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Retreats can change lives, and your business, when they’re designed as transformational experiences, not mini-conferences.
In this episode, Samantha sits down with retreat strategist Sheri Rosenthal to unpack the end-to-end of building retreats that your clients rave about and that pay you properly for the many hours you put in.
You’ll learn how to price for profit (without scaring off the right people), choose locations that amplify your promise, and market with a clear, calm runway so you actually fill your spots.
This is the retreat playbook most coaches and consultants never get Equal parts vision, logistics, and real-world margins.
Escape the break-even mindset. Learn profit-first pricing, create life-changing experiences, and craft a calm runway that fills seats without you burning out.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- Decision filters and the profit mindset before you commit to hosting a retreat (03:36)
- Avoiding “break-even” traps and profit-first pricing that pays you (05:50)
- Aligning location and theme so the venue drives transformation (10:13)
- Replacing content overload with an integrate-as-you-go rhythm that makes outcomes stick (14:51)
- How to fill your retreat with a calm runway and not using “hummingbird marketing” (17:15)
- How to warm your list for higher conversion. (20:49)
- What to include in your sales page (that most coaches miss), and how to pre-qualify attendees (22:26)
- What you need to do to protect your profit in case of low attendees (26:14)
- Avoiding over-touristed hotspots while keeping the transformational brief intact (32:28)
- Why well-constructed, high-ticket retreats sell fast when value is clear (35:00)
Want alignment as you scale? Let’s chat.
RESOURCES:
The Profitable Retreat Formula
Table of Contents
Build A Retreat That Sells Itself (And Pays You)
Step 1: Price Like A Business, Not A Hope
Step 2: Make The Place Do Some Teaching
Step 3: Design A Day People Actually Absorb
Step 4: Fill Calmly With A Real Runway
Step 5: Warm Your List The Smart Way
Step 6: Write A Sales Page That Sells The Trip
Step 7: Protect The Downside Like A Pro
Step 8: Yes, Premium Still Sells
Build A Retreat That Sells Itself (And Pays You)
Have you ever dreamed of running a retreat but worried it’ll end up as an expensive passion project? The truth is, retreats can be both transformational and profitable.
And the difference isn’t luck. It’s structure.
Below is a simple, no-drama plan I share with clients who want retreats that fill calmly, deliver real outcomes, and pay the business properly.
Step 1: Price Like A Business, Not A Hope
Most retreat math ignore the hidden 100+ hours you’ll put in: planning, sales page, sales calls, marketing, delivery, and wrap-up.
So stop calling “break-even” a strategy. Treat your net pay as a line item in your budget. Decide what you’ll net per person and build it into the price.
Price to your minimum viable headcount (the lowest number you’d run with). If you fill beyond that, great — your margin improves. If not, you’re still paid and proud to deliver.
Remember, people happily pay for solutions. If your page builds clear value, the right clients won’t blink.
Step 2: Make The Place Do Some Teaching
A retreat isn’t just a course in a pretty room. It’s an experience that embeds the promise.
Choose locations that amplify the topic. The venue and activities should reinforce the transformation (think public-speaking work near an amphitheatre, creative work where the craft originates, etc.).
Keep it chic, not excessive. Big impact doesn’t require big spend when the setting matches the theme.
Step 3: Design A Day People Actually Absorb
The fastest way to kill outcomes is stuffing the schedule.
Use a teach → themed activity → unhurried downtime → evening share rhythm.
After all, too much learning and not enough lounging leads to frazzled brains and low retention.
Step 4: Fill Calmly With A Real Runway
Retreat buyers have jobs, families, and calendars. Give them space to say yes.
Begin by planning a 6–12 month marketing runway. Then sell to your warm audience first. These are people who already know your voice.
And whatever you do, avoid “hummingbird marketing” (you know, a little of everything, here, there, and everywhere). Pick a simple plan and stick to it.
Step 5: Warm Your List The Smart Way
Cold lists don’t jump straight to “I’m in.”
What you can do is offer low-ticket, high-value trainings on retreat-related topics (like maybe a focused $27 workshop!).
Use those to qualify interest and invite the right people into a short call. This creates steady, permission-based conversations. No pushing, no chasing.
Step 6: Write A Sales Page That Sells The Trip
Think like a buyer on the fence, and lead with the promise and concrete benefits.
Consider handling objections right on the page (time, safety, travel, outcomes), and clearly spell out who it’s for and who it’s not for to protect group chemistry and reduce refund drama.
Paint the feeling of the experience, then back it with practical details (rooms, food, daily flow).
Step 7: Protect The Downside Like A Pro
Real life happens, and your job is to plan for it.
Require trip-cancellation insurance for attendees, and build backup plans for weather or logistics. Price to your minimum headcount (again), so you’re never held hostage by numbers.
Consider destination dupes to avoid over-touristed hotspots and volatile big cities while keeping the same vibe (think Croatia or Slovenia instead of crowded, popular hubs).
Step 8: Yes, Premium Still Sells
When value is clear and the fit is right, premium retreats move, fast. Clarity beats cheap every time. So craft a strong promise, a page that proves it, and a plan that respects buyers’ timelines.
Here’s Your Quick Checklist
✅ Net profit per person is a line item
✅ Price to minimum numbers
✅ Location matches the transformation
✅ Daily rhythm includes integration
✅ 6–12 month warm-audience runway
✅ Low-ticket list-warming offers → short calls
✅ Sales page: promise, benefits, objections, fit
✅ Insurance, backups, and destination dupes
If you’re tired of posting, hard selling, and hoping “it fills,” this is your path to a retreat that sells itself.
ABOUT SHERI ROSENTHAL
Sheri Rosenthal is the founder and chief retreat strategist at Wanderlust Entrepreneur®, where she helps heart-centered entrepreneurs create transformational, profitable retreats. With over two decades of experience in the retreat industry, she’s had the honor of working with top names, including don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements, and guiding thousands of coaches and healers to run retreats that change lives.
She’s trained and empowered over 20,000 retreat leaders to design, price, promote, and monetize transformational retreats that leave a lasting impact, while traveling the world and earning a profit to be proud of. Sheri’s also the CEO of Journeys of the Spirit®, a boutique agency that has planned and managed over 1000 retreats worldwide since 2003.
WHERE TO FIND SHERI ROSENTHAL
- Website: https://www.wanderlustentrepreneur.com/
- Website: https://journeysofthespirit.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sheri.rosenthal/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sheri.Rosenthal.Coaching
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WanderlustEntrepreneurs
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherirosenthal/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wanderlustentrepreneurs/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheri_rosenthal
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wanderlustentrepreneur
CONNECT WITH SAMANTHA RILEY
TRANSCRIPTION
00:02
Welcome to today’s episode of Business Growth Lab. I’m really excited to have this chat with Sheri Rosenthal. We’re going to talk about retreats. And I absolutely love retreats because it’s a really great way to create such a deep transformation with your clients. However, I’m not a retreat expert, so Sheri, welcome to the show, because it’s all on you today.
Thank you so much. Samantha, I’m excited. I love talking about retreats, and there’s so much to share.
So yeah, let’s dive in and have some fun with everyone. Let’s do it. Let’s start off. What made you decide to specialize in retreats versus, you know, online courses, or one on one coaching, or any other way that we can deliver our services.
Well, I’ll give you a little background. First of all, my training is actually in being a foot doctor.
00:57
So I did that for 18 years, and I was unhappy with my life and wanted to expand into something else, but I had no idea. So what did I do? I went on a retreat, my very first one, with Don Miguel Ruiz, who wrote The Four Agreements, which a lot of people have read. His book, such a good book. So that first retreat was really life changing for me. It made me realize, you know, why my life was the way it was, and what I could do to make it better. And that led to eight years of studying with him. And then from there, he asked me to run his business for two of those eight years, and during that time, I learned how to do retreats, because I actually created and ran all of his and all of his live events and all of his speaking engagements. So it was quite an education. I and I fell madly in love with retreats because it really changed my life. I went on to teach the Four Agreements and write a few books about it.
02:09
Did that for 13 years, and then in 2014 and I started a travel agency in 2003 to run my own retreats through.
02:19
So in 2014 after helping retreat leaders for so long, I realised they really needed more education, because a lot of their retreats would fail. In other words, they would not fill them. Or if they ran them, they ran them, you know, just breaking even, or sometimes even at a deficit. So then 2014 started, wanderlust entrepreneur, and I have been training retreat leaders ever since. We’ve trained over 20,000 of them, and through my travel company, we’ve created and managed over 1000 retreats. So we’ve been around for a while, and we know our stuff, and this is my jam for sure.
Love that so much. Alright, for anyone that’s listening and is already going, oh my goodness, I’ve always wanted to run a retreat, and I know that so many coaches like just about every client we have, so I’d love to run a retreat.
03:20
Maybe they want to, what questions should they be asking themselves to decide if it’s really the right, not just the right thing for them, but it’s going to be profitable? Like, what else do they need to be asking?
03:36
Well, retreats are profitable if you price them correctly, and there’s definitely a way to do that. So assuming a person can price them properly,
03:49
Some of the reasons why you would want to run them are, first of all, you want an opportunity to be more intimate with your people, because it is a very intimate experience, and the transformations are usually huge. It’s also a beautiful opportunity to work with people and then make another offer at the end of the retreat, because they’ve gotten so much from you. And you know, you can’t help but fall in love with everybody on a retreat, and so it’s a great way to have continuity in your business. And people are going to go away. They might as well go away with you. And a lot of times they can write off that experience, which is really great. So if you don’t mind working in smaller groups with people, now, there’s some people who do not like that. They just want to do an online program. They don’t want to get that close to their people who they’re working with. But for most heart based entrepreneurs, it’s something they do really enjoy. They love that opportunity to dive deep with their clients.
05:02
I mean, we’ve just mentioned pricing very, very quickly there.
05:07
I’m really intrigued about this, because I don’t know if I’ve got a limiting belief about this, I’ve always been happy to run a retreat and break even and really concentrate on the back end.
05:21
And I know there are some people that are like, well, like freaking out because they create their retreat. So that is the money making activity, and they want to make a big sum of money just from the retreat.
05:36
Can you break down for us? What, you know, how to work this like, is my belief super limiting? Can you make money from the retreats? Is it, you know, off the back end, I’d love you to unpack all of that.
05:50
Absolutely, and I would love to, Samantha. So here’s the thing, a lot of times we think of the retreat as just the retreat itself. So let’s say we were doing a five day retreat. The problem is you’re not just doing a five day retreat, because your retreat starts like six months to a year before, when you’re actually planning it out. You’re creating your sales page, you’re doing all your marketing. You are getting on the phone with these people and doing a sales call with them, then you’re finally delivering your retreat, and then you’ve got the cleanup afterwards. So yeah, you know you were working at least 100 hours, right?
06:34
Well, if you make no money, you didn’t pay yourself for 100 hours of work, and even if you just pay yourself a small amount of money, let’s say $3,000 you netted, you’re making $30 an hour. It’s actually not sustainable. So you cannot do that. You’ve got to actually charge an amount. So at a minimum, I would say a lot of people are happy if they net like $10,000 from a retreat, because then if you made 10,000 you worked 100 hours, that would be $100 an hour.
07:12
So all right, all right, that that kind of makes sense. So if you think about your net as a line item in your list of expenses. When you’re pricing your retreat, it just becomes another line item. So what do you want to make per person for this retreat when, when you think of it that way and price it that way, it really works out fine, because the amount you’re adding in there.
07:43
Like, if your sales page builds value and people can see what they’re going to walk away with. I mean, we’ll always pay for a solution. Like, if you can fix something for me or do something for me, I’m going to pay you for it and be happy about it. And people forget that they want to pay you. This is what happens energetically if we don’t accept payment. It’s like putting your hand up to the universe and saying, No, universe, I really don’t want to get paid for what I do.
08:16
And that stops the flow of abundance in the universe. So we don’t want to stop things up. We want to let them flow. So to allow people to do an energetic exchange for all that transformation that they’re getting, so for what they receive, they’re giving us a piece of paper in return.
08:40
And so that’s the exchange of energy. And then, yes, if you sell something at the end, and there’s an upsell, that’s lovely, but that money is for the next amount of time and transformation that you’re giving. So that’s separate. It really doesn’t have to do with the 100 hours of work you put in for your retreat. So everybody listening has to stop that thinking.
09:09
Stop, okay. You need to be paid. Your net pay needs to be a line item in your pricing, and then it’ll be fine. You will always make money on your retreats, and that’s the mistake one of them that our heart based entrepreneurs make. Yeah, totally.
09:31
What needs to be considered when we’re choosing the experience, so not just the location. So that’s like one piece, choosing the location, but also the add ons, making sure that we’re balancing the transformation and the experience, but also so that we’re coming out with a profit without the retreat costing $500,000.
10:00
Well, there’s plenty of beautiful venues that are chic and not overly costly, so you can find different venues.
10:13
That’s not so much the issue, I think the main thing we need to consider is how we are aligning the location with the theme of the retreat, and this mismatch is where a lot of people go wrong. So for example, if you were doing a knitting retreat, let’s say, obviously you could do that anywhere right. You could do it on a beach, you could do it on a cruise. But what if you took people to New Zealand, where there were more sheep than people, and you were actually there during a shearing season, and you saw the way that the wool is processed and dyed, and you know, you see that whole entire,
like, 7000 year old process of making wool to knit it, it would be transformational. And so this is like a lot of people would think, well, a knitting retreat isn’t transformational. Well, it is, if you have an amazing experience that really impacts you. So almost any retreat on any subject can be transformational if people are having a mind blowing experience. So you want to pick a location that matches what you are sharing that’s most important, and then the activities will come naturally.
11:43
Can you, that’s really fascinating? I would …
11:46
That’s so fascinating. Can you give us some other examples of retreats that people have run that tie together, that experience like that, just to get our juices flowing and have us thinking and being excited.
Absolutely. Samantha, my pleasure. So what if you taught people how to speak from the stage? We have a lot of coaches that do that normally. They’ll do it in a hotel room by an airport.
12:16
And people will be in a room, and they’ll stand in front of the room and they’ll be coached. But what if you went someplace where there was an ancient amphitheater, like, maybe some place in Europe, and you rented that amphitheater for your group, you know, for a certain period of time each day, and your people got to stand in the energy of these ancient orators that would just blow me away. I think that would be amazing. And then there are people who do yoga retreats and spiritual retreats. You can always do that at a beautiful sacred site. You could do it in Egypt. You could do it in Mexico, at the pyramids. That’s always wonderful. I remember once when I was teaching the Four Agreements, I paid off the guards at this small pyramid, and we went to the top of the pyramid and did an all night ceremony there under the stars. Really beautiful. So there’s so many things that you could do that maybe don’t even cost a lot, but are amazing. So it just depends. Like, for example, let’s say you are into knives and you do a knife retreat. You know that’s your thing, knives. You could take your group to Japan, where they actually forge these amazing paper thin knives and learn which knife you’re supposed to use for what activity that in itself is life changing like you. You now understand with meat, I need to use this. And with fish, I need to do this. If I’m chopping vegetables, I need this knife and why, and it’s just fantastic. We have people who do wine retreats.
14:06
What if you were able to take them to some wineries that are making wine with grapes that have kind of fallen out of fashion, but now are coming back again because they’re more ancient vines that have been growing and people haven’t been utilizing so it’s like, if there’s a hobby or a subject or a topic or a group of people that could gather on a subject, you have a retreat.
14:32
I love that, I love that.
14:35
I love you to talk us through an ideal day on retreat. What are the things that you need to make sure that you include, and what are the things that you need to avoid, or some of the things that you see people doing on retreats that definitely should not be there.
14:51
That’s a great question. Samantha, one of the things that always gets me is when people put too much learning into their retreat. So there’s too much learning, not enough lounging. So the word retreat means to go within, and if you don’t have enough time to process what you are learning in a relaxing way, people are going to feel at the end of the retreat that they need a retreat. You know, they’re going to be exhausted, so you need to pace yourself. Maybe in the morning, you gather together and talk for a while and then, you know, go out somewhere and have an activity that ties in with what you’re teaching. So that way the retreat makes sense. Those activities align with what you’re sharing, and then time in the late afternoon to relax and have a massage or journal or just have a drink at the bar, if, if that’s allowed, on your retreat, and dinner, and then maybe a gathering after dinner, where everyone shares and tells, you know, what did they learn today? How did they feel? Do they have questions? You know, where are they in their process? So I think creating your layout in that way works quite well like that.
16:21
And I definitely agree that I think that as coaches, or I see so many coaches getting into the thought that adding value equals teaching more, and in actual fact, it’s the opposite. Yes, exactly, meaningful activities to support what you’re teaching, to take people out of their mind and put them into their heart, or to do something more kinesthetic than mental, is extremely helpful for the learning process.
16:56
Totally.
16:58
What is, I want to talk about the marketing, because I think that this is one of the pieces that holds so many people back. It’s trying to actually fill the retreat. What are some of the traps that you’ve seen that people fall into?
17:15
Okay, one of them is they don’t give enough time to market their retreat. So if you are doing something that’s going to take a week, you know a lot of people, they have family, you know partners, maybe kids, maybe they’re taking care of an elderly parent.
17:37
You can’t just take off. You can’t expect people to just take off. You need to give them time. So you have to have plenty of time to market. We recommend six to 12 months, really. And a lot of venues book up that far in advance. So you’ve got to book out that far anyway just to get the venue perhaps that you want. So that is very important. You have to have a runway. Also, I recommend marketing your retreat to the people who know, like and trust you. I know for myself, I’m not going to go away for a week with someone. I don’t know what, how they teach. I don’t know their point of view. I don’t know their values. Your best clients are your peeps. So you don’t want to market to cold traffic. You want to grow your list all year long, even while you’re marketing your retreats. So for example, when I started wanderlust entrepreneur in 2014.
18:38
I wanted to go to Morocco, so I booked for October of the following year. I basically started the business in September, so it was like a year and month later, I had no list zero, but by the time that trip came, I had 15,000 people on my list. Wow. So during Yeah, during that year, I did webinars. I did a lot of things to grow my list, and as I was growing the list, the trip was filling.
19:10
So I was growing my list and then offering them the retreat, so it kept filling, filling, filling, filling, filling.
19:19
And that’s what I ended up doing, and it was great. So you can be new. You just have to give yourself time to be growing your list while you’re marketing the retreat. And if you do that, you should be able to fill your retreat. Now today, you know people are very distracted because of everything going on in the world, so you want to make sure that you have a solid marketing plan, like, know what I call hummingbird marketing, like, when you do a little of this and flit over there and do a little of that, because that’s not, that’s not a business plan to me, that’s a hummingbird Uh huh. So you want to make sure that you have it planned out. What are you going to do?
20:00
Are you going to do some webinars? Are you going to do some, ask me.
20:05
You know, come on and ask me questions about the trip, or, like, what are you going to be doing? Are you going to be teaching on something that the retreat will solve so there’s a natural lead into that. It’s important to have that marketing plan.
20:24
You mentioned there little workshops or webinars, little Q and A’s, what are some of the other marketing approaches that we can take? Because from what you just said, there, it is our warm, like the people that know us, our warm list.
20:49
So we need to, actually, even if someone’s got to know us and downloaded a free resource, there’s still not what I would call warm so what are some of the ways that people can warm that list up, over and above what you said, or maybe going a little bit deeper into what you talked about there? I mean, some people do you know smaller trainings throughout the year, so if someone isn’t buying, let’s say, their big coaching package, or buying their big online program, there are people that hang out on our list and may not do something you could always run, like a two hour call on a subject that will be covered on the retreat. Charge $27.
21:28
Talk for two hours and then make a pitch at the end for the retreat. And say, you know, hop on a call with me if you’re not sure if this is good for you. Come on, come on a call. We’ll see if this retreat is what you need right now. And so you can do like, multiple little trainings like that that are on the subject that the retreat is going to be on. And just say, Hey, we’re going to dig into this much deeper on the retreat. It’s going to change your life. You need to be there so you can do something like that, and that helps warm those people up. And even some people in your higher end programs may come in and say, I want to listen to that too. Because a lot of times they’ll, they’ll listen to anything and everything. Yeah, right, yeah, because they love you.
22:19
Totally. What can you tell us about the sales page part? Because I see a …
22:26
When I look at the sales pages of people that are running retreats and filling them, and people that are really struggling, I see a lot of disparity around the transformation. So, you know, people will say, Oh, come to this retreat because we’ve got a spa, and you get your own bedroom, and you know, and we’ll be eating dinner together, rather than come to this retreat and sort of have this transformation. Can you speak to that? Because I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of bad sales pages, and I know you would have seen a lot of great sales pages, absolutely. And I’m glad you brought this up. Samantha, so the sales page is That’s how you’re selling your trip, and that sales page not only needs to share the benefits so it builds value to justify the cost of your retreat, but you know, it also takes care of any objections. So that is really important, too. You want to make sure all the objections are answered. So for example, in our course, our retreat blueprint course, we actually teach how to do a sales page, and we have an AI,
23:42
an AI, system, custom GPT to help people, yes, so you answer certain questions and put it in there, and it’ll build your whole sales page for you, because it is that important, and you want to make sure it’s not a course page.
24:01
It’s a retreat page, so it needs you to put people into the feeling of the retreat. You need to share about the rooms and the food and the experience. You need to hit on the pain points and share the benefits. What’s the promise of the retreat? What are they going to walk away with, and the page should qualify that person so that at the top of the page they practically understand whether this is for them or not, because you don’t want to waste people’s time, they should right away if that retreat is for them or not, and also not attract the people that it’s not for as well, because that can affect the dynamic of the group. Absolutely, there’s nothing worse on a trip than someone who doesn’t belong there, because it messes the energy up for everybody, and then you really have to work hard on the trip to deal with that.
25:00
So I just got back from, I rented 161 foot yacht in Croatia. We went, oh my goodness, that’s one of my bucket list items. I love Croatia. It was over the top. Everyone just was blown away. And it was fun building the sales page for that trip, and they loved it. It was great. The people all gave it was like one of my best trips. Everyone got along with each other perfectly, and just got so much out of the trip. So it was, it was a wonderful experience. I love that, how sales pages, yes, yeah. Riddle, yeah, definitely. How do you manage the what ifs that come up? Like someone has booked the retreat, they’ve missed the time that they can get their deposit back. They’ve got low enrollment. Maybe there’s travel issues that are coming into it. Maybe there’s cancelations. What are any rituals or practices or mindset shifts that you recommend to help people? Because it can be a bit of a roller coaster ride, can’t it?
26:14
So the thing is, there’s certain things you just cannot prevent. So you know, if there’s something that happens in that country, like, let’s say war broke out, or bombings happened, or something, you know, a lot of times you can get out of the contract, or maybe they would defer the time to another time.
26:39
For me, all of my participants have to show that they have trip cancelation insurance, because I don’t want to deal with them asking me for the money when I’ve already paid my venue and everybody. So I can’t do that. So that takes care of that safety net. But as far as if you don’t make your numbers, you still, you know.
27:07
The venue is going to charge you.
27:11
So commit and make it so And also be careful in your pricing, because a lot of people. When they do their pricing, they will price on the number of people they wish to come.
27:29
It is much better to price on the lowest number of people you wish to run the retreat with. Now, yes, that’s going to make the price of the retreat higher because you’re pricing on a lower number of people. But if you don’t make your numbers, you’re still making money. You can run the retreat and feel good about it and not feel upset. So there are protective mechanisms, more than what I’m sharing right here that we teach, but you want to put those mechanisms into place. So Should something happen you are protected to the best of your ability. Is not going to be perfect, but it could be better than losing money. Yeah, totally. What’s one of the biggest surprises that you’ve had as a retreat leader, that you thought would work, but it didn’t, and it made you change the way you’ve put your retreats together.
28:35
Or maybe it’s something that you’ve seen happen to someone else.
28:43
I’m not sure I can really answer that the way you’re asking it.
28:51
Do you want to reword it or ask? Yeah, sure, what is something that you did on a retreat that didn’t give you the anticipated outcome that you were hoping for.
29:06
Okay, so pretty much everything that I do plan works out well. I’ve been doing this a really long time, and I think I know my ideal client really well, and because I’ve had a travel agency since 2003.
29:22
I’m pretty good. But as far as other people, sometimes they will plan activities that are, like they don’t really align with the people who they have on the trip. So like, for example, if you if your people are older, you know, maybe 50 and above, but you have them hiking like, a mountain that has scree on it, and they keep and they’re going to be falling and hurting themselves like you’ve got to really think about your ideal client. Most of the boo boos happen.
30:00
When we’re not really considering that. So for example, if you were doing a retreat for newer mothers, they’re exhausted. You don’t want to wear them out. Want to nourish them in the activities. So it’s like that. Now there are things that you plan that don’t work out that are not your fault, like, for example, maybe on one of your retreats you were planning. Okay, here’s an example. People who do swim with the dolphins. Well, if it’s stormy and the boat can’t go out, and it just so happens that that week you’ve got bad weather, they’re not going to give you your money back, and you’re not going to go out on the boat, and you’re not going to see any dolphins.
30:49
And there’s nothing you can do about it, and it’s not something preventable.
30:54
So is that about putting the things in place before you leave? Like, okay, this is what the plan is. But if it doesn’t happen, this is what we’ll do.
31:04
Yes, exactly, or consult an almanac and see what your best weeks are possibly. I mean, it’s hard. These things are challenging. So like, even with my trip, I picked a week where I felt like the weather could be as good as possible, and I was lucky.
31:27
But it’s a boat trip. Yeah, it’s Mother Nature, right? She’ll do whatever she wants exactly. So in those cases, it can be tricky, but like you said, which was wise, if you think about it, and have a backup plan, then it seems very effortless for the people on the trip.
31:50
Talking about things not going well. There is a lot of global uncertainty right now, not just in other countries, but in our own countries, like most countries are going through some sort of cost of living crisis. There’s all sorts of crazy world events that are going on that are creating all sorts of unrest. What changes are you seeing in retreat design right now, with all of that uncertainty. What do people need to pay attention to? You know? What do they need to be aware of?
32:28
I think that if you stay away from the biggest cities where there’s a lot you know, where protests could happen and like more craziness, and maybe go to some of the areas that are less traveled, I think you’re going to do better and have a better time. First of all, there’ll be less people around. It’ll be less crazy, and then the natives will be more relaxed, because actually the big tourist centers are over touristed right now. So you know, when you think about unrest, a lot of it happens more in the big cities, right? It’s not like in the more rural areas to things go awry. So if you think about where you’d like to go, be a little more thoughtful about what the situation is in that area, and see, can I do what we call them, dupes, destination. Dupes, duplicate dupe for where you want to go. So even if, like Italy now is over touristed, go to Croatia or go to Slovenia, and you know, it’s quiet there, as far as craziness. So if you look at destination dupes, I think you can find things that are going to be very lovely, very transformational. They’re going to have just as lovely of a time, and you won’t be in areas where things could possibly go awry. What about numbers? We are at a cost of living crisis. What are you seeing with numbers of people filling their retreats?
34:25
People are filling their retreats. People save up for their travel. They’re going to travel. So it also depends on your ideal client. Like, if your ideal client is older, they tend to have more available money. Like, if you’re in the baby boomers, but if your ideal client is in their 40s, then you’re going to want to find something chic and less expensive. So maybe it’s glamping, or, you know, something fun like that, that is less expensive than, like, some luxury resort
35:00
So you can really play around with that, and your trips can come in at a price point that your ideal client will be okay with. But you would be surprised.
35:19
One of my students from our retreat blueprint program wanted to do a high end trip to Africa like some Safari just over the top beautiful.
35:33
And she created a trip that sold for $22,000.
35:38
Now before that, her highest retreats were in the 6000s.
35:43
Like she did to London and so, you know, some other great places that, yeah, there’s cities, and they were expensive, and the food was expensive, and it was all inclusive. And so, yeah, so 22,000 was a big jump for her, and normally, her retreats took like six to eight months to fill. The $22,000 trip.
36:06
Can you guess how long it might have taken her to fill that? I’m thinking not long, because it sounds like a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity. So if you go to the right people, they would jump at that chance, three days. Wow, that’s incredible. Three days. She was shocked.
36:31
Yeah, that is so it just goes to show you, she filled a trip.
36:36
And no one batted an eye because she built the value on the trip page, they saw what they were getting. They hadn’t, they hadn’t been on that kind of Safari before, and they registered. So it’s really all about how you construct your trip, and if people see the value there, and it’s beautiful, whether it’s expensive or not, like they will, they will come. I mean, it’s just in the construction. I love that so much.
37:11
So much to think about. But I think we’ve covered so much of it.
37:17
I know that you have got a free video course, talking about so much more than this. Can you share a little bit about why people want to get this? And of course, we’ll pop the link in the show notes.
37:32
Absolutely. So we have a really fun for video series. It’s not long you know, they can watch a little bit every day, and it really covers how to design, price, promote and monetize your retreat, and how to do it safely, so and legally. And I think they’ll really, really enjoy it. It’s a lot of fun because it’s on our course platform, which is …
38:05
It’s gamified, so it’s, it’s fun to go through, and it’s the profitable retreat formula, and it really teaches them how to run a retreat like a business. So it is, you know, sustainable, you’ve got to be able to make that income. So they love it. It’s fun. And I think if you’ve been on the borderline of whether to run a retreat or not watching that is going to make you feel a lot more confident, because you have a better understanding of what needs to be in place, how you’re going to do this, and how you’re going to make it profitable and fill it so it’s going to be a lot of fun. Totally. It covers so much more than what we’ve covered today, even though we’ve covered so much. I had a quick look, and I love how you’re covering some of the legalities, because there’s something that’s so important that we need to know, and something that a lot of people will say, Oh, you know, either forget about it or no, we’ll be right. That’s a very Australian thing. We’ll be fine. She’ll be right.
39:14
So definitely jump in.
Absolutely. We do want to do things safely and legally, because, you know, you don’t know, even in a coaching business, someone can sue you. That’s why we have professional liability insurance right for our coaching Well, it’s the same thing. If you take someone on a retreat, you’re responsible for them when you’re traveling, so you want to be insured for that too. And it makes sense. It’s, you know, totally.
39:44
I’ll have the link in the show notes below wherever you’re listening. But Sheri, I’d love to close what is something that our listeners can implement right now to move forward, over and above.
39:58
Obviously getting access to that course. What is something that you can leave people with that right now, that they can get, you know, the next step?
40:09
Well, I think the online video series is great. Look, people can come to our website at any time. We have so many resources that are free on that website, Samantha. So we’ve got, like, downloadable guides. We’ve got blog posts that are really heavy duty.
40:30
They can also see we have a registration for something called the retreat hotline, where people can come and listen. We do it weekly, and we answer questions, which is fun. So there’s lots of resources. I mean, we also have a Facebook group that has like 65,000 retreat leaders and newbies and wannabes and experienced people in so there’s a lot. I mean, we’re happy to help anybody who wants to dip their toe into creating a retreat for their community. So it’s just, do you have that in your heart? Do you know it doesn’t have to be traveling internationally? You can do a retreat in your backyard practically. So, you know, a lot of times people think like, Oh, but I want to do a retreat, but I don’t want to do it internationally. No, you don’t have to do it internationally. Every country has beautiful places, so you don’t need to go crazy. You can keep it simple. So always tell people, start simply, and then when you have your confidence, you can do something bigger. So there’s always a way to do it, if it’s something you have in your heart to do. And people who want to do a retreat, they know who they are. They totally kept it under wraps for a while. Exactly, a lot of fear.
42:04
Yeah, exactly, I remember chatting to someone on the podcast. It was probably a couple of years ago, and she it was actually, we didn’t talk about it on the podcast, but in the green room, we were chatting about the fact that she ran a retreat where she had like, a little, like a little granny flat, or, like, out in the back of our house. And there was a
42:24
between the granny flat and her main home, there was a little fountain. So at the end of the night they would go, like, past the fountain into their own area. But then in the morning, they would win the something to do, like, when the fountain went on, it was okay, you could come in for breakfast. And I was like, that’s actually really cool. It is you would not believe some of the things that people do. I mean, a lot of people have extra, you know, buildings on their property that they turn into little places for retreats. I mean, you don’t have to have a retreat with 12 people. You can have small retreats with three people. It doesn’t really matter. You know, it all can be profitable. So there’s so many ways to do it. If you really have in your heart and you want to do it, we can help you do that. Love that. So much. Sheri, thank you for coming on the show and sharing everything today, and definitely you have inspired me to think about running our next retreat. So thank you so much. I would love that. Thank you so much for having me on Samantha, because retreats are needed. They are so needed right now, so we need to take our peeps away and help their nervous systems get granted in this crazy world of ours. So thank you so much for letting me share today.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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