In-Person Is Back: Why Coaches are Hosting Retreats Again (and it's working!)

Jennie Wright [00:00:02]:
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Acquire podcast where we talk about list building and lead generation, sales, marketing, all these beautiful things. And I’m your host, Jenny Wright. I’m a list building and lead generation specialist. I’m a fractional CMO and a whole bunch of other things kind of thrown in there. And I started my career before being an entrepreneur working in various marketing areas. And one of the things I did a lot was event planning. So if you’ve ever wondered why coaches and course creators consultants are investing in retreats, even when virtual meetings still with zoom work incredibly fine, especially in an environment where there’s coaching taking place, that’s because there’s serious ROI behind these in person experiences when they’re done.

Jennie Wright [00:00:49]:
Right.

Jennie Wright [00:00:50]:
And so I want to talk about retreats and workshops and how now post pandemic, we’re really seeing a surge. And if this is not something that you’ve built into your current business model and you’re looking at the areas of opportunity where you can grow and scale and add additional revenue income into your business, this is a space that you need to look at more seriously. And if you’ve run them before and it didn’t work for you, let’s get you back into this space and talk about how this might be a really good fit. What is the best fit business model for these events and how to replicate some of the best events in the business. One of them build being Hilton’s meeting maximizer. And we’re not talking about meetings necessarily, but the, the sort of feeling of that actually still works. And I’ve, and I’ve done some research into this specifically for this episode. So back in the day, I used to plan in person events and retreats not only for the corporate side of things, but also even in the beginning when I was just starting out as an entrepreneur helping people, I helped an entrepreneur book Machu Picchu for her clients, built the website for that, and then supported the sales of that event.

Jennie Wright [00:02:02]:
I’ve worked with another client where we were doing an entire retreat at Stonehenge. Like, how cool. And so I’ve worked with these clients to build out these really special events. I know what I’m talking about in this space, but I’ve also been a connoisseur of sorts of some of these things. And I will tell you that on both sides, there are the do’s and the don’ts and there are things that create revenue maximizers and experience maximizers. And that’s what we’re going to talk about. So if you are a Course creator, a consultant, a coach. If you’re in the virtual space, this is a really good sort of push.

Jennie Wright [00:02:40]:
I say that gently because I’m a bit of a pusher when it comes to things just in order to do these kinds of events. Okay. And a lot of people are doing now that you see this post pandemic, sort of rush, we’re seeing global, global events, just like worldwide, Projected to exceed 325 billion in events just in the corporate space and in our online space, we don’t have the numbers really sort of statistically gathered in order to, to share. And that really sucks. I wish we did have that. But I’m telling you that just in the corporate space, as an example, by 2029 they’re going to see something like a $600 billion projected market for, for virtual. Sorry, for in person events. And so that’s a really big increase.

Jennie Wright [00:03:28]:
And you can extrapolate what you want for the virtual world or for the online world and how that would have that effect as well.

Jennie Wright [00:03:36]:
Right.

Jennie Wright [00:03:36]:
So we are going to see that growth. And you know, if, if you’re talking to event planners, if you’re talking to people who plan out these experiences, 90% of them are saying that there’s been an increase in in person meetings and, and they’re seeing a 70% increase just in 2025. That’s massive compared to 2024, especially during the pandemic, which we all knew what that was like. So why does this work and why, if you haven’t done it before, you should think about it and if you’ve done it before and it didn’t work for you, why you should rethink it and if you took a break from it, totally cool, potentially why you should add it back in. They build deep trust, they create transformation. People love being around other people, learning the same thing at the exact same time in order to save or share that experience with them. And face to face is 34 times more effective in learning than virtual. And that comes from a Harvard study.

Jennie Wright [00:04:36]:
So even though we love having this virtual playground to be in and the Zoom meetings and being able to learn and grow virtually from our desks or our couches or wherever it is that you like to position yourself, there’s still a benefit to in person and there is a trust building component to this that you can’t mimic with Zoom. And there’s a transformational process that you can’t mimic when it comes to Zoom.

Jennie Wright [00:05:01]:
Right.

Jennie Wright [00:05:02]:
So retreats are still incredibly fantastic. I think the resurgence is happening for A reason. And so let’s talk about what deep transformation people can achieve.

Jennie Wright [00:05:11]:
Right.

Jennie Wright [00:05:12]:
If you create the right type of experience, which is immersive, which is really like leaning into what people can get from an event. So, you know, leaning into different experiences depending on what your niche is, they lead to faster breakthroughs dependent on like, it doesn’t matter what niche you’re in. If there’s an immersive experience where people feel like one thing leads naturally to the next and to the next, you’re going to see those really big breakthroughs. So those are great for people who are trying to overcome a block, who are trying to get to a different level, who want to mastermind with other people in order to create those breakthroughs.

Jennie Wright [00:05:52]:
Right.

Jennie Wright [00:05:53]:
When you create a retreat, you can charge a premium. So this is really cool. So charging 2 to $5,000 for like per person for a retreat has at this point become second nature. When transformation is high touch, when they know they’re going to get something really good out of it, they’re going to, people are willing to pay for it. And so that would be, you know, breaking through the, you know, the, the seven figure wall in your business. That’s high touch. Get that into a retreat.

Jennie Wright [00:06:25]:
Right.

Jennie Wright [00:06:26]:
One of the people that I work with and know well, Sean Quintero or Sean Quinn, Sean Cube, had a retreat a couple years ago. It just happened, it was actually last year and it just happened to overlap an event I was at. I wasn’t able to go, but somebody I know really well went and she said that it was really cool and really transformational and that. And I’m, I wish I’d been able to go, but you’re seeing that these community bonds, like you’re finding people who join these sort of in person cohort experiences. It’s leading to internal referrals and long term client relationships. So you’ll see somebody who’s gone to your retreat and been like, oh my gosh, so and so is such a great, you know, this, this experience was mind blowing and I loved it. You definitely have to go next year. And I get a lot of those kinds of referrals for people wanting me to go to other people’s events.

Jennie Wright [00:07:17]:
But also it helps like, hey, I was in such and such Mastermind then we met on a cruise and we did XYZ and I’m totally joining that mastermind again and I’m getting my friends to come with me. So you’re going to see, you know, long term client relationships follow you everywhere, clients returns and also Those referrals, which I think is great, right? If that seems cool, let’s talk about the roi. Because if you’re a numbers person, this is really, really cool. The expectation, depending on your list, if your list is really engaged, depending on where you host your retreat, and we’ll talk about that in a bit, it would be really, really good if you could see between a 20 and a 40% of all of your attendees opt in to your program’s post event. So get 15 people in the room, 25 people on your retreat kind of thing. Once you follow up and you’re offering them whatever program, product or service, there is a higher rate of like taking on that event. Even better if you do it whilst on the retreat. Right.

Jennie Wright [00:08:18]:
So they’re in a mastermind, they come to your retreat, you’re selling them on the next thing. If you’re looking at the ROI of revenue per retreat, this can be a little bit tricky. But typical ROIs can range anywhere between 30k to 100k per cohort based on the retreat size, based on the price, based on what you’re doing, based on where you go. And so this is where you can really maximize on that. One of the people that I know who does these really cool trips, she doesn’t have a program that she offers afterwards, she just offers the next really cool trip and people flock to them. They’re like, oh my gosh, okay, let’s go to Marrakech. Okay, let’s go to, you know, let’s go to Brazil, let’s go to. Where is it? Strasbourg in, in France and celebrate Christmas markets.

Jennie Wright [00:09:10]:
Like even I want to do that this year. So when you’re looking at these different opportunities, the benefits definitely can, if planned properly, can definitely be there. The ROI is definitely there. So you know, you have to obviously look at the cost per person getting them there and the total cost of the experiences that you’re creating, total cost of your time, et cetera, et cetera. But you can add on and tack on 20, 30% on top of that and expect that people could pay it right, depending on the niche and what you’re doing. So definitely the ROI is there if done properly. Now I mentioned in the intro about the Hilton meeting maximizer and you can go look that up and read the whole thing. They have this framework and it is prepare, comfort and engagement.

Jennie Wright [00:09:56]:
And so they do extensive pre event surveys to tailor the day to day experience and they do a whole bunch of other stuff. They do this comfort thing throughout the entire setup and they make sure that they have lounge spaces, spaces, snacks, natural light and quiet places.

Jennie Wright [00:10:13]:
Right.

Jennie Wright [00:10:15]:
They have engagement and non engagement activities. So interactive formats, breakout sessions, micro, you know, opportunities. And then they also do something that I’ve seen a lot of people integrate into their events and I think this is really powerful, is a lot of people who are like myself, are an ambivert or slightly introverted. I love being around people, but eventually my battery wears down and I need some quiet time. 78 of the people who responded to a survey put out by Hilton run by Axios was talking about. 78% of the people who responded to that survey say that they love interaction but they need a break or quiet time to themselves. And I totally relate to that. And having a dedicated quiet space or area to work and connect, check emails, et cetera allows attendees to feel more comfortable at in person events.

Jennie Wright [00:11:12]:
The expectation that people and there’s some events that do this and I, and I, that’s fine. The expectation that people will leave their phones in their hotel rooms and just 100% unplug into your event is unrealistic in today’s day and age. So don’t push people to do that unless your event is obviously, you know, a silent retreat. That’s a completely different thing. And so having those quiet places I think is really, really important. One of the events that I’m working on with a client right now, we do have quiet zones. We’ve got actually like the recharging stations we’ve got. We have a quiet area that’s plan.

Jennie Wright [00:11:49]:
We’ve got areas for people to, so they don’t have to go run up to their hotel room. The event space that we’re working at for the event that I’m working on. The hotels are located across the street and around the event space, but they are not like the last one. It was actually built into a hotel conference center. So the hotel was upstairs. You just had to grab the elevator. And so instead of having people leave the event and have them not maybe return to the event itself because they’re on a work call or something, having those quiet spaces will encourage people to stay and re engage in the next opportunity.

Jennie Wright [00:12:24]:
Right.

Jennie Wright [00:12:25]:
The other thing is people want to network, people want to get to know each other. And so if you have people who attend your retreat and you don’t allow a like welcome hour or an opportunity where people can get to know each other, especially people who’ve never been to a live event in the past, they need to meet up and kind of, you know, talk to each other, figure out who each other are starting the day in that sort of smaller or starting the event in that sort of smaller, you know, welcome space is an ideal way to start and allow people to bond and connect and network and things like that. It fosters camaraderie, it fosters people to relax and encourages people to communicate and potentially find a friend to connect with and hang out with that person before sort of going into the bigger event. I love when I can sit and have like a. Yeah. Are you nervous? Yeah, me too. Okay, well, let’s go do the, you know, the, the full morning yoga and, and then into meditation or something. Right? So then you can have those, those friendships that develop.

Jennie Wright [00:13:30]:
And if you’re like me and you’ve been to a couple of these, you’ll know that some of the friendships that come out of these retreats are incredible and very fast formed but very deep bonded. And that’s some of the stuff that you want to look at creating. The other thing that people should consider when they’re doing this, it’s in it. I think it’s. This is again part of that sort of that Hilton framework is creating opportunities that will ease interactions and not forcing people to do things that are going to make them uncomfortable. So creating conversation starters, putting things on, you know, badges. If you insist on people wearing badges, doing things that are a little different and quirky, like starting the day on a beach as opposed to starting the day in a rented Airbnb. Like everybody meets on the beach at whatever time and you start there and you play some beach volleyball for everybody to get to know each other right before you start into whatever deep exercises that you’re planning on doing that can really, really help.

Jennie Wright [00:14:28]:
And so planning in these really cool opportunities is something that most event planners just know will help people get through, will help them enjoy and create an incredible experience. Something that I want you to consider avoiding. Doesn’t matter. Your level of experience is not creating an event that doesn’t have a clear outcome. So avoid retreats without specific transformation goals. You should always have a transformational goal. What ROI is the attendee getting by being there. And that should be stated clearly.

Jennie Wright [00:15:03]:
Having the worst venue or a bad venue choice is a killer for your your event or your retreat. Totally skip hotel conference rooms. I had a client that was doing every two week. No, was it every month? They were doing an in person two day event in a conference room in a hotel and trying to sell those tickets. We did that. We did that through Facebook meta meta ads. Every time we did that, we had People who were just like, I don’t want to sit in a boring conference room for two days at an event in San Diego, like rent a house in San Diego or you know, go for something that’s more immersive. Go something that’s like comfort first.

Jennie Wright [00:15:44]:
You know, go to a co working space that has a really cool spot in it, but not a hotel conference room. I mean there’s a reason for hotel conference rooms. It’s great for those corporate events, but not these sort of in person retreats that just need that higher touch. There’s a lot of people also that don’t provide enough information. So your website goes up, Yay, come to Machu Picchu. But they’re not saying, you know, where the hotels are or where the Airbnb is or how they’re going to get transport from the airport to the Airbnb or what meals are included, what are the menus, do you have a chef? You know, what activities can you do in and around. So provide all of that information. Just make it, and you’ve heard me use this phrase before, but just make it stupid simple, right? Provide everything that people need so there’s no questions that they need to ask or clarify.

Jennie Wright [00:16:33]:
So decisions make, like decisions will come more easily to them, right? If you, if you remove all objections to the purchase, the purchase gets simple. If you, it just becomes a yes and no. If you remove all objections in terms of pricing. So if you offer a multi pay, right, because the, maybe your pr, your, your ticket price is higher than, you know, maybe somebody wants to pay in full, offering the opportunity for a deposit and a two pay or a three pay, that makes it simple. Making sure that people know, you know, where the, where the retreat is, exactly how they’re going to get from here to there. Like I had one, I had one client who wanted to do the sort of like, you know, Disney World thing, right? So they wanted to do two days at Disney World and they wanted, no, sorry, two days of retreat, one day of Disney World and that was going to sort of be like the wrap up, but didn’t give all the details as to how long the day was going to be at Disney World. Because some people were like, yeah, I could spend eight hours there and some people are like, yeah, I can only spend like, you know, maybe four hours before my battery dies and everything. These things are really good to know.

Jennie Wright [00:17:44]:
Give your people more information than they possibly could need, break it down on the website in a clear and concise way and you’re going to eliminate the Desire to ask questions or the worry about what all that means so people can answer the questions and actually make the decision more quickly. And if you’re stuck on the ROI side, that’s okay. I am too. Define your metrics up front. Define how many people you need to register for your retreat in order for it to be a success. Look at the number of people on your email list and determine whether or not your open rate and your click through rate can make that number happen. And if it’s not something that can make that happen, then adjust accordingly.

Jennie Wright [00:18:24]:
Right.

Jennie Wright [00:18:24]:
Look at your conversion rate right now on sales. Can you convert somebody from warm lead or cold lead to warm lead, warm lead to sale? And what does that conversion rate look like? What is your client onboarding process look like at the moment? Where can you make those improvements so that as you bring people on for your XYZ product, your retreat becomes a lot easier to sell because you’ve clear, you know, you’ve clarified that process and you’ve, you’ve taken out any ambiguity and people feel like, you know what, I joined so and so’s awesome program and when they offered the retreat it was a simple yes because I loved how they took care of me in that program, product or service. Okay, Set your pricing up with an impact in mind. Okay. If you’re doing deep work with a lot of bonuses and outcomes, I’d suggest a pricing of about a thousand dollars a day. So if you’re doing a three day, it’s 3K. If you’re doing a five day, it’s 5K and so on. So if you’re doing deep work and the day is full and you’ve got, you know, yoga and you’ve got meditation and you’ve got coaching sessions, or you’ve got workshopping sessions, or you’ve got planning sessions, whatever it is.

Jennie Wright [00:19:42]:
And may you’ve got some, like I said, some, you know, beach volleyball in the morning or something. Take a look at what all that is. Approximately $1,000 a day makes sense. You can adjust it up or down as you see fit, but that would be where the ROI would be for me if I was consulting you as my client. Have one clear call to action, one and only one. Your retreat should feed into your next program or your premium offering or feel like the conclusion of the one they were just in and open the doors for the next. And then make sure your systems are really, really simple and make sure the event itself is incredibly simple. Don’t over complicate things or even over schedule things.

Jennie Wright [00:20:27]:
Allow People the freedom to enjoy the experience without feeling like from 7am to 7pm Their day is completely marked up. Allow for those times for them to call their families, check in on work, you know, check their slack channels, figure all that kind of stuff out, make sure that that’s easy. And then make sure you’re using a tech system to support the sale of the event. That is also easy, simple and doesn’t cause a lot of confusion. So make sure you’re doing that as well. Now if you are a coach or a course creator or a consultant, you know, I’m going to tell you these things are like some of the best stuff you can do, right? It’s going to help you sell your high impact programs, your high revenue programs. Of course, creators who want to create some engagement, you know, this would be really, really cool. Consultants who want to dive deeper with a group of clients.

Jennie Wright [00:21:20]:
This is a fantastic opportunity. And those in the leadership or executive space, this is a premium product that you can offer that really creates that scale. And so if you have somebody in your 10k mastermind or your 30k mastermind, a retreat becomes almost like part of the curriculum at this point. And so if you’ve never done one of these before and you’re looking for those simple steps, audit your current audience. Who would pay $2,000 to unplug for a 2K, like a 2 day retreat? Who would pay 3K for a 3 day retreat and so on. But who would do this in your list? Figure out who those people are, figure out their pain points and then you create the retreat around them. I like to start with a survey and jump on a couple calls with people to sort of suss out what they would like.

Jennie Wright [00:22:13]:
Right.

Jennie Wright [00:22:15]:
I would recommend creating a retreat with a outline and one predictable outcome. Make sure that you’ve got that clear. And then I would also run a beta test, a low key test, a one or two day or weekend mini retreat and see how that goes. Because honestly, if this is something that you enjoy, then you’ll want to do more. But just diving into a three, four or five day retreat off the get go with no experience or never having done it before or it hadn’t worked out previously, that can be disastrous and then develop your follow up. So whatever you’re doing on your retreat, having a follow up funnel that converts at a higher percentage because you’ve created this in person connection and deeper thought and you know, everybody loves to be around each other, you can convert that higher. So make sure your funnel’s ready before you even get on the plane to wherever it is you’re going.

Jennie Wright [00:23:06]:
Right.

Jennie Wright [00:23:07]:
Makes sense. And so when I think about these retreats, I love how they can be fun, different, interesting. They never have to feel like they’ve fit. Like, you don’t have to fit your business into a retreat. The retreat gets to fit your business. Um, you make sure that you have fun. You make sure you close it off with something really, really good. Start it with something where people get to know each other, create those big wins for people, create a huge amount of transformation.

Jennie Wright [00:23:32]:
And you’re going to create those loyal clients that will refer people over and over and go to your event over and over and over again.

Jennie Wright [00:23:39]:
Right.

Jennie Wright [00:23:40]:
So make sure that that is something that you plan into it. So in, in person events are booming. Retreats are the thing. They have a measurable ROI that can create transformational impact for your clients. And it’s something that I’d love for you to consider. So if you got some value out of this episode, awesome. So glad. I will tell you that I did go to one in person retreat years ago and tell you that it was a nightmare and I learned a lot from it.

Jennie Wright [00:24:05]:
Wasn’t me planning it, had it been planned by me, I’m sure as heck not going to do what happened there. But I will tell you that I found myself in a bathroom on day one, crying and wanting to go home. So that’s a story for another day. But I really did not enjoy it. And it wasn’t set up for. It wasn’t set up for success for the majority. It was set up for success for a small group of people and the rest of us basically paid for it. So that’s enough on that for today.

Jennie Wright [00:24:36]:
Maybe I’ll talk about that another time and share if anybody wants to hear about it. So if you’ve listened this far, thank you. Make sure you are subscribing to the podcast so you don’t miss any episodes. We are ticking closer and closer to 100. 100 episode is coming up. I can’t believe it. You’re going to have to help me celebrate 100 episodes of Acquire and make sure that you leave a review and let some friends know about the podcast. I’d love to get more people listening in.

Jennie Wright [00:25:04]:
We’re seeing our numbers climb. I love seeing all the different places in the world that Acquire is now being listened to. So thank you so much for doing that and I will look forward to hearing or sharing some really cool stuff coming up as we get closer to 100 episodes and beyond. So thanks so much for listening, and we’ll talk to you all soon. Take care of.