Inside the Next-Level Growth Retreat: How Entrepreneurs Transformed Their Leadership and Businesses in Just One Day
Having hosted retreats for almost eight years now, I fully enjoyed curating this high-touch and transformational experience for our attendees, and in this retreat, you’ll learn why attending this event isn’t just a nice-to-have but a must for experienced and successful service businesses who are ready for transformational growth, without more hassle or hustle.
In this article, I cover the following:
Here’s why attendees took time out of their busy schedules to attend this retreat:
Raising the bar
Including the boys
The retreat that leads to transformational growth and ROI
The power of a safe, high-touch space with peers who are at your level
How we killed all of those birds with one stone, in multiple ways
“I mean—your events are always good—but you seriously took things to a whole new level.”
“Sign me up for the next one, the next one, and the next one!”
These comments reflect the common feedback from our attendees. And it brought that warm and fuzzy feeling, as this was exactly the experience I set out to create.
In a tumultuous year for most business owners, I knew I’d have to step up my game. Asking an entrepreneur to take a day off work is not a small ask—and I am always aware that my retreat attendees need to walk away with more than just a “high-vibe” experience that fizzles fast.
As I set out to curate this year’s Next-Level Growth Retreat, I took a leaf out of my own book: to ensure attendees receive even more from the day, I knew I’d have to do things differently. When we show up differently, we do things differently, and we get different results.
And in an era where hanging a shingle and calling yourself a founder or entrepreneur is easier than ever before, coupled with the “girlboss” era where female-centric events/groups run rampant—encouraging women to cough up thousands of dollars for high-vibe courses, coaching, and masterminds that don’t deliver the ROIs promised—I know first-hand how gun-shy an entrepreneur can be if they fell into one of these cult-like traps before.
So I rolled up my sleeves and I got to work.
Here’s why attendees took time out of their busy schedules to attend this retreat
Raising the bar
If you’ve been around for a bit, you know that I almost exclusively host velvet-rope type of events. I create these types of events by making them invite-only and implementing a vetting process—and this retreat was no different.
Over the last year, I’ve naturally started attracting more established entrepreneurs, and with that in mind, I targeted my invitation efforts to service-based businesses.
This ensured we had some amazingly creative and savvy entrepreneurs in the room for the retreat.
Including the boys
Over the past several years, I’ve intentionally shifted my marketing and brand positioning to also attract more male clients. And my main goal with this shift was to host more inclusive events that ultimately deliver a more robust experience.
Having both men and women in the room with us at the retreat helped everyone receive more disruptive, provocative feedback, which ensured greater shifts and bigger aha moments.
The retreat that leads to transformational growth and ROI
“Ten days later, I’m still reflecting on the experience while acting on fresh new ideas.”
Having hosted these retreats for the past eight years, I’ve learned a lot about what does and doesn’t work to create a trusted environment that delivers transformational results.
And with all that in mind, I set out to create an agenda that would both challenge and validate, and provide the insights and solutions that would empower these entrepreneurs in the days, months, and years to come.
One of our returning attendees was reminded of their takeaway from five years ago, which led to a life-changing pivot that’s completely transformed them.
The power of a safe, high-touch space with peers who are at your level
As a result of the robust vetting process, we ended up with an incredible group the day of the retreat, with combined experience topping 100 years and spanning a variety of industries.
To increase trust, everyone in attendance signed an NDA, and I limited the number of attendees. In total, eight entrepreneurs joined us, with the youngest company in its fifth year of business.
All of the above allowed us to go deeper—while each attendee got ample mic time and laser coaching from me, with experienced, proven feedback from their peers. Because of this, we had conversations and saw shifts that are not available anywhere else.
Why this isn’t a nice-to-have—but a must
As I reached out to those on my invite list, I noticed how many business owners saw attending this retreat as a nice-to-have. And I can’t blame them—knowing that most of them have probably found themselves at or invested in the aforementioned hyped events. I appreciate why they’d be gun-shy when I, sometimes a complete stranger, invite them to join us.
But here’s what makes The Next-Level Growth retreat a must-attend for all business owners who want to uplevel their leadership abilities and scale up with less hustle and more impact:
It’s lonely at the top—and your company (or industry) can become an echo-chamber.
Both of these leave little room for significant breakthroughs or game-changing solutions. Furthermore, due to the pressures and demands of running a business, entrepreneurs hardly ever have enough time to allow the space they need to be as creative or strategic as their company’s next level of growth requires.
Simply put: for a business to expand to its next level, it’s vital that the business owner first expand their capacity to lead and grow.
This expansion hardly ever happens alone in a vacuum while burning the midnight oil.
And that’s what made the retreat a must-attend, not a nice-to-have!
How we killed all of those birds with one stone, in multiple ways
The space itself provided a setting for expansion.
The agenda was curated to allow both space and challenge self-imposed limits.
Peer-to-peer feedback, validation, and solutions.
Exercises and coaching that promoted strategic visioning and planning.
As a result, everyone experienced a significant shift in perspective that will forever change the way they do business.
The lasting momentum of attending a retreat
I asked a few of our attendees what stuck with them and how it impacted the way they’ve shown up and operated their business since. Here are some of their biggest takeaways:
Separated their identity from the business: by adopting an “I am not my business” viewpoint they reduced self-judgment, and maintained a clearer policy enforcement (e.g. late cancellation fees) that supported business health.
Shifted time allocation: Recognized that overworking themselves in the business was undermining working on the business—and actively corrected the dynamic.
System setup: Began implementing recurring systems (e.g. scheduled blocks and checkpoints) to ensure consistent “on the business” work.
Diversification insight: Identified the need to broaden service delivery via others to free up capacity for strategy and growth.
“I just implemented a HUGE change in our client management process - something that I figured out at the Next Level Retreat - that is going to not only free up more of my time, but level-up my team and strengthen their relationships with our clients. ”