Vibrant You

How to Host A Retreat (That is as Profitable As it is Transformational) with Kori Zornes

• Bindi Stables • Episode 51

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Kori has spent the past 12 years in the wellness space, from teaching yoga and nutrition to working for non-profits and eventually building her own thriving company that leads life-changing retreats around the world. Kori is now living her dream life on the magical island of Bali! She spends her time surfing, teaching, building community, and being a momma — she loves a balanced life.

In this episode you'll learn:

  • Kori's inspiring story of how she left her corporate life in Las Vegas to lead retreats around the world
  • Key lessons Bindi and Kori have learned from successfully leading over 300 retreats combined
  • The Retreat Launch Blueprint to successfully launch and lead your own transformational retreat
  • Biggest mistakes people make launching their first retreat
  • How to get out of your own way and finally host the retreat you've always dreamed of!
  • 3 Ways to effectively and profitably tie retreats into your wellness or coaching business
  • The EPIC lifestyle of being a retreat leader (and what it could look like for you!)

Links:

***Mention Bindi or the Vibrant You Podcast to save $950 USD on Retreat Leaders Academy and $500 retreat credit to join one of Revamp Retreats until the end of April 2024.***

  1. Learn more about Retreat Leaders Academy (RLA)
  2. Reach out to Kori by Email: kori@revampretreats.com
  3. Connect with Kori on IG @korizornes @themamaculture
  4. www.revampretreats.com
  5. www.themamaculture.com

Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be SO grateful if you could leave me a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, that way we can inspire and educate even more people together.

I’d love to connect with you on IG: www.instagram.com/bindistables

Visit my website for more resources and ways to work with me: www.bindistables.com

Bindi:

Welcome to the Vibrant you podcast. I'm your host, bindi Stables, and here we talk all things wellness and vibrant living. You'll learn about integrative health, functional medicine, holistic biohacking and enjoy raw and real conversations on personal growth, mindset and motivation. Optimize your body and mind and become the happiest, the healthiest, most vibrant. You Enjoy the show. Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Vibrant you.

Bindi:

Today's episode is for the woman out there that is feeling the nudge, a call from deep within to really bring people together, to build community, to share her gifts as a teacher, a leader, a healer or a wellness practitioner and really create life-changing and transformational experiences with others. So I'm here with Corey Zorns and we are pulling back the curtain on how we have led together, between the two of us, hundreds of wellness and personal development retreats and how you can too. So we are chatting about all things on how to host your own retreat, and Corey is one of my best friends here in Bali and she is an amazing retreat leader. She's a mama, she is one of the most just, phenomenal builders of community that I know, and she's the co-founder of Rebapt Retreats, a company that both leads life-changing retreats around the world and mentors others in curating their own profitable, impact-driven transformational retreats for others. So yay. Thank you so much for being here, corey.

Kori:

So excited to dive into all of this. This is my biggest passion.

Bindi:

Oh, I love it. Okay, sweetie, tell us your story. How did you get to where you are today, living in Bali, doing the work that you now do?

Kori:

I love that we are connected. Living in Bali doing our life I was just thinking about before this podcast, I'm like we're parasite cleansing together, like we're really besties doing it all, and I forget that we've led so many retreats between the two of us and have just impacted so many people. So I love that we are so connected on our retreat journeys. But going back into the start of my retreat journey, so over 10 years ago I was living in Las Vegas and I was working my great corporate job. It's like I was trained and really built to do my entire life. I think I was like groomed. You know, go to school, get good grades, go to university, get a really good job, save a lot of money, build your white picket house fence and start your family. So I felt like I was really groomed for that life. So post college, I got my business degree and then I was living in Las Vegas working for a restaurant, doing marketing and events, and I was making great money and life was good. I was having a good time. I was partying on the weekends, going to yoga after work every day and, you know, day after day I would go in and out of this routine and one day I was sitting at work and I just felt that pit in my stomach, like that something is not right and I started to think about it more. And by this time I was already like really deep into my yoga practice and I didn't know why I loved yoga. I thought it was just a workout thing, but I knew I loved yoga, like it did something to me. So I think yoga started infusing these questions into me.

Kori:

But I was sitting at work one day and I was like what am I doing? Like is this really the rest of my life? Going into work, typing on my computer to make some money, to go home, to do yoga, to party on the weekends? Like for the rest of my life, like this is what I'm here. This is why I got dropped in on this world, this is my life, like this is my purpose. And it just didn't feel right. I'm like I have to be meant for something bigger than this, like my soul, my journey in this life has to be meant for something bigger than this.

Kori:

And that same week I went to my boss, which was so hard because you know he was such a close friend and I did everything I can could at the time to like people, please, and make sure he was really happy. So it was so hard. But I told him I was like I'm quitting, this is my two weeks, I'm leaving. I'm so sorry. Like it was such a hard conversation. I remember just feeling like, oh, like shaking before talking to him and when I told him he really understood and I felt so relieved. I felt so relieved. It's also such a good reminder how we're always like people pleasing people in our society with how we think we should be acting, what we should be doing, the work we should be doing, making other people happy, and it's so hard to just say what we want. And that was like my first lesson of like this is what I want. I am standing for what I want.

Kori:

So I quit that job. I bought a one-way ticket to Europe. I went to Spain first and I did a 200 hour yoga teacher training, which I loved. It was super impactful. But from there traveled the world some more and ended up in Costa Rica at this self-sustaining community called Pachamama, with this man named David Wolf, and it was a 10 day detox, cleanse retreat and it was the first retreat that I attended of my own, and you know, during this retreat you know, funny we're on our parasite cleanse right now, but during this retreat we were cleansing and juicing and fasting and doing enema and like all that was great.

Kori:

But what was really impactful were the conversations that we were happening on this retreat and we started talking about the universe and aliens and society and the government and healing ourselves naturally and just everything. And my mind was blown and I was like, oh my God, these are my people. This is what I meant for, like anything is possible. And so one night in the jungles, I remember calling my best friend. I remember there was like monkeys in the trees and the stars were out in the sky and I called my best friend and I was like my entire life's been a lie. Everything I was told to do, everything I thought I should be, like none of it was for me. I was like the conditioning school, like none of it was real for me. And so that was the moment where my life radically changed and I knew I wanted to give other people this same experience. I wanted to bring people on retreats that would open them up to something bigger, that would give them freedom, that would give them purpose and passion and this spaciousness to see like what is mine and what is everyone else's.

Kori:

So after that, packed up my stuff, moved to LA and I was a cocktail server, which was a shock to my family and to my friends, because at this time, my friends were, you know, at this point, post university, my friends were doctors and lawyers and I'm cocktail serving to pay my bills while studying everything I could about retreats, about meditation, about psychic work, about astrology, about just everything in this world, and I knew my passion was to bring people together, to bring community together and to lead my own retreats. So soon after that, maybe two years later, I came on my first trip to Bali, actually, and after that trip to Bali, I was like this is it? I need to start the retreat company, I need to bring people around the world, I need to lead my own retreats and just go for it. So I launched revamp retreats. It's been seven years now of running retreats all around the world and everywhere, from Bali, europe, costa Rica, mexico and, yeah, we've built a community of thousands of people.

Kori:

I remember the very first retreat we led four people quit their corporate jobs and are now, you know, doing things that they love. One person from that first retreat still lives here in Bali. One person lives in Australia. I just chatted with her the other day and so that's been my path. Just you know, giving people what I received and creating these retreats all around the world with different teachers and different leaders, and seeing people's lives radically changed. And that also led me to creating the Retreat Leaders Academy with my partner, christian, who is my business partner. We created this academy to also teach people how to lead their own retreats, because I'm like we can only lead so many. Like our plates are full. We now have a two year old, we have a lot going on, but I want more people to have this information, because this information gave me freedom and purpose and money and opportunity. So that is what we do now.

Kori:

I ended up in Bali because pre-COVID, I had arrived to Bali to lead a retreat. Covid happened. I was like, okay, the world's closed, I'm just gonna stay here. So I stayed in Bali, met my partner, had a baby, and so now Bali's home and I love it and we are grounded here while we relieve retreats around the world and run our course, and I'm so grateful. I look back at my life and how much I have in my partnership with my family, with my freedom, and I'm like, wow, so much of this ties back to retreats, and if it wasn't for the retreats I attended and the retreats that I led, I wouldn't have this life that I have now. So that is the gist of it.

Bindi:

Oh my, God, so inspiring. I had goosebumps three times when you were sharing all that, just because it's so relatable and so real. So there's so many women out there that I know have this seed of a retreat planted inside of them, whether they've been on retreat before, or they're following people on Instagram that live in Bali and Costa Rica and wondering how these people live these lives. So can we talk a little bit about that nudge that you spoke about, that pit in your stomach when you were in corporate back in America? You had this soul ache for something more. Tell us more about that. And how does a woman know if she is at the precipice of a big life change where she may start to lead retreats? What's happening in that moment?

Kori:

I love that question. I think the first feeling is like the stuckness. The stuckness that something in life isn't right the way that you are making money where you live, the people that you're surrounded by, feeling alone because you don't have community. That first feeling is like, oh, something isn't right here. It's the stuckness. And then I would say after that, like you have to dig into it. You have to dig into that stuckness and really dream.

Kori:

I lead people through this meditation and it's a five year meditation and if you closed your eyes and really walked five years down the road and then just walked through a day in your life, five years in the future, what would that day look like? And for me, that day was waking up in nature with my partner by my side and then having lunch with community and friends. And when I pictured that day, I was like, ah, what do I need to build now to get there? And that is where retreats came in it for me, because I love being in community, I love being surrounded by the people. I love people who want to transform and grow and change. So the first is the stuckness and something's not right. The second is like digging into it and seeing like. What do you want your life to look like in the future? Do you want to travel the world? How do you want to make money? How do you want to impact people? What is your soul's purpose? And you just start digging and from there I feel like you find your why, your why for doing what you want to do, and that why then becomes your anchor for your next steps, for leading retreats, for taking the leap, for going all in, because if you don't have a strong why, you're not going to make it. You're not going to do it, you're going to quit and give up when it gets hard. It's the first thing I teach people in our course. You need a strong why to anchor back to when things get tough.

Kori:

And my why was like a retreat impacted my life so deeply and I need to give this to other people. And your why can't just be I want to make some money. It can't just be like oh, I want to travel to Bali, like. You need your real why, your soul's why Of. Why do I want to get people together? Why do I want to lead retreats? Why do I want to do this work? And that is the anchor for what you create next? And your why might continuously change. We talk about this all the time in our women circles and, as a mother and as an entrepreneur like my why's always changing and shifting, and that's beautiful. So my mission gets to shift and change with it. The retreats that we lead and how we lead them and why we lead them gets to shift and change with my why. So your why is not forever, but it's like find your deep why, let that be your anchor and then see how your life shifts and grows from there.

Bindi:

I love that so so much. Yeah, the power of retreat is so immense. When I look back at all of the retreats that I've done like I've both attended dozens of retreats and led hundreds of retreats for over five years that was my primary work was I would lead retreats weekend and week out to a group of 20 people from around the world. A week long retreat and then the next week I do it all over again. And it was amazing. And actually a lot of the people tuning into this podcast are previous students and attendees of these retreats whose lives were so transformed. And when I look back, both my own experience on retreat and hearing the stories of the transformation that not only happened inside of the retreat that people came on, but also how their lives just completely transformed.

Bindi:

Moving forward from the retreat, life gets broken down into before and afters before the retreat and after the retreat. And I remember, for me personally, one of my first retreats. I moved countries. Another retreat I had a flight booked back to Canada. I had a fiance in Canada, I had work and contracts and all of my stuff in Canada and I just like didn't get on my plane. I just didn't. I missed my flight home on purpose and ended up traveling the world for another nine months and somehow figuring it out as I went. There's friendships that I've made inside of retreat deep sisterhood, deep connections, conversations that adept that I've never experienced with another human that has happened inside of the container of a retreat. So I'd love to hear your perspective like why retreats, what makes retreats and the retreat experience so life-changing for people and speaking of all the retreats that we've been on and how we've been impacted.

Kori:

Me and you have been on retreat together and I look at our before and afters. So me and you attended a couple's retreat together here in Bali that our friend Megan led and wow, like look how much it impacted us and our partnerships, like we were totally impacted. And I look at the relationship that I have with Christian and we parent together and we run a business together and life gets messy and we are so connected and live life so differently and get through our fights and our deep wounds and our triggers and we grow so immensely because of the deep work we've put in. And part of that deep work has been on retreat where we've had massive blow ups and massive fights in retreat. And like I just look back and I feel so grateful for those retreats and the impact on my relationship that we attended together.

Kori:

But yeah, back to your question like why retreats? Why are retreats so impactful? And I'm sure a lot of people wonder this. I think if you've been on a retreat, you know it's just like it's something that happens. But if you've never been on a retreat, it's like why would a retreat be so impactful?

Kori:

A lot of people think retreats are like a vacation, where you book a plane ticket somewhere and you know, you get to Hawaii and you do some yoga classes and you, you know, have a Mai Tai on the beach and you make a friend. And then you come home and retreats, like real retreats are so different. It is this time and space to get outside of your routine, outside of your day today, outside of your life, outside of the normalcy of everything that you're doing and how your brain is thinking and operating, and you almost come into this like bubble, this energetic bubble of a retreat. And no matter what this retreat is this could be a women's retreat, a couple's retreat, a yoga retreat but being in this retreat, being in this new space, in this container, with this community of people who are all there for the same purpose, something happens. There's like some magic in it. You know, it's like I almost can't even put a word on what it is, because there's this magic that happens in well-ran retreats. This is well-ran retreats and it's this mix of connection and community and conversations and ways that your mind and your subconscious is open to new ideas and new inspiration and a new culture and new people. And something happens while you're there and people start to see their life differently and they start to envision their future differently. And that's where the shifts happen. And it might not always be beautiful.

Kori:

Some people go on retreats and it's so messy and they're so annoyed or they're getting in a fight with their partner or they're just getting so triggered, which is normal on retreats. I'm like, oh my God, people get so worked up on retreats. But it's really because it's like almost taking your life and putting it in a little shaker and like shaking the whole thing up All on the other side. Something shifts and it might be something really small and really impactful, or it might be something massive and it might be the job or the relationship or what you create and do next, but something shifts for people after a retreat and it's not.

Kori:

It's funny, like oftentimes when I'm working with people to put together retreats and they're coming up with their itinerary and the classes and the workshops and I'm like, yes, we need to put a lot of detail in the classes and the workshops and everything, but a lot of those life changing moments can be an in between moment, when you're sitting at the dinner table having a conversation with someone and you hear something and something inside of you clicks and it's like, oh my God, this is what I want to be doing.

Kori:

That's the thing I needed to hear. So retreats just create this new space for you, this new energetic field for you to see things differently, to do things differently, to be in a new routine, in a new place. And those spaces are where change and transformation can happen. And it's really hard to change and transform in our day to day lives because we're in the same thing. We're in the same routine and the same stuckness and the same conversations and the same mindset. So retreats are a way to shake it up and I so recommend people to go on retreats like I attend retreats.

Kori:

I lead retreats all over the world and I still attend retreats, whether they're through revamp retreats or through other people's retreats. But every time I've attended a retreat my life is shaken up and shifted in such a positive way. And it might not always be positive at first. It might be a little bumpy at first, but once you find your footing again, you get to see the other side of what's there and it's amazing. And that is the power of retreats so well said.

Bindi:

I love that so much and it's so true like just taking yourself out of your usual environments and places and community and conversations, and like plugging yourself down in a foreign country or a different place in nature, you know, surrounded by different people. And I think, too is like having such a community of people, like minded around you, right? We're not always used to that back home and in our usual environments. We're not always used to having, though, that depth of conversation, that level of curiosity, that potential for deep self, inner work and self reflection. So it does so just shake everything up. I love that. So, corey, you have shared in the Retreat Leadership Academy, you have shared a bit of a blueprint, and I'd love for you to share that with us here. So you shared that there's kind of four main phases of creating and launching your own retreat. There's the pre-launch phase, there's the actual launch phase of the retreat, there's the actual retreat itself and then post-retreat. So walk us through. What happens in the pre-launch phase, how does someone decide what retreat to do? What happens in that?

Kori:

initial phase. I have to go back to our last question one more time. I thought of someone, alex, who's been on your podcast, who does neuroscience and how our brain works and changes. And this image that I got is when we are on retreat, when we are around, all the newness, that is when you can create new neural pathways for change. And I don't know the science behind this, I am not into neuroscience, but I'm sure she would agree it's like part of change is a new environment, so you can create new neural pathways for change. Anyways, that dropped in and I had to share it.

Kori:

Okay, let's go back to the phases of retreat. So I want to break this down into four simple phases and in our academy we go so much deeper. We've broken it down to six phases because there's so much more detail and in depth. I could just get into the nitty gritty with you, but I'm going to break it down into four easy phases. So the first stage would be the pre-launch stage. So this is again, one of the biggest things here is your why, but it's also just ideation and your vision. So it's like brain mapping. What do you see yourself doing? It's like getting out a journal and just starting to brain map and write down all of your ideas, all of your vision, and just start to see it all on paper, because you might have like 10 different ideas and you're just going to start to figure out, like, who is this retreat for? Why am I doing this retreat? What do I want to create out of it? What do I want the end goal to be? So it's like the feminine, this messy mapping of seeing all of it there and letting the idea settle, because and some people might have their idea right away but this first pre-launch stage is about just, first of all, like, tapping into everything. You're seeing everything for this retreat vision and getting it all down on paper and journaling about it and talking to friends about it and seeing what's there. And then you're going to start to land on the pieces and put the pieces together. So put this ideation together.

Kori:

What is this retreat? Who is it for? Who will you be serving? What is the title? What is the theme? Where are some of the top locations you want to go?

Kori:

And then you'll start to do some research. You'll start to look into these places, you'll look into retreat centers and villas, and there's a whole process for this, which is, again, we teach people, like, why use a retreat center versus a villa? There's such a big difference there. How do you reach out to them? How do you negotiate with them? So these are all the nitty gritty that we can go into, but for this first phase, you're just going to be finding all the details, doing all the research and starting to piece these things together.

Kori:

So you have a plan, so you know what it would look like. You know how much it's going to cost, how much you're going to charge people, how much money you want to make, which, again, it's going to be going back to the drawing board and like tapping into your own desires of like, how much do you want to make on this retreat? Because retreats are a lot of time and energy and love and work and you should so deeply be compensated for the energy that you put in. And there's a lot of money to be made in retreats. A lot of our students on our first retreats are making $5,000, $10,000, $15,000. We have had, you know, over 60K profit on a single retreat, like there was a lot of money to be made. So this is the part in this pre-launch, this planning phase, where we're going to be putting all these ideas down together, looking at the numbers, looking at the location, looking at the idea and seeing what is feasible, aligning that with your dream. So that is all the pre-launch phase.

Bindi:

I love that so much. Before we get into the launch phase, because I think this is important, what is the biggest mistake that people make in this pre-launch phase other than staying with it too long and staying in, you know, procrastination and like just keeping the idea in their head? What are the main mistakes or roadblocks that people face in this pre-launch phase?

Kori:

I think one of the biggest roadblocks is the finances. People feel really stuck with the finances of running a retreat and again, this is a big part of our course. But I guide people how. You don't have to invest a lot of money to lead your first retreat. There are opportunities and there are ways to have no deposit at all, to cut your deposits down, to wait until you're getting signups before you invest any money in anything you're doing. So that is someone's first, you know, hold up. They're like I don't know how am I just going to take to invest? I don't know if I have the money, and they let that financial piece stop them. Which, by the way, if that financial piece is stopping you at all, that's a bigger piece you have to look at because if you are being stopped by the finances, you'll also be held up with receiving the money and making money, and you know, just so, that there's a whole financial piece to work through. So that's one thing we can just dive into. You know, on an entire episode, the financial piece. But I think that is one of the biggest roadblocks the financials. And the second roadblock I would say that comes to my mind right now is just seeing what other people are doing and copying them and trying to like, replicate someone else's idea or retreat, or trying to do it like someone else has and make it your own, instead of really coming back to your why and your vision and making it unique, because everyone, every single one of you can lead a retreat. Every single one of you has a unique vision for your retreat and that is what will make your retreat successful.

Kori:

Another roadblock right there is saying that is, like some people might think, I don't have the community, I don't have the teachings. I'm not the expert, yet Neither was I when I launched revamp retreats. My first year with revamp, I led 15 retreats all around the world. I made six figures profit, which back then like blew my mind, and I wasn't the leader for the retreats.

Kori:

I found different teachers and leaders that I was so deeply inspired by and I went up to them with confidence and I'm like I'm going to run a retreat, I want you to work with me, I'm going to hold the back end, and I got them to say, yes, no matter where you're at in the wellness space, if you are the teacher, if you are the leader great, you probably have something to share. If you're not the teacher or the leader, you still have that deep purpose and that deep passion, that deep why, and you collaborate with other people. So those are the blocks, the financial piece, the replicating other people instead of following your own unique design. And the third one is thinking that you can't run a retreat. And you can, it's just who do you need to collaborate with, what information do you need to know?

Bindi:

and then committing and being all in. I love that so much. So well said. Okay, tell us about the launch phase. What's happening when we already we figured out what retreat we want to run, we figured out some of the logistics, we've gone through the mindset stuff to overcome some of the financial pieces. What happens in the launch phase?

Kori:

Okay. So when you're in the launch phase, this is like I kind of break this up into mask and feminine. Like the pre-launch is more of the feminine. It's like ideation and creation and collaboration. Launch phase we're stepping into the masculine. You need to build out the website. You need a booking platform. So how are people gonna pay you? How will you collect their details? How will you get them to sign an agreement? And you can go as simple as you want. You know you can do it with a simple PayPal or a simple Query Space checkout, or you can do it really complex, which at this point we have a more complex retreat booking system. But these are the logistics. So building out your website, getting your booking system so people can sign up, getting your waivers in check, getting the legal documents there, creating your schedule, connecting with any tour companies, the shuttle company these are like all the masculine logistics so you can share it with the world and you have your retreat idea set In this phase, in the launch phase, and again, this will be broken down into like much deeper phases in the Retreat Leaders Academy.

Kori:

If I was working with someone, we'd break this down because there's so much here, but a big part of this phase would be your marketing and sales plan. How are you gonna share this with the world? How are you gonna spread it? Who's gonna come? And a big block here I don't have enough people in my community, I don't know who's gonna come.

Kori:

And we've never done ads for our retreats. All of our retreats have been organic marketing, word of mouth, and we've had retreats of 15 people to 33 people. And so this marketing plan, this sales plan, is gonna be a big part of your launch phase and figuring out how you're gonna do it. And, yeah, tapping into that place and there is Energetics here, tapping into that place and that belief in what you're doing. So all of this is gonna go into the launch phase. It's like getting the product out to the world, letting people sign up, making sure all the logistics are in place for your retreat, and then marketing and selling, and then you'll be in that phase for anywhere from three months to five months of marketing and sharing and announcing it and having other people share it for you. So that launch phase is gonna be a big chunk of your time.

Bindi:

That's so huge. I love that you mentioned just the marketing and sales piece of it, because it's such a huge piece of the puzzle. And I know for me, when I look back earlier on on, like my retreats, one of my biggest overwhelms and I hear this from previous retreat students that have come back and said like, hey, I wanna lead a retreat, where do I start? One of the kind of biggest obstacles is really the marketing and sales of like. I know that I'm really good at what I do, I know that I'm amazing coach or healer or yoga teacher or whatever it is, but it's really like the deep fear of like will people sign up? Do I have the skills to market it? So I think that's why something like Retreat Leaders Academy is so invaluable, because it allows people to really stay in their zone of genius and have those foundations in place to give them the peace of mind to really move forward with confidence in creating that life-changing, transformational retreat that they wanna create for people. So it's super helpful.

Bindi:

Tell us about the actual retreat phase. Right, this person? They've been planning for months. They've done the pre-launch, they've launched it, they've filled their retreat. It's abundant. Now it's time to actually host the retreat. What's happening there?

Kori:

So there's gonna be a prep period right before the retreat happens and that is gonna be making sure all the guests are prepped, their hands are held, they feel so loved, so taken care of. Some people attending retreats have never traveled outside of the country by themselves or are nervous about coming into a group on their own. So there's gonna be some prep that month before retreat where you're gonna really be making sure that every guest is set to come, all the checks are crossed and you have every detail in place and your people are held. And then you're going to go to the retreat phase, which is literally showing up, welcoming people and holding people through the retreat. And again, there's just so much that goes in here. But in this phase it's understanding the flow of a retreat, the arc of a retreat, and it's something that we teach how to lead a successful arc of a retreat. And in the beginning of a retreat you're gonna wanna connect people, open them up, get them vulnerable, have them feel safe. And then by the middle of the retreat and this arc can happen on a three-day retreat, on a 10-day retreat, on a one-day retreat by the middle of the retreat you're gonna be sharing the depths of the teachings, the inspiration, the wisdom and that also might be the shadow work, the hard stuff, like the going in there. So whatever that is like that will be the peak of the retreat. And then you're gonna come down the curve by the end of the retreat and you really wanna close them up and leave them with inspiration and next steps and where to go next. And we've seen people not follow this arc and not really know what they're doing and leave a retreat where people are so blasted open or still really in it and they leave the retreat that way and it doesn't feel good for people, which is why we really teach people how to create this arc and your scheduling and your programming.

Kori:

So there's a lot of logistics and fine details and love and care and support that goes into this retreat phase. We really recommend having support with you. I do not recommend retreats being a one-person show. I so recommend having an assistant, a partner, someone you trust, someone by your side to help you, someone who's gonna be teaching and leading. There's someone who's gonna be needing to communicate with the retreat center or with the villa. Like, there's a lot of moving pieces at one time during a retreat, so we have several people there who are helping, and then also on top of that, it's like getting photography and videography and making sure the food's great and that people are happy with their rooms.

Kori:

Like there's so many little logistics and details that happen in this phase and, yeah, just making sure people have a beautiful experience and they feel held and loved and in the end, you are not in charge of their transformation, which is really easy to feel that responsibility. I remember the first retreat I ran. I was like I need to change every person's life and after that retreat I was like so sick and so done for and so energetically zapped. So instead it's creating this container where it's. You're holding this container and this space and people get to have their own experience and you're gonna trust the experience that they will have and you just get to hold them through their own experience and it's a different way of holding people. So these are some of the little logistics and details that go into this retreat phase.

Bindi:

So well said. I love that. So, once they've done the retreat this is an important piece is post-retreat, and this is one that for years the initial years of leading retreats that I missed and was so invaluable once I figured it out. It was really allowing people to have an ongoing transformational experience, not just like this experience that they plateau, they peak, they go back to their home, to their families, you know, to their usual lives, and then enter into a depression because they just feel like they've had this plateau, peak experience and then this insane come down after. So the post-retreat experience is so important in one of the most overlooked spots when it comes to leading your first retreat. So what do we do in that post-retreat phase?

Kori:

Retreat come down is so real and people don't really talk about this and don't share about this and don't prep people on retreat. But man, retreat come down is so real and retreat come down is leaving retreat and like having shock as you go back into the world and back into your life and you're like, no, I don't wanna leave this bubble and this community and it feels like so much on your system and you can feel sad and down and overwhelmed and so much happens in this post-retreat that you as a leader, that you as a planner can do. So the first thing you wanna do is like how can you help people, first of all be prepared for retreat come down. So letting them know about retreat come down, helping them plan something, helping them be ready for it, and then what can you offer them for ongoing support, love, connection, community, post-retreat. You know this is just great out of like the goodness of your heart to create something. And it's also great as an entrepreneur, to create something for people after retreats because once they're impacted on a retreat, they want something more, they want a course, they want a community, they want a membership.

Kori:

So it's like what do you see next after your retreat? There's so much opportunity there. And then, of course, there's also just closing up the retreat container. So getting testimonials, getting feedback, making sure everyone's paid out, making sure everything is complete and closed and tidy and neat, sending thank you emails to everyone, sending love to everyone Like that's also an important step, but a big one that I like to remind people of is, like what is next? What's your next dream, what's your next vision? Do you want to funnel them into another retreat? Do you want to create a retreat empire, a retreat company? Do you want to, you know, hold a course or a membership space for these people to have ongoing support and love? But do you want to leave a WhatsApp group open for everyone and just do check-ins in there? But figuring out what is next is a really big piece and a really big opportunity for entrepreneurs and for anyone in the wellness space who's leading retreats.

Bindi:

That's so huge and just such a powerful reminder of how much of an amazing financial opportunity retreats are as a way of combining into their already existing businesses. Like entrepreneurs and coaches and business coaches, wellness mentors, practitioners, you can have your usual practice or your virtual practice, whatever it is and weave this retreat once a year or a few times a year, whether you make this your full-time work. That you do or you weave it into your business is so powerful. So tell us too, corrie, I think you live one of the most inspiring lives that I know. I love how you live and both like in your current life and your pre-baby life right of leading retreats. It's been so inspiring to witness your journey. So tell us like what is the lifestyle of being a retreat leader? What does that look like, either for yourself or the other retreat leaders that you've mentored? Paint us a picture.

Kori:

Oh, I love that. Yeah, first, I want to get back to what you just said, though. Anyone can tie this into their business. It's so true, and that's what we help people do is tie this into your already going business or let this be a new business that you create. Retreats are not just transformational Like, they're also so fun and so amazing, and they give you an opportunity to travel the world and connect with people, and so adding that into your offering is just brings people joy. It brings people joy and transformation, even if you're leading it Like. We transform other people's lives, but us as leaders like me.

Kori:

When I was going around the world on 15 retreats a year, like, oh my god, it was so fun and my life was filled with so much joy and connection. So, jumping into that question, in the beginning of revamp, I was traveling to every single retreat. So about 15 retreats a year all over the world and, man, it was so much fun, I loved it. I got to see so many different things, I got to meet so many different people and I got to learn from so many teachers. Every time I wanted to learn something or was inspired by something. I'm like, oh my god, I'm just going to create a retreat on it. I'll just find a teacher and I'll lead a retreat on that and that's how I'll learn about it. So, man, I learned so many cool things on retreat and traveled to Peru and did ayahuasca and traveled to Costa Rica and spent months living by the beach and traveled to Bali, and every time I let a retreat, I would also just spend like a month in that country living life and enjoying it and getting to know the culture. So that was the first years of revamp, just traveling the world full time. La was my base and my hub. In between retreats I would fly back to LA and it was amazing. I just I remember so many people being like how do you do this, how can I do that? Can I help you? And it was a big part of my life and why I am the way I am today and who I am, and you know the freedom that I feel and the things that I learned, and you know it just really built up me and my life and my confidence.

Kori:

And these days, life looks a lot different. These days, I am a mama of a two year old, which I love. I live in Bali full time with my partner and I work a lot, lot less. Now we have a team that leads the retreat side of our business, which is going super well, and my biggest focus is in the Retreat Leaders Academy, because I don't have capacity for everything, like there's so many things I took off my plate because I want time for myself, I want so much time to mother and to hang out with my friends. So RLA is the one focus, the Retreat Leaders Academy is the one focus, with Revamp, but everything else pretty much is outsourced and handed off to our team, which is so like an amazing team.

Kori:

And these days, you know, life is a mix of it all. I have like a very dynamic life, like this morning I woke up and went to a fitness class and then, you know, spent my day moming and cooking and then, you know, coming here to connect with you, and then tonight I'm going to go play paddle, which in a paddle tournament which is so popular here in Bali. But just in general, I feel really inspired and free to continue to build the life that I want. So, you know, krishna, I just got back from a three day vacation. That was so much fun. We just, you know, took a drive an hour to one of the beach towns and stayed in a glamorous lux hotel with a nice bed and I just really want to enjoy life. I always want to continue to enjoy life and I'm always checking back in with myself, just like I did 10 years ago. If there are times where I feel stuck, if there are times where I feel that feeling in my tummy like something is not right, it's just an opportunity to change something. So I'm always still transforming and changing the way that I work, the way that I live, the way that I honor my self care and my motherhood journey.

Kori:

But my biggest anchor with my why right now is one of them is freedom. I love feeling free. I'm going to continuously feel free and there's a big misconception that like freedom, you can't commit, but like no, there's so much freedom and commitment. There's freedom and committing to my partner. There's freedom to committing to our business. There's freedom committing to making money and having a team and I really had to learn that. But that's where my anchors is freedom. My other biggest anchors, community. I love being in community with you know, with revamp, with mothers, with friends, with Bali. So freedom and community and then impact.

Kori:

The third one is you know, I live a life of wanting to create impact. I want to create impact in the motherhood space. I want to create impact with other entrepreneurs and have other people believe in themselves. Because I remember those moments where I was like what am I doing? How do I do this? Like tears running down my face, like how do I start my own company, make my own money and live for myself, and so I love supporting other people in having their own freedom and making their own money and creating their own impact in their own unique way. So that's what my life looks like now and I just keep creating it day by day with how I want to live and retreats. You know our big part of that and have really shaped the beliefs that I have now and the ability for myself to do this.

Bindi:

So inspiring and I love to hear the possibilities of what people can really do with retreats.

Bindi:

You know, when I look at that previous chapter of life for you where you were this like young, vibrant, you know, travel hungry, young woman really desiring to travel the world and lead 13 retreats a year, that that's a possibility.

Bindi:

And then for the coach that you know has a thriving practice, or the wellness practitioner where they love the work they do but they want to lead, you know, add on to their business and lead one or two retreats a year. Or for the person in the chapter of life that you're in now as a mama, how you can like outsource those things and still host retreats and create transformational experiences without needing to, you know, be on a plane, you know, for days at a time. So I love that you shared, just like the different possibilities of what retreats can look like for someone and that you really can create your own retreat experiences that tie into the lifestyle that you really desire. So I want to hear it, tell us and tell our community about the Retreat Leaders Academy and how they can connect with you and the Retreat Leaders Academy is literally the course that we put everything in.

Kori:

When I came up with the download to give people this course, I'm like I want to give them everything. So we literally took everything that we built over the past seven years like the best of the best every template, every email, every contract, every finance sheet, like how to do it step by step, and we put this into a course. And so the course in includes our blueprint that we use to run 15 retreats every year all around the world and it includes 10 months of live mentorship with myself and with my partner, christian, and the mentorship alone is like people come to these calls and we work through all their blocks and all their stories and figure out all the little details and build up their confidence to lead successful retreats. So that's what this course is. It's everything you need to know to run one retreat or to build an entire retreat company. We've had so many people take this course and build out amazing retreat companies Like I am blown away. I'm like, wow, they are going to the coolest places that I've never been and their websites are so gorgeous. So it's possible to lead one retreat or to you know, lead your entire retreat company and the investment for this course, like you should be able to 10 times the investment on your first retreat.

Kori:

We made the investment for this course so low. I just wanted anyone to have it. I'm like anyone who has the stream of making money traveling the world, creating impact. I want them to have this. So this is our blueprint. It's 10 months of live mentorship and it's everything you need to launch a retreat or launch a retreat company, and whether you are a teacher or a leader, or whether you have no community you're not an expert, but you want to collaborate with other people we teach you how to do it either way. So that's what it is. It's so much fun. I love the community. I'm so inspired by the people that are in it. And for the month of March I'm not sure when this podcast is going out, bendy Maybe we could do something special for your community. Oh, I'd love to do something special over here at community. Let's do that For the month of March, it is discounted $950. I don't know when your podcast is going out, but maybe we could do something special for everyone in your community.

Kori:

I have an idea. We'll do a discount, so we'll all create a discount for you. We'll let them stay on the March discount until the end of April, which is $950 off, and I will give everyone $500 retreat credit to attend one of our retreats. It is so good to attend a retreat and just get those downloads and get the inspiration for your own retreats. We have someone on one of our retreats right now who's in our academy and she's like wow, like this gives me so much insight. So anyone from your community that signs up, we'll give them $500 retreat credit for any of our retreats and we will honor the March discount of $950 off until the end of April. They just need to let me know that they're from your community and I will take care of them.

Bindi:

Oh my God, you are amazing. That's so generous and so exciting and you have inspired me so much. I'm like I want to host retreats again. I'm missing this. So this is so much fun and we will definitely all link all of that up in the show notes so people can check out Retreat Leaders Academy, they can connect with you, and what I invite anyone listening today is reach out to Cori and I.

Bindi:

Cori is, first of all, I think, the most cheerleader, energizer, bunny woman I know and she's just like full of celebration. So we so want to hear from you. We want to hear like those little dream seeds of a retreat that live in you. We want to hear your inspiration. We want to hear your creativity and just like even voicing that out loud to someone that can receive it with you know, excitement and celebration with you is such a powerful first step. So, yeah, so invite our community here to reach out to you, cori, and to me. I'll link up our Instagrams in the show notes. And before we wrap up, cori, I'd just love to hear what would be the one nugget of wisdom for the woman listening that's feeling this nudge in her soul. What would you say to her when it comes to leading her retreat.

Kori:

I love that. But, yeah, before I want to touch back on what you said too, yes, please reach out to me. I it is. It's one of my gifts is to really cheerlead people and believe in them and give them the thing they need to do it, and I like love being that gift and that launchpad for people. I created this course, once called creators launch pack, because I'm like I want to launchpad people into doing what they do. So reach out to me, like, message me on Instagram, share your dreams. I want to back you and I want to help you believe in it.

Kori:

If you don't and the one nugget of wisdom I think it's going to tie off that it's that you don't have to do it alone. This comes up a lot in my motherhood journey, but this also comes up as being an entrepreneur. You don't have to do it alone.

Kori:

Being an entrepreneur alone, trying to create your retreat alone, it can feel really lonely, like, and you can have so much comes up in your head your fears, your stuckness, your belief systems and so you don't have to do it alone. Like, get support, get help, message me, message Bindi, share your dreams with your friends, share it with your community, tell it to the world, collaborate with other people, like we are not meant to be doing this alone. We don't need to take over the world alone. We don't need to create a million dollar company alone. It's like get people in on your dream and your vision and let other people back you and it becomes so much easier, so much more fun, so much more collaborative and like that's how we should be doing things Living life, making money, being a mama, like we get to do it in community and in partnership so beautiful.

Bindi:

Such a powerful reminder. I love that, corey. Thank you so so much for sharing your heart, your excitement, your wisdom with us today. I'm so grateful to have you in my life and to be able to learn all of this amazing insights with you on retreat. So thank you so so much for being here.

Kori:

You're so welcome, I love you so much.

Bindi:

Oh, love you, sweetie. Thanks so much for listening. If you loved today's episode, please spread the love by subscribing and leaving a review, or if there's someone in your life that you think could benefit from this conversation, please share this episode with them. I would love to hear from you over on Instagram at Bindi Stables, or visit my website, bindistablescom, to connect and work with me. Thank you so much again for being here and I'm celebrating you in this journey of becoming the happiest, the healthiest, most vibrant you.