful Partnership Awards

Each of the clients noted above received a Powerful Partnership Award plaque along with a website seal and a press release designed by our internal Powerhouse team (because we are a marketing company, after all). Going forward, we are now going to recognize when our clients hit 3, 5, 7, and 10 years of partnering with us.

Merit-Based Awards

  • Longevity Award – Jennifer McKee (9 years with Powerhouse)
  • Most Leads/Contracts – Heather Osborne
  • Most Client Contracts – Nicole Keeny
  • Most “Rocked It Out” Awards*
    • Heatherlynn Akins
    • Nicole Keeny
    • Julie Kirchner
    • Rossmery Oakes
    • Sarah Zerr

*Each recipient has earned eight “Rocked It Out” Awards since this internal award was created.

Team Member-Voted Awards

  • Human Wikipedia Award (for always having the answer ready) – Meghan Traynor
  • Got Your Back Award (for always supporting colleagues) – Julie Kirchner
  • Duct Tape Award (for being able to fix anything) – Nicole Keeny
  • Energizer Bunny Award (for boundless energy) – Heather Osborne and Jennifer Kirkpatrick
  • Champagne Award (for sparking personality) – Jennifer Kirkpatrick and Amy Lee