Building the Future of Retreats: Inside the International Retreat Association

Summary
Holly Porter shares her inspiring journey and details about the launch of the International Retreat Association, a new professional organization for retreat leaders and industry professionals. She discusses the industry growth, membership benefits, and her vision for the future of retreats.




Takeaways
The origin story of the International Retreat Association
Industry growth projections and opportunities
Membership benefits and founder's program
The importance of standards and collaboration in the retreat industry
Holly Porter's personal journey and purpose
The retreat industry is projected to reach $363 billion by 2029.
Joining a professional association can elevate your credibility and network.
The International Retreat Association offers affordable, annual memberships.
Early adopters can influence the future programs and initiatives.
The industry needs standards, resources, and collaboration to thrive.



Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the International Retreat Association
01:52 Holly's Personal Journey and Near-Death Experience
03:48 The Birth of the International Retreat Association
07:01 The Growth of the Retreat Industry
10:20 Membership Structure and Benefits
12:33 Founding Membership and Future Vision
16:20 Invitation to Join the Community
18:35 RNR Outro Final.mp4
19:13 RR.Gift.RetreatRnR.com.mp4




🔗 Connect with Holly Porter | Retreat RNR 
📧 Email: holly@hollyporter.com 
🔗 LinkedIn: Holly Porter | Retreat RNR 
🎵 TikTok: @retreatrnr 
▶️ YouTube: @intlretreatassociation
📸 Instagram: @retreatrnr | @hollyporterinternational 
📘 Facebook: HollyAnnPorter

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to All Things Retreat Podcast. I'm Holly Porter, your host and CEO of Retreat R. With over 25 years of experience in designing transformative retreats. I'm here to share insights and inspiration to help you create extraordinary experiences. Whether you're a pro or just starting out, you'll find valuable ideas here. Enjoy the ride. Let's dive in. Hey everyone, welcome to the show today. You got me solo. I wanted to give an update on the International Retreat Association. And since we started the podcast called All Things Retreat, it was sponsored by another company that I had called Retreat R R. And I still have that. But when I had a spiritual calling, is what I'm going to call it, uh, last year, so the fall of 2025, then I was gifted this idea of International Retreat Association. And so I wanted to give you an update on what's happening, where we are, because it's so exciting, and so many people don't even know or aren't even aware of the association and what they do for you and why you want to bring belong to one. So that's kind of what I'm going to be talking about for a few minutes. Listen in because if you have anything to do with the Retreat Association, you are going to want to get this update and you're going to want to know about it if you don't know about it. So hang tight, we won't be long. But I want to share you my story first of all. For those of you who are new here or don't know my story, if you want the big long uh craziness story of my near-death experience, you can Google Holly Porter on YouTube and you can find all kinds of near-death podcasts that I've been on where I tell it at length and you can hear all about the juice. But the gist of my story is that my life changed, and I never felt like I had purpose until I almost died in fall of 2021 when I caught COVID at a conference, came home, ended up being in the hospital for 70, that is 7-0 days, and I was intubated two times, had a trachea, had sepsis, had some other life-threatening infections that were probably worse than COVID. And here I am. So when you know you have a calling and you know you have something to do, I didn't feel like I knew that before, and now I do. So this has kind of been the pattern for the last almost five years now of creeping up on my five-year anniversary. And all these things, amazing things have happened. And when you're really on purpose living in it, it everything just flows. I'm not saying I don't have hard days. I'm not saying, you know, I mean, my health struggles from long COVID are there, and yeah, yeah, yeah. And here we are, and we are creating something amazing for this space. I'm so excited to be here for it. So while I was writing my book last fall, it was um yeah, fall of 2025, I was gifted this idea. I was in a really it's a spiritual and personal development book called Near Death Shift. So if you like Near Death stories, it gives you a lot of um juicy stuff in there, and then it teaches you in the shift, surrender, hope, intuition, faith, and transformation, how I got out of that, how I shifted and and using that acronym. So the last eight chapters of the 17 chapters are personal development. So if you love personal development, I hope you love it. Um heart and soul into that book for sure. Definitely am proud that it's finally done and it's out. So neardeathship.com, you can find it there. Uh, but that's not really what we're here, what we're to talk about, but it is part of the story, and and sometimes it's nice to have a little bit of background and have a little bit of the story when we know we're going to be part of something that's bigger. While I'm writing the story, I'm in a super spiritual place, and I was gifted the idea of this international retreat association. Now, a little bit of background. I know what associations can do for you because I'm part of the NAR, which is National Association of Realtors, the Utah Association of Realtors. I've been part of coaching associations, building associations throughout all of my 11 other startups that I've had. So I'm aware that how awesome they are. Okay. So that being said, um, I was like, hmm, let's go down this rabbit hole. So I'm trying to meet my deadline on my book, but I'm like, I got some curiosity going. So I went down to realize there's two to three million estimated retreat leaders in the world in the ecosystem. And I thought, what? And there's not an association for them to belong to until now. So that got me excited. So I kind of made a little pact with God that if he'd help me get my book done and not miss my deadline, which was 1111, 1111. Part of my story, by the way, birthdays on one one. There's just a lot of things with that that happened. And oh, for a lot of other people too, not just me. And so I just thought, gosh, help me get this book done, and then I will give 110%. Now, I am not one that only focuses on one thing. I've usually had anywhere from two to four businesses at a time. Uh, I've had some for 20 years, so it's not like I jump ship, but I just keep adding more. And I don't, I get bored easy. So that's just kind of my history. Well, so for me, I proved to myself that when I was writing my book, everything stopped. I was like, in order to meet this deadline, really everything stops until this book's out because I'm not going to miss this deadline. So we made the deadline, and immediately the next month, which was in December of 2025, I incorporated International Retreat Association. And then we started working on our leadership council. We have an advisory board, getting all the things together. This company is built totally different than any company I have built. First of all, it will be way bigger than anything I've built before because it is international. And I love who's showing up. I know the right people are gonna show up. When you're on a mission and you're you're doing what I feel like is a calling, it just happens in a better way, in a different way, in a calmer way. I don't know how to explain that, but the flow is just like no other that I've ever done before. So, that being said, we um opened membership just about 30 days ago in May. Technically, officially put our press release out May 5th of 2026. So officially our day, and we opened up an essential membership, and I'm just so excited. And so, if you're in this industry, I want you to know this is going to be a great place for you to be and come. And if you're following our journey, that that you know it's for the whole ecosystem, and we want to help bring about more professionalism, credibility, collaboration, and support to the industry because it's growing like rapid fire. So, did you know that the industry by 2029 should be and will be $363 billion? So there's a lot in there. If COVID taught us anything, it taught us that we do not like to not get out of our houses and we like transformation and we like community and we like the interaction with people, real people, eyeball to eyeball. So the the retreat industry it's exploding worldwide, but most retreat leaders are entering the space more than ever before. Like they are realizing this is a great space to be for so many reasons, and yet there was no professional standards, there was no resources, professional organizations dedicated specifically for retreats to act as an association would act. And many retreat leaders they feel isolated because they're trying to figure everything out on their own. And this association wants to change that. So we believe retreat leaders and venues and facilitators and service providers deserve a professional home where they can connect, learn, collaborate, and elevate the entire industry together. So, what we've been working on is building the association foundation, developing member resources. We have the greatest toolbox that when you join the association, you get access to with all kinds of resources in there. And it will build to be hundreds of things in there, just so you know, because we've got a plan for that. We're growing our network of retreat professionals, not just retreat leaders. We're building relationships with venues and facilitators, service providers, and industry experts. We're also expanding educational opportunities and networking. Let's talk about the momentum. Every week we are seeing more and more people recognize that this industry needs collaboration, not competition. My number one role in this industry is to be the support system. I'm here for you. I'm not your competition. Not that I believe competition is a bad thing, because when you're competing, it just makes everybody step up and be better. And what's wrong with everybody being better? For instance, I will give you an example. I had a salon and spa for 20 years, and I moved my location four different times during that 20 years because I grew. And every time, minus one, so three times, I put another salon in my location. I had already done the build out. I didn't live in that fear that, oh my customers aren't gonna come to me anymore because I'm moving locations. No, if I'm good enough, they're gonna follow me wherever I go. It doesn't matter. But how cool is it that I gotta help somebody else who's building their salon business already come into something that's existing and take it over? So I'm just saying it just makes everybody wanna do better, be better. There's nothing wrong with that. Okay, let's talk about for a second our memberships. We have a professional community within that membership, networking opportunities, visibility and credibility, educational resources, industry connections, future member benefits are being developed all the time. As our advisory community meets and we see the needs and we do surveys, which we're asking people, please fill out when you get a survey from us, because we want to build what you need and what you want. So that is that. Our essential membership is only, I wanted to make sure it was affordable for anyone. It is 1111 and it's for the whole year, not a month. It's the whole year. So you can come and get inside and test the waters and see how much you love it. There'll be different things that we will bring out later. There's lots of plans, but that right now that's what we started with. The second thing we started with was a founders group. And so if you're a founder, it's $444. That is a lifetime founder, and there's only a hundred of those ever. So you get your membership at $111. You can join as a founder at $444. That equals $555 for the first year, and then the next year you just renew your membership, which is $111, and you're a founder for life. You will be listed on our main page. You will be able to put a little lead magnet inside of that toolbox I was talking about that everyone will have access to. So I feel like that's a huge bonus, especially if you're a business growing. Put a really juicy lead magnet in there, and hopefully you will get people wanting it and they'll sign up under and work with you. Our goal is simply not to create another membership. Our goal is to create an ecosystem where the members build meaningful relationships, they gain visibility, they access resources, and they grow along with other professionals who understand the industry. That is what we are up to. If you're an early adopter like me, I love innovation. I love being just involved in things and creating things that are new. That just lights me up. So if you are an early adopter or you want to be an early supporter, helping shape the future of the association, this is the time to get in. Don't wait until everybody else is already in and then you're you're behind, right? Let's be ahead. This is the opportunity to be recognized as part of the founding movement when we're just starting out, and also the ability to help influence future programs and initiatives because as you fill out those surveys and share what you want and what you need, then that's how we create them. So that is um, let's see, what else can I tell you about the founding membership? Uh, you will get a recognition too. We have a weekly weekly newsletter. So if you go to international retreatassociation.org, you can get our little freebie on there, but that will also put you on our list so you will start receiving our weekly newsletter, and that will have updates. Um, we have this podcast, All Things Retreat, that will show sponsor the shows or spotlight the shows that are on that week. Um, gosh, years from now, people are gonna look back and know who stepped forward early to build the future of the retreat industry. You know, we liken it to the NAR, which is National Association of Realtors. That is the biggest trade association in the world. It has been around, I didn't know this, but it has been around 118 years and has 1.5 million members. So it's like that. What if you could you imagine being on the ground floor of that? Of course, there none of them are probably alive anymore, but their businesses probably are. Just think of being on the ground floor of something that is going to grow into something so big. Um, we also will have monthly networking events and masterclasses that you can pop into. As we grow, we'll have specified masterclasses in your industry. So as we grow that and need that, we will add them. Uh, we'll have industry conversations, we will have uh retreat leaders' secret sauce sessions, um, future conferences, summits, and membership gatherings. So those what those look like right now, what they are slotted for is once a quarter. The first month, every quarter, third week, Wednesday and Thursday, mark my words, that's that's the plan. Every quarter we will have it will rotate live and online, live and online. So two live events a year and two online events a year. That if you're a business, a speaker, you'll be able to come in and um apply for things like that. You can attend as just to come and learn, but we will get the top notch because that's what we're growing here. And uh we're creating opportunities for members to learn from one another. We also want you to build relationships and stay connected throughout the year. So we want to make sure we're providing those opportunities to do that. So the future vision is more resources, more member benefits, more industry partners, more education, more opportunities for visibility, and continued development of standards and best practices because that's what hasn't existed until now. So we are want to, we really want to stress how we want to be recognized as the voice of the industry globally, and we want to be here to support and have your back. I love having people have my back. I don't know about you, but I want to know that if there's a challenge, like right now, there's nothing. Where do you go? If you have if you have these challenges, where do you go? We want you to know that there'll be this networking inside, and you can go and ask the hard questions and talk to people who are leaders in the industry, not just jump on some Facebook group where who knows what they know, and maybe they have no idea and maybe they just want to give an answer because they think they know everything. I don't know what that looks like, but right here, we don't want that happening. We want our industry leaders to be answering your questions. So if you're a retreat leader, venue owner, facilitator, coach, wellness practitioner, travel professional, or service provider supporting retreats, we want to invite you to join us. If you already have, okay, we're excited for you and what's coming. But if you haven't, don't wait. Like come and join us. It's simple website, it's long. International Retreat Association.com. So international retreatassociation.com. And we will put that in our show notes so you can go there and check it out and see what is inside. Visit the website there and also learn about membership. There's a membership tab, it'll give you a little bit more details, but I don't know. I shared them pretty good with you. So I think you all want to just go and sign up right now, right? But consider also if you are a business, consider that founding membership because boy, for the price and for a lifetime, that is like the most economical promotion and marketing that I could ever do for life. Um, to sit there. So check that out. Uh there's only a hundred of those, so when they're gone, they're gone. We won't offer that again. But we're not just building an association, we're helping shape the future of the retreat industry. So I'm excited that you're part of this journey. If you've listened to me this whole time, thank you. I appreciate it. And listening to my story, sometimes, you know, we sometimes just feel like we're babbling, and and of course, I'm just talking to a camera, and here we are. So, yes, I am grateful to this industry and I'm grateful for all it's done for me. I'm grateful for the ones that have joined already and will be soon. I just I feel like I just got a whole bunch of new friends and not just girlfriends. I this is open for men and women in this industry. I really strongly believe that they're that men need the the retreats as much, if not more, as women. So I really want to get a backbone of men in here that are doing retreats. We need more of those as well. So if you have a husband and you've thought, oh yeah, he needs one of these, that's what we want to create. We want we want more of that so that they're done in a way that people get that transformation that they truly do deserve. Okay, well, till next time, see you later. Bye for now. Thanks for joining us on this episode of All Things Retreat. We hope you're leaving with new ideas, fresh inspiration, and the motivation to take your retreats to the next level. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. It helps us grow and reach more retreat leaders like you. And if you have any questions, topics you'd like us to cover, or just want to say hello, send us an email at infowerretreatrnr.com. Follow us on social media to stay connected and catch all the latest updates. Until next time. Remember, great retreats start with great intentions. Let's make them extraordinary, one step at a time. Thinking about hosting a retreat? Before you dive in, let's make sure you're really ready. Grab your free Are You Retreat ready checklist and find out if you've got everything in place from your purpose and pricing to your audience and agenda. Don't guess. Get clear. This quick checklist will show you exactly where you stand and what you need to make your retreat a success. Click the link below in the show notes to grab your gift and take the first step toward hosting conference.