Holding space on retreats with Laetitia Andrac

#31- Laetitia Andrac (edited)

Thu, Jan 18, 2024 10: 08AM • 45:50

Thu, Jan 18, 2024 10: SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Thu, Jan 18, 2024 10: retreat, people, book, year, writing, run, leticia, france, podcast, host, intuition, feel, emma, talk, happen, business, days, space, experience, journey

Thu, Jan 18, 2024 10: SPEAKERS

Thu, Jan 18, 2024 10: Emma Lovell

Emma Lovell 00: 01

Emma Lovell 00: Do you want to live a life of freedom and adventure? Are you wanting more than the daily grind? Me too. Welcome to the Emma Lovell show, a place where we talk about living a life you love now, I'm your host, Emma Lovell, and my number one value is freedom. I've spent the last 14 years running your business and traveling the world. And now I take my husband and toddler along for the adventure to it's possible and I know you can create a life doing what you truly love as well. This podcast will inspire, motivate and encourage you to go after your dreams to create a life you love until you have it now, don't wait for a time and or someday in the future. I'll be sharing episodes weekly about how I harmonize business travel and self care. I'll also bring on incredible guests to share their journeys, wins the challenges and how they're creating a life they love. Let's jump in and get dreaming. This is a space for you to manifest a life you love. I would like to acknowledge and recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this place now known as Australia. I am grateful for the continuing care of the land waterways and skies where I work live. Listen, learn and play. From here on you can bear country and from wherever you are listening, I pay my respects to the elders past and present. Welcome to the podcast today I am delighted to introduce you to Leticia and drag who is a business doula and founder of essential shift consulting. I met Leticia through the fabulous Jade Juan's Instagram growth club. And I've loved her energy and also her passion for retreats, which is something we're going to be focusing on today. But a little bit more about Leticia. She is a business doula and she teaches impact driven entrepreneurs how to weave intuition and strategy together to grow sustainable businesses, for people profit and planet. Her passion is to bring a sense of the sacred and intentional intentionality, to everyday life. She's a mother of two girls and lives in coronella. And she's attempting to practice what she teaches coaches and mentors creating a life that is aligned and sustainable. I can't wait for you to hear the way that Leticia does her business birthing, runs her retreats and share some of her very valuable tips from her own experiences. So introducing again, Letitia. Welcome to the podcast, ladies. Yeah.

02: 37

02: Thank you for having me, Emma. We'll

Emma Lovell 02: 39

Emma Lovell 02: see for being here, I was saying so you know, we might hear a little accent there. But I'll give you get you to do a little bit of background. But yes, then you asked me if I must speak some French and I said Juniper polyfil. Say, and you're not I say very well in French that I do not speak French property. But tell us Tell me Tell us a little bit about you.

03: 03

03: Yes, so I am Leticia ALAC. And I am born and raised in the south of France in the French Riviera. And I'm now living in Sydney in our country around granola. And I moved to Australia about 10 years ago after burning out in strategy consulting. So I grew up in the South of France in a beautiful small village. And then I went on the journey of following someone else's dreams, which we may cover at some point and starting going up the corporate ladder and being a very successful strategy consultant until I burnt out in 2014. And then Australia called me so I followed my intuition and moved to Australia initially was just for two or three years, we decided to say that my family was my husband. But it's been 10 years now. And we just love it here. And we have two little daughters.

Emma Lovell 03: 53

Emma Lovell 03: And you get to go back, I still recently went back to France. And

03: 57

03: still we go every year, every year. It's a commitment that we took when we sewed we would stay here for two, three years. We say we'll be back every year. And we've been able to come back every year unless the border was were shut, which was during COVID But the rest of the time have always been back every year. So yeah.

Emma Lovell 04: 14

Emma Lovell 04: And if you know that that's part of your life then you you factor that in and maybe we'll go well going to France every year we it's just I guess it's like a annual expense for you just know that that's quite

04: 24

04: literally after it's an annual expense and I always weave into it. I know we're going to talk about retreat, but I weave into it a retreat in France. So then it's like work and pleasure. I

Emma Lovell 04: 35

Emma Lovell 04: learned a new term bleisure business bleisure Which is lovely borrow that's that's good. So you're welcome. But you know, you feel so passionately about intuition and you obviously did so well that you wrote a book about it which I full disclosure, I will have to get you back on to talk about it because I have it in my hands. This is have a podcast, but it will save a video. I have not read it because I really want to soak it in. So once I've read it, we can get you back on. And we can talk all about just that. But what you know, just, you know, was that a long time coming? Or did it come from your intuition? How did the book come to be?

05: 15

05: Yes. So my book is titled lighted how to trust your intuition and build a thriving business. And I would didn't define myself as an author and Chelsea's book came to me in a deep meditation. So it was really intuitively led and this book is going beyond my work beyond who I am, I really feel like this book came from source and from God, or whatever you believe in, that is a higher power or my higher self. But I was on a silent meditation for a few days, taking myself out of the hustle. I have two young kids. My husband is a general manager in a big corporation, I used to be a general manager as well. It's just, I needed to take some time to process the grief of a friend of us, which I mentioned in the book. And during the silence retreat, it was like you need to teach the light framework. That's not it. And yes, it came. And from there, I embrace the process of writing the book and overcoming all the limiting belief around who am I to write a book? Why am I going to write in English when I'm French, all those kinds of things. I overcame them one by one. That was my story of last year overcoming this limiting belief. And now Yes, I am a published author, and I can't wait for many of you to read this book. Yeah.

Emma Lovell 06: 31

Emma Lovell 06: Oh, I love that. It's a big dream of mine writing a book. And I think I've announced it on here a few times, but I am writing a book this year. So I know I'll be coming to talk to you. And I loved watching you have your launches and buying it from you and knowing you know, it's such a nice, you know, what can go into it, but also that, when it's right, that's been my journey that I've always known. I'm gonna write a book God since I was 19. I said I would I went for a year travel, I was like, I'll come back and write a book. So it feels very overdue. But the book comes when it's meant to come. And yeah, I believe in intuition. I do see a psychic. And she told me they were, they were books, and they were there. But they weren't ready to drop down yet and actually found that a comfort and it was like, Cool. And I'm going to do it. And then but in the last year, it's become very compelling. And it's like, if I don't write, if I have one regret, I know it'd be not writing this book.

07: 25

07: Yeah, so start now. But definitely writing a book. I know a lot of people have it on their bucket list item. And a lot of people start writing a book and stop along the journey of writing a book. So there are more book as manuscripts than book in the bookshelf, even though there are so many books that get published every month. But I know that, for me, committing to finishing it and releasing it was a big commitment, going through the journey of writing the book, and having so many ups and downs, and so many moments of doubt, and so many limiting belief. It's like a business journey in a very short term. When you write a book, it's like New Year, you feel all the things that you may feel in 10 years in business.

Emma Lovell 08: 06

Emma Lovell 08: Wow. Well, yeah, I'm excited for the roller coaster and to compare notes later on. But I know that one of the things that I'm doing as well is and looking at the books with the time currently, you know, I want to read it for the content. But I'm also at this time looking at books with a different lens, because it's like what I want my book to look like, and oh, I like this cover, and oh, yeah, who would I get there? And oh, that's a good little page layout there. And you know, but also, then I really want to read the content too. So it's the kind of books are taking me a little while at the moment, but huge congratulations. It's a, you know, in my view, it's a huge achievement. So thank you, well done. Now let's get to you've planted the seed of of the retreats. And it's was wonderful that you wanted to come on, we didn't trying to get together for a podcast for a while. So again, we have a compelling reason that we both run retreats, and we just want to talk about, I guess what works and what doesn't. And so yeah, like, tell me how you got into retreats and why you choose to run retreats in your business?

09: 07

09: Yes. So I would qualify myself as a bit of a retreat junkie. So I started attending retreat in India, actually, in 2004. That was the first retreat I attended when I was in India. And it was really life changing in many ways. But I never thought I would run it as part of my business. But it's it has been some things that I love attending attend many retreats all along the years and all of that and when I was a strategic consultant, we would take on retreats, the C suite, to design their strategy to envision the next stage of growth to prepare an m&a All of those kinds of thing you notice is beautiful castles that we're owning in the strategy firm in Fontainebleau, like was just incredibly beautiful. So I had like, done that as a facilitator, but more Mostly as an attendees, and then when I started essential shift, it was during COVID. So not even the option to run retreats or things like that. But as soon as I started running my mastermind, I was like, Oh, maybe I could organize a one day retreat for them. So the first one was at my home in Bondi Beach, very simple, low key, and actually, the whole loved it. And then I realized that I was not only a junkie in terms of attending retreat, which I still do, and I attend so many retreats in a year, but also in facilitating it and all the joys that I got from it. And then last year, I got very serious, and I run four retreats last year, and international ones from France, or Australia, in different places in Australia. And this year, it's the same thing, I'm going to run many retreats in different places. I

Emma Lovell 10: 49

Emma Lovell 10: think that's important point is like, I think you have to, in my opinion, go on a retreat at least once, if you're considering running retreat, and they can look so different. You know, you know, I think some people think that they have to be a week long or 10 days long or five days long. I went to a half day one, and I got so much out of that half day. And just as you said, you were in one day One day intensive. For me, like what what makes it a retreat is an intention. Yeah. But like you said, retreats have been running in corporate style for a long time. And so the spectrum of what is a retreat? And I actually feel like I probably haven't even tackled this question. So it's great to like, have your interpretation of it. You know, like, so I have kind of my definition of what a retreat is. But I loved that. The one of the first retreats I went on was run by a German woman. And she said her mother was like, Well, what is this retreat? Like? What does retreat mean? And that sent her on the journey to go, Well, what does and the word retreat means to, you know, withdraw,

11: 54

11: withdraw retreat? Yeah. And

Emma Lovell 11: 57

Emma Lovell 11: so you can retreat in or you can retreat away. But like, I think that was such a, that really stuck with me that that sort of foundation of it. So I love that you've covered this. There are so many ways to do it, but also that you've been on them. And you and I went both went on at different times a wonderful retreat. Denise Duffield Thomas's rose farm retreat. And I think each one you go on you learn, you know, whether it's like, oh, that's a really great idea. Or it's like, oh, I didn't, that wouldn't be for me, or I wouldn't run a run. I wouldn't want to do it like that.

12: 31

12: Yeah, definitely. I think the more you attend retreats, the more it gives yourself permission to run it in your own ways. And I have been on retreats, you know, yoga retreats, psychodrama, retreats, Silent Retreat, cooking retreats, dance retreat, drumming retreats, like so many different things, artists retreat, you can singing retreat, so many and business retreat like the one you mentioned. And I think it's giving us permission to create our own. And definitely a retreat is something that is a pattern interrupter. So for me as long as you're interrupting a pattern. And that's why we were doing when we're taking all of those leader into the space for four days into this beautiful castle, was just taking them away from the politics away from, you know, the things that are at play, going through an m&a or a big redesign of an organization and so on for them to think about it. And the same thing in a small business is the same thing. In life, when you're going through the motion in life, just going on a retreat by yourself or with your partner or with friends, or with your kids or parents retreats with kids, I have looked into one of my daughters neurodivergent you have retrieved for you know, autistic kids with their parents is just so many options. Yes,

Emma Lovell 13: 44

Emma Lovell 13: that it's like the foundation that I think is like being that there's the one side of experiencing it and being open to the possibilities and exploring that. And whether you do that by your own personal research or by talking to people, but then making the decision of what is the intention of my retreat. Because if you try to do all of those things, it's gonna be a shitshow of confusing.

14: 08

14: They don't know, why is it going to your retreat, definitely having a clear intention, a clear goal, a clear transformation, as we will hear a lot that you promise, whoever is coming to your retreat, I think is a key beginning. And you know, you asked me about my book, how this book came. The framework was actually the framework that I was using in my own retreats, which are business birthing retreat, which is allied framework that is at the heart of my book. So actually, you never know how a retreat can keep on giving other things for your business. And in your life or a book can be an inspiration for a retreat, it was the other way around.

Emma Lovell 14: 46

Emma Lovell 14: And I don't know how you feel about it. But for me, I often say like, selfishly or whatever, like I get just as much from my retreat from hosting the retreat. I feel as my clients Do you know I go it's a transformation for me too. It's a gift for me to I cry at the end, I'm like, you know, the to have the honor of people choosing to give time, give money, give time, be open, and share, like, all those things is such a gift. And then to see, one of my big lessons was like that it's not all about me. So even though I'm saying selfishly, I get a lot. I've, each time I've stepped back more and more, and it's not a not just like a teacher, it's not my job just to like, deliver constantly. My job is actually to create the space. And, you know, for them to come and to have their own thing come out of them. Like I'm like, it's actually the answer comes from you. It doesn't come from me. And I like to remove myself from it. And it's like, it's the retreat does the work. I mean, I know it created but you know, like, it's not about me. Hey, lovely. I want to open the doors to incredible opportunities for you on an all inclusive luxury retreat exclusively for people who are ready to live a life they love. I invite you to join me for five inspiring nights in sensational SriLanka for the rest and receive retreat, hosted from second to seventh of November 2024. by yours truly, Emma Lovell, I ask you to disconnect your senses and immerse in this exotic culture while you reconnect with yourself. You get to share this luxurious experience with 12 incredible people, while forming connections that last a lifetime. I really cannot undersell or overestimate this incredible retreat and the magic of going to a place to give yourself space and time. I want to share it with you. And if you are interested, then please head to my website, Emma lovell.au/srilankan Retreat. I'd love to see you there. And I'm happy to chat. If you have any questions whatsoever, please take this opportunity to come along and join me in stunning Sri Lanka.

17: 10

17: I think it's the beauty like a retreat, you cannot run a retreat if you don't know what it is to be a space holder or facilitator or you know, someone who will really create a safe container, a sacred container for others to experience a transformation. And as you said for the work to be done and trusting the process. And this is like anyone who is running a great retreat will know that it's about holding the space holding the container. But don't being too attached to this is what we do at 10. And this is like trusting into what we call Karis time rather than Chronos time. So Chronos time if some of you are listening to this don't know what is Chronos and Kairos. Time Chronos time is from nine to 10 We'll do this. And then this is a time whereas Kairos time is your enter this space where time is not really relevant anymore. And sometimes the time may be longer, maybe shorter. But this is a process and trusting the process. And as a space holder, you have some time people in your retreat will like so when are we doing the next thing and like No, no surprise, the process owner this moment of discomfort, and then you'll get what you need to get from this experience. So you need to step into that space of space holding and facilitation and sacred container holder.

Emma Lovell 18: 31

Emma Lovell 18: Definitely balance isn't it because like you're always going to have those different. Like kind of it's good to have a guide and itinerary and people are gonna buy into that, of course, but also like, I don't mind my message at the top of and I used to run, be a tour manager. So I'd go and do cycle trips and tricks and things my opening speeches always expect the unexpected. Yes, we have an itinerary, but who knows what's going to happen, like the weather. You know, like, just, you know, we're in a different country, different culture, things happen differently. Like, I think having a different country gives you a lot of grace. But but you know, you're like, Yeah, made an itinerary. But things happen. So if you can be open to that, then that's great. And I think that I've tried to be quite clear about that in in when I'm doing the introduction calls and things like that or testing the waters. And if somebody is very like it has to be what is the time and what are the delivery? And what is the outcome? I'm like, actually would flat out say potentially my type of retreat is not for you. Yeah. Because, like we will have flow and what I feel like you were saying before is that state of flow when you're in that state of flow. And yeah, and just allowing in some of the best things or the unexpected things. I think it's a beautiful space to be in but you know, just I guess prefacing it a little bit but also just like maybe a retreat isn't for you. If you can Don't you maybe Leticia and I aren't the hosts for you. If you need a structure and you need kind of a doo doo doo.

20: 08

20: Yeah, but we know that magic happens in between, right? We know in any time of deep creative sparks, that creative spark don't happen when you're in front of your blank page, if you're writing a book, and you're gonna write a retreat or in front of your laptop, if you're willing to birth, the next, you know, beautiful software that will you know, dethrone Canva, or whatever, it's actually happening in those in between space. And for me, a retreat is in between, it's harnessing this between at its best, it's like this on those that you cannot even imagine. And every time I go on a retreat, I really try myself as an attendee to go with a totally open mind and open heart and open wheel. And yes, I go on this retreat was an intention to eventually work on this. But I often come back with something else, which is even better, that I haven't envisioned before. And that's what I always invite the participants my own retreat to come with is yes, we're going to birth something. It's a business birthing retreat, we're going to birth something, we're going to work on your birth story, we're going to birth something, don't worry about it. But maybe it's not going to be the things that you were thinking about birthing.

Emma Lovell 21: 18

Emma Lovell 21: Yes, yeah. And it's, I know, I can think of two examples of my own that where it's good, yes, having an intention and having a bit like having an openness. And I've done that, and then having another time where I had an intention, and I was so attached to the outcome was so attached to like, I guess what I invested in it. So I have given up money, I've given up time. I am away from my son for the longest time at first been, and I better get something out of this kind of like I put too much pressure on. And also had somebody say to me, it's going to change quite a bit like swim, change your fucking life. And so then I'm like, Alright, come on, life change. And, you know, I didn't really surrender to it. And I really, I got other lessons out of it. But I put so much pressure on, what am I getting out of it? It, you know, it kind of,

22: 11

22: and often, often, the penny dropped a few months later, or a few weeks later, like either you get the transformation during the retreat as an attendee, as a facilitator, like, whatever you're doing, whichever stage you're at, you're getting a transformation, either before when you sign up for that retreat, because he changed something in your behavior in something, or during the retreat, or sometimes it's after, and I know for me often the breakthrough I happen after. And I've noticed that after going on so many retreats where you know, at the last chair, everyone's like, Oh, no, my life is actually a few months later, I stopped being like, Oh, I remember that. Oh, that came up. Actually, let's go back to the journals that I wrote at this time. Oh, this, the seed was planted at that time. So we often measure the results straightaway, when actually, for many things, it takes time, like a wine, a wine tastes better years after cheese. And you know, I'm French. So it's like, all the thing in the food in France tastes better after years. So let's leave it some time. Yes,

Emma Lovell 23: 21

Emma Lovell 23: I love that. It's such a, it's such an important message. And again, in that sales process. I mean, Angela Henderson said to me on this podcast, the track, the transformation happens at the transaction, which I loved, like, and I just think it's like that first step 70% of success is that first step 70% of your retreat experience, was you saying yes to the experience, like committing to that I believe that entirely and that people do start the shift before that, but also, then, yeah, not placing the like that expectation on that. I said, 100%, I can guarantee you're gonna have a nice time, you'll have a nice time, you're gonna get the inclusions I told you, you'll get you're gonna get that. But the penny drop the potentially that transformation. I think six months is the mark. Six months is like everyone's different, like you said, but I think if you talk to people six months after the retreat, they can tell you what has happened. Or the thing that they the seed that planted the fruit comes then you know, because things take time as we were chatting off air, and it's like, I can preach that. But I can I'm sitting here going, I want other things done. Now I want. I want my whole year planned out now. And it's like, oh, there's so many beautiful things happened last year that I could not have, and some terrible things happen that I could not have foreseen in the first two weeks of January. So why do I think that on the 16th of January. I'm going to know everything but anywho let's talk mistakes. But things that we are not doing because you have had success and you and I both had success in retreats. But I think there's times we could have had more success. And what are the things that haven't worked or that you would you've learned from? So

25: 06

25: for me, the first thing is really communicating more about it's. So when I run a retreat, I'm just like, I'm running a retreat, and I'm talking a little bit about it, but I don't plan my whole content, my own marketing plan my own campaign around it. Because retreat is not the core of my business model. It's more something that I do on top off, so it's often an upsell, it's often something that people notice me, within my community, my membership, my courses, and they want to go deeper. So it's not something that I set at a core and as I'm not setting into a core and then I'm maybe not going hard enough in communicating about it as I will go with something else that is core to my business. So for me, my biggest lesson is when you know, as I told you offline is when someone like it happened on Monday, message me on Instagram you like you were running a retreat in March? How? About a few times already? So it's it's a very good lesson when we feel we've been talking about it like a broken record. But actually, we haven't spoken about it enough. So that's my, my first mistake. Do you want to go with one? And then I go with another one? I

Emma Lovell 26: 20

Emma Lovell 26: want to go back it up. Yeah, I'll just back that up. I think that you know, someone, Jen Donovan, who's a marketing, social media marketing expert, just she said to me, like in, you know, from your heart, do you think you promoted India enough? And I said, No, I didn't. I know why I know that things came up and all that, but you know, not having that promotional plan from the outset. Not having that structure. You know, all feeling like no, I had a retreat sold out. And then kind of going, Oh, well, it's sold out. I'll stop talking about it, when actually know that I'm going to keep you and I know that we're going to keep having retreats. So retreat, it needs to be an always on messaging works. I sometimes focus too much on the oh, I can't talk about kangaroo Valley because it's sold out. Or I can't talk about kangaroo Valley, because I'm talking about India. Whereas if I talk about I run retreats as a general piece of content that's always on. Oh, and by the way, go to my events page. Here they are. You know, that's just something that I kind of had to realize. But as you said, you think you're talking about it till you're blue in the face? You really haven't. And there are people on my email list who said Emma, I could sit on I'm not sick of it. And I could I could definitely stand to see more of it.

27: 39

27: Yeah, so as a first mistake, then the second mistake is accepting people last minute. Last year, I had sold out my retreat in March. And last minute, I went to this lunch where I was not expecting to meet anyone who could come to this retreat. And I met this woman out of the blue was like, I want to come to your retreat. I was like, okay, cool. So reshuffling everything last minute. And usually I set myself three days to brief the cook to brief the photographer to brief my team member, I always have an assistant with me during the retreat, just because I'm not good with detail. I'm not good. I'm a visionary. I'm a strategist, I'm shit with DHL. And that's okay. It's not my zone of genius. So I was like, Yeah, but very excited. One most sounds awesome. And then it's like a lot of kind of free shuffling and last minute pain, just because I couldn't, you know, just let it go. And I should have let it go. So this time, I'm closing my March retreat three days before, and I know three days for some people may seem a bit last minute, but for me with the way I work three days is actually a really good time. So it's gonna be three days for the March one and in from my mistake from last time,

Emma Lovell 28: 55

Emma Lovell 28: I think and that's good. Like, you know, the you and I, maybe three days or a week is fine. But like for India, it has to be like 30 days before because, you know, you need to book hotels and international travel and things like that. So but you know, the operator might also go No, I like we can, we can do 10 days. But understanding what's the implication of that? And I think it's also it's like it's safe to have a waitlist, it's safe to have people who have to wait. And it's it's kind of safe to say no, actually, this one's full or no, you missed the deadline. And obviously, you just met her so there's not that knowing it's the deadline and this is close now. And either they'll come to the next one or it wasn't for them.

29: 41

29: Yeah, definitely. And that's interesting that you mentioned weightless because this is a mistake. I did. So one of my international retreats that I have run last year in France, I had so many people on the waitlist and I was like yeah, it's gonna sell out gonna be easy. Gonna be cool. People on the waitlist don't equal equals whereby even for a retreat, we know that for courses or memberships are similar, we always know that we have a drop out. But when you know people personally and they say, Yeah, I'm in, but they haven't signed the contract, they haven't paid, they haven't confirmed anything. It's not confirmed until it's confirmed. But this is a mistake that I made last year with my French retreat. So I ended up being, you know, a bit last minute being like, oh, my gosh, we need to communicate about this. Because actually, even though it was more than sold out in the waitlist, it's actually not sold out now that we are actually filling the spot and asking people for down payment and signing contracts and so on. And so I think I like my OB, and my online business manager told me yesterday, through a voicemail, that I'm very good at selling stuff in the last minute, and I think this is my behavior. I always buy stuff in the last minute. So I always end up selling it out. But in the last minutes, yeah,

Emma Lovell 30: 59

Emma Lovell 30: yeah. But it's still people need to see that like, and you don't really see what people are seeing. I think that's something that on the other side of that, like, you're not putting it in my email enough, you know, maybe banking on the fact that I had the same, you know, like, India had five, six people join on really quickly. So, almost not coasted, but then felt like, Oh, it's a year, like, I don't want to go so much for a year. But the next thing you know, it's five, six months later. And it's like, wow, this thing's only in four months, which actually was still a lot of time, because maybe you have the maverick as well, we have that thing of being able to, like fire up the last entrepreneur of being like, I gotta, I gotta make some educate, let's do it. But you just probably don't need to, we just really don't need to have our adrenals quite so high. And, you know, and just to give people that some people do need to see that message. 18 times, some people only need to, I mean, I think it is like 18 times is the marketing thing now that you need to actually just lay your eyes on it 18 times. But some people, don't you and I don't we can meet somebody at lunch and go, Yeah, off like France shut down the coast.

32: 07

32: Sure. Yeah. Even the one you mentioned that we both attended in SDT retreat. You know, what's funny is I had never heard about her. I know, sometimes it feels like I live in a cave. But I had never heard about her. I didn't know who she was. And I just literally Googled New South Wales Business retreat, I want you to take myself on a retreat close by, so I could drive with my car, like I had this commitment of already doing one trip to Europe once a year. And I'm very activist in my choices of sustainability and so on. And so I was like, I'm gonna find something local, and this retreat came up. It's like, yeah, Don, okay, check, check, check filling out the application, don't do and then I started Googling this girl, like, oh, my gosh, she's legit. Okay, cool. Let's go meet her. And it was actually really good to have zero expectation, not knowing the person. And what I find is when I go on retreat with someone that I kind of loved for a long time, I have higher expectation, rather than when I go with my full gut and intuition, to a retreat about someone that I barely knew, or to an experience, like a friend last year was like, Oh, do you want to go to this? Bone gathering retreat? I was like, What the fuck is that? Okay, I'm going, what is it I've just signed up, it was last year, about the same like in on 26th 27th and 28th of January last year, and I just went, it was just something about, it was completely different to the other retreat I attended. And sometimes going with your curiosity and signing up for things that are completely different to what you usually sign up for is quite

Emma Lovell 33: 44

Emma Lovell 33: great as well. And that's great to keep in mind for your audience like that. Sometimes, you're obviously you have a target market in mind, you think you know who's coming, you get a set of people, but then there's someone who comes along and you do a sense check with them. But like, maybe it's cool having that person who's quite the anomaly. Who comes out of out of left field and you know, actually, that's awesome that they just, I write on my page. Now, if you think this is for you, like get these other people, I think it might be four. But if you read this, and you don't take any of those boxes, but you think it's for you, then it's for you. Yeah, like, you know, we taught we have to target we have to have a target, we have to have a direction. We have to have an intention. But there's kind of an the net can be cast around that. You know, like I always think the target the bullseye, you know, yeah, we're going to the bullseye, but you can land anywhere on the board and you still get points. So yeah, I loved this. No, I'm conscious of our time. But um, yeah, it's so wonderful to talk to someone else who's so passionate about retreats, and I love you your experience and your broad perspective. Is there anything else you would give to someone who wants to run a retreat? I think sometimes what I'm seeing is that people are quiet. They think that it's quite involved. And I think there is an element of that. But they think that there's so much involved, there's so much cost, there's so much planning that they either they need us to do it, lots of funds. And they're also expecting that they're going to lose money. Like, how do you feel like what would you say to people who are looking to run a retreat and to get started. So

35: 21

35: all of that are false excuses that are preventing them from actually running a retreat, if you really want to run retreats, and you're like me, you're not into operation, events, planning and details, just an awesome someone to help you do that, which is what I do, I delegate all of this to Leanne. And so she does all of this magic, operational stuff, the financials, I am huge on looking at my financials. So I'm really planning intentionally the cost and all that I'm making a lot of profit for from each of my retreats. So it's highly possible. And I never upsell to anything insights about the retreat, and this is my value, like the boater retreat to get the whole value in the retreats. You don't need to buy anything else. So I know there are people out there teaching, you run a retreat with less profit, but then sell them something else. I'm like, This is not my approach, I will make money from the retreat itself and deliver the full shebang during the retreat. You don't need to buy anything else from me. And then the third thing that you said, which is it's a lot of work. So as I've said it's delegation, but also it's not so much work. It's like anything in your business, but just during the retreat, you don't find you're working, if you are a space holder, or facilitator. For me, when I run retreats, I really don't feel like I'm working. I feel like I'm just hanging out and doing my best work. And I'm in my zone of genius. So it's just being paid on holiday. And I you know, I know when I say that people like oh my gosh, sign on, I feel

Emma Lovell 36: 55

Emma Lovell 36: it's a big objection I get as well, or any challenge I get with people being like, you know, and I say that I run profitable retreats, and they're like, is your time factored in? Yes, like, look, yes, it is, because I'm making money, but to, if you want to factor in all the time, like from the concept, to the promotion to the planning to having conversations to the talking the cost, like my pay per hour, maybe it's not so high. But for me to spend three days or five days in a beautiful place, with beautiful people getting my own art has like, it's not that, like you said, it doesn't feel like work I've created. You know, it's like I want to create a life that I don't need a holiday from, I've created work that feels like a holiday. It is just as rejuvenating for me. And yeah, it is it is tight it is you are holding the space. And potentially people aren't the right fit for being the host or holding the space. And like you said, just as you can delegate out some of the operations and some of the detail, you could actually delegate or outsource the hosting, like I've, I'm going to be offering that service, if I could be the host, if you want to be the deliverer, even potentially, you can have it like that dynamic. You can bring people in if you don't want to deliver sessions, you could bring in different facilitators, you could bring in logistics to deliver a session, you can bring in an expert to deliver a session. Like if you really have this dream of hosting it, you can find ways to do it.

38: 24

38: But I've actually done it for two of my clients, we started running the retreat, and they were not confident enough to, you know, kind of hosted to come in and host with them. Help them be more comfortable later. But I think the main thing is as long as you love hosting, holding space, just do it. Then if you're an introvert and you don't like to be surrounded by people and just want to be by yourself, maybe you're not the best person to facilitate retreats. And I've been once on a retreat where someone was very introvert didn't like having you know too many people and so you're like some maybe don't run retreat next time. But it's it's really important to make sure that you stay in your zone of genius. And then if anything feels uncomfortable, you can definitely as you said, I have someone helping you by your side and I think I have been in some retreat where they are like multiple expert coming and speaking so you could definitely do that every since possible. Basically, it's like so often. Yeah, guys, try it.

Emma Lovell 39: 24

Emma Lovell 39: And if it doesn't work for you, that's okay too. But like set yourself up for success. Learn from do as we say not as we learn from our lovely lessons. But I just think as well like that admin that is such a you know, having an assistant, I've always had like someone there can be a sort of a support my personal support animal can be supported to have somebody to be honest with you. That's such a great tip actually being there to do those little bits of extra so that you can be really focused and dedicated and if you've planned well as well, everything kind of Like, is it hectic before? Is it hectic the few days where it's like, no, because everything's planned. Yeah, no, I'm not in the kitchen cooking the food, like you said, I have someone else, I'm not making the beds, somebody else is doing that. Like, I'm not driving us around. Like, if that's what's happening, I'm not doing that I just make sure everyone's there at the time I've said, and then we do what we do. But

40: 20

40: this is where you know, so many people will try and do everything. And it's like anything in business if you try to wear too many hats, and you're not wearing any well. So when you're running a retreat, just knowing which hat you're going to wear and which hat you're going to delegate to someone else, and really delegate it to someone else. And what are the things that are essential, and what are the things that are nice to add for the next retreats. Because you know, the first retreat that I run, ideally, I would have loved to have, you know, a yoga teacher and this and this and that. But at the time, it wasn't like this, it was just my home are very simple retreats, and things like that. So it's like, you improve as you go. So don't go and look at Mr. last retreat, which was like, five star retreat, because she's run so many online retreat, because everyone's so many start where you are, and just take the people on that journey. I have clients who have been coming back to all of my retreats. And the best feedback I got from the last one I ran in Noosa in September, was like, Oh my gosh, every time it's getting better, and I love it. So then it's like you can improve and improve and improve. And, you know, meet us in 10 years, our retreat will be in the best retreat guide ever. And

Emma Lovell 41: 35

Emma Lovell 41: you feel like you're Yeah, they that's nice, because they feel like they're on the journey with you. And there's always something special about going on the first one, I think people have a lot of grace for you generally people come on when your first one probably have already bought from you or No, you. And so they do have a little bit more. I don't know. Yeah, Grace. And so and then just being open to the experience, and they never know what is planned. Like, you know, all the things are like, Oh my gosh, that's in the wrong place. So this was supposed to happen at this time. But they don't know that they're just there. And they have if you've again, set it up correctly, they've surrendered to you. And they surrender to the experience. And they're trusting in the process. And so then you can roll with it. And it's it's really lovely. I'm very keen to hear about the next France one. So you have one in March. You'll hopefully send us the links. But please tell us how can people connect with you? And how can we connect with you?

42: 34

42: Yeah, so you can, as you're listening to this podcast, you can stay on the platform and look for the essential shift podcasts and listen to my own podcast. So and otherwise, if you'd rather connect on Instagram, I am at essential dodge shift, always answering my direct message on Instagram so you can message me and otherwise my website WW essential shift.co. And you have my retreats there. So yeah, the next one is business birthing retreat in Barrie in March 2024. And then one in the south of France in June 2024. So with do the south of France, which is where I'm from. So it feels very special to do one in my beautiful region. And it's also a business versing retreat, like my retreats are always the same thing retreats, we go through the light framework, which is in my book. And people come and come and come again and every time diverse, something different. So it's just we go through the journey, and expect the unexpected as you said beautifully.

Emma Lovell 43: 33

Emma Lovell 43: I love that you definitely planted a seed there for me and to any budding retreat hosts out there. This is such a great way to incorporate your travel is like and that's my goal for this year with retreat to riches. My retreats about how to run retreats is like I just go I need to go to Perth. I'll run one over there. Something on in Melbourne, we'll run one down there somebody's like, come down the to the Hunter Valley. I'll be like, Okay, sure. I'll come to the Hunter Valley and we can run on there. You know, there's there can be flexibility once you you have the model in the structure.

44: 09

44: I've definitely, it makes it easier for you. It makes it easier you know, for me, now it's easier and easier with Leon to organize it because we know what the agenda we know what we need. We know so successful business is boring.

Emma Lovell 44: 24

Emma Lovell 44: It's something I'm learning very slowly with shiny things but even the retreat like yeah, that's the cogs in the wheels of it. The experience is exciting, but the promotion

44: 38

44: needs to be boring. Needs to be boring, very

Emma Lovell 44: 42

Emma Lovell 44: rote and, but very successful. And it's it's so exciting. Ah, I could talk to you all day, but I'm gonna let you go. And I don't see you soon. I'll I'll see you in the south of France. just oh wow thank you for listening lovely one. I hope this has inspired you to dream big and start creating a life you love today. If you love what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and rate on Spotify and rate review and subscribe on iTunes. It helps other awesome people to find this podcast and get motivated and inspired as well. Want to stay connected? Come and join the live a life you love group on Facebook, but connect with me on Instagram. Emma lovell.au, the same as my website. But all the details are in the show notes lovely. I'll see you next episode for more inspiration, motivation and freedom seeking Now go out there and live a life you love