It’s retreat season! And the 90 Monkeys team is back from our big company adventure to Costa Rica.
We gleaned some new, some old, and important lessons while running these trips and we want to share them with you!
The idea of taking a trip to an exotic location to teach with open-air yoga studios, monkeys in the trees and breaks at the beach seems like heaven, right?
It can be if you run things proficiently, but most yoga teachers are far from blissful on retreat.
By the 7th day they are totally wiped out, since planning and executing a retreat also requires a lot of time and hard work.
We put together a list of 5 key secrets to running a successful yoga retreat based on our experience in Nosara.
1) Know the retreat center and do your homework.
The retreat center represents YOU in the eyes of the attendee, so do your homework to make sure that the retreat center will contribute towards that once-in-a-lifetime experience. This will also help you more accurately and enthusiastically market the retreat as well. In addition,
- Ask for referrals from friends and students.
- Only teach “sight-unseen” if a trusted friend has been there or the retreat center has a solid reputation and is well known.
- Use Trip Advisor and get references from people who’ve been there to make sure that the retreat center is highly rated.
- Visit the retreat center yourself if at all possible.
- Take ample pictures and ask tons of questions!
- Interact with retreat center staff—from management to front desk employees to café staff—to ensure that they provide excellent customer service.
- If the retreat center offers excursions and services (i.e. day trips, spa services, etc.) give them a try yourself before suggesting to students.
- If you are planning on using an outfitter for a significant daily part of your retreat activities (i.e. Yoga & surfing, yoga & hiking, etc.), make sure to thoroughly research the outfitter, check their ratings, and use their services yourself.
2) Have a “Plan B”
With Global Warming causing unprecedented weather patterns, you never know what might happen with your plans. We experienced this ourselves in Costa Rica. Locals assured us that the winds would be calm on the ocean for our daily stand up paddle boarding in the mornings. But, for the first three days of the retreat, dry hurricane winds rendered our original morning plan null and void!
After a lot of rearranging on the fly we got our activity and yoga room schedule sorted, but a more solid plan B would have been more ideal. We just never expected weather like that in what was once a predictable location. The times are indeed changing. 🙁
There are many ways to arrive at a Plan B —just make sure you have one, and be ready to use it if necessary.
However you choose to roll with it, the most important thing is to model flexibility and openness for your attendees. If you invite, embrace, and celebrate new circumstances and the creative solutions that result, then so will your students.
3) Manage your attendees’ expectations.
Even if you’ve modeled resourcefulness and flexibility for your students, it can be hard for students to accept that things aren’t going the way they expect.
Many retreat attendees will have been dreaming of the retreat for months, and will have made a significant investment of time and money to make those dreams come true.
That’s why it’s crucial to manage your students’ expectations both before and during the retreat.
In your marketing materials, emails, and verbal communications leading up to the retreat, provide disclaimers that, although there is an intended schedule, all activities and time frames are subject to change. Reiterate this once you are at your retreat, as well. Then when “Plan B” needs to be executed, your students will be at ease with the changes, having expected them already.
For example you may have set a daily schedule that the students expect to follow and by the third day you realize the the group misses beach time at sunset every night because they are in yoga class. You may want to have the freedom to switch things up to allow them to experience beach time at a different time of day.
4) Little things matter.
A little thought can go a long way.
If a retreat participant has traveled to the retreat center with an injury, an ice pack and hand written note waiting for them when they arrive can make all the difference to how they feel (and what their attitude is like) the next morning.
Did one of your students have to deal with flight cancellations or airline delays and arrive after hours? A kind welcome note and a bottle of water at the front desk can be the light at the end of the tunnel.
Has one of your students fallen ill with a sore throat? Ordering a soothing drink to be sent to their room can make all the difference to how they feel about being under the weather.
We also like to travel with a natural first aid kit with supplements, herbal tinctures, and remedies, which we offer to participants if they have minor ailments since remote locations are less likely to sell these items.
And don’t even get us started about birthdays and how you can celebrate when someone’s big day occurs during your trip!
Small acts of kindness can be profound, and can have a significant effect on the tone of a retreat.
5) Delegate, delegate, delegate!
Leading a retreat is not a vacation. You are ‘on’ 24-7, teaching, socializing, and supporting your students. Leading a retreat is like being the main host at a party for 7 days straight.
There is quite a bit of administrative and coordinating work to be done on a retreat in between yoga classes: resolving rooming issues, communicating scheduling and logistics information to your students, ensuring your financials are in order with the retreat center, gathering health information from your students, and keeping the retreat running on track.
When it comes to yoga sessions, you’ll want to provide hands-on assists, get to the practice space early to open it and stay late to ensure that it is tidied, and fetch props for students who need them during class.
With so much to do, delegation and putting systems in place is critical!
Call upon retreat center staff and co-teachers to help where they can. Consider bringing along a yoga class assistant and/or an administrative assistant so you can focus on being there for your students and teaching A+ classes.
There you have it!
Do you have successful retreat tips of your own? Share them in the comments section, below—we’d love to hear them!