Make "ENCOURAGEMENT" a daily mission. Many teams, companies and families miss out on the POWER of encouragement! The absence of encouragement leads to discouragement! Over the years, the encouragement and feedback I've received from training sessions energizes me! Whether an e-mail, phone call, or a parent standing next to my truck outside of Walmart just wanting to share how the training made an impact on their son or daughter. I feel honored to be in a position to challenge, motivate and entertain students at the same time.
I have known Rick Rassier, the guru in Team Building activities for over 20 years. Rick worked with my Hopkins Royals Fastpitch team for many years, we loved his enthusiasm, how we applied team building activities to relevant leadership ideas that helped bring my team together. Leadership is complex, Rick has a way of making it easier to understand and to grasp the concepts through a variety of activities. When I transitioned to Activities Director in Grand Rapids, MN I implemented a Captains Leadership Council, my new team, where I provide educational opportunities, resources and activities for student leaders to help them become better students, effective leaders and responsible citizens. Rick is a staple in my program, the student leaders love when he comes to our school and they love the challenges he presents to them. Rick's presentation is the most favorite activity among my team leaders and we always look forward to him coming up north! Rick is highly sought after to work with teams, organizations and coaches. Rick will challenge you to, "Take it to the Next Level."
Anne Campbell - Grand Rapids High School Athletic Director & Former Hopkins HS Softball Coach
I have worked with Rick Rassier for over 15 years, as a coach and administrator, in multiple school districts and settings. Rick is a person of great character and professionalism. He is enthusiastic, prepared, engaging, and a knowledgeable team-builder. He makes positive connections with student-athletes, reinforcing and teaching them valuable sport and life lessons.I have observed Rick plan, instruct, listen, motivate, and celebrate. He is an expert facilitator and guide. When he speaks, others listen. As a former head basketball coach, I regularly scheduled Rick to work with my teams each year. I was impressed with how much fun our teams had and how incredibly hard they worked at his challenges. Most importantly, I appreciated with the lasting impact he made. Players often reported how his session was one of the highlights of the year. As an Athletic Director, I now routinely recommended Rick to our head coaches. My coaches regularly thank me for the recommendation. They love to share their positive experiences, and report how much their kids learned. Rick has a natural sense of humor and engaging personality, and demonstrates great work ethic and follow-through. He is an accomplished leader in his field, yet his humility is one of his endearing traits. I greatly respect his vibrant but level-headed disposition. Rick’s track record as an instructor and motivator demonstrate a strong commitment to leadership and professional development. His experience is diverse and well-rounded. Rick’s leadership experiences differentiate him as a unique and one-of-a-kind team-builder and I recommend him without hesitation.
Trent Hanson - Hastings High School Athletic Director & former Head Basketball Coach
We had the pleasure to have Rick attend our bank’s culture training in 2018 and we were blown away by his motivation, determination, and his outlook on life. We were at the beginning of launching our new vision statement and Rick was the perfect kickoff in going forward to start our training. He did several activities that all our employees were able to participate in and share stories with us that were extremely eye opening. After each activity we did, he would share a lesson behind it and how to react to that certain situation. Rick’s passion and views on life are contagious and our bank still to the day talks about our training with Rick and how incredible and engaging he was! He brought a lot of high spirited energy that day and our bank will strive every day to bring to each of our clients the energy Rick brought us. We hope to work with Rick in the near future! Brooke Wilfahrt - Client Success Leader , Citizen's Bank New Ulm
"Rick provides a motivating message of teamwork and cooperation that any group will enjoy. He matches stories of inspired performance with active group challenges to reinforce the values of cooperation and collaboration. Our medical group had an outstanding experience with Rick." Dr. Curtis Louwagie - Avera Marshall Regional Medical Center.
“Rick engaged my entire staff. I saw more smiles and heard more uplifting comments during our time with Rick, it was an amazing experience for my staff. The ability to get everyone working together and building relationships was a strength of Rick’s. We are a better staff and school because of him!”(Aaron Hungerholt – LeRoy-Ostrander School District)
“Mr. Rassier spent an afternoon with the staff at Lincoln Education Center in August 2018. This is a day that we still talk about. Everyone involved had a great time. The message that Rick brought was about teamwork, communication, and trusting your colleagues. A huge part of that was having fun together and laughing. I would recommend having Rick Rassier come to work with youth or adults, you will not regret it”.
(Amy Jordan – Lincoln Education Center, Brainerd MN)
Rick was our facilitator at a leadership retreat for the clinic I work for. Rick was energetic, entertaining, empowering, and made the day fun. He gave us activities and projects to do as a group to facilitate team work and observe how groups work together. Following the activity he applied what we did and how we reacted to real life situations. My favorite concept he taught was attitude is altitude, the higher your thinking the better you are at getting a good result and taking it to the top. Thank you Rick for a fun retreat and being a great leader.
Leslie Pechan RT(R)(M)(CT) RDMS | Ultrasound Supervisor | Centracare Clinic-Health Plaza Obstetric & Women's Health
“Our departments, CentraCare Obstetrics & Women’s Health, Pediatrics, and Genetics, hired Rick Rassier for our leadership retreat. Our group chose Rick to facilitate our retreat because we were impressed with both his professional and personal accomplishments. Rick was enthusiastic, motivational, creative, and challenged each one of us in new ways. Our team had lots of fun and were able to apply the leadership tools learned to both our work and home lives. “ Melissa Kantor | Medical Staff Operations Specialist | CentraCare Health - St. Cloud Hospital
"For the last 10 years, our team has been trained by Rick on the different aspects of leadership and team development. It is always one of the most enjoyable team building activities we do all season long and Rick is able to personalize it every year to the make-up of our team. He has a way of working in just the right messages that resonate with our athletes while also creating and running challenging activities to get the team to work together in ways they never have experienced. "
Jenny Hansen, Head Coach, Minnesota Women's Gymnastics -
"I highly recommend Rick's training. We have had him multiple time and he always has fresh activities and a clear, strong lesson. Our student athletes love him and always look forward to the experience"
-Scott McCready - Athletic Director & Head Baseball Coach - St. Charles High School - St. Charles, MN
“Our players love the day each season that Rick Rassier comes in to take over our practice time! He engages everyone right from the start with his fun, high energy, team bonding, mental game training, team building activities. He encourages all participants to take everything they do to the next level while keeping their attitudes towards each other and themselves positive. The two and half hours on the court just flies by for our players and managers as they work together to try and master Rick’s competitive array of challenges. When the session is over the participants come away with the team bonding and individual mental toughness skills that they will need to have a season where they are continuously striving to achieve more and celebrate their successes along the way. They also come away wanting more and this season we were able to provide more through the purchase of Rick’s book, Take It to The Next Level, which we dug into with a book study throughout the season. I believe that Rick’s tools made us one of the most mentally tough and together basketball teams in the state!"
Grant Guzy - Spring Lake Park High School Head Boy's Basketball Coach
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"Thanks for everything Rick. I learned so much from you and have been able to apply those things each day since your training session with the team. You changed the way that I think about myself and most importantly… how I talk to myself.” College VB Player
“I can’t believe how much you changed the way I look at sports. You REALLY got to me. I’m glad that you are able to do this for so many people! This is a team saving experience. Thanks so much.”Elk River HS Athlete
“This was the coolest thing I’ve ever done!” Southwest Mpls Athlete
"Not only did your training change my perspective about practice as a college athlete, it changed my perspective about life!" Gustavus Adolphus College Athlete - Swim & Dive Team.
"The girls absolutely loved the experience! I even heard from the parents the following day about how their daughters came home beaming about it. After our first game Tuesday ( which we won!) during my post game speech they asked if they could finish my sentences. Also when one girl was talking about how much more unified and supportive they are this year another said "no put downs!!" I think you really did a lot for them and I truly appreciate it! It's always a pleasure!!" HS Lacrosse Coach
"I participated in your teamwork activities at the rum River Cross Country Camp in More on July 20th. I just wanted to tell you what a great job you did. I have always thought of myself as an above par athlete and runner, but have been seemingly getting into a stage of contenment. you inspired me to get better. Never before have I been so hungry to get out there and run personal records after personal records. I truly believe that through your class, My running will be on a completely different level this coming season. but the best part, is that its not only going to be in my running. I came out of that class wanting to improve on every aspect of my life. I truly believe that you have made me want to be a better human being, and for that I cannot thank you enough. thanks for all of your help, I really hope I get the chance to work with you again soon." HS Cross Country Athlete.
"I'd have to say my favorite part of team building was definitely the team jump rope activity. We worked so hard planning and combining ideas and I know we could've gotten 20 people in if we had a couple more tries. I'm glad I get to be part of a team that is so determined to succeed and even just make progress. I was happy with the activities Rick brought to the table and I really thought his knowledge rubbed off on all of us." College Athlete - Women's Softball Team
"There have been echoes of many of the things you shared with us already this season and our chemistry has been stronger beyond what I would have ever imagined. I think much of that is due to our evening with you." HS Boy's Basketball Coach
"Within 24 hours, my e-mail and voicemail inbox were flooded with positive feedback from the staff about the exercise. If I was to rate it on a scale of 1 to 15, 10 being “met expectations”….the exercise was a 15..”exceeded all expectations”….I thought your dialogue was insightful…your feedback to the staff was positive and the exercises were hard enough to get the desired “challenge” result….Let me know what dates you have available next year and we’ll be back. Thank you for taking the initiative to develop the program." Corporate Manager
"The guys absolutely loved your program! Many of my athletes approached me – without asking them – to tell me how much they enjoyed it. ..one even asked for your info. so he could pass the experience along to his high school coach. Thanks again! I will recommend your service and sing it’s praises. Your contribution will be with us as our program works towards our 24th consecutive championship!" College Track & Field Coach
"I just wanted to give you some feedback from last night, because I know when I've put time, effort and $$ into something, it's nice to know if was worth it. As you well know, my b-ball "star" is a man of very few spoken words, probably most of all at home. I just told someone at the football banquet the other night that it probably would make no difference if he won the Nobel Peace Prize or was being hung at dawn, we'd never hear about it from him - - that's just his personality. Back to the point of this rambling . . . last night when Corey came home, I asked as I always do, "How'd it go?" The difference was in his response. He started by saying it was REALLY fun and then went on to describe details of the activities, all the time, reiterating how fun it was! Coming from Mr. Silence, that's a HUGE thumbs up and compliment!!! It did sound like fun. Thought I would pass it on since it definitely had to be REALLY GOOD to get Corey so excited about it. “ Parent of HS Athlete
"Thanks so much for all you have and continue to do for coaches and kids! I have spread the word about you to lots of coaches I talk with. I think what you do makes a lasting impact!!! I appreciate you keeping in contact & sharing your new thoughts. HS Soccer Coach
"THANK YOU so much for a great session with the girls. Their reflections were awesome and very inspiring after their session with you. They truly enjoyed their experience and it couldnt have come at a better time in the season. Thanks again.....your ability to work with athletes is truly amazing." HS Girl's Hockey Coach
Thanks again for your time with us. Just wanted to let you know how we have continued to work with what you have given us. The week after you were here, I sat the girls down with paper and pencil and just asked them to write down 3 ideas or messages that they got from your presentation without any discussion. (I grouped the ideas into somewhat similar general themes and typed them up. That is the attachment that I'll include.) The next week I discussed with them some of the information that you gave me on the pursuit of excellence (as opposed to winning). In the past, our goals have been outcome goals such win the CLC, go to the state tourney, etc. We discussed that by focusing on achieving excellence that the wins would take care of themselves. Next, we read together the ideas of theirs that I had compiled and typed up. We discussed it in the terms that this pursuit of excellence is like a destination that we are trying to get to and these ideas that they came up with is like our road map. I had everyone circle one of the ideas or messages that represents a personal strength or characteristic that they personally bring to the team right now. Then I had each of them pick one idea that was a personal weakness or quality that they did not possess and had them write a statement for improving in that particular area. Next week, I will start pulling them aside individually to discuss their goal for improving and hold them accountable. I think that the reason this has been a big success is that is gives us tools to work with. It would be easy to say that we aren't going to focus on outcome goals such as winning specific games and focus on a goal such as excellence. That alone, though, wouldn't be enough. Now the girls have used their own words to come up with what I've called our road map. Thanks again for your help. When we have a head coaches meeting, I will share the experience with our other coaches. - Tom Roos, Head Coach HS Girl's Soccer
Rick Rassier’s program is the water, sun, and soil your company needs to support the growth of your employees. Rick teaches your employees the importance of setting goals, and gives them the fundamental resources to handle conflict and overcome frustration and fear. How? You ask. Well not with the same dry techniques that have failed miserably in the past. Oh No! Rick has discovered the kid that lives in each and every one of your employees. Oh yeah, it’s in there. Even if you don’t think it is, it is. Rick’s experiential approach to learning allows your employees to gain life skills in a fun and energetic setting that supports everyone regardless of athletic ability or company status. Everyone from the CEO to the line level employee takes with him new skills and abilities and the best part is it is FUN! After our session with Rick, several of my sales people told me that they have experienced greater success in sales than ever before. They have also indicated that they find it a lot easier to handle and resolve internal conflict. Let me tell you, with over fifty sales people who are all on straight commission, that is GREAT news! If you are in the process of “reinventing” your company, or you are trying to create your own “FISH” culture, or you just want to show your most important clients how much you care about them, schedule Rick Rassier to facilitate your next company function. You really can’t afford not to. - John D. Uphoff, Corporate Trainer, Becker Furniture World -
"The guys absolutely loved your program! Many of my athletes approached me – without asking them – to tell me how much they enjoyed it. ..one even asked for your info. so he could pass the experience along to his high school coach. Thanks again! I will recommend your service and sing it’s praises. Your contribution will be with us as our program works towards our 24th consecutive championship!" Steve Mathre, Head Coach, St. Thomas University Track & Field