Vision Boards

The Ultimate Guide To Epic Vision Board Parties

 
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Vision Board Parties can be a ton of fun. Getting people to talk about their goals over food and wine is honestly one of my favorite events throughout the holiday season. (Right after Thanksgiving because nothing tops Grandma's sweet potato pie. 😍)

Before we hop into the guide, I gotta be honest. I don't think there's any wrong way to host a Vision Board Party. Seriously, just get some friends together and a ton of wine and a couple magazines and voila you have a party. Everyone will have a great time because the nature of the event calls for positive energy, vulnerability, and aspirations. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't leave a Vision Board Party super motivated to CRUSH their goals. 

Related: How My First Vision Board Party Turned My Life Around

I have discovered, however, that there are ways to have an amazingly awesome Vision Board Party that encourages more sharing and collaboration.

Here's a quick checklist to get together everything you need:

 

agenda

If you want your vision board party to flow perfectly, you'll need four key items scheduled.

  1. Mix and Mingle: At the beginning of the party, give people a lot of time to grab food and drinks and get settled in uninterrupted.

  2. Ice Breaker Activities: Once most of the guests have arrived, have a few activities that will allow them to get to know the other people in the room. See here for some ideas.

  3. Vision Board Overview: Not everyone who shows up will know what a Vision Board is. Before you dive into the building Vision Boards, give a brief talk about how to create one.

  4. Working Session: Some structured time for them to start to look through magazines and find things that really speak to what they want to accomplish.

I don't associate times with all of the items on my agenda because I prefer for the event to flow naturally. But I always create an agenda to make sure I hit all of the items. 

 

food and drinks

There is no party if you do not have food and drinks. (Trust me, I once hosted a potluck where everyone brought wine and we had absolutely no food. It was a disaster. By the end of the night, we were super drunk, really hungry and not coherent enough to order pizza. #EpicFail 🤦‍♀️)

For Vision Board Parties, all types of food are fair game, but I would actively shy away from messy finger foods like barbecue chicken or buffalo chicken drumsticks they definitely keep you away from flipping through magazines putting things on your Vision Boards.

For drinks, I recommend going with wine.  Try to get a mix of dry wines and sweet wines, red wines, and white so that all of your attendees have something they can enjoy. (Side note: There might be non-alcoholics in attendance so have water and juices available.)

Materials

You'll need to have a few items on hand for people to build the vision board with.

  1. Poster boards

  2. Magazines

  3. Scissors

  4. Glue (I prefer glue sticks because they're not as messy as white glue.)

Each year I build my vision on a corkboard. It has lasted for 4 years of vision boards. Every year, I remove the images and quotes that inspired my past goals and put up my new sources of inspiration. Be prepared with thumbtacks in case others show up with a corkboard so that they can attach things to their Vision Board while they're at the party.

Pro tip: Also grab colored card stock and markers. There will be times where people do not find exactly what they wanted magazines. When I was job hunting, I wanted to make $75,000. That was my goal. I could not find $75k in any magazine but it was okay because I took a green marker and I wrote the number $75,000 and I stuck that on my Vision Board.

 

icebreakers and activities 

No one likes going to a party and coming up with some awkward way to start a conversation. It's awkward for everyone, extroverts and introverts alike. 

As the event host, you can help your guests out by coming up with a few activities to get people talking. Icebreakers are small activities that engage people in conversations with each other. This can be helpful when you have a room full of people who don't know each other. 

A few fun activities that you can schedule in the agenda would be:

  • Ask people to introduce themselves and share what they enjoy doing in their free time.

  • Talk about the goals that each person wants to achieve in the upcoming year.

  • Have people talk about their bucket list items.

Having these types of activities scheduled in the agenda increases the likelihood that people will start to have deeper conversations about their goals and aspirations throughout the evening.. 

 

The music 

Obviously, the music that you have on in the background sets the tone for the entire event. To perfectly match your music with the type of music in the attendees will enjoy, make sure you have a good understanding of who's coming to your event.  Perhaps you can make a playlist ahead of time.

Throughout the party, keep the music very low more like background noise than a distraction. Play music that is friendly and upbeat like smooth R&B (and not dancing music). If all else fails I would go with Lauryn Hill Pandora station. 

 

Friends

A Vision Board party is not a party if you do not have your friends around you. You can invite friends from your work, your community, your church, different types of activities that you're involved in, parents from your child's school and those lifelong friends that have been with you forever. The people are truly what make the Vision Board Party.

Think about it, why would anyone host Vision Board Party to create a vision board? You can really make a board with magazine clippings that represent what goals you want to achieve all by yourself in your bedroom. You have a party for the people. The people who inspire you, will support you and mentor you.

The purpose of the party is to start the conversations around your goals and get insight from each other's experiences and expertise. Then, you have the unique opportunity to incorporate those tools, tips and advice into your goals so that you have a great starting point when you start to pursue them. 

Related: 10 Girlfriends You Must Invite To Your Vision Board Party

Lots of magazines

Magazines are the core of the Vision Board. They make up the Vision Board images and quotes that will inspire you throughout the year division.  Your guests will need a lot of magazines to choose from.

Select a variety of magazines that cover different topics that will speak to the different aspects of people's lives. Make sure you get magazines that talk about personal finance, health and fitness, adventure and fun, family, education, career and relationships. 

 

Vision Board Parties can be highly inspirational and informative for every guest. Make sure that you have everything you need to be truly inspired and leave motivated to achieve your goals.

 

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

  1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

  2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts

  3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.


This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

8 Fun Vision Board Party Activities and Ice Breakers

 
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No matter what kind of party you attend, there's always the chance that you'll show up and you won't know anyone in the room. It can be a little scary and awkward, but it's really up to the host of the party to make sure that everyone is having a good time.

The exact same thing could happen at a Vision Board party. Though we want to create a community where people can immediately dive into networking, story sharing, and being open about the things that they want to achieve - it's easier said than done. Often, you're bringing people together who've never met each other and asking them to be vulnerable and open about the things that they are striving to accomplish.

To get that community of sharing and vulnerability, you’ll want to make sure that the agenda for your vision board party includes a lot of ice breakers

Related: How To Successfully Host Your First Vision Board Party

What Is An Icebreaker?

Ice breakers are activities that help welcome people to new settings, warm up the conversation, and begin to build trust amongst each other.

These are my favorite ice breakers for a Vision Board party

 

Introduce Yourself

This one sounds simple, but I've been to several parties where it's completely up to you to introduce yourself to new people.

I know I sound very outgoing, but there was a time in my life when I really struggled to introduce myself to people. Walking up to someone who I don’t know and extending my hand out to say hi was always very #awkward for me. I never knew what to say.

Great party hosts will take the awkwardness out of a meeting by giving everyone in the group an opportunity to introduce themselves through a structured activity. To do this, ask for attention in the room and ask each individual to introduce themselves to the entire room at once.

By creating a quick opportunity for people to introduce themselves, everyone is being equally as awkward as everyone else at the exact same time.

Along with them introducing themselves, ask each person to say something about their work, their passions, or their life experience. You could add some humor and ask them to share something no one would guess about them or their funniest moment depending on what the theme of the party is.

 

Share your challenges

Vision Board parties are unique because attendees walk in expecting to talk about their goals. No matter how accomplished or successful, goal-getters are always struggling with something. Since they're hard wired to find the next big goal, your attendees will always find new challenges, new road blocks and (sometimes) completely new experiences where they don't know how to get started. 

By prompting people to share their struggles and challenges at the beginning of the Vision Board party, your attendees will have the rest of the evening to network already knowing what each person wants to do with the next phase of their life. 

That means that everyone will have the unique opportunity to share feedback, helpful tips, and experience with each other. Attendees will end up leaving with a vision - and free coaching, mentorship, and maybe even answers to the challenges they’ve been struggling with.

 

Share Your Experience

Create an activity where everyone shares their professional experience. Your goal as the party host is to help your guests push their goal forward. By prompting the attendees to share their experience, each person in the room now knows who they can talk to for answers to questions they might have. 

For example, one person in the room might be a new business owner who wants to get more customers. This activity could help that person identify people who are experienced business owners, marketing professionals, business coaches, tax professionals or business attorneys. By encouraging people to share their experience, you can be the facilitator in bringing people together. 

 

Life areas brainstorm

You will notice that several people show up with dreams for boosting their careers, starting side hustles, having influence and affluence. Seems like people are really interested in making more money all the time so you don't have to worry about people walking in with #MoneyGoals.

You will want to create a more well-rounded experience by asking people to think about how they can enrich the other areas of their life. Encourage people to share those relationship goals, health goals and spiritual goals. If you begin the conversation by talking about the other things that make people human, then you can start to have those deeper conversations about everything that they want to start living their best life. Don’t forget to share your own experiences.

Related: 5 Areas in Life To Set Goals

 

share the vision 

About 30 minutes before the event is over, ask everyone in the room to share the things that they put on their Vision Board. Many people do not finish their Vision Boards at the Vision Board party (and that's a good thing!) so they can share a few images and quotes that represent what they want to achieve next. This helps keep the conversation going even as people are leaving. 

 

If all else fails, share wine. 

Obviously.

Related: 9 Crowd-Pleasing (and Affordable) Wines You Need At Any Vision Board Party

 

Vision Board parties can be incredibly powerful if they are done the right way. Make sure everyone at your event has a great goal-setting experience by encouraging them to share their story, their goals, and the things that they need help with.  Getting everyone engaged in conversation about their goals will make sure that everyone has a positive experience at your Vision Board party.
 

Comment below with the big goal that you have your sights set on and will create a Vision Board for!

 

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

  1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

  2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts

  3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.


This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

7 Reasons You Should Totally Host A Vision Board Party This Year

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

 
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The holiday season is busy enough - with work holiday parties, visiting the family, spending time with your younger cousins that keep trying on all your clothes and stealing your makeup - why should you go out of your way to host yet another party? 

First, vision board parties don't only have to be at the beginning of the year and they don't have to be formal. If you can get a couple of friends together, you can host a vision board party at any time. 

Second, even if you are juggling the high demands of holiday season, it's still a great time to host a vision board party. At the beginning of the year, most people are already reflecting on what they've done in this year and thinking about what they want to accomplish for the upcoming year. Vision boards are a natural fit during this time of the year. 

Still not convinced? 

What if I added on the fact that vision board parties can be really (really!) inexpensive! There are many ways to work around the costs by working with friends to host the event together. 

Related: How To Successfully Host Your First Vision Board Party

Here are my eight top reasons why you should definitely host a vision board party this year: 

 

Have An Excuse To Drink Wine With Friends

I don't ever really need an excuse to drink wine with friends, but it's nice to pretend I do. During the year, us ambitious goal-getters are so focused on the next milestone or the next big to-do item that we rarely have time to simply catch up with each other. A vision board party is a great opportunity to invite your friends over and re-connect just to chat.

Related: 9 Crowd-Pleasing (and Affordable) Wines You Need At Any Vision Board Party

 

Work On Your Goals

When I was invited to my first vision board party, I was in a terrible place in my life. That invitation prompted me to start thinking ahead. I started to ask myself questions like: 

  • What do I need to change in my life?

  • What do I really want in my life next year?

  • What goals do I want to set?

You'll notice that simply knowing your vision board party is coming up will help you start having those same conversations with yourself. 

Related: Creating A Vision Board? Make Sure You Have These Three Goals First

 

Create A Visualization

The best thing about a vision board party is that you have time and opportunity to bring your goals and ambitions and turn them into a masterpiece. At a vision board party, you have locked in a specific time to think through your goals and find the images and quotes that directly align with what you want to accomplish in your life. 

Related: What Magazines Should I Use For My Vision Board Party (Effective List of Do's and Don'ts

 

Brainstorm and Talk Over Ideas With Friends

It's great to have ideas and goals that you want to accomplish, but you might be surprised what happens when you put your ideas in a room of ambitious friends. They'll start sharing their experiences with similar goals and what happened to them in the past. You'll learn all about what worked and what didn't. You might even learn some new ways of tackling that goal or new resources that you've never heard of before. They might even know a great person to connect you with to help you accelerate your goals. 

 

Make New BFFs

The first vision board party I ever attended was hosted by a friend and I didn't know most of the people in the room when I got there. However, after spending hours talking about who they were, where they are currently in their life and what they want to accomplish, I felt like I knew them for years. Vision board parties put people in a room and encourages vulnerability from every person. With a group of people all sharing their truth, it's impossible not to make new friends. 

Related: 10 Girlfriends You Must Invite To Your Vision Board Party

 

Share Your Expertise

Vision board parties are not all about getting information and connections from others, you also get to listen to goals and struggles that other people are dealing with and offer your own advice. 

 

Enjoy the Positive Vibes

I have never been to a vision board party that was not full (and possibly overflowing) with positive energy. Everyone in the room is highly optimistic about their goals, ready and willing to share their experience and expertise and there's wine.

 

Hosting a vision board party can be the best way to reconnect with friends (and maybe make new ones) for the best cause ever - walking into your best life ever. 

 

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

  1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

  2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts

  3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

Vision Board Party Planning: How To Set Ticket Prices For Your Event

 
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So, you've decided to host a Vision Board Party? Congratulations!

Vision Board parties are super fun & transformative parties where friends connect and chat about their goals while enjoying wines and cheeses. Then, they create a visual image of what they want their future to look like.  #goalcrushingandhavingfun

I have been hosting Vision Board parties, potlucks, and conferences for the past four years (so I'm clearly a huge fan!). Deciding whether your event should be free or an event with paid tickets is a pretty easy decision to make. 

Related: How To Plan An Unforgettable Vision Board Party

 

Why Should You Charge A Fee?

I recommend charging people to attend your event when you've put a significant amount of energy into the planning stages of the event, and you've spent money to host it. 

 

Things You Might Pay For

Our first vision board event was a huge production. We spent weeks putting together speakers, sponsors, decorating the space. There was a legit agenda and vendor tables. In this conference-style type of event, we paid a lot of money in advance.

Here's a list of things that you might have to pay for to host a vision board party.

 

Materials

The most important items you'll need for your vision board party are the materials used in making a vision board. That means that you'll need magazines, poster boards, glue and scissors for every person that attends your event. 

Related Posts: 

 

Speakers

Depending on how you'd like your event to flow, you might want to invite someone to speak at your event. I've done several of these events where I'll teach how to build a Vision Board, how to create a vision or best practices for goal setting.

Bringing in a speaker will require that you spend time researching influencers and leaders, pitching to have them to speak at your event and then coordinating their appearance with their team. Some speakers will require a fee to speak at your event - these fees should be accounted for in your ticket pricing. 

Related Content: 5 Ways to Become a Vision Board Party Speaker

 

Space

If you're hosting a Vision Board party for 10 or more people, I would recommend getting a space that will accommodate a larger audience. You'll need a space for the food to be served and another space that will hold a larger group, sitting at tables. 

 

Food/Drinks

When it comes to food and drinks, I recommend going with food options that aren't too messy. Since people will be making the Vision Boards during your event, make sure you choose foods that will not make your fingertips greasy. (In general, I'd stay away from buffalo chicken wings. They're tasty, but they do make it difficult to flip through magazines!)

Also, make sure you check with your event space. Some spaces do not permit red wine to be served at events. (It's incredibly difficult to clean up!) 

Related: 9 Crowd-Pleasing (and Affordable) Wines You Need At Any Vision Board Party

Related: What Kind of Food Should You Have at Your Vision Board Party

 

Decor

At our first event, we purchased DIY photo booth printables from etsy and a few other inspirational messages to have around the room as decoration. You may want to have the decor match the theme of your Vision Board party. If you do buy event decor, then you can add the cost of that into your ticket price. 

 

Pros and Cons to Charging A Fee

 

Pros

  • You have an opportunity to break even on your event (and maybe even make a profit)

  • The people who buy a ticket will actually show up. (When an event is free, only a small portion of the people who sign up will actually show up.)

  • You’ll have an accurate head count for food and drinks.

 

Cons

  • Less people will register for your event.

  • You have to create an event that is worth the price of admission.

 

How Much Should You Charge?

If your Vision Board party will be a larger production and you're spending a significant amount of time on it, you may be hoping to make a profit. Here's how to walk through your pricing your party.

 

Cover Your Expenses

At a minimum, you'll definitely want to cover your expenses. This will include everything I mentioned above (and anything else you end up buying for your event). 

You may have been able to get cash sponsorship or some other type of donation (like the food or drinks). If you received any cash sponsorship, you can subtract this from your cost of expenses because this is money that you can spend on your event that's not coming directly out of your pocket.

You can create a simple, preliminary ticket price by just taking what you spent and dividing it by the total number of attendees you expect to have at your event. 

  

Then Add Wiggle Room

Most of your event costs will come in those last few days leading up to your event. No matter how much advanced planning you did, there will always be something you forgot - or something you didn't know about. 

When we hosted our first event, we ordered tables and chairs from an event rental place and a u-haul truck to carry everything around. When we arrived at the event renal place, they informed us that they were closed for the rest of the weekend and we'd have to wait until Monday to return the items. That means we had to pay for 2 extra days with the u-haul, an additional expense that we did not plan on. 

Adding a multiple into your ticket pricing will also help to CYA in the event that ticket sales are low. 

 

How To Make Sure The Experience is Worth The Cost

Depending on the ticket cost for attendees, you can dramatically raise the expectation for your event. (People will be expecting totally different experiences for a $15 and a $99 event.) No matter what you end up charging to attend, it's most important that you deliver on the attendees expectations. 

 

Clear descriptions on what they will receive with their ticket purchase

When you're hosting a paid event, you have to convince people that they want to buy the ticket but you also want to make sure that they will receive exactly what they expect. You do this by mastering your event description.

Related Content: How to Nail Your Vision Board Party Invitation

 

Speakers with Credentials

Securing high visibility + influential speakers will increase the value of your event dramatically. People will definitely show up and be pleased with their experience if you have their favorite influencer in the building sharing goal setting gems for the New Year.

Related Content: How to Secure Excellent Speakers Part I

Related Content: How to Secure Excellent Speakers Part II

 

high quality food and drinks

Who doesn't love food? If you can provide finger foods and great beverages for attendees, they will be more than happy to pay a higher ticket price. 

 

gift bags

Gift bags are always a nice touch to the end of an event. It gives attendees something to remember the event, even long after the Vision Board fun is over. If you have a higher priced event, it also helps to add more value to your attendees. 

 

workshops/panels

Your event is only a success when your attendees feel they've reached their goals. Having guided workshops and speaker panels will give attendees more opportunities to learn, be inspired and get their questions answered before jumping into a brand New Year.

Related: How My First Vision Board Party Turned My life Around

How To Host A Vision Board Party For Free

While it's great to be able to make a profit, sometime you just want to rock out with your homegirls and talk about goals. Here's how you can get it done for free: 

 

Crowdsource Everything

This means have your friends provide all the materials. Everyone can pretty easily bring their own boards, scissors, glue and a few magazines from home.

 

Make It A Potluck

You can have the event be potluck style where everyone brings both a dish and a bottle (of wine, alcohol, or whatever) to share.

(Side note: I always recommend asking potluck attendees to bring both a dish AND a drink. I hosted one event where I instructed to bring a bottle OR a dish and we ended up with 12 bottles of wine and no food. You may also want to specify to have the dishes be items that aren’t super messy. You don’t want to get greasy fingers or dip on your Vision Board!)

 

Host it at home (or a free space) 

This takes away the cost of a space for your event. Just make sure whoever's home you're using is large enough to accommodate the whole group.

 Whether you host a vision board party for your close friends or for a large group, they're guaranteed to be a ton of fun! Once you get people in a room together talking about their goals (with lots of wine) you're going to have a great time. 

I’d love to hear how your party goes!

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

  1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

  2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts

  3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.


This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.


About the author

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!