Are you known for being a great host? Read this.

If you already have a knack for hosting events, hosting a retreat might bring out the best way you can serve.

It also allows you to merge your love of serving others with your love of travel.

Sounds pretty great, right?

The easiest way to narrow down the perfect offer for you is by considering which method allows you to best utilize the skills you already have.

Discover the benefits (and potential pitfalls) of hosting a retreat so you can decide if it’s right for you here

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Show Notes:

Hey, risers. Welcome to Empathy Rising. You guys have heard me say a couple of times on this series that when I was first getting licensed, I used to fantasize about hosting a retreat somewhere. I thought of couples retreats or in-person intensives or anything like that.

Could be like a working vacation, right? They can take a vacation and they can work on themselves. I can be working, but I can feel like I'm on vacation. I really love that whole concept of taking the idea of combining travel and personal work or travel and relationship work or whatever.

They're two loves of mine, so if I could combine 'em, why not? Add to this, the fact that I grew up in Arizona, which is I wouldn't say a resort mecca, but there's a lot of really good places to travel to in Arizona. So there are countless resorts that offer therapeutic elements right down the street from where my husband grew up in Lebers and Sedona.

They have some therapeutic type stuff that they do there. And then even more, kind of, famous or more well known is Mirial in Tucson, which actually employs licensed therapists. They have licensed therapists on staff there, and they'll do equine therapy retreats and they'll do some really cool stuff, and have some spiritual stuff.

They'll bring some legit shaman off of the reservations or who live in the Tucson area, typically, like the Tejano Odom tribe and they'll bring them in and do some kinda shaman rituals and things like that, and people travel the world over to do these intensives, these retreats, these excursions, and events.

So that kind of stuff has always been on my radar, even growing up before I was a therapist. When I started connecting with other therapists in the community, I saw just how many other clinicians were thinking about this kind of stuff had heard about retreats, maybe even seen that movie. I don't even know who was in it, maybe Jennifer Aniston or one of those types of actresses—It's literally called Couples Retreat.

Not an accurate representation of therapy, but still the idea that we could do this, we could go to some beautiful or exotic location and host people get to use some of our hospitality muscles if that's appealing to you and do great work, right? So while retreats are hosted in person, it's still best to ensure that they aren't delivered or marketed as therapy.

I know we see that out there couples retreats or therapeutic retreats, and to me that gets a little bit sketchy depending on who and how and where you're delivering to. So if you live in a pretty state or a cool city that's maybe a destination and you're only delivering the service in that location where you are already licensed: Check with your board cuz maybe people can travel from outside of your state and because they're where you reside, you might be able to do therapy in your retreat.

The same thing is true sometimes state boards want you to be licensed where the client lives. So sometimes you might be able to travel to a state and perform some kind of therapeutic retreat there because the residents are licensed there.

But what I really wanna focus on is getting beyond the therapy room and having something that is more scalable for you and something that is different for you. So that's why I'm talking about retreats that are not marketed or delivering therapy.

If you wanna host in a different location than where you live, like out of your state or even out of the country—and then think about it, people are probably traveling from all over the country or all over the world, right? So because retreats are held in person, we have to make really careful sure that we are not doing therapy.

This is also what makes them an online income stream. Because even though they are held in person like you're in the room with somebody, you can still market them online. And that's how you attract people from all over the world. And that's how you get people to travel to a different country or a different location, right? So you can still use online marketing to spread the message of the event.

So how do we make sure that we're not doing therapy, right? That's the big question, is do you wanna deliver a curriculum just like you would for a course, a group program, or coaching, or any of these other ways that we've talked about how we can do online income streams ethically?

Now, this is the same type of instance where you can take the same curriculum of another program and just deliver it in a different way. Okay, so you don't necessarily have to go back to the drawing board to create something for your retreat. You can use stuff that you're already using.

The big difference is though that retreats have much more free space built into them, right? It's that escape nature. So even though you might be working with a group for four to five days, it's not as if all 24 hours of each day are spent working, right? That would take away from that vacation vibe, that escapism vibe.

So instead, at a retreat, you wanna pick out some of the most effective exercises from your curriculum and work through those live and in person with whoever's attending. So giving time for those lessons or those exercises to marinate in between this space is what allows for the reflection.

If you're, like, on a beach, they can go and watch the waves as they're reflecting or learning or marinating, right? So instead of teaching every lesson of every module of your course or talking about every topic of the week from your coaching package, it's more about identifying what's gonna have the biggest impact from your curriculum, highlighting those lessons, and then giving them space to breathe and space to expand.

So maybe something like an exercise in the morning, and then an exercise in the evening and the rest of the time is completely free of work. Now that doesn't mean your retreat needs to be super structured or you throw the structure out the window, right? It's all based on how you like to work and also what your ideal customer is expecting.

But sometimes you'll just naturally fall into a pattern. If you wake up and you're all getting your coffee around the table, and then sometimes you just fall into work right away. That's what happened at the retreat that I attended in April. The host didn't really have a schedule. She just let us fall into the work naturally, and it was nice, but I think all of us were expecting that. Whereas another host or another retreat, I might have expected more structure. So it's just something, again, to always be in tune with your ideal customer.

Okay, so let's talk a bit more about the transformation that comes from retreats because remember, as you've heard me say several times now, it's the nuances and it's these subtle differences that are what bring about these changes in transformation.

So what retreats do is that they are a great way for both you and your guests to break out of your current routine. So the transformation that comes from a retreat, it stems from the fact that people are shaking off their burdens, right? They're opening themselves up to new possibilities simply by traveling away from where their current circumstances are and arriving at a different destination.

They're literally removing themselves from the bad environment, negative environment, stressful environment, and going somewhere that's more serene, more peaceful, more whatever, right? This is why retreats are a catalyst for long lasting change. So it's not about the length of time that somebody is working on an issue, like maybe with a membership site.

In fact, the amount of time that somebody is spending at a retreat is much less than really any other online income stream. Maybe just two or three days but the change in scenery, the change in environment, brings about a long-lasting change—it's the same thing.

You know when you go to a conference for your business or your practice or something like that, then you come back with all kinds of new ideas and all kinds of new perspectives simply because you got out of the office for a few days. It's the same thing that happens at a retreat. Just typically on a retreat people are taking a look at some heavy-duty stuff.

Once people are away from their problems, it might make them feel like they don't wanna go back, right? I don't wanna go back to the chaos, I don't wanna go back to the whatever, and they can get some real clarity on what it is. Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees, right? We're too close to our own problems, and by getting away we can really start to see what those problems are and it can be mind-blowing. It can be really awakening sometimes, maybe even a rude awakening, right? So this is why retreats really are the catalyst for long-lasting, big changes.

Now retreats can be as intricate or as relaxed as you want them to be. You can spring for a luxurious resort, or you can spring for a bungalow downtown somewhere, right? The experience is cultivated and it's completely up to you. So you can have some bells and whistles in there, or you can just have bare bones, whatever works for you, and whatever, again, works for your ideal customer.

Okay, so let's talk about some of these pros in more detail. And obviously, the first one is that retreats are like a vacation. Even if you stay in your hometown, you are still probably going to a hotel. You're not, most likely, you're not hosting in your home, right? So you still get a little bit of an escape.

You still get to get away, but you could host in an exotic location, or you could host in your favorite city. You could host where you went to college. It could be anything, right? It's an escape from the regular therapy room. For you, it is just a change of scenery and that can just bring about not only change for the guests of your retreat but change for yourself as well.

The other thing is that retreats are experiential. So some of the criticism for online income streams is that they're impersonal. Even in group programs where you're bonding and you're creating this family-like environment, you're still talking to somebody through a screen. So with a retreat, you're marketing online, but carrying out the execution in person.

So you and the people you host get to participate in activities in real life and in real time, and I think “in real life” is a big piece depending on your ideal customer. They might be sick of technology and they might be craving a weekend without their phone or something like that and this could be the way to do it.

I think about writer's retreats, and they ban all kinds of technologies. Sometimes they make you write with just a pen and paper instead of even your laptop, right? So something like that. If a writer is blocked and they go to this writer's retreat and they can get so much work done and such a different perspective simply because the nature of their environment is different.

And again, retreats are growth catalysts. Somebody has to be dedicated to the idea of change, to take time off work, to pack a suitcase to leave their family or whatever that is. We've talked about how travel and changing the environment is a catalyst for change, but just making the decision to do all of the effort that comes with that is indicative of how much they want this change, how much they want this growth.

And then retreats are full of freedom. I mentioned before that you're not necessarily sticking to a rigid curriculum or sticking to something that's a step-by-step process or even a framework of a membership site, which can feel more free. But a retreat is really the most free online income stream because like I said, you can cherry-pick exercises that are gonna be the most impactful and you might have an idea of an itinerary, and then when you get the group together in that house or that resort or whatever it is.

You might throw that all out the window and you might be like, oh, I thought these people were at point B, but they're really way back here at point A. We need to come and start here. So it allows you to have some freedom, some adaptability, some flexibility. You get to really rely on some of those therapeutic skills of meeting somebody where they're at or meeting the group where they're at but you can do it on the beach or somewhere really cool.

And then there's a really nurturing aspect of retreats, and this is gonna come up again later in the episode, but guests at your retreat, they needed a break, right? They needed a break from their daily routine. If it's a retreat for moms, they have probably been up to their eyeballs with demands and chaos and kids and all of this stuff. So you are providing them with a way to nurture a part of themselves that might have been neglected. At the very least, the opportunity for self-care. So there's a really nurturing held aspect that comes from retreats that you really can't get in any other online income stream.

Okay, so let's jump into the cons then. And the first one, depending on your personality, might be not so much of a con, but for some of you, it might be more of a con. And that's the fact that retreats have lots of moving pieces. So if you have a four-day retreat, it's like hosting four big dinner parties in a row, right? Lots of moving pieces.

Maybe not as big as planning a wedding, but pretty close if you've ever had any other kind of event that you've had to organize a graduation party or something like that's what a retreat's gonna feel like. Now, like me, if you love hospitality and that kind of sounds like a lot of fun for you, entertaining sounds fun, then that might not be a con. But if you're not the person who loves to entertain, then getting all of this organized and like having to be on in front of people for a long time might not feel like your thing.

Another con of a retreat is the liability, right? You, as the host of the retreat, are definitely gonna have waivers and definitely gonna have contracts and all of that kind of stuff that people sign. But there's still stuff that could happen, man, somebody could be driving to your retreat and get in a car accident, that would be pretty detrimental to me. That would be devastating, right? So there's weird things that can happen with a retreat that can't happen when you're doing coaching via Zoom.

There's also the liability of the house. If you're renting an Airbnb or something and hosting there, you have to be really cognizant of if something goes wrong at that house. There's also the idea of the in-person dynamic. So you might have met somebody online, you might have even worked with them in a coaching package or something like that, and now you're inviting them to come meet you in person.

There's lots that comes up with that, right? The first thing that comes up in my head is like, what if they're not who they say they are? Maybe that's a little paranoid, or you could have one relationship dynamic and then it could totally change, or it could just be nerve-wracking. Like you could meet the person and it could still be totally great, but it could still make you nervous to meet them in person when you've only had an online relationship, right?

Lots of different stuff comes up with retreats than comes up with other online income streams. And then one of the ones that is similar if we're comparing it to others is retreats are not always your biggest money makers unlike group programs, which are the closest in comparison. A retreat is not scalable. So you can't add more people because then you go from a four-person retreat to a 20-person thing that feels more like a conference or that feels more like a training or a workshop than it does a retreat, right? So you're not really gonna be making an uncapped amount of money with very little time and effort from a retreat like you might with some of these other online income streams.

Okay, then, so on that note, let's get into the idea of expected profit. Retreats are working vacations. So you get to generate extra revenue and you get to write off any expenses that come with us. So the hotel rooms you rent, or the Airbnb that you rent, you get to write that off any of the food that you purchase, right? The kind of base obligation of enriching is that you're covering lodging and you're covering.

Now you might have some extras that you put in, like you might include a headshot photographer if it's more of a business retreat, or you might have a yoga instructor come and teach one day if it's more of like a wellness retreat or something like that, right? So there's other bells and whistles that you can put in there. But you're paying for all of those bells and whistles.

So a lot of the times the profit margin of a retreat is not high. You're not really making a lot of profit from the event. Now, everything that you pay for is an expense, so you'll write it off and you might recoup some of that cost later, but it's not going to be like profit in your pocket like some of these other online income streams.

Like I said, you can make these as elaborate as you want but all of those extra costs are going to add up and you wanna consider what's going to appeal to your ideal customer. Do they want fancier food? Do they want a luxurious location? Do they want whatever? Of course, you could probably charge a higher price for a luxury. So while retreats typically are gonna come at a similar price point to a group program between the one and $5,000 range, you may tip that 5,000 or even higher for a retreat that is at a luxury destination or something like that. But then are you paying more for the lodging? Are you paying more for the food?

So again, You're not really looking at a huge profit from your retreat itself. It's more about the fact that you're having a working vacation, right? It's more about the fact that you get to do what you love to do in a different location, in a change of scenery, and yeah, you're making a bit of money, but you're not profiting at like probably even 20%, and certainly not at the 50, 60, 70% that you with some of these other online income streams.

Now there's two ways to help with this or to change that. If profit is a bigger goal of yours, the first thing that you can do is you can wrap your retreat into a larger program. So a lot of times programs like masterminds will have an in-person meetup. So, for instance, I have a 12-month mastermind that's coming available in January, and we're gonna meet up twice. We're gonna meet up once in February or March, and we're gonna meet up once in September.

Now those retreats are wrapped up into the cost of the higher ticket program, so I will be supporting people for 12 months and I thought it would be nice for us to meet in person a couple of times over that entire year.

The other way to do this is to sell a program off the back end of the retreat. So like I mentioned, that conference or that same escapism idea, a lot of people will feel so much better at the retreat. We're so much better at the conference I can do this. And then on that flight back home, they're like, oh crap, I still have to go home. Like, how do I do this after I get back home to the chaos, to the stress, to the whatever?

You can sell a continuing support program that is conducted online like a long-term group program or something like that, or even a short-term group program that's a couple weeks after they get home that helps them transition back home. And you can have them at the retreat and then invite them while they're in person with you to take you up on that offer. And it can be that continuing care or that transitional bridge between their vacation-like experience, and then how do they integrate this stuff in real life when they're back home?

So those are ways that you can raise the profit of the retreat, either wrapping it into a higher priced program or selling a continuing care program off the back of your retreat.

So now the marketing for retreats is different than the marketing for other types of programs because you're not necessarily going to launch a retreat in the traditional sense, meaning you're not going to introduce the offer, have them the offer, be for sale for a week, and then you can't buy the offer anymore because I think it would be a rare scenario where somebody can see something for sale, buy it, take that next weekend off of work or whatever, leave their family and just hop on a plane the next weekend.

Again, depending on your ideal customer, that might be possible for them. And so for most of us retreats require something like a longer-burning marketing system, right? We have to plant the seed for a retreat much sooner. Start talking about it much sooner so people can envision themselves there, which is the easy part. Hey, meet me in Hawaii in August. I don't know if that's a good time to go to Hawaii. I just made that up. But if you start talking about that in March, It allows people time, right?

The envision part is pretty easy. They can envision themselves in Hawaii, right? But it's the taking the time off work, arranging for care for their family, the whatever, all of those other details, that takes time.

What we really need to rely on with marketing a retreat is just going back to basics. What really sells a retreat is the know and trust factor. So first of all, someone who has never met you in person is choosing to spend their valuable vacation days or to take time away from their family, take time away from their job, their loved ones, whatever that is.

So they need to know who you. They need to like you enough to meet you, and they need to trust that you're not like a serial killer. But really they need to trust that the retreat you offer is going to be transformative. If they're gonna pay for a flight, they're gonna go through all of the effort of getting somewhere. They really need to believe in the result that they're going to buy. They really need to believe in the transformation that they're purchasing.

Okay, so we just need to go back to the basics, which are service and visibility. Okay? Can you serve your audience well? Can you give them what they need? Can you continue to provide them content on a regular basis that either educates, inspires, or motivates them? Can you show up for them reliably and consistently so they know that they're safe? Are you getting in front of them through podcast appearances or other visibility strategies that not only spread your message and your reach but buffer your credibility?

Ultimately, the way that we sell a retreat is by nurturing the audience, right? If they feel strongly connected enough to you, if they feel they have a strong enough relationship with you, they will want to go to your retreat. And so that happens deeper level marketing. It doesn't happen on social media.

That happens in a Facebook group. That doesn't happen on your Facebook page. That happens on your email list. Okay? So these deeper level, more nurturing marketing strategies where people feel like they're building a relationship with you and so we need more forethought here. We need more lead time here, and we need an extreme amount of know and trust.

And when you have those things put in place, like I said, you can start planting the seed for a fall retreat. You can start talking about it in January. You can start talking about it in the early spring. And just by talking about it, people will start reaching out to you. “Hey, I heard you're doing a retreat in the fall. Are there still spots open?”, and you can say yes, and you could probably even have the things sold without even actually doing heavy-duty marketing.

Now, that's not to say if you're hosting it in October, that come the end of August, you're not talking about it much more heavily. You're still gonna have to promote the thing, but we aren't gonna have a traditional live launch with an open cart or a closed cart.

Another really important marketing strategy for retreats is some aspect of live video, whether that's Facebook Live in your group, whether that's Instagram Live, somebody needs to know you as best as they can before they show up to an in-person event with you. So we need to use those connection strategies, and those are what build the relationship.

Okay, so that is a lot about retreats. You'll see that they have a different feel than an online income stream, and I really do believe that's because they're not necessarily delivered online. They're just sold online. If you are somebody who is super into hosting and hospitality and entertaining retreats might be a great fit for you. Or if you're super into maintaining an in-person working environment, but being able to reach people beyond your state, retreats might still also be an option for you.

If you love to travel and you know some different parts of the world that people might not have ever been to, retreats might be a good fit for you, but you've got to take into consideration that the retreat itself is not gonna be a huge money maker. They're going to give you a bit of profit, but it's not going to be huge amounts of profit like other online income streams.

So can they fit into a bigger program that you might be thinking of? Or can you sell a program off the backend of your retreat? That's a way to make sure that these are more profitable for you. I hope this was valuable. I hope that learning about retreats has sparked something interesting for you and may point out something fun that you can definitely do.

Remember, this is all about repurposing and repackaging the clinical skills that you already possess. You don't need to go back to square one on a new career, just to liven things up in your profession or just to find some more fun, or to create or carve out a little bit of a lighter lifestyle for yourself. Allow you to pay down some debts or allow you to shrink your caseload bit, or if it's on your heart to leave therapy altogether.

You can use every experience and every training that you've gone through till this point, and transform it into something else. All right, thanks, guys. Until we talk again, keep on rising.