Hosted By: Stephanie Pellett Creative
Location: Cobblestone Farm Retreat in Cobourg, Ontario
Food Design: Sonja Seiler of Nurture
Photography: Katie Harrison Photography
Last February, we gathered with five intentional & values-based entrepreneurs for a three-day business retreat full of creative co-working, cozy fires, strategy sessions and delicious food.
Each business owner came with a specific project to tackle over the course of the weekend: something they were working on or prioritizing in their business, that they needed support with. We discussed each of their ideas as a group to provide feedback and structure, then spent time working together to make each project come to life.
By the end of the retreat, we’d created sales pages for brand-new offers, updated client guidebooks, put together a new coaching package and onboarding process, and so much more. Each member of the group was able to offer ideas and suggestions to one another that made each offer more polished and complete than it could have been if they’d worked alone.
Throughout our time together, we ate like queens thanks to the wonderful food provided by Nurture. Our menu included delicious meals like Turkish Sunny Eggs with Smoked Paprika Butter Drizzle & Herbed Yogurt and Garlic Naan, Morroccan-Spiced Kale & Butternut Squash ‘Picnic Pie’ with housemade Spicy Apricot Chutney, and Leek & Potato Chowder with Chive Gremolata, Buttermilk Biscuits, and Roasted Garlic Butter. It was a feast for the senses and provided us with both inspiration and motivation to continue our work together. The food also fuelled deeper conversations and connections, especially at our cozy, candelit Saturday night harvest table dinner.
Since it was such an intimate container, I was able to provide 1:1 support to each entrepreneur. That support looked different for everyone: technical tutorials, coaching, talking things out, giving feedback on wording, and even graphic design. I love to be hands-on at each retreat so that we can actually jump in and solve problems, making it so much easier to make progress and build momentum in the projects you’re working on.
About a week beforehand, we had a pre-retreat group call to connect & get to know what each person was prioritizing during the retreat. That made it way easier to hit the ground running when we all arrived, so that we could make the most progress possible. Everyone had context for the other businesses, and I was prepared with ideas and suggestions to make the work easier. We also carried that momentum forward and had a group call about a month afterwards, to check in and have some extra accountability with implementing the changes we’d created at the retreat.
A business retreat is a powerful container for change, and this one was beautiful and potent. I loved connecting with each attendee and supporting them in building a more sustainable business.
If you’re curious to learn more about our upcoming retreats, sign up for our retreat waitlist below or click here to learn about our latest retreat.
