Why I'll never run a retreat in Bali or Byron Bay

#57 - Why I'll never run a retreat in Bali (EDITED

Tue, Apr 23, 2024 1: 50PM • 10:18

Tue, Apr 23, 2024 1: SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Tue, Apr 23, 2024 1: bali, retreat, people, byron bay, emma, lovell, travel, host, places, byron, run, life, australia, india, work, lovely, locations, photoshoots, holidays, inspire

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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 a 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 get 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.

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01: 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.

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01: Hello, lovely one. I am here today with a very short episode. A little bit of a funny one. It's a bit of a controversial one. But I wanted to cover this topic for a while. Why I will never run a retreat in Bali or Byron Bay

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01: Shankara. How often do I get asked about Bali and Byron Bay, maybe once a week.

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01: Honestly, if people hear retreat, they think Bali. And I get it. Bali is luxurious. And it's tropical. It's easy to get to from Australia. And there have been many, many retreats held there. Byron Bay similar example. If we think of Byron Bay, we think of holidays, we think of health and wellness, we think of beautiful locations and beaches and organic food and all those sorts of things. But the reason that I will not ever run one in either of those locations is because of that exact reason. Because they are popular. And because you know them as retreats, locations. And so in a way, it would be easy to do that and say I'm running on in Byron Bay. But everyone, not everyone, a lot of people are running them environment. So there's plenty of choices for you. And there's a lot of people running them in Bali. And again, they get it because they're

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02: it's laid out like that it's well placed for that. But I don't like doing what's popular. And I don't necessarily like doing what is easier.

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02: I like a challenge. But simply as well. I don't have the context in those places. I have contacts in India, it is easier for me to run a retreat in India, honestly than Australia. I partner with the travel company Indus bound, who have also can run trips in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, I've been partnering with him for seven years helping people to have luxury bespoke travel experiences in India. I've had that experience myself. So I know how we can take care of people. And it's actually easier to organize the food, accommodation, travel, all those sorts of things. As well as as for me the retreat host I can put enough of a margin on to actually not only cover my trip, cover my costs, but also to make a profit. I can do that. Well over there. In Australia, again. There are places where I have suppliers. I have an amazing organization that I worked with corporate getaways, or girls getaways who have put together amazing packages for me. In destinations like kangaroo Valley. We've looked at doing one in northern New South Wales, so near to Byron, but not Byron have another venue I'm looking at in kangaroo valley, but they can do I've looked at the Hunter Valley, I've looked at

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04: the Sunshine Coast, they can help with that. I also can help and do that myself. But it was really great having people who have had the contacts and had the suppliers. So the catering, the unique venues is venues that you see in amazing photos and you think I just want to go there, they can help with that. But I have nothing against I know you listen to this and get oh my gosh, he hates Bali. I don't hate Bali. I love Bali. I went when I was 10 It was one of my favorite family holidays ever. Last year I was feeling really stressed and

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04: struggling to be honest and just felt like throwing the towel and so I went to Bali for five days. My dad was going for a conference he said do you want to come to Bali? And I said sure why

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05: Not. And I've said to my husband this year, if I get over it at any point, I'm just gonna go over to Bali. Would I go on a retreat in Bali? Absolutely. I have been invited on many. I haven't been automate the time work. But absolutely, I think they look beautiful. I think they look wonderful. I know the hosts, I think they're doing a great job. I understand why they're having one there. I don't want to run one there.

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05: Hello, my name is Kay toon. And I'm the founder of stay tuned a collection of digital education companies. I've had the pleasure of working with Emma Lovell on a number of different occasions. Not only will she emcee at my imperson book launch event, she also helped me out on the virtual launch to have enjoyed photoshoots with her and Jade. And she's an excellent speaker and presenter, I chose Emma because she is just so full of beans, she brings life energy and enjoyment to wherever and whatever she does. So she's highly recommended.

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05: Byron Bay is a beautiful location, it's only an hour and a half away from me. But it is so popular. And it is so expected. And I don't want to do it. I love what I'm there with the girls weekend recently, and I get there and I like love this place. It's great. I get it, I understand why you would host a retreat there. I just don't want to. And for me, retreats are all about intention, and all about the why. And for me, it's about having something that's unique and something that's different for me and different for my audience and something that lights me up because I'm the host, and I've got to run it. And so I like exploring. I like exploring new places and a place that I love India and I love exploring new places in my local area, we're going to be going to Stone Hill estate in Northern New South Wales from the 24th, the 27th of July. And this incredible home with a rejuvenation center Wellness Center, we're going to be accessing food and organic yumminess from the region. We're going to be having facilitators like Emma Walkinshaw who lives on the Gold Coast. So we're going to be tapping into all the beauty of the area. But we're doing it a bit different. And that's just me. So I have nothing against Bali, I have nothing against Byron, I think they're both incredible places. And I absolutely understand why people host retreats there and why you might want to host retreat there. Or you might want to attend a retreat there. But I'm not going to do it. So if you're following me and you want me to run one. And as a restaurant, save Emma Lovell retreat, it's not going to happen. I'll declare it here now. But I'll attend them. And I'll support you to create them. Because it's about creating experience that you want to create. And one of the first things we do when I teach retreats is intention. And doing it your way, I want to go on retreats that I want to host retreats that I want to go on. And I want to do it in a way that lights me up and inspires me because that's going to inspire and encourage the audience as well. So this point on this podcast, hey, nope, no more guesses on Bali. No more guesses on Byron, you'll probably see me there as an attendee, as a holiday maker having a fabulous time. But I won't be hosting retreat there. If you're going to run a retreat, get clear on what you want it to be and how you want to do it. The clearer you are, the more you stick true to your vision, the more successful it's going to be. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. It's very short, short run today. But I really wanted to touch on that point. Because I've been asked a lot. We have more and more about retreats, why I love them, why our hosts and work on them, why I'm teaching people about them. But we'll also be sharing about how you can combine business and travel in your own life. And that's what retreats do for me. They allow me to make money and travel. They allow me to cover my travel by hosting these incredible experiences, life changing, transforming experiences for other people as well. And I've got so many exciting destinations on the cards, India, Mongolia, Greece.

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08: Up in New Guinea, I'm thinking of all these amazing things. Sri Lanka at the end of the year, I'm having my retreat. I've got four spots left in Sri Lanka at the end of the year. There's so much in the pipeline I'm so excited to bring to you. And I'm having a lot of fun doing it. I want to show you how you can incorporate more leisure more travel into your life. Whether that's hosting a retreat, attending work, or just having some more space. That's what I love talking about so interesting one today, I'm not hating on Bali or Byron just not running retreat from them. Have a wonderful day.

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09: 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 or can

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10: Next 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 go out there and live a life you love