Beginning with Baby Steps: The Importance of Starting Small in Retreat Planning

Embarking on the journey of planning your first event or retreat as a healer, artist, cultural worker, or wellness practitioner can be both exhilarating and daunting. While you may be bursting with grand ideas and ambitions, it's crucial to resist the temptation to dive headfirst into a large-scale production.

Instead, embracing the concept of starting small can lay the foundation for a successful and sustainable retreat or event offering. Let's explore why beginning with baby steps is essential and how it can pave the way for long-term growth and fulfillment in your retreat hosting endeavors.

1. Manageable Scope:

Planning a small-scale event allows you to focus your energy and resources within your capacity, reducing the likelihood of feeling overwhelmed or burnt out. By keeping things simple and streamlined, you can devote adequate attention to each aspect of the retreat, ensuring a high-quality experience for your participants while improving your skills.

2. Lower Risk:

Starting small minimizes the financial, logistical, and operational risks associated with hosting a retreat. Rather than investing a significant amount of capital upfront, you can test the waters with a smaller budget and gauge the response of your community. This cautious approach helps mitigate potential losses and allows you to learn valuable lessons without incurring undue stress or hardship.

3. Cultivating Expertise:

Hosting a small retreat provides valuable opportunities for hands-on learning and skill development. As you navigate the various stages of planning and execution, you'll gain invaluable insights into what works well and what could be improved upon in future iterations. Embrace each challenge as a learning opportunity, and use your experiences to refine your approach and grow as a retreat host.

4. Building Community:

Small-scale events foster intimacy and connection among participants, creating a supportive and cohesive community that enhances the overall experience. By starting small, you can cultivate meaningful relationships with your guests, laying the groundwork for long-term relationships. These initial connections may join you for future retreats or share your events with their community.

5. Flexibility and Adaptability:

Starting small does't mean you can't make things cute and profound! Beginning with a small event allows for greater flexibility and adaptability in response to changing circumstances or feedback. I believe it's easier to uncover your unique hosting approach in smaller settings where the stakes aren't as high and you can be more experimental. You have the freedom to try out different formats, themes, and programming, tailoring each experience to the unique needs and preferences of your guests. This nimble approach enables you to iterate and evolve over time, refining your offerings based on real-world insights and feedback.

At our first retreat, we made gift bags and brought care and intention to each person’s sleeping arrangement - which were air mattresses!

To wrap up, starting small is not a limitation but a strategic choice that sets you up for success in the realm of retreat hosting. By embracing a manageable scope, minimizing risk, cultivating expertise, building community, and maintaining flexibility, you lay a solid foundation for future growth and expansion. So take those first baby steps with confidence, knowing that each small-scale experiential offering is a stepping stone on your journey towards realizing your vision and making a meaningful impact in the lives of others.