How to Benefit from the Post-Pandemic Retreat Boom! – In Just 7 Minutes with Sheri Rosenthal

Resources/Links:

• Check out Sheri’s Website: http://www.wanderlustentrepreneur.com
• Check out Sheri’s Retreat Blueprint Program: https://www.wanderlustentrepreneur.com/retreat-blueprint-program/

Summary

Have you ever grasped the difference between a retreat and a workshop? Has your business as a retreat leader been slow because of the pandemic or because you’re just not attracting enough attention?

Sheri Rosenthal is a practicing physician. She is also the owner of Journeys of the Spirit Travel. It’s a boutique agency specializing in the planning and management of group travel. She loves helping clients plan, fills, and profit from transformational retreats that change lives while adding serious income to their bottom line.

In this episode, Sheri shares her insights on how understanding retreat as an experiential and transformational event rather than treating it as a workshop can attract more clients and increase sales. She also adds how you can shift your in-person retreats to online retreats in the midst of the Corona Virus pandemic.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 2:31- Sheri’s ideal client: “Basically, Tom, heart-based entrepreneurs who want to run transformational retreats, change lives and travel the world. Those are our favorite folks at Wanderlust Entrepreneur, which is my main company.”
• 2:51 – Problem Sheri helps solve: “Okay, so we help in two ways, Tom. First, we train our clients on how to plan, price, profit, and monetize their retreats, which is critical. And second, we train them on how to bring their in-person retreats and businesses online which is really critical right now.”
• 3:18 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Sheri: “So, Tom, most retreat leaders make no or very little money on their retreats, or they can’t fill them because they don’t know how to design and position them properly, or have a proper marketing plan in place, okay? Also, many of our clients who have been working strictly in person are realizing now that they need to move their offerings online so they can have an income even during a pandemic. So, they could do like a virtual retreat, but they got to get online.”
• 4:41 – Common mistakes that people make before they find Sheri’s solution: “Absolutely. So, when retreat leaders see that their retreats are not selling, one of the biggest mistakes they make is to lower the pricing and put it on sale.”
• 5:43 – Sheri’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): “Oh, absolutely. So, people do not want to travel and sit in a classroom all day, they want to experience something. They want the cosmic 2×4 to hit them upside the head and they want their lives to change. If you can create a retreat that promises that, your retreats will always sell out, I can promise that.”
• 7:19 – Sheri’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Check out Sheri’s Retreat Blueprint Program: https://www.wanderlustentrepreneur.com/retreat-blueprint-program/
• 8:17 – Q: Should folks be planning a retreat for 2020? A: The answer to that would be an absolutely, positively, hell yes! Because people are dying to get away and go on a retreat. I am. And if you don’t have one ready, they’re going to come on mine instead of yours.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“It's about creating experiences, not about just talking at people in a classroom, that's called a workshop.” -Sheri Rosenthal Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 0:09
Hello everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Tom Poland, joined today by Sheri Rosenthal. Sheri, good day, very warm welcome. Where are you hanging out?

Sheri Rosenthal 0:20
Right now, I’m in sunny Florida, Tom, and I’m enjoying myself.

Tom Poland 0:24
Looks like you got a bit of sun, but a little birdie once told me that you’re normally to be found in the hills of Georgia somewhere, is that right?

Sheri Rosenthal 0:30
Yes, this is true. Absolutely.

Tom Poland 0:33
Sounds like a beautiful part of the world.

Sheri Rosenthal 0:36
It is, I live in the woods. I have a bear.

Tom Poland 0:38
Wow, you’ve got a bear. I am pretty jealous, we got kangaroos but no bears. We’ve got koalas but, close, but no cigar. Not quite like a grizzly.

For those of you who don’t know Sheri, she is an extraordinary individual whos’ bio would not tell you 10% of what she’s actually achieved and done. She’s a practicing physician. She’s got three books published. None of those by the way is in her bio, I had to get the whispers in a little birdie that told me she lived in the hills of Georgia to find a lot of stuff out. So, she’s got an extraordinarily rich tapestry of background. And when I tell you what she does, you might be surprised, but she’s someone who loves to reinvent herself. And if you look at what she’s done from a marketing perspective, you’re going to learn an awful lot about marketing, even though that’s not her core value proposition. She is actually a very in-demand retreat strategist.

She’s the owner of something that gives me goose bumps when I read it, which is Journeys of the Spirit Travel. It’s a boutique agency specializing in the planning and management of group travel. She loves helping clients plan, fills, and profit from transformational retreats that change lives while adding serious income to their bottom line. Oh, you got me with the left jab and then the right hook. Changing lives while adding serious profit, who would not want those twin benefits? Okay, so that’s, listen up, because that’s the first marketing gym you’re going to get from Sheri.

So, Sheri, our subject is, “How to Benefit from the Post-Pandemic Retreat Boom!” And it’s going to be like a can of coke, it got dropped once in a while, but once this thing is unlocked it’s going to be…so let’s rock and roll. Our seven minutes starts now. Question number one is, Sheri, who’s your ideal client?

Sheri Rosenthal 2:31
Basically, Tom, heart-based entrepreneurs who want to run transformational retreats, change lives and travel the world. Those are our favorite folks at Wanderlust Entrepreneur, which is my main company.

Tom Poland 2:44
Beautiful. Question number two, six, and a half minutes left, what’s the problem you solve for those heart-based entrepreneurs?

Sheri Rosenthal 2:51
Okay, so we help in two ways, Tom. First, we train our clients on how to plan, price, profit, and monetize their retreats, which is critical. And second, we train them on how to bring their in-person retreats and businesses online which is really critical right now.

Tom Poland 3:08
Wow, aren’t you a clever pivot? Isn’t that, pivoter, I should say.

Sheri Rosenthal 3:13
I am a pivoter.

Tom Poland 3:14
More key learnings here, folks, pivot, when you need to. So, let’s say we’ve got this heart-based entrepreneur who loves the idea of traveling and going to exotic places, and transforming people’s lives and making some money while they do it. How do I know that I need to work with you? What are the symptoms I’m going to be experiencing? If I’m one of those people, I’m looking around in my life, I’ve got these thoughts, I’ve got these things happening. What are the symptoms that I need I should be reaching out to you?

Sheri Rosenthal 3:18
So, Tom, most retreat leaders make no or very little money on their retreats, or they can’t fill them because they don’t know how to design and position them properly, or have a proper marketing plan in place, okay? Also, many of our clients who have been working strictly in person are realizing now that they need to move their offerings online so they can have an income even during a pandemic. So, they could do like a virtual retreat, but they got to get online.

Tom Poland 4:13
Right. So, I might be someone who’s tried this before but it’s flopped, or I’ve got a lot of people there that didn’t make any money out of it and I’m really not wanting to have that experience again. Or I want to maybe offer the experience online, maybe over the next 12 months while we get a vaccine. So, question four is, and we got five minutes left, so tell me about some of the common mistakes that people make that run these retreats, or they haven’t run a retreat because they’re just scared. But what are some of the common mistakes that people make when they’re trying to run these retreats?

Sheri Rosenthal 4:41
Absolutely. So, when retreat leaders see that their retreats are not selling, one of the biggest mistakes they make is to lower the pricing and put it on sale.

Tom Poland 4:53
Oh, no.

Sheri Rosenthal 4:53
Yes, yes. If retreats don’t fill, Tom, it is never because of the pricing. They don’t fill because they are not solving a top of mind problem for their client, and they are not properly positioned. And another big issue is that they make the mistake of structuring the retreat as if it’s a workshop in a pretty place, rather than a deeply experiential and transformational event.

Tom Poland 5:25
Thanks for that, Sheri. Question number five is, what’s one valuable free action that someone listening to this, they can smell the magic and the money in the retreats, they smell the transformation of their client’s lives. What’s one thing that they could do that’ll take them to step closer to realizing their dream?

Sheri Rosenthal 5:43
Oh, absolutely. So, people do not want to travel and sit in a classroom all day, they want to experience something. They want the cosmic 2×4 to hit them upside the head and they want their lives to change. If you can create a retreat that promises that, your retreats will always sell out, I can promise that.

Tom Poland 6:07
Wow. So, summarize that again, please, because that was so valuable. We’re creating an experience; we’re not sitting in a classroom. Can you give me an example maybe of someone you work with, what they did?

Sheri Rosenthal 6:18
Oh, yeah, absolutely. So, let’s say you were going to do an essential oil retreat. You could, you know, sit in the classroom on a beach, you know, and talk about oils. Or you could book a trip to Oregon during the time when they harvest peppermint. Where they can see the whole process of harvesting the peppermint, distilling it down to the little bottle of oil, and people will never forget that. And they’ll really have an appreciation of the cost of the oil because it’s all that plant matter down to a little bottle now. So, it’s about creating experiences, not about just talking at people in a classroom, that’s called a workshop.

Tom Poland 7:04
Just that one idea I can instantly see how compelling that would be by promoting the experience rather than what might otherwise be, you know, a talk or a swap, as you’re passing the bottles of oil around or something like that. Thank you for that.

Question six and we’ve got two minutes left. So, for the sake of time, I’m going to answer this one for you if you’ll forgive me. I was going to ask you about a valuable free resource you can offer but you gave that to me before the call. Just go to www.wanderlustentrepreneur.com, so that wanders as wandering around, wanderlustentrepreneur.com/retreat-impact. You’ll be at, then we have a download and prepare to profit from the post-pandemic retreat boom.

And if you’re thinking about this, do reach out to Sheri. I’m not being paid; this is not an affiliate. This is just a terrific opportunity for all of us. And make sure you get to the head of the queue before that can of coke has been dropped with a pandemic, the lid comes off and it’ll go, “Puff.” Brings us nicely to question number seven with a whole minute left, Sheri. A whole minute left. What is the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Sheri Rosenthal 8:17
Well, should folks be planning a retreat for 2020, is what I would ask? And the answer to that would be an absolutely, positively, hell yes! Because people are dying to get away and go on a retreat. I am. And if you don’t have one ready, they’re going to come on mine instead of yours.

Tom Poland 8:39
Sheri, I’d go on yours rather than mine so that’s no contest. But yeah, so plan now get to the head of the queue because, boy, when this thing opens up, people are going to be passing their credit cards over faster than my dog eats his dinner. Sheri Rosenthal, thank you so much for your time.

Sheri Rosenthal 8:55
Thank you so much, Tom. You’re amazing.

Tom Poland 08:58
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.