We’re more than half way through our company-wide fitness challenge, and I have to say, I’ve definitely learned a few important things over the past six-plus weeks. I thought I’d share, so here they are: my High Five for Friday! 

1. There’s strength in numbers. During the summer months, there are tons of fitness events going on around West Michigan. Races, triathlons, charity walks—so many ways to step up our game! But what fun is a 5K anything if you’re all by yourself? This year, many of us have encouraged our peers to join us in our endeavors, and it has paid off with friendships made, goals achieved, and maybe even a few pounds lost.



Those who know me will not be surprised at all by this story. Crazy things happen to me all the time. Last week I was definitely ripe for some sort of debacle, as I’d been sailing fairly calm seas since I single-handedly demolished our garage door back in March.

It started during a toasty-warm lunch hour, when I headed out to pay my mortgage, with my check and payment stubs on my passenger seat filled out and ready to go. About halfway to the bank, I opened my sunroof to soak up some rays. And, then, when it got a little too hot, I lowered my window. This immediately created a tornado effect and all of the papers on my seat began to dance and flutter. I quickly sprang to close the window, but not before the check I had neatly endorsed was whisked through the open space. All I could do was watch through the rearview mirror as it made its hasty escape.

Last year, when I volunteered to be our health and wellness cheerleader, I had somewhat selfish intentions. You see, over the past year, I had lost 35 pounds and actually managed to keep it off for long enough that it seemed like it might last this time. My whole adult life, my weight has fluctuated wildly, and while shopping for new clothes is actually pretty fun for me it’s both exhausting and expensive!

I recently told you about an inspiring volunteer experience our creative team had at Kids’ Food Basket here in Grand Rapids. Buzz went around the office after we returned, and more teams were asking me how they could get involved, too.

A few weeks passed, and our day out in the wild was about to become a distant memory when we, a recognition company, ended up receiving a little recognition ourselves. Yes, to our surprise, a poster showed up at our front door decorated with thank you letters and photos from the kids who benefited. We proudly displayed our poster in a common area, and, as a result, our little mission (and KFB, more importantly) got even more exposure. Hooray!

At Baudville, we’re fortunate enough to be hiring right now, which means we have all kinds of new faces walking our hallways. Whenever we have new employees on board, we always take a few minutes at our all-staff meetings to introduce them to everyone. There’s a fair amount of hoopla at these meetings, and I think a lot of our newbies leave them with their hair blown back a little. (I still remember my first one!) But, we only have these meetings periodically, so sometimes new team members can be here for weeks or even a few months before they get that big shebang welcome.

This got me wondering… about our new hires’ impressions of us and also about what we, as a company or as individuals, do to make people feel welcome here on a day-to-day basis. So, I asked them!