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We’ve had offsites before.
Different cities. Different seasons. Different goals.
But this one felt different even before we stepped off the plane. Maybe it was the momentum we’d built this year. Maybe it was the feeling that Wonsulting was entering a new chapter. Or the mix of people, energy, and timing just made everything crackle.
We didn't know. But we were about to find out in the most Wonsulting way possible.
Spoiler: It involved cold plunges, color personalities, rock climbing, revenue charts that told hard truths, 10x dreams, legendary pizza spots in NYC, and the kind of conversations that change the trajectory of a company.
Let's rewind.
We've always been a remote team. Our founders, Jon and Jerry, have always been together. But the rest of the team spans cities, countries, and time zones, connected by Slack messages and Google Meets squares.
Naturally, it works. We've helped thousands of job seekers land their dream roles without ever being in the same room.
But there's something about meeting face-to-face that video calls can't replicate. The energy. The breakthroughs. The kind of conversations that happen over cold plunges and pizza at 10 PM.
So we did something we'd only done twice before: We brought the leadership team to New York City for three days of connection, strategy, and let's be honest, a little chaos.
Everyone flew in. Everyone hugged. We were excited to see each other again in person, and tired from the long flights.
Our first night was at an escape room, where we solved some fun puzzles and got our creative juices flowing. Nothing like being locked in a room together to accelerate team bonding.
The next day, we started by exploring Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The kind of Brooklyn neighborhoods that somehow feel gritty and bougie at the same time, places where a craft coffee shop sits next to a bodega that hasn't changed since 1987.
Then we hit Vital for rock climbing. Nothing builds trust like watching the coworker who's usually calm and composed on Slack suddenly cling to a wall like a terrified house cat in athletic gear.
After lunch at Hole In The Wall (because where else?), we headed to Bathhouse Williamsburg. Cold plunge. Sauna. A pool with a view that tricks you into forgetting you're not on vacation.
This is where the Zoom barrier started breaking. You can't be formal when you're sweating in a sauna together.
By evening, we were ready for the main event: hitting five of New York's top pizza spots in one night.
Was it excessive? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Ask anyone, especially Alif, our Sales lead, and Jerry, our Co-founder. (But don't tell them Marketing called them the life of the party)
The first phase of the meetup accomplished exactly what it needed to: it turned coworkers into teammates. It built trust and set a relaxed, open foundation for the deeper work ahead.
If Day 1 was about connection, Day 2 was about confronting reality, and reimagining what's possible.
We kicked off with our regular leadership sync, but this time in person. The energy was different. Seeing faces instead of squares changes everything.
Then came the moment that would set the tone for everything else.
Jonathan pulled up a chart showing our total revenue by month for 2025. And there it was, plain as day: a dip that stretched from January through July.
The room got quiet.
1. The dip showed where our collective knowledge had reached its ceiling. We'd been optimizing the same strategies, running the same playbooks. We needed fresh eyes and new approaches.
2. This period wasn't wasted, it helped us identify where the biggest opportunity for growth was: systems, 10x thinking, and pilots. We learned what not to do. And more importantly, we learned we needed to think bigger.
3. It reinforced our team's #1 ability: There is no problem we cannot solve. Because look at what happened next: August and September showed a sharp rebound.
What changed?
But Jon didn't let us celebrate yet. He pulled up another slide.
Ken had built a detailed hypothesis tree back in January, breaking down every element that drives conversions:
Ken's hypothesis tree was solid. The problem? We focused on the wrong branches.
The Insight: "We had the right hypothesis tree, but we focused on the wrong branches. We assumed the offer was strong enough and left it unchanged."
We'd been optimizing copy, tweaking CTAs, testing visual layouts, all while ignoring the foundation: our actual offer.
The Hard Truth: "Our underlying assumptions kept us from questioning the status quo. We optimized for incremental gains instead of exploring bold changes."
The Real Learning: "Mindset matters as much as strategy. Without challenging defaults, even a solid framework leads to limited progress."
This wasn't just a marketing lesson. It was a company-wide wake-up call.
With the year's narrative laid out, we moved into goal alignment. Each team lead shared their priorities for Q1. But more importantly, we talked about how those goals interconnected. Because we learned from the revenue dip that siloed excellence doesn't scale. Systems that work together do.
We needed it. That was a lot to digest, literally and figuratively.
After lunch, Cadogan, our head of revenue, stood up and wrote two words on the board:
COURAGE COMFORT
He asked us to write down the first four words that came to mind for each. Ken saw "courage" and immediately thought: brave, determined, confident. Bold moves forward. Another team member looked at the same word and wrote: nervous, unstable, chaos.
Same word. Completely different interpretations. Cadogan let that hang for a moment. Then he made the point that would echo through the rest of the offsite:
"Words don't carry meaning. People do."
If something as simple as "courage" means ten different things to ten different people, what does that mean for how we write copy, how we coach job seekers, how we talk to teammates, and how we communicate our vision as a company?
The Implication: If we want our messaging (whether internal or external) to actually land, we need to speak in ways that multiple "inner dictionaries" can understand. We need to meet people where they are, not where we think they should be. This was supposed to be a communication exercise. It turned into a self-discovery moment.
(Someone may or may not have gotten emotional. But what happens in New York stays in New York.)
Then came an exercise that would help us understand not just how we communicate, but where we thrive. The framework breaks down into four zones:
Everyone took 15 minutes to map their own zones.
Zone of Genius:
Zone of Excellence:
Zone of Competence:
Zone of Incompetence:
The revelation? Jerry's been spending too much time in his Zone of Excellence, doing things he's great at but that drain him, instead of doubling down on his Zone of Genius.
And he wasn't the only one.
When we shared our zones with each other, patterns emerged:
This wasn't just a feel-good exercise. It was strategic talent optimization in real time.
Alif kicked things off by showing us a video breaking communication styles into four core drivers:
🟥 Power & Results: Direct, decisive, outcome-focused.
🟦 Logic & Structure: Analytical, organized, detail-oriented.
🟩 Peace & Stability: Calm, supportive, harmony-seeking.
🟨 Fun & Connection: Energetic, spontaneous, relationship-driven.
The first thing that followed the presentation was chaos. People guessed their colors. They guessed each other's colors. And it was refreshing to hear how your communication sounds to other people.
Daniel, our product lead, is still surprised he's absolutely NOT the color he thought he was. It was hilarious, revealing, and wildly useful. Because once you understand how someone communicates, you figure out how to collaborate with them.
We wrapped the day over steak at Peter Luger. And between bites of some of the best meat you'll ever taste, the conversation shifted.
It wasn't "what if" anymore. It was "what's next."
If Day 1 was connection and Day 2 was discovery, Day 3 was all about execution.
We were joined virtually by Daniel, CMO at Cluely, a startup that raised $15M from a16z. He brought youthful exuberance and an unforgiving creative work ethic.
His message was simple but brain-bending:
"Stop thinking incrementally. Start thinking 10x."
He asked each of us to identify our "golden metric"—the one number in your role that, if it skyrocketed, would literally change how people think of you.
For Ken, it was career consultation calls booked. (So, if you're enjoying this blog post, do Ken a favor and book a free call so our career consultants can tell you what you really need to do on your job search. Of course, the call comes with ZERO obligations.)
For other members of the team, it was product adoption, revenue, content reach, etc. Then came the challenge:
"What would 10x look like?"
Not 10% better. Not twice as good. Ten times.
If we punch 10x of our regular effort into what we do, what would the result look like?
Daniel's philosophy: Once you identify your golden goal, imagining what 10x effort or 10x creativity looks like massively increases your odds of achieving it. It forces you to think beyond incremental improvements so you can act faster and swing boldly.
The room got quiet. You could almost feel people's minds rewiring.
The conversation expanded into hypothesis-driven thinking:
We ran through rapid-fire exercises:
The energy felt like creativity with a stopwatch. And it kept sparking until it was time for lunch.
We needed the break. Our brains were full.
After lunch, we moved into storyboarding, a session Jon led to help us visualize what success actually looks like.
For each of our top 10x ideas, we asked:
This wasn't just daydreaming. It was pre-mortem planning in reverse. Instead of asking "why might this fail?" we asked "what does winning look like?" And then we worked backward to figure out what needed to be true.
Example: If we 10x career consultation calls booked, what happens?
Suddenly, "10x calls booked" wasn't just a number. It was a roadmap.
Our CEO, Jonathan Javier, brought the 10x conversation full circle.
We revisited our golden metrics. We talked about turning mindset shifts into repeatable systems. We made commitments for Q1 and beyond.
The Framework:
Example: The 2-Month Job Guarantee
Our original offer: "If you don't land a job in 4 months, we'll give you a refund. 90% offer rate."
What happened when we 10x'd it:
This wasn't just a tactic. It was proof that bold moves work. But Jon didn't stop there. He asked: "Now what does 10x of that look like?"
And the cycle began again.
By the time we gathered at Saigon's Bread Café for our final meal, the energy had shifted. We had a quiet wind-down, Vietnamese iced coffee, and cackled at inside jokes that formed over only 48 hours.
And then we said goodbye, at least until the next offsite.
Yes. And the reason is simple. Remote work is powerful. But real human connection is rocket fuel. We're going into Q1 2026 with:
And because after this week, one thing became obvious:
We’re just getting started.
Wonsulting helps job seekers land their dream roles through AI-powered tools like ResumAI, InterviewAI, NetworkAI, and Job Search Plan.
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