Moment: You’re Not Too Much. You’re Just in the Wrong Room.

Fresh from hosting two transformative weekend retreats with 36 women, I'm sharing the essential principles that made these gatherings life-changing experiences for everyone involved. These principles aren't just for retreats but can transform how you approach every area of your life.

• Our retreats are known for beautiful venues, amazing food, great wine and guilt-free indulgence
• Working in flow state with no rigid agenda allows for true co-creation and intuitive guidance
• Vulnerability is not weakness but a source of immense power when shared from an authentic place
• The first person brave enough to cry gives everyone permission to be vulnerable
• Deep connection with like-minded women provides nourishment many didn't know they were missing
• Carefully curated gatherings create space for profound healing that might otherwise take years
• When flow, vulnerability and connection combine, women step fully into their power
• These principles create a flywheel effect that transforms how we show up in all areas of life

Visit balanceandbeyond.com/future to join our RISE leadership program with a free workshop on the future of female leadership starting April 4th.

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Thanks again for tuning in, and we'll see you next time on the Balance & Beyond Podcast!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Balance and Beyond
• 0:20 Hunter Valley and Mornington Retreats
• 1:37 Flow State: No Agenda, Pure Co-creation
• 3:27 Leveraging Vulnerability's Hidden Power
• 6:08 The Magic of Deep Connection
• 8:43 Upcoming Opportunities and Invitations

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to Balance and Beyond Moments. Your weekly dose of insight, wisdom and mindset shifts, all in 10 minutes or less, whether it's a powerful truth, a fresh perspective or a spark of inspiration, this is your space to pause, reflect and reset. Let's dive in. I have just returned from two magical weekends hosting my client retreats and in today's moment, I wanted to share with you some of those key highlights and principles we use to make these events so spectacular. Now, my two retreats were in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and the beautiful Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, and we got to enjoy the company of 36 women across those two venues.

Speaker 1: 0:49

I love that my retreats have got a reputation for in a good way, for beautiful venues I am a venue snob for amazing food, for great wine, we have aperols, lots of snacks and, of course, everything is zero calorie and guilt-free. But what makes these successful and our ability to really send home a different woman than the one who arrived are these three core principles that we really lean into with each retreat. Now, this was actually my 12th retreat 11 and 12 that I have run, so I've really learnt and evolved as I've gone to ensure that each one continues to honour my evolution also honours where my clients are and, of course, gets better and better and more fun. So the first principle that I think is a game changer, and these are principles that you can take not just if you're running a retreat or an event, but into all parts of your life, because how we do one thing is how we do everything is we run our retreats very much in a flow state and in the moment. This may make you shudder or may make you squeal in excitement there's no agenda. Literally, there is no agenda. We have a plan, of course, but we go in with very few notes. Of course, we've had to think about the energetic arc that we want to take people on and the flow of some high-level content, but we truly step into this space as one of co-creation, and co-creation means to me.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Sure, I have some thoughts of where I want to take people, but I am fully present to what is in the room and, most importantly, I don't make it mean anything about me if I deviate from the plan or I deviate from what we thought we would do, because this other thing has come up and we continuously and when I say we, this was both my coaches were there, jacqueline and Sabina routinely conferring on. We thought we'd do this, but actually I think this is more alive, what do you think Like? Yes, and sometimes in our Mornington retreat, the three of us were on the one sort of bench and often I would keep talking and Jacqueline and Sabina, who are on each side of me, would be conferring behind my back. This sort of whispers like, because in the moment, like, oh, hang a second, I'm getting this nudge that there's this thing here. So, really being present and when you can be present, you can better access your intuition, you can better read the room, and this is going to make whatever you create that much more powerful, because it's always on point. A second principle that I am seeing come to the fore more and more the more I do this myself and we can say hello.

Speaker 1: 3:37

1.6 million views on a LinkedIn post is really leveraging the power of vulnerability. I was someone who used to want to be a perfectionist and didn't want anyone to see chinks in my armor, because I assumed they would use it to wound me or they would use it to trip me up or throw me under the boss. And so I put on this perfectionistic facade and I've got it all together and I don't need to be vulnerable because no one's going to see me cry. And yet there is this amazing source of power. Once we're able to step through our own vulnerability, we get to put aside all of those concerns about it being weak and people are going to think I'm less than because I can tell you, when you have a room full of women, all it takes is that first person to cry and heads up. If you ever come to one of my retreats, you're going to cry. We've never not cracked anyone yet Is they can now give permission for everybody else. They're the courageous one who goes first. And with every retreat they get deeper and deeper. This time we had people wailing and flailing and that's not to put anybody off who wants to come to a retreat.

Speaker 1: 4:53

But there is this huge source of power on the other side of you actually stepping into your grief, to sharing the thing, to saying the thing that has remained unsaid, to stepping into your anger and actually feeling all of those things that have made us feel historically so uncomfortable. And so what everybody saw this weekend was the power of our vulnerability as coaches, of sharing intimate details of failures or limiting beliefs and then seeing that transmuted and become fuel and ignition for who we are and who we're going to become. So if you have the opportunity to be vulnerable, I want to really encourage you to step into that, because there is, 99% of the time, goodness on the other side, especially when you do it from a place of power and collective good, as opposed to I'm being vulnerable. Look at me. You need to give me your sympathy. That's not an energetically clean way to be vulnerable. And then, finally, this just is such a beautiful reminder, every time I get my tribe together in person, of the power of connection. And, of course, we have built a beautiful online community full of hundreds of women that are incredibly supportive. However, to get to hug someone that you've been seeing a couple times a week for years and actually get to meet them is priceless Really being seen for who you are.

Speaker 1: 6:28

I know my journey to start my business was because I didn't feel like I had anybody who got me. Women like us are really hard to find at the school gate. They're really hard to find in your community. So when you can step into an ecosystem where almost everyone gets you where you like almost everyone. I have a pretty good mingo right now, and so I don't let them in. I don't let them into my programs, even if they're begging me to take their credit card, like, nope, I do not want you on retreat, I do not want you at my dinner table.

Speaker 1: 6:59

So this is a beautiful chance to really laugh and to connect and to nourish your soul on a level that you didn't even know you needed. The amount of laughter on retreats is usually directly in proportion to the amount of tears. So our evenings, where we have beautiful dinners that are all fully catered, are usually very loud and very ruckus, because everyone is laughing and just having such a good time that often they say that their cheeks hurt from all of the smiling and they don't remember the last time that they actually laughed that hard. And when you put all of this together, when you're able to really be in the moment, when you're able to be vulnerable and share the thing that's on your heart, to tell the person that they've got you know parsley in their teeth and to really connect with people, then you kickstart this incredible flywheel of connection, of vulnerability and, ultimately, this huge wheel of power. And that is what we are spending a lot of our time this year doing is helping our clients really step into their power, to start taking up space, to stop apologizing and really becoming who that they know they are born to be. So some powerful insights, not to mention some incredible transformations that we had on the other side, where routinely life-changing people dropping layers and layers, people healing something that may have taken them decades to heal previously, and being able to literally heal themselves and others in the space of 48 hours over a weekend. That is what happens when you invest in yourself at this level and put yourself in rooms with people who really get you.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Now you may be wondering when are my next retreats? Well, as I mentioned, they are only available to those who have gone through Balance and Beyond. There's no more retreats planned for 2025, but I am already starting to think about 2026. So, if you know, you need the most amazing weekend away. We're not just talking about a fun girls weekend where you get to laugh and give. We're talking about deep work that comes with it, but because of that, the connections are so much deeper. Come into our community, come into our tribe, and then you'll be eligible to come and join us at some point in 2026.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Until then, make sure you keep an eye out for our latest leadership program. We are continuing to speak and step into our power, so come and join RISE. We're talking about the future of female leadership free workshop that's starting on the 4th of April, so you can visit balladsinstitutecom. Forward slash future. We look forward to seeing you there. Thanks for spending a moment with me. Thanks for taking this moment for yourself. If this resonated, share it with a friend who needs to hear it today, and don't forget to subscribe to Balance and Beyond for full episodes and more of these bite-sized breakthroughs. See you next time.